Brian Thompson and His Team Reshape City Maintenance in Dallas

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In his role as assistant director of facilities, infrastructure, and maintenance for the City of Dallas, Brian Thompson’s purview includes over 500 buildings in the city’s general fund portfolio. The crown jewel of that portfolio is Dallas City Hall, a landmark designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei. Dallas City Hall acts as a central hub for much of the city’s politics, business, and cultures, and hosts thousands of people who work and visit the US’ ninth-largest city. It’s also one of the largest buildings Thompson oversees. The fact that the building first opened its doors in 1977 adds considerable challenges to keeping an architectural landmark one that is also conducive to thousands of people interacting with it every day.

“As buildings tend to do, they get old,” Thompson says. “Over time, work gets deferred, and so several of the critical functions of our building are really due for some tender loving care.”

When Thompson speaks of “our building,” he means the City of Dallas and its residents, not his department. It’s one quality you quickly pick up about the AD: he sees his job as an act of service to the people of his city. It can make his expectations high, but it’s the result of the responsibility Thompson and his team feel for fellow Dallasites.

In many ways, the city hall overhaul is that mission most easily illustrated. One of the primary projects was the building’s heating and cooling systems. In 2022, the building had reached a critical juncture when the first phase of a large rehabilitation effort kicked off. The original steam boiler system was operating on only two of the original three boilers and had gone into failure years before the overhaul.

“While steam is an efficient source of heat, we decided to go a different route with a new hot water boiler system,” Thompson explains. “The building was already structured in a way to accommodate it, and while we had to replace some piping, we installed a kind of cascading system where demand will dictate how many of the new four-steam-boiler system will need to operate.”

The $3 million project was completed in June 2023 and has already paid huge dividends, especially during the winter months. Now, the rehabilitation has shifted to focusing on improving the buildings cooling system.

Thompson says his team is in the active solicitation process at present. A design proposal should go to the city council for approval sometime in fall 2025. The AD says the project will be far more comprehensive than the heating project because there is so much more involved in the cooling project than the heating.

The transition to A2L refrigerants, a result of the American Innovation & Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020, likely leading to a reimagining of the existing central plant, coupled with building design constraints related to vertical piping and air handler replacements, will add to the complexities of the design and construction effort.

“We are currently working with a national mechanical engineering firm to develop the overall system design and configuration,” Thompson says. “Once design is completed and funding secured, we expect the project to take approximately two years from contract execution to completion.”

Keeping electricity running consistently at the city hall is paramount, as the building houses Dallas’ public safety dispatch and call center for functions like 911, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and its public service call center (more commonly known as 311).

“We have five large generators that vary in age from 30 to almost 50 years at this point,” Thompson says. “Right now, we are in the design stage to replace those generators with more modern and technologically advanced generators that will ensure power continuity for decades to come.”

That’s just one building of Thompson’s 500.

“I believe this whole team, including our department senior leaders, can reshape how you approach facility maintenance and real estate management for a large city.”

Brian Thompson

But more fascinating than any single project might be Thompson’s own rise to leadership for the City of Dallas. After four years in the air force, Thompson admittedly spent a good chunk of years trying to figure out where he belonged. He did some aircraft maintenance contracting work for a company in Oklahoma, worked for a direct mail company in Minnesota, then moved to Florida with his wife. There, he repaired helicopters during the day and at night worked at one of the largest go-kart tracks in Florida.

Eventually, Thompson returned to school to pursue a medical degree, but in his senior year of a biotechnology program, Thompson realized he was looking at practicing medicine in the wrong light and changed majors to aviation, a lifelong passion.

Initially a professional flight major planning to pursue an airline pilot career, the costs of flight training while raising two small children made Thompson change his course. Instead of earning his pilot’s license, he elected to go into the aviation management arena. Thompson said it was one of the best choices he made in his life; he credits his wife with helping him make the difficult decision. From there, Thompson would build out operations and management experience, including becoming superintendent of airfield maintenance at Dallas Love Field, a role he thought he would retire in.

“When the position I’m now in came open, I had several people call and tell me that I should apply,” the AD recalls. “I had a discussion with my current boss, Facilities and Real Estate Management Department Director John Johnson, who had just two months earlier been appointed by the city manager to take the helm of the department, and I really liked his vision. I still do. I really believe that our current executive team, including John, Carolina Yumet [capital improvement and business administration assistant director], and Ashley Eubanks [real estate assistant director] can make an impact on facility and real estate maintenance and management in a way that this city just hasn’t experienced.”

Thompson’s leadership in maintaining the city’s general fund portfolio and service to the people of Dallas is only part of the legacy he hopes to leave.

“I believe this whole team, including our department senior leaders, can reshape how you approach facility maintenance and real estate management for a large city,” he says. “I want to leave this department in a way that sees it being mirrored by other cities across the country.”

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