Proposed in 2003, the Nakheel Tower was described by the Council on Vertical Urbanization as “a beacon of inspiration for the region and the world, incorporating elements from Islamic culture.” More than another large-scale construction project, the $38 billion USD complex was set to contain four towers appearing as one, connected by sky bridges about every 25 floors. A mixed-use space, it was to include apartments, commercial, retail, hotel and hospitality space, cultural centres, restaurants, and gyms, along with parks, canals, and other outdoor amenities.

Despite foundation work and initial piling put in place, the ambitious project halted indefinitely in early 2009 because of the global economic downturn. Although unfinished to this day, Nakheel Tower brought the idea of vertical cities to the minds of many who had never considered the concept.

Beyond skyscrapers
While we might think of vertical cities as being similar to skyscrapers, there are important differences. Coined in the 1880s, ‘skyscraper’ originally referred to buildings between 10 and 20 storeys. Thanks to architectural innovations like underground piers, girders, columns, and wrought iron or cast iron aboveground frames, these buildings grew taller over time. Today, not every tall building is a skyscraper, which usually refers to structures over 100 to 150 meters (328 to 492 feet).

Unlike skyscrapers—often dedicated to offices, residential spaces, or a mix of the two—vertical cities often comprise several enormous, multi-story structures and are truly mixed-use, housing day-to-day amenities like workplaces, recreation areas, gyms, green spaces (sky parks), restaurants, retail, medical facilities, movie theatres, schools, and even agricultural areas. Many times, huge vertical city towers are connected, making it easy to access different buildings without having to step outside.

Advantages of vertical cities
Sometimes called ‘vertical urbanisms,’ vertical cities boast myriad benefits because of their all-in-one designs. Rather than one building dedicated to residential space, another focused on offices, and still others designated for retail, entertainment, restaurant, sports, medical, or administrative spaces, vertical cities bring everything together in one highly functional complex. Redefining urban living, vertical cities like The Line in Saudi Arabia and Melbourne’s Southbank by Beulah effectively unite residential, commercial areas, and other elements. Some, like the innovative Bosco Verticale in Milan, focus on greenery, which improves air quality, fosters natural wildlife habitats, and showcases biodiversity.

As land becomes more expensive and increasingly scarce, large cities worldwide are having to build up, not out. Fast disappearing are the days of single-family homes in favour of skyscrapers, which enable greater density. This is especially evident in 569 skyscraper-strong Hong Kong; Shenzhen, China and its 468 skyscrapers; and New York City, home to over 300 skyscrapers. At 128 storeys and 632 meters (2,073 feet), the Shanghai Tower remains the tallest building in China, able to accommodate 16,000 people.

Along with more efficient land use by building up on a smaller footprint, vertical cities help to combat urban sprawl, congestion, and pollution. Combining numerous amenities in mega-structures means spaces are more efficient; instead of driving from one location to another, residents can walk, bike, or use integrated transit, saving time and money. And much like regular cities, vertical cities are self-sufficient, with their own water, sewage, and recycling systems built in.

Sarah Smith of Smart Cities Dive, which focuses on trends shaping today’s cities and municipalities, says vertical cities are “an entire human habitat contained in a massive skyscraper,” and that they “hold the key to solving overpopulation and overcrowding.” Although no one solution will ‘fix’ housing, vertical cities can go a long way toward addressing these and other issues.

Vertical cities are a natural extension of skyscrapers like the Shanghai Tower, and like massive towers, can go a long way toward alleviating housing shortages and overcrowding. Spread across multiple interconnected towers and millions of square feet, it is possible for vertical cities to accommodate 30,000 or more residents while using far less land than buildings of fewer floors. This is especially important today, with more and more farmland, ravines, forests, and other natural spaces being lost forever to massive new housing developments. In recent years, for instance, the Ontario government did an about-face on converting thousands of acres of protected land in the province’s Greenbelt.

