Case Studies January 2018

When Bill Gardiner bought the controlling assets of an HVAC service and distribution company in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1962, he took great pride in being able to dictate the priorities and future of his new business. Bill had spent the last five years selling heating, ventilating and cooling products for Trane, one of the largest […]

It seemed a risky move back in late 2011 when Gary Wood, all of 30 years old and tired of toiling for others, went forth with his own construction company at a time when builders in the greater St. Louis area were having trouble finding work. “I had a lot of people tell me it […]

It’s no statue, but it does have a connection to the past. The 86,000-square-foot, six-story brick structure was built in the 1890s and has been used as a grocery store, biscuit factory, wool exporter and warehouse. And there’s the most recent use: Nothing at all. For years, the structure stood vacant. Then, in 2015, the […]

According to a 2015 Iowa State University study, 56 percent of all Iowa farmland is owned by those 65 and older. Though the numbers don’t exactly pop off the page, the implications are significant: With upwards of 85 percent of our foodstuffs sourced from within the United States, how—and by whom—will our future farms be […]

When it comes to urban development, “mixed-use” is a term that gets volleyed around quite a bit these days. As cities and towns grapple with their (in some cases limited) existing space and simultaneously strive to make themselves desirable, the concept of melding residential, commercial, cultural and industrial uses into one harmonious package seems to […]

At an industry trade show this past October, the manager of a Midwest municipal utility approached the Covalen booth with some welcome news about where much of his budget for wastewater system upgrades would be going. “I am tired of not having you involved in these processes,” he told a few Covalen executives, among them […]

The supermarkets and grocery stores of today are nothing like the shops they used to be. Instead of the small stores of yesteryear, supermarkets have grown in the last few decades, to essentially become department stores full of food. They include produce sections equipped with hydration sprinklers, delis serving carved meats, bakeries boasting multiple ovens, […]

True custom homes are as much art as abode, but building them isn’t without stress for contractors and clients alike. Staying on schedule and on budget is an especially difficult prospect, to a large degree because crews and project managers often work from plans that have never been built before, and clients can request changes […]

The clubhouse at “The Warwick” was like a ‘70s dream and a 21st-century nightmare: a round room, sunken floors, gaudy furnishings and wall-to-wall, out-of-date décor. In fact, the room in the garden-style Oklahoma City apartment complex had long been shuttered and turned into storage, hidden away from the residents occupying The Warwick’s 423 units—many of […]

The flood waters having long since receded, life was pretty much back to normal on the Texas Gulf Coast by mid-autumn. The Astros had even given the good folks of Houston a morale boost, finally winning it all, and among those cheering them on every night of that memorable World Series was Norbert Mueller. But […]