Case Studies Real Estate Development

To some, an outdated manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, California, might deserve to be razed to make way for the next development in Silicon Valley. But Norman LoPatin saw something different: a potential school. And that shouldn’t come as a surprise. For 18 years, LoPatin has led the construction of 25 charter schools nationwide showing that […]

Better days await the Old Keene Mill Shopping Center that everyone thought had seen better days in Springfield, Virginia. For like so many established shopping centers, some dating back to the 1970s, Old Keene Mill had taken on a tired appearance, even with Whole Foods as its anchor tenant and other national chains under the […]

Dean Sorenson is not one of the 400 people living at Kendal at Hanover, a nonprofit mix of residences for independent and assisted living near the banks of the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. But as director of facilities, Sorenson has come to call the 65-acre campus home, embracing its Quaker values of love, respect […]

Between 2014 and 2015, internet pioneer AOL acquired mobile-ad giant Millennial Media, attribution marketing company Convertro, and Microsoft’s advertising business—all in the same 18-month stretch. For Karen Diener, AOL’s longtime senior director of real estate, the trio of deals presented a unique challenge. In a typical acquisition, the acquiring company will procure both people and […]

So how does one get into the profession of managing the physical facilities of a multinational? Nowadays, a university student so inclined might find specific courses on the subject. Then there are the old-school types like Jim Zuiderhoek, since November 2009 the director of global real estate and facilities services for Risk Management Solutions in […]

From the moment Karen Hodson walked into CM Group’s former San Francisco office, she knew the vibe was all wrong. Conference rooms unnecessarily clustered in the center demanded the most attention, making the open-concept desks surrounding them feel scattered and sparse. Adding to the effect, the office was just too big for the number of […]

Architecture is a complex, involved profession, but Lyndsay Bennett has been captivated by it since childhood. With her father working as a contractor, at an early age Bennett began drawing pictures of houses similar to those she saw around her neighborhood. “I was always looking at construction and home design magazines,” she says. “My dad […]

Growing up in the West German capital of Bonn, in the uncertain years before and after reunification, Matthias Muckle marveled at the city’s multicultural verve: the kaleidoscope of faces on every street, the mix of gothic and postmodern architecture, meeting families from foreign embassies on early evening strolls with his parents. Today, he still yearns […]

A night at the movies calls for more amenities than in years past, and the same may hold true for breakfast the next morning at a restaurant. Today’s consumer can be more demanding, and for any company to be thriving tomorrow, it had better have its eyes on the future. Which is where Jim Cornwell […]

He’s on to new adventures after a most eventful year and few months as director of global real estate and workplace services for Carta, a software platform for founders, investors and employees to manage equity and ownership, headquartered in San Francisco. But first Gelson Da Silva II plans to spend a few months with some […]