Vertical challenges
Just like creating a skyscraper, building vertical cities is a major construction undertaking, and funding remains an issue. Vertical cities are not one-off buildings, but enormous projects that take years to construct. Depending on size, skyscrapers cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and more, to build; vertical cities require the same parameters, including the cost of land, paying for site surveyors, civil, mechanical, and structural engineers, permits and building codes, architects, and designers. And then there is the cost of materials like reinforced steel and aluminum, concrete, glass, insulation, drywall, plumbing supplies, electrical wiring, and more. To ensure utilities like HVAC, electricity, and water and sewage are consistently available to residents from the ground floor to the hundredth, mechanical systems must be designed to ensure consistency at all heights. This requires localized units, staged water pumping and intermediate storage tanks, chillers, heat pumps, and other costly mechanicals.

The enormous cost of vertical cities expands with the number of towers and their heights. Extremely tall buildings require dozens of elevators servicing different floors and sky lobbies. (Essentially transfer points in skyscrapers, sky lobbies save floor space and serve as transfer points between express and local elevators.)

Another consideration of living and working in a vertical city is maintaining one’s well-being, both physical and emotional. While having live and work amenities in one location is practical because it saves traveling time, it can lead to a sedentary lifestyle, since there is less need to go outdoors. This comes with several drawbacks, including a lack of social interaction and feelings of anonymity. Being indoors also means a lack of sunlight and disconnection from natural spaces such as parks, forests, and bodies of water. Depending on the time of day and how the towers are oriented, it is also possible to be in shadow for hours at a time.

Sky-high towers can greatly increase housing density and free up land for agriculture and nature, yet vertical cities must also be designed to balance functionality with a healthy lifestyle. Their success will ultimately depend on more than engineering feats or record-breaking heights. Natural light, access to green space, opportunities for social interaction, pedestrian-friendly environments, and connections to the world beyond the building will all be essential to creating places where people genuinely want to live.

As cities continue to grow and available land becomes increasingly scarce, the vertical city may offer one possible answer to the challenge of accommodating more people without endlessly expanding outward. By bringing homes, workplaces, services, recreation, and green spaces together within a relatively small footprint, these developments have the potential to make better use of land while reducing some of the environmental and infrastructure pressures associated with urban sprawl.

The concept is still evolving, and projects such as Nakheel Tower demonstrate just how difficult (and expensive) it can be to turn such an ambitious vision into reality. Yet the idea has endured. The vertical city is no longer simply a vision of a distant future but an increasingly important part of the conversation about how—and where—we will live as urban populations continue to rise. The challenge now is not simply to build higher, but to build smarter, creating complete, livable communities that balance density, efficiency, sustainability, and human needs.

The post Building Up, Not Out<p class="company">The Promise of Vertical Cities</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded in Austin in 1971 by Bailey Elliott, the company incorporated in the early 1990s as Bailey Elliott Construction Incorporated. Scott Wilson and Keith Poole, both longtime project managers and estimators under Elliott, purchased the company from him in 2003 and carried it forward. Years later, the company rebranded as BEC, a change that let it build a distinct identity in Austin’s competitive construction market while continuing to uphold the standards Elliott had established decades earlier.

Keith Poole retired from company management three years ago, and Scott Wilson now owns and leads the business. Today, BEC has 23 employees and a reputation built across Austin’s commercial and multifamily sectors, with a particular niche in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) construction. As the region has grown, so has demand for the kind of complex, highly technical projects the company has built its name on, and BEC has continued to position itself around exactly that kind of work.

Built on trust
According to Devin Wood, Vice President of Business Development at BEC, that reputation comes down to one thing above all else. “It’s trust,” he says. “Our reputation is the most important thing we have, and that reputation is built on relationships of trust.”

Wood points to the company’s willingness to operate transparently with the owners it works for. Many of BEC’s projects are open-book arrangements, where the company shares its bids and its accounting directly with clients.

