Case Studies Region: Southeast

There’s a hub for the senior set taking shape in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Though development at the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community has slowed since COVID-19’s onset, come August, four new townhomes are expected to be ready for occupancy. Constructed along the lines of a well-received townhouse quad completed in 2018, the units are already spoken for. […]

It was shaping up as a Spring Break like any other at Duke University in March 2020. With most students gone for the week, the facilities staff was preparing to spruce up the popular Wilson Recreation Center, readying it for the end of the semester. As Chris Policastro recalls, the plan was for a detailed […]

Mike Clemmer likes to joke the most pressure he’s felt has been choosing which way to go when the rope drops at Magic Kingdom. But in truth, Clemmer, a Disney World fanatic, faced a much greater challenge last spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down one of Nissan North America’s manufacturing plants months before the […]

It’s not unusual for anyone entering a bank to be thinking green—cash, that is. But Olivia Karavatakis wants them thinking green in another context. As vice president of facilities management, she’s considering how the bank can operate sustainably. From energy-efficient HVAC and lighting to more rain-absorbent landscaping that prevents flooding, Karavatakis sees many ways the […]

That oak tree out back is almost a member of the family. It’s held a tire swing or a hammock, and hints at changing seasons with green buds in the spring and orange foliage each fall. But now, it’s deemed a hazard to air traffic by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration rules. It needs to be […]

She didn’t know it then, but when JoDee Johnson was a little girl growing up in Michigan, borrowing Uncle Jim’s binoculars and using them to study houses across Portage Lake, she was on her way to becoming a design and construction manager for some of the biggest restaurant brands in the U.S. “It’s funny how […]

This was not something Erik Leach saw coming down the tracks, but he’s delighted to be part of it. As director project management and construction for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Leach is overseeing upgrades to nearly 40 MARTA light rail stations spread over four rail lines. Though he’d guided one station renovation shortly […]

For some, the phrase “safety is a top priority” is little more than a face-saving slogan. For Jerry Mathis, it’s his life’s calling and the basis of a budding career in the facilities trade. A retired Air Force flight engineer, Mathis spent more than 20 years flying some of this country’s top government officials across […]

Responding to COVID-19 has required some organizations to be more resourceful than others. That’s why the facilities staff of Prisma Health spent three days in January scrubbing, repairing and painting an abandoned retail store. When it became clear that there wasn’t enough room to administer vaccines at the hospital, they transformed the store across the […]

He can be just what the doctor ordered when it comes to upgrades and retrofits of healthcare facilities in the South and heartland. Director of construction management for Holladay Properties’ healthcare services division in Nashville, George Phelps is readying his team for a 16,000-square-foot MRI specialty area and clinic in the Brentwood, Tennessee, area. His […]