Case Studies March 2021

When Achour Odicho took a break from college to intern at an architecture firm, his plans didn’t go as he’d imagined. The internship bored him, and he left when he saw an ad seeking a freelance designer for a cannabis company. He spent the next two years working remotely on license applications. From there, Odicho […]

They told him when he started he wouldn’t be asked to work at the auto dealerships. No, Marc Rienow was hired specifically to care for the Gengras family’s 40-acre estate in central Connecticut; he’d not be setting foot on Motor Cars lots or inside showrooms. That didn’t last long—within three months after his 1993 hiring, […]

For Hilleary Steckler, the best part of the job is walking through the doors of a finished VASA Fitness location—to see it through the eyes of a member. Knowing the amount of work dedicated to each location, Steckler says it fills her with a sense of accomplishment. As VASA’s director of facility design, Steckler has […]

At a ritzy rooftop wine and cheese reception in Miami’s Coconut Grove, the air feels almost alive—a mix of ocean brine, merengue and Channel No. 5. The guests, revelrous and relaxed, are mingling in the open-air space surrounded by silver platters laden with pricey hors d’oeuvres—until one of them reaches for a canape and gets […]

In technology, as in human health, a little fiber can go a long way. For Pete Ferreira, fiber is ensuring Hotwire Communications lives up to its name as it connects internet customers throughout southwest Florida. Lauded by Netflix and PCMag as the fastest internet service provider in the country, Hotwire is also becoming the ISP […]

Walking around Wellesley College’s campus just outside of Boston, students have been treated to a pastoral landscape that has changed little since 1875. Stone and brick buildings are nestled between groves of woodland trees and winding paths hug the shoreline of Lake Waban. That made the redevelopment of Science Hill—including a new redesign of historic […]

Growing up in an economically depressed neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas, was not ideal, says Santiago Quiroz. Following high school, he saw no real opportunities and he almost got in trouble. That all changed when he joined the U.S. military—first the Navy and then the Army—serving just shy of 10 years. There, the variety and […]

Though somewhat depressed by COVID-19’s impact and other factors, occupancy rates for quality rental housing in and around New York City figure to rebound, necessitating improved supply in the Big Apple as well as the outlying areas. So believes a man well-versed in the big city’s construction industry and, since 2018, part of one of […]

Ray Miranda remembers hating his sales job so much he couldn’t stop clenching his jaw, then it became too sore to eat a Thanksgiving dinner. But with the encouragement of his mother, he picked up work at Southern California Orthopedic Institute in Van Nuys, California, and became its regional director of facilities operations. Three decades […]

He’s got lots of “Mister-izing” to oversee. Such as in the Tri-Cities region of southeast Washington state, where Mister Car Wash recently enhanced its status as the nation’s largest chain of its kind. It bought seven car washes in the municipalities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, and all either have been upgraded or are undergoing […]