It may not be a traditional banking space, but Josh Meyer of Bremer Bank says the tried-and-true approach needs to give way to something better. The new Bremer location accomplishes just that, opening in the Holiday Center in Duluth, Minnesota, in July 2020. Instead of the typical customer service windows, enclosed offices with paneled doors […]
Case Studies Region: Midwest
Eryn Bassett – Environmental Operations Inc.
It sits in rural southeastern Missouri in an area known as the “lead belt” in Madison County. It’s off the beaten track, with both Interstate 55 and the Mississippi River passing by to the east. Yet the Madison Mine in Fredericktown was once a regional economic driver. Opened just as Missouri was becoming a state […]
Jon Fahning – Bremer Bank
When we last spoke with Jon Fahning and Minnesota-based Bremer Bank in July 2019, the 77-year-old financial institution was working to launch new branches in locations throughout the upper Midwest. As with any construction project, having the right architectural plans was critical. But there was another document that proved equally indispensable: Bremer’s 100-plus-pages design playbook […]
Kathy Makino-Leipsitz ‒ Shelborne Development
Kathy Makino-Leipsitz says she was inspired as a teenager while reading “Nothing Down,” a book about buying real estate with little or no money down. But she admits that she didn’t foresee her business path going the way it did. Makino-Leipsitz bought her first duplex as a college freshman with the $2,500 she saved from […]
Duane Boris ‒ Northern Tool + Equipment
During the economic downturn and recession in 2008 and 2009, just before Duane Boris came to work at Northern Tool, the Minnesota-based construction equipment provider faced a choice: Continue as it had or adapt to the changing marketplace. It did the same thing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boris says. “Even though we’ve been […]
Stephen Lichter – EAD
As American manufacturers tackle growing production demands and heightened safety requirements—both of which have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic—finding the right engineering solutions has become critical. It’s an issue that Stephen Lichter and his team at EAD are working hard to address. Short for Engineering, Automation and Design, EAD’s services are used by […]
Todd Stone – Stone Group Architects
Since Launching Stone Group Architects in 2012, founder and CEO Todd Stone can safely say that no two days have been the same even if the scenery is plenty familiar—he’s a native of the state of South Dakota, after all. Under normal circumstances, that variety is a good thing—a way to ensure that everyone stays […]
Terry LeTourneau – JLL
It’s a sweet tale of two cities for Terry LeTourneau, who’s spent a lot of time shuttling between Nashville and Newark, New Jersey, in 2019 and 2020. In one city, he oversees the facilities where pet foods of the future are created and the animals sampling them are lovingly cared for. In the other, he’s […]
Rence Meredith – Grand Valley State University
For many colleges and universities, summer is when the hustle and bustle of student life give way to an almost eerie calm, where the loudest sound may be the wind in the trees. That is, until you take a walk across the Grand Valley State University campus in Allendale, Michigan. There you’ll see the dozens […]
Jonathan Overacker – Riverside Healthcare
The rest of us can say hello to Jonathan Overacker, the director of facilities and engineering for Riverside Healthcare in Kankakee, Illinois. Not only was Overacker born at Riverside Medical Center, so were two of his four children, and his father worked there for 40 years. But there’s little time for nostalgia these days, not […]
