By Maveric Vu

Dave Hitchcock has wanted to become an architect since the third grade. Coming to Calaveras County in 1977, he became the only one in town.

“When you’re the only architect in the county, you almost have an automatic claim,” he said.

More than 30 years later, Hitchcock is sticking to his original plan, as his Aspen Street Architects firm was named the 2006 Business of the Year by the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday.

“Most people don’t even know we exist,” said Hitchcock, a resident of Avery. “So it’s very nice to be recognized for the things we do for the community.”

Inside their main conference room, dozens of thank-you letters from groups like Bear Valley Music Festival and the Bret Harte girls swim team hang in frames against the wall.

“We do so many things, it’s hard to get focused,” said manager David Yarbrough in reply to which projects he liked the most.

There are so many letters pouring in, that they will soon spill onto a neighboring wall space, he said.

Aspen beat out 10 other business nominees to capture the third-annual award.

The other nominees include - Big Trees Market, Castle and Cooke Calaveras, Central Sierra Lodging, Gold Electric, Ironstone Vineyards, Mark Twain St. Joseph’s Hospital, Middleton’s, Ortega and Associates, Rising Sun Nursery and Vintage Realty.

According to Chamber Director Diane Gray, a five-person committee consisting of board members weighed community involvement, chamber membership and staff organization among other factors.

“They do fabulous work for the county,” Gray said. “The nice thing is that they don’t brag about it.”

Considered a mid-size planning firm, the Aspen Street office has remained relatively low-key sitting in the renovated Calaveras Lumber Yard building since 1992.

“People drive by us all the time and don’t realize we’re even here,” one employee said.

On an office wall hangs a large map of California with dozens of color stickies up and down the state showing sites of the firm’s buildings.

“Nobody really knows who or what we are or what an architect even does,” Hitchcock said.

The firm primarily drafts building designs for hospitals and school facilities as well as some side residential projects. The engineering staff has been recruited from around the globe, with interns from Laos and Ghana.

The 33-employee team has spearheaded many of the firm’s community projects. One engineer decided he wanted to help out Habitat for Humanity. The idea resulted in free drafting plans for a home in San Andreas.

Aspen Street has also contributed to the Frog Jump, the preservation of the Romaggi house and the local Girl Scouts.

Marcell Engstrom, who has been with the company for 14 years, started out as an intern while a senior at Bret Harte High School.

“It’s a good program and gives kids an opportunity to see how it really happens in the real world,” Engstrom said.

When Aspen Street was working on Bret Harte’s new Performing Arts Center, the firm would provide blueprints to the Computer Aided Drafting program so students could see the physical construction.

Hitchcock said the engineers would take the students along for the walkthrough inspections, so they could learn first-hand how drafting works.

Engstrom now works as the firm’s job coordinator and uses some of the same skills she learned as an intern.

In total, Aspen contributed $15,000 in donations last year to various groups and events and more than $20,000 to groups that support rural health care facilities and schools, said financial manager Karen Ross.

Ross accepted the Chamber of Commerce award Tuesday because Hitchcock was in Washington, D.C., on business.

Hitchcock is working on two “componentized” hospital facilities in California. He met with lawmakers last week who hope to bring the speedier method of providing health care to Iraq.

“We provide services in Calaveras, but our product is usually elsewhere,” Hitchcock said.

And when they have a meeting more than seven hours away in Southern California, there’s no better way to travel than through their own company plane based at Calaveras County Airport. The plane has been used for more than 20 years.

In 1982, Hitchcock purchased a friend’s engineering business and named it Aspen Street Architects.

The name comes from the firm’s first office on the corner of Aspen and Maple streets in Arnold.

Now that Aspen Street has attained the title of Business of the Year, it joins the ranks of the past two winners - Angels Food Market and Pinnells Carpet One in Angels Camp.

Looking ahead, Hitchcock said the firm is looking to expand its staff and will be looking globally for recruitment.

“We’re in a small community and part of being here is to integrate what you do and give back,” Hitchcock said.

“We try to bring people in from all over the world and we want them to get to know the community.”

Contact Maveric Vu at mvu@calaverasenterprise.com.