“We’re sharing our accounting books with the owners, showing them exactly what we’re costing,” he explains. “We try to be very transparent with owners.” That transparency extends to cost and scheduling updates throughout a project, so owners always know where a job stands. Combined with a track record of finishing jobs on time and under budget—not to mention strong working relationships with architects and consultants—it gives clients the confidence to return to BEC for their next project.

BEC works across a broad range of commercial and multifamily construction, and Wood describes that range as a genuine strength as it lets the company take on projects across many sectors rather than depending on a single market.

That breadth also gives BEC’s teams a wider base of experience to draw on when a project doesn’t fit a conventional mold, which, as Wood tells it, describes a growing share of the company’s work. But within that diversification, BEC has developed deep expertise in a handful of areas, and LIHTC housing sits at the center of that specialization.

LIHTC housing comes with its own layer of governmental regulation, and Wood says success in that market depends on more than technical construction skill. It requires understanding of the communities the housing serves. “Our teams, from estimating to project management to superintendents in the field, understand the communities that we’re serving,” Wood says.

Welcoming a challenge
That expertise is on full display in BEC’s newest and most ambitious undertaking, the Bloom, a seven-story multifamily development that recently broke ground after more than a year and a half of preconstruction work. The project is technically demanding on nearly every level. Its structure combines a three-story concrete podium with four stories of wood-frame construction above, meaning the building has to satisfy Type I construction standards on its lower floors and Type III standards on its upper floors (two different building classifications integrated into a single structure).

The financing behind the Bloom is equally complex, layering multiple funding sources with their accompanying legal and regulatory requirements. The top four floors will provide standard multifamily LIHTC housing. The bottom three floors, though, are something different altogether: specialty housing that will be owned and operated by a foundation serving adults with mental disabilities, replacing outdated facilities the organization currently relies on.

“That’s a really special thing to be able to do,” Wood says. “It’s not just multifamily; this is full-time care. It’s not quite a nursing home, but it’s somewhere in between.”

Adding to the challenge, the Bloom sits on a zero-lot-line site, with construction running from property line to property line with no room to spare. BEC is working on a 26-month schedule, having started construction in June, putting the project roughly two years out from completion.

Collaboration is key
Projects of this complexity, Wood says, are exactly where BEC’s approach sets it apart. He points to a common problem with the traditional design-bid-build process where architects can design a project that fully addresses a site’s complications and an owner’s needs but do so without construction cost input along the way. When the project goes out to bid, the owner can discover it is 20 to 25 percent or more over budget, with no way to value-engineer that much cost out of the design. The result is an expensive, time-consuming redesign bringing new architectural and engineering fees, months of delay, and sometimes even a return trip through the permitting process.

BEC prefers to get involved from the earliest stages of a project, sometimes starting with little more than a single sketch of a proposed building. Drawing on its construction history and strong subcontractor relationships, the company can put together a detailed and accurate cost estimate at that early stage, then continue refining pricing alongside the architect and owner as the design develops.

“We don’t want to do the architect’s job, but we’re there to help them,” Wood says. “We’re there to make suggestions that could keep a project on budget, suggestions that are maybe different design-wise than what they had originally intended but allow the project to keep the design intent and stay on budget.”

Leading the sustainability charge
BEC has spent nearly two decades at the leading edge of sustainable construction, and Wood sees that focus as a long-term investment rather than a passing trend. His reasoning is straightforward: the high-performance, energy-efficient buildings of today tend to become the standard building code of tomorrow, so staying ahead of the curve now pays off for owners and for BEC alike.

Wood has personally worked on LEED-certified projects since 2007, when the certification was still a rarity in the industry. He notes how far standards have shifted since then: work that once qualified as advanced green building under LEED has now largely become standard building code. That shift matters to the owners who plan to hold their buildings for the long term, since they tend to care most about lifetime energy costs and long-term value, both of which green building programs are designed to protect.

That long track record gives BEC’s clients two distinct advantages, Wood says. As a LEED Accredited Professional, he can walk owners through the real costs of pursuing a given certification level based on the company’s own project history and connect them with past clients who can speak to the long-term energy savings those investments produced.

