(FORTUNE Magazine) – Tribble Harris Li Inc.

This aggressive architectural firm is bucking to become the next Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Says Chairman Gerald Li: ''To survive, you either get big or become a boutique.'' To get big, the Charlotte, North Carolina, firm went public on the London over-the-counter market only days before the end of 1986. Why London? In part to save money for the founders. Going public in the U.S. would have taken longer and forced them to pay 1987's higher capital gains taxes on the $2.9 million of stock they sold as part of the offering. Choosing London also boosted the firm's profile in a city where many U.S. banks are building new offices. Earnings have risen a roof beam-high 42% annually for the past five years. In the fiscal year that ended in November, pretax profits were $1.9 million on revenues of $14.7 million. Chairman Li plans to keep the growth rate abuilding by using the $2.1-million corporate proceeds from the public offering to buy smaller design firms in the U.S. and abroad.

Disease Detection International Inc.

Ever wonder what happened to former Interior Secretary James Watt? He's chairman of this newly public company, spun off in February from another he runs. Disease Detection plans to make test kits to help farmers, veterinarians, and government inspectors detect such ailments as liver fluke disease in sheep, trichinosis in pigs, and brucellosis in cattle. Some agricultural experts, however, see little demand for more detection kits in a market already saturated with comparable products. Says one investment banker who has examined the Irvine, California, company: ''It has no redeeming features whatsoever. Few assets. No earnings. A qualified audit. A market value over 100 times annual revenues. It's ridiculous.''

Phlcorp Inc.

Taking a cue from W. C. Fields, bankrupt Baldwin-United has risen from the grave -- in Philadelphia -- with a strange new name. Controlled since last November by Leucadia National Corp., a holding company owned by investors Ian Cummings and Joseph Steinberg, the rechristened insurance and trading stamp company remains a mystery to Wall Street. No financial results have been released since 1985, during the bankruptcy reorganization. Those stale projections called for 1987 revenues of $419 million and operating profits of $26 million. Says a security analyst who watches the company: ''Steinberg and Cummings don't seem to want anyone to take a good look at this. But it appears undervalued.'' Phlcorp stock recently sold for $9 a share, about what Leucadia is estimated to have paid for it. Among the assets: roughly $16 a share of tax-loss carry-forwards, 53 cents a share of operating earnings from an investment in Empire Mutual Insurance, a likely $1 a share in cash from the rumored sale of a travel business, and undisclosed cash reserves left over from Baldwin-United. The company may come to life at its first shareholder meeting, scheduled for March 24.

Messner Vetere Berger Carey Inc.

President Reagan may not recall, but he played matchmaker for the four principals of Madison Avenue's hottest new ad agency. ''We met on the 'Tuesday team' doing the President's 1984 reelection advertising,'' says partner Walter Carey. In its first six months the agency has signed six clients, including Jack Tramiel's Atari; it will bill at least $40 million this year. The four bosses estimate 1987 revenues of $2.3 million and net profits of around $250,000. They say they have already been approached by all three Republican front-runners -- George Bush, Robert Dole, and Jack Kemp -- to hype them in the primaries.