Case Studies

David Smith was majoring in history at Penn State University when he began working at a home renovation company during school breaks. Seeing how happy this work made people, he realized the positive impact he could have on people’s lives—and pivoted his life. “It helps that I realized I have sawdust in my blood,” he […]

A suburb of Charlotte on the southern border of North Carolina, Pineville had become a so-called library desert in Mecklenburg County. It also had an antiquated town hall. David Dillard, the real estate director for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, helped satisfy both needs. He worked closely with the town manager to craft a long-term lease […]

It seems that once a month, a large, big-box retailer announces it’s closing stores in markets big and small. However, quite the opposite is happening for Northern Tool + Equipment, which is opening locations in the country’s third-largest market—Chicago—while keeping an eye on expansion into new states across the country. “To say we’ve been busy […]

By now, examples of the economic tolls caused by climate change have become all too obvious: ramped-up water use by farmers to save their crops from droughts; billions of dollars in damages to towns torched by wildfires; lost tourism revenue as snow melts faster at ski resorts. But as directors of facilities across the country […]

When the new Wells Fargo corporate campus is completed in mid-2025, its twin 10-story buildings will loom large over the Las Colinas community in Irving, Texas, just outside Dallas. Their tinted exterior windows will literally reflect the growing community surrounding them, while helping heat and cool the 6,000 employees working there. The employees will also […]

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 […]

A bright orange traffic cone measures a measly 28 inches tall and weighs just pounds. Yet, a row of these can be all that stands between workers and large 18-wheelers and other vehicles barreling down highways at speeds often exceeding 80 miles per hour. “Sometimes trucks are going so fast that they can actually blow […]

David Miller and his team at Olean General Hospital were more than halfway through renovating a new psychiatric inpatient area when the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to pivot. Instead of completing the area for its intended purpose, they reverted it to a sub-acute rehab area. While that involved undoing work that had already been done, […]

He might be part of a disappearing breed, though one might wonder why. After all, there’s something to be said for on-the-job learning, which is how Daniel Switzer came to be director of facilities at Wagner College in 2018 after 20 years in related roles. He also may have been born for the position. “I […]