On the construction side, BEC’s project teams, many of them LEED AP or LEED Green Associate certified, are well versed in the additional documentation LEED projects require, from tracking recycled material content to managing waste and recycling submittals.

Among BEC’s sustainable projects, one that stands out to Wood personally is the Lakeline Learning Center, a net-zero-energy building certified under the Living Building Challenge, a standard considerably more rigorous than LEED. Wood believes it remains the only Living Building Challenge project in Central Texas, and he served as project manager on the build.

“It was a major challenge to do that project,” he says. “It took a lot of effort to do it. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite projects to have been involved in, just because of the immense challenge that it was to bring that project to fruition.”

Embracing the future
Now, technology is reshaping how BEC and the rest of the construction industry operate, and Wood expects that shift to accelerate. The company is already exploring artificial intelligence tools for tasks like data parsing and comparing subcontractor quotes, processes that have traditionally required significant manual work.

Wood doesn’t expect AI to touch the work happening on job sites as the technology already in use for grading and site work isn’t likely to change dramatically. What he does expect to change is the administrative side of the business, compliance tracking, and submittals over the next two to five years.

“It’s going to make us more effective and make us more accurate,” he says of automation’s growing role in project management. “We’re going to see fewer mistakes through the process, and it definitely makes all teams more accurate and more efficient.”

Investing in people remains just as important to BEC’s future as investing in new technology, and the company is preparing to launch a more structured internship and apprenticeship program next summer, after running a brief internship effort in the past. With an aging workforce across the industry, Wood sees bringing in new talent from area colleges as essential to the company’s long-term strength, and BEC has already begun recruiting on local campuses.

Of course, safety runs through every part of the BEC culture as well. Rather than relying on a specific safety platform, the team works with a safety consultant who regularly inspects the company’s job sites and focuses on building a positive safety culture from the top down, rather than simply enforcing rules from the outside. “We want every single person that shows up to work on our job site to go home safely to their families,” Wood says. “That’s the goal every single day, and we take it very, very seriously.”

For Wood, everything BEC does traces back to the same idea that construction is fundamentally a relationship business. The company’s plans for growth center on strengthening the ties it already has with clients, subcontractors, and design partners, while building new relationships on the same foundation of trust and reliability.

That extends to how BEC thinks about leadership within the company. Wood believes the construction industry is evolving too quickly for anyone, individually or organizationally, to stand still. “We try to foster a culture at BEC of constantly learning,” he shares. “The day you stop learning is the day that you’re left behind. If you want to be a leader in the industry, whether that’s an individual leader on a job site or in a leadership role in a company, you have to be willing to stay at the forefront and constantly be learning.”

More than five decades after Bailey Elliott founded the company, BEC continues to carry forward the standards he set in careful, transparent work built on relationships that last well beyond a single project.

With the Bloom underway, a growing internship program on the horizon, and a widening embrace of new technology, BEC is positioning itself for its next chapter the same way it built its first: through steady, trusted work, one project at a time.

The post More Than a Building<p class="company">BEC Austin</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Forty years later, many of these once-bustling shopping malls have closed or are shadows of their former selves. Once-massive retailer Sears—which had about 3,500 locations nationwide at its peak—has been largely replaced by e-commerce sites and has just five full-line department stores remaining in the United States. So what lies ahead for these seemingly outdated spaces?

A new life for the oldest mall
For GGLO, the decline of shopping malls has presented exciting new opportunities, as in the spectacular revival of Seattle’s famous Northgate Mall.

In the post-World War II glory years, Northgate became the first shopping mall built in America. Like other malls, it vigorously expanded over the decades, at its busiest drawing tenants like Toys “R” Us, Foot Locker, and Nordstrom. Then the tide slowly began to turn, and by 2018-2019, large retailers like Macy’s and JCPenney announced they were closing.

But it wasn’t the end of the line. GGLO was approached by a long-time housing developer client who looked at vacant land, including large, empty parking lots surrounding the mall, and wondered if housing could be developed. Soon into this study, it was questioned if housing would be successful if the mall was to remain in its original form.

This question unlocked the opportunity to reimagine the 55-acre mall site into a mixed-use center with new residential housing, office, hotel space, and a community ice rink which is also the practice facility for the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken.

“The work we’re doing out at Northgate in Seattle is really transformative,” says Jon Hall, AIA, LEED AP BD+C & Homes, and member and principal of GGLO. In the works for about a decade, the massive project will continue for another 10 to 20 years. “It’s massive,” he says.

Just nine miles north of central Seattle, Northgate Mall (now known as Northgate Station) was recently connected to downtown Seattle and the airport with a light rail line. This rail line now provides transit access to and from this vibrant mixed-use area, which GGLO describes as innovative, contemporary, and “a transformative model for future mall conversions.”

With existing tenants like Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Barnes & Noble, the Seattle Kraken Team Store, and Bank of America, and with the now completed first of four mixed-use apartment buildings, first of two new hotels, and future new tenants like Shake Shack and Mendocino Farms, Northgate is once again becoming a strong regional draw.

An integrated design experience
Renowned as one of America’s foremost multidisciplinary architectural firms, GGLO was founded by Bill Gaylord, Alan Grainger, Chris Libby, and Clayton O’Brien Smith, as reflected in the name “GGLO.”

Today, the GGLO team of about 50 includes architects, landscape architects, interior designers, and urban planners. Emphasizing the importance of environmental sustainability and social equity, the firm is truly a one-stop shop for its clients, many of whom are repeat clients. “We strive for an integrated design experience,” says Hall. “Everything from the outside to the inside, and everything from the scale of a 100-acre master plan to the cabinetry details on the interior of a clubhouse. No project is too big or too small.” Today, GGLO serves clients from its locations in Seattle, Washington and Boise, Idaho.

Celebrating his 30^th year with the firm, Hall has watched the market evolve for decades, including a growing focus on sustainability and adaptive reuse of sites like Northgate.

Initially, Hall was drawn to GGLO because of its work in affordable housing. “It’s what attracted me. But what’s kept me here is the variety of the work we’ve done—everything from affordable to market rate to student housing, retail, and office.”

Along with more work in Seattle and Idaho, GGLO is experiencing growth in regions including Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, California, and throughout the West Coast. The reasons are often environmental and sustainability-related. Summers are getting hotter, and wildfires are worsening. Clients are increasingly concerned about air quality and healthy living. Some come to GGLO with knowledge of green design and construction, and some learn from GGLO staff about the benefits of incorporating energy-efficient designs and materials to reduce their carbon footprint and create structures which are not only aesthetically pleasing, but built to last.

“More than half of our clients are repeat clients, people we’ve been working with for quite a long time,” Hall explains. “But we also try to share our expertise at conferences and events, publishing information and stories, which helps draw new clients, finding people who align with our values and our culture. This includes suitability values, mixed-use/mixed-income values, and moving those things forward.”

Additionally, GGLO explores different sustainability initiatives and programs, including LEED, Living Building, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Framework for Design Excellence. With its 10 principles, “the framework informs progress toward a zero-carbon, healthy, just, resilient, and equitable built environment,” says the AIA.

Customers are also increasingly interested in HVAC and other energy-efficient filtration and cooling systems. “We focus on what the benefits are, whether it’s saving utility costs, lower maintenance, or a more durable building which is going to last them longer,” says Hall. “It’s not so much about the plaque as it is about the real, direct benefits they get out of doing something more sustainably.”

Clients are increasingly choosing more durable products, such as wood flooring instead of vinyl, solid cabinets instead of laminates. These materials require less maintenance and will last decades rather than years. This is especially valuable because so many of GGLO’s clients are long-term property holders, local non-profit and for-profit housing developers, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) companies, and family residential outfits, such as AMLI Residential and Vivmark Residential.

“While first cost is important, they recognize long-term maintenance and operation costs are also important, and they want to make sure they’re not spending a little upfront but too much down the road,” says Hall.

Transformative community projects
Over the years, GGLO has amassed a portfolio of unique projects, many concerned with repurposing existing land and buildings to meet future needs. In addition to its role in Seattle’s Northgate development, GGLO has been instrumental in the Spring District in Bellevue, Washington.

In an area known as the “Bel-Red Corridor,” the Spring District is moving away from its past as an industrial area into a reimagined urban neighborhood. To date, GGLO has been involved in the design of several area projects, including informing the urban planning, three market rate residential communities, one affordable housing community, and a brewpub/office complex for the local tech workforce. “It’s another large series of developments,” says Hall. Other companies have constructed additional office and residential buildings in the area, near the Meta (Facebook) campus.

The Spring District is located on the light rail line which has recently expanded to Bellevue and Redmond on Seattle’s east side. The new transit line connects to Seattle and Northgate Station as well as south to SeaTac Airport and the City of Lynnwood to the north of Seattle.

“It’s a whole new neighborhood which sprung out of what used to be warehouses and distribution centers,” Hall adds, “but now, it’s a real mixed-use/mixed income neighborhood.” As a long-term project which began in 2012, Hall estimates the developments may require GGLO’s involvement for another 20 years or more.

Another source of pride for the firm is the Schoolhouse District. Located in Woodinville, Washington, the Schoolhouse District is a mixed-use, multifamily development which includes a local historic site. It also highlights the success of a private-public partnership.

Blending past charm with modern amenities—and without releasing some of the embedded carbon of the area’s original structures—GGLO helped create a dynamic neighborhood with living spaces, restaurants, a farmers market, sports fields, a daycare center, retail shops, and Wine Walk Row.

The original site included an underutilized 1970s masonry school and an abandoned 1930s-era schoolhouse. The project team repurposed some of the existing structures to preserve the local history of the site and create a catalyst for a new neighborhood. Artwork featuring reclaimed items from the historic schoolhouse is integrated throughout the buildings as a nod to the site’s heritage as well as the custom mural in the lobby which showcases the evolution of Woodinville through chalk art. A new market rate housing development adjacent to the existing playfields provides 264 homes for families in this community northeast of Seattle.

As with many other projects, the Schoolhouse District saw GGLO receive awards, including the CREDAWA Mixed-Use Development of the Year (2022) and the Multifamily Executive Grand Award: Multifamily Project of the Year (2022).

Building the future
For the team at GGLO, malls, former industrial sites, and land which is underutilized or vacant are all becoming prime candidates for redevelopment. “Affordable housing is going to continue to be a need, and we’re seeing it across the country,” says Hall. The firm is thus presently working on developments in many areas, including Jackson, Wyoming and Sun Valley, Idaho. “I see us continuing to expand across the West. We still have developments in California, as challenging as they are, and in Arizona and Montana. Our work across the West is going to continue,” he shares.

As for the future, Hall believes the office market is changing. Many cities, such as Seattle, still have vacancies in office buildings long after the pandemic, and little new construction. “In the current conditions, a lot of our clients are focusing on renovation and rehabilitation of their projects, rather than new construction,” he says.

“We’ll continue to see this kind of adaptive reuse of office buildings, transforming them into something other than 100 percent office use. Maybe they become residential, maybe retail, but they will become something other than what they are.” GGLO will be there to lead the way, bringing together the visions of both clients and communities.

The post An Unsustainable Past Becomes a Sustainable Future<p class="company">GGLO</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

The resurgence of bioregionalism comes at a time when climate change and ecological factors are driving greater awareness of the impacts of human habitation on nature and her ecosystems. But there is much more to bioregional architecture than exploring and adapting ancient building methods and design solutions to modern settings.

Rather than a recent concept, bioregional design as a movement has been in development since the 1970s, driven by philosophy and a deep understanding of the place that respect for all life holds in maintaining balance across complex biological systems in both nature and in society. At the time, thought leaders like Peter Berg, Raymond Dasmann, and Gary Snyder—all early pioneers of bioregionalism—pointed out that, to create truly thriving, sustainable communities that live in harmony with nature, urban developers must consider the long-term impact of human habitation on the land, water bodies, air, fauna and flora, and the land itself. In addition to these considerations, settler communities and those who comprise them, alongside Indigenous peoples and their traditions, cultural systems, and livelihoods, should hold equal value in the consideration of conscious, and therefore responsible, placemaking.

Born in 1937, Peter Berg was an environmental activist who first introduced the philosophy of “reinhabitation” (pursuing sustainable living in a single area), while making bioregionalism an accepted concept through his work with Planet Drum Foundation, which he established in San Francisco in 1973. Berg also co-authored a seminal work, Renewable Energy and Bioregions: A New Context For Public Policy published in 1980, where he takes a stand against energy policies being based on political boundaries, calling for ecological boundaries like natural watersheds to become the guiding principle for resource matching and energy planning instead—alongside highlighting the crucial role of balancing human demand for resources with ecological capacity and the cultures interfaced with these systems.

On the other hand, close collaborator, Raymond Dasmann, was a respected wildlife biologist, biogeographer, and conservation ecologist, born in 1919. Together, Berg and Dasmann established a scientific link between human culture and the ecological and geographic spheres within which they naturally exist. Dasmann authored the book A Different Kind of Country, where he discusses the importance of maintaining Indigenous communities, wilderness, and untouched land, juxtaposed with the need for urban renewal and diversifying cities within an ecologically responsible framework.

Berg and Dasmann were joined by Gary Snyder, an ecologist, essayist, and poet who was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize for his anthology, Turtle Island, a collection of poetry encapsulating the ecological, spiritual, and cultural nuances of living in conscious communion with nature in North America. The title was derived from the Indigenous name for the continent, based on First Peoples’ creation histories describing how the continent came into existence on the back of a giant turtle. The trio worked hard to make mainstream society conscious of the importance of practising bioregional design inclusively and from a holistic societal and ecological perspective.

In a 1977 essay, Reinhabiting California, published in The Economist, Raymond and Dasmann referred to those who seek to restore the land and its systems to their original health, provide for their own basic needs from local resources, and in this way dedicate themselves to “living-in-place” as reinhabitants. Reinhabitants, those who understand how to thrive in harmony with nature while returning injured ecosystems to health and living off the land, were contrasted with invaders, those without regard for their impact on the land they inhabit or its living systems beyond that of economic appropriation and exploitation.

While full adoption of the greater idea of bioregional architecture and design in its entirety currently appears comparatively slow, modern construction is increasingly looking at the past—and future—to learn how to harness time-honoured wisdom in modern settings to reduce the impacts of buildings on the environment while providing optimal comfort and function to inhabitants.

Construction developments that incorporate organic, local materials and design solutions best suited to their local geographic, climatic, and other factors while considering their social impact through bioregional architecture can, potentially, change how we inhabit the planet and coexist for good. And interest in the subject seems to be growing.

At present, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Centre for Urban Transformation notes bioregional design as growing in popularity as a result of economic disruption and climate change around the globe, as a means of preserving local cultures through design while adapting to a changing world. Moreover, economic factors follow as the WEF foresees a new marketplace developing from the discipline as climate events and related changes increasingly affect industry, according to its statistics.

With the WEF’s Centre for Urban Transformation noting that over 70 percent of operating costs for businesses are directly related to local conditions, designing buildings that can reduce these figures by working with rather than against local landscapes and changing weather patterns reflects a crucial need for a return to honouring ancestral knowledge alongside modern technologies.

A few recently completed buildings where such aspects were considered stand out. In North America, 2150 Keith Drive in Vancouver, British Columbia is North America’s tallest bioregionally designed and constructed building at 10 storeys high. It is constructed entirely from natural materials. The aim was to optimally reduce the building’s