Case Studies August 2017

It’s shaping up to be a lively year in Nashville. Actually, every year is, as there’s rarely a dull moment in Music City, but the first part of 2017 was really something special with the Predators’ unlikely trip to the Stanley Cup finals, while Carrie Underwood led the cheers as her battle-scarred other half, Mike […]

In Texas, the landscape is dotted with hundred-year-old courthouses, longstanding federal buildings and many other tributes to the Lone Star State’s long and proud history. But that ornate trim, those façades, those decorative ceilings—they aren’t without some baggage. “You see all these one-of-a-kind, handcrafted building materials on so many old buildings that are coated with […]

When Henry Ford started using the assembly line to manufacture his Model Ts, people thought he was crazy. Kris Megna and Doug Carlson get a similar reaction when they tell people about their company, Dreamline Modular Homes, which wants to do for homebuilding what Ford did for car manufacturing. Based in Lexington, Massachusetts, Dreamline Modular […]

When a client wanted to build a 35-meter-long, encased pedestrian bridge made of interlocking commercial bronze, glass and steel over Queen Street, Toronto, Canada’s busiest shopping mile, Seele Inc.—the North American division of Seele Group—rose to the challenge. The project required that an old bridge be dismantled and the new bridge be installed within two, […]

During his 40-year career, Larry Greenberg has built more than 1,000 homes. He’s renovated and sold hundreds of others, too. For much of that time, Greenberg ran his own successful companies, including Hannover Homes, and JRN Construction, all of which were well-known in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, area. It might surprise some, then, that Greenberg […]

At four years old, Graham Garrenton knew he would one day join his family’s utility contracting company, Chesapeake Bay Contractors Inc. (CBC). “I was hopeless even then,” he says. “I had been around this business my whole life, and always wanted to ride the equipment and be out in the field.” Based in Virginia Beach, […]

Imagine a future in which solar panels are incorporated into the design of every new building, not just tacked on to roofs or installed as stand-alone arrays. Ten years ago, Scott Franklin dreamed of that future, and through his company, Lumos Solar, he’s bringing the idea to fruition. Since 2007, Lumos Solar has been providing […]

Josh Wiener grew up helping his parents restore the Manhattan townhouse they bought in 1963, but his time for sorting nails has long come and gone, replaced by loftier goals. Now he is president of SilverLining Inc. and, with his Partner Joel Arencibia and support from a tightknit group of managers, restores high-end luxury apartments […]

Successful buildings must have both form and function. In 1968, architect Benjamin Thompson built the Bronfman Science Center at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The building certainly had form for that era. Used as a teaching point by art history professors, Bronfman exemplified how a modern building could be compatible with older architectural styles; its […]

When clients call to have their heating or air conditioning systems serviced, they’re usually too hot or too cold. So, Hometown Heating & Air Conditioning aims to be a Goldilocks company: just right. The Golden State home service company—based in Concord, California—does especially well with high-end customers who appreciate the details, like the care Hometown […]