Restoration and preservation are the key reasons US-BES was established. We wanted to respond to the critical demand for structural investigations and inspections and create repair design solutions to help restore America’s infrastructure stock. We are a one-stop shop and collaborate with designers and engineers to create the optimum design solutions for our clients.

With US-BES as your design restoration and preservation partner and US-CES as your contractor, we offer a one-stop shop with precise services tied to your specific needs. Owners interact exclusively with a single company from design restoration-preservation to construction completion. Whether you need a consultation, preliminary designs, construction restoration drawings, bidding, or general preservation construction services, we aim to exceed your expectations with efficiency, expertise, and customer-to-client prioritization.

We are unique because our hands-on founder is a restoration architect and contractor. When he is not in the office guiding the staff in developing waterproofing preservation drawings, he is on a construction restoration job site laying bricks, tuckpointing, roofing, or any other tasks that may be needed. He often teaches his field staff how to improve their construction building techniques, like an archaeology professor teaching his students about the process of digging artifacts. However, in this case, he is teaching them about restoring the artifacts on buildings above the ground.

We remain hands-on from the beginning of the design restoration construction drawings to the completion of the construction restoration phase. While preparing the preservation or restoration construction drawings, our staff creates vintage detail drawings specific to your building. Each detail is generated based on our exploration during the inspection process and is later customized. No boilerplate flashing details duplicated or copied from other projects are used. Our approach is simple. No two buildings have the same problems or are built using the same construction methods. There are many variations in the assembly and installations for constructing buildings. The concept is to clearly understand the existing building and its construction. Then we develop sensitive restoration construction details that blend closely or in-kind with current building materials.

Frank V. Gonzalez, President & Founder

US-BES was founded by Frank V. Gonzalez, a licensed architect in Illinois, New York, and Florida. With 30 years of architectural and construction experience, Frank has performed proficiently in a wide variety of architectural disciplines.  His forward-thinking and progressive approach has made him to become a sought-out architectural consultant for landmark renovations and high-performance building energy projects.

Frank’s is licensed Illinois as a Public Adjuster, Roofing Contractor, and Home Inspector. In Chicago, he is a licensed General Contractor and a Brick & Concrete Masonry Contractor (Class A).

Frank’s persistence in helping others in the construction industry led to the development of the Chicago Masonry Contractors License Exam Training Courses. He teaches out of Lewis University and has a two-day training class to prepare candidates for the Chicago Masonry Licensing exams. In addition, he is also an instructor at the The Illinois Roofing Academy, where he educates roofing contractors on the statewide license exams.

He is a commissioner of the Hinsdale Preservation Commission. He is also member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Association of Licensed Architects (ALA), and a Green Globes Professional (GGP).