Case Studies Design-Build

“I never did want to be called Dr. Alix.”  So muses Alix Loiseau, whose dentist father and disciplinarian mother initially tabbed him for medicine while raising eight children in Haiti. But while the boy’s older brother became an oral surgeon and his sister a dentist, he was drawn to subjects such as art and architecture, […]

It might sound like a cliché, but for Vincent Bruzzese, it’s true. Construction is in his blood. His grandfather, Vincent Bruzzese, was a stonemason, and that work led Bruzzese’s father, Dominic Bruzzese, to follow in his footsteps in the construction industry.   Bruzzese grew up watching his father don his hard hat and head off to […]

Known for its verdant forests, rocky coastline and picturesque lighthouses (and lobster, of course), Maine has long been a popular destination for tourists—despite its relatively sparse population. But after a two-decade-long decline, the state has enjoyed a recent surge of inhabitants.   In a state that was already experiencing an acute housing shortage, the need […]

Adam Hergenrother respects the privacy of his clients and doesn’t boast about the prominent people who have bought some of the high-end houses that BlackRock Construction, the company he and his brother Tom co-founded in 2012, has built in beautiful, bucolic Vermont and upstate New York. Nevertheless, word gets around, and a couple of years […]

“Never start a home that you can’t afford to finish,” John Grubb told his brother Jerry in 1957, when the latter returned from the Korean War and decided to found Jerry’s Homes, a one-man development and homebuilding company. John was likely talking financials when he extended the advice, but Jerry didn’t solely see the company […]

Starting a new business, in any industry, requires striking a balance between the size of the company and the volume of work it handles. Increasing the staff too quickly, without sales to support it, can sap profits, while taking on too much work can overwhelm the staff. Matt Genzale, the founder and owner of MRG […]

The Northeast power grid has been reliable as of late, but prudent clients don’t take anything for granted. Come heat wave, blizzard or flood, the coastal city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, isn’t likely to have to worry about outages, as the midsummer saw its municipal microgrid nearing completion. With the Branford, Connecticut, company of O,R&L Construction […]

The walls are upright, the plumbing is installed, the roof is secured, electric is done. It’s time for most design-build construction firms to move on, but Vice President and Head of Design at Dan Waibel Designer Builder Will Waibel, says his firm’s work is only partially done. “While the typical design builder will usually leave […]

It may be a building’s exterior that gives that all-important first—some say, lasting—impression, but the interior is equally as important. It’s where people spend a large portion of their day. When that building is part of the hospitality industry, it had better seem hospitable. That means that as business practices, employers and employees evolve, they […]

Many is the young person who, even after college, doesn’t know just what it is he or she wants to do. “I’ve got to find myself,” that new graduate might say. Then there are people like Eric Skott. The founder of Crestone Builders Inc. in Watertown, South Dakota, was just 16 when he found himself […]