Case Studies Best of the United States

In-demand finished lots for homebuilders are on the drawing boards, a busy Kelsey Stone tells Blueprint in late 2018. Lots that will be ready for construction, and have water, sewer and road access. Homebuilders, Stone explains, don’t always develop their own land. Here, in and around the Texas Hill Country, many have shifted to a […]

At first glance, the wooden wares offered by Houston-based Building Products Plus (BPP) might not seem like the stuff of glossy magazine spreads. Yet, you’ll see them on a golf course in Da Nang, Vietnam, supporting sand-trap embankments and water-retaining walls to the tune of 2,000 linear feet. They withstand the traffic of thousands of […]

Carly Bonora is proud to say that “plumbing is in my blood.” It makes sense for Bonora, who grew up around plumbers, and is the fourth generation of her family to run 72-year-old Ackerman Plumbing Inc. Bonora worked her way up to vice president and co-owner from humble beginnings in the family enterprise, mowing lawns […]

The grass is only greener over the septic system if it’s been designed and installed properly, which is why a lot of lawns are lush in and around the community of Canyon Lake in the foothills of Texas Hill Country. Since 1981, many homeowners and small businesses in the area have come to rely upon […]

When Jerry Merriman first got word that Merriman Anderson Architects (MAA) had been awarded a contract to restore the iconic Statler Hotel—a building which his firm had already been working on for close to a decade—he knew his firm would be resurrecting a once-proud downtown Dallas treasure. Actually finding treasure? That was never part of […]

Three major casinos abound in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma, area, means a high-stakes arms race among them, and the need for each to adapt in an ever-evolving gaming business. This past fall, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa ascertained it’s in the game for the long haul. Completing an extensive remodeling of rooms, some of […]

If the late John T. Adamo Sr. could see the business he started 54 years ago, his son Richard M. Adamo is certain he would be proud. Because while Adamo Group Inc. has prospered and transformed with the times, Richard Adamo insists it has held fast to values associated with being a family-run business, such […]

It was a mild, mid-autumn day in Williston, North Dakota, when Mike Dolbec answered a call from Blueprint, but the friendly president of Windsong Custom Homes couldn’t talk long. For winter comes early in this northwest corner of what’s sometimes known as the Roughrider State. The mercury still in the 60s, there were foundations to […]

Just business as usual, Carol A. De Young tells Blueprint in late October, and for customers of Countryside Plumbing and Heating Inc. in western Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota, that’s cause for comfort. Though she anticipates retiring as president, likely in 2019, De Young assures that family-owned Countryside will keep on keeping on. It’s been six […]