Case Studies March 2023

Normalcy is scarce in hospitals, and being confined to a bed or hospital wing can wear on the strongest of patients. It can be especially trying for children, something that Kristian Watkins has noticed since the pediatric Diamond Tower at Banner Health’s University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, was built in 2009. In 2021, Watkins, […]

There’s a bed shortage at UMass Memorial Medical Center, as there is at many hospitals around the country. Hours may pass before an emergency patient can finally lay down in an appropriate place—a situation intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. At this sprawling three-campus facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, the issue is being dealt with. Not as […]

When John Jaffe briefly played football in college, he wanted a job that would keep him in shape during the off season. So, the Purdue University undergrad found the most labor intensive work he could—pouring concrete. He never expected his part-time job would lay the foundation for his career. “A lot of people in my […]

Time was when Earl Strotman would have a hands-on role while overseeing facilities for other California healthcare providers. This hasn’t been the case so much at Salinas Valley Health. “Now the union won’t let me touch anything,” the good-natured Strotman says with a chuckle. “I’ve got to wear a suit and tie these days and […]

So John Treadwell’s back where he started his career, here in Edmond, Oklahoma. But he’s come a long way during the 13 years that passed—a time that saw him do just about everything a builder can do.  Though not yet 40 years old, he says he’s accomplished enough to return to what feels like home […]

Usually when a Canadian company expands its geographical footprint, it goes from the more populous eastern provinces to the west. But not with Chatters, which since 1991 has grown from a sole hair stylist in Red Deer, Alberta, to being Canada’s largest salon and retail products chain.  The growth had been prolific with 116 locations […]

Dan Milinazzo grew up swinging a hammer alongside his father, who owned a construction business that handled commercial and residential roofing and siding installation.   As an adult, Milinazzo went on to work for an architecture firm, a building engineer, a construction company and a real estate investment trust.  Now, after roughly two decades in the […]

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum is a sprawling, ground-level shrine paying tribute to the lives lost in the 2001 and 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center. Its rectangular bronze panels, which bear the names of everyone killed in those attacks—along with the crashes at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania—surround walls of […]

The need for multifamily housing growing in the Bay Area as well as in much of the Golden State, there’s no shortage of work for Pacific Bay Masonry and its team approach for materials and labor. “We’ve got around 70 projects right now,” President and Project Manager Ray Wetmore tells Blueprint in December from his […]

Sheila Liccketto was taught how to be practical and versatile by the time she was a teenager. For instance, before she was allowed to drive, her father made sure she knew how to check the oil and change a tire and the brakes on a car. This approach has informed her work as director of […]