While a student at Lee High School, Fritz Embaugh signed up for the Marine Corps Reserves. Not even a full semester into college, he was activated for Desert Storm. Aside from lifelong friends and discipline, one of the things Embaugh took from his experience helps him with business and life.
“You have to be disciplined to keep pushing it without getting immediate results. I think anyone in business can testify there’s no immediate gratification when you’re a business owner for yourself.”
As CEO and director of operations for the 2-year-old design and build firm PLUSone Design and Construction, Embaugh and his partner, David Baird, are “trying to push the envelope where we can with some contemporary projects.” And though he admits it isn’t always an easy task to sell Baton Rouge on architecture that’s not traditional, it’s a process he says is in transition.
“I think diversity is a great opportunity to expand our vision and our way of thinking in our culture. It’s not only about the people you sit across from and eat lunch with. It’s also about the spaces you live and work in.”
The space PLUSone operates from on Christian Street is an example of where Embaugh says they’re trying to push.
“We don’t want to do something different just to be different. We want it to be responsive to its environment, but still make a statement.”
When he’s not pushing at work, he’s dedicating energy to his home: an ongoing do-it-yourself renovation and expansion that’s taken more than seven years worth of extra hands and spare hours from himself, his wife, friends and family. It’s a labor of love for Embaugh, his wife, Tia, and their daughters, August and Nina.
Embaugh is also the immediate past board chair of the Louisiana Council on Economic Education and a member of the 2008 Baton Rouge Area Leadership Class.
Who do you admire most in the business community and why?
“What I do admire is anyone who is willing to step out on their own, against conventional wisdom, and pursue something it is they believe strongly in.”
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