Case Studies Residential

Bob Ortiz is not a native New Yorker, but he’s spent most of his career helping Big Apple residents find places to call home. These are more than homes, too. They’re facilities that Services for the UnderServed, better known by its S:US acronym, provides for people with developmental disabilities, and mental and behavioral health issues. […]

Will R. Beverlin says he’s been criticized for the way he does business. “I’ve been told I’m too trusting, but I don’t see it as a character flaw,” he says. The director of construction and purchasing for House Buyers of America, Beverlin puts his trust in everything from software development teams to general contractors and […]

When one’s own house is in order, it simplifies the task of building others. That’s Steve Smith’s message as he takes a break from remotely overseeing construction for Houston-headquartered Chesmar Homes to chat with Blueprint this past August. At any given time, he’s got a couple hundred houses under construction. Greater Houston remains the hottest […]

Classic diners, like the ones you’d find in New York City, are known for 20-page menus with everything from scrambled eggs and toast to lobster and filet mignon. Tommy Jones is a fan of diners, but he says his role as the director of corporate manufacturing for Stanley Martin Homes is different from that of […]

Managing facilities that serve one of the populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 presents many challenges, from sanitation and vaccine distribution to combatting loneliness. So the vice president of facilities services for Maxwell Group wasted no time when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, quickly stockpiling personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies. Michael Zebrowski has […]

It’s not a pleasant memory for Lavernne Hudson, that her late, sight-impaired grandfather needed care beyond what the extended family could provide. He spent his last years in a very institutional facility, and while the place wasn’t uncomfortable, something seemed to be missing. The man deserved better surroundings and more personal attention, she recalls, especially […]

With roots in Mani Peninsula in Greece, Demetrios Panteleakis can lay claim to a few of the Greek cultural ideals coursing through his veins: he has an eye for architecture and is well-versed in law, both serving him well in his modern-day business role. Now overseeing a landmark $800 million project in Miami as the […]

If he ever tells a former faculty member at his alma mater, “I told you so,” it’ll probably be with good humor. That’s just how it is with Edward SanClemente. But time has attested to his foresight as a Wentworth Institute of Technology architectural student during the 1980s. For it was at the prestigious technical […]

Growing up in Houston, Monique Davis could see her neighborhood needed some care and wanted to help fix the buildings in the city she called home. But how, she remembers thinking, could she even get started? The answer came in a chance meeting when architect Vergel Gay spoke at her school and he and his […]

There’s something about the soil in Wisconsin that can be most unsettling—literally—to a house’s foundation. Most of the state is covered by the Ice Age’s glacial deposits and expansive clays much affected by the extreme seasons of the Upper Midwest.  During dry spells—and this region has known drought—the soil shrinks, which can cause what’s been built atop to settle unevenly and oftentimes crack. But with climate change, summer temperatures could be rising and that might mean increased rainfall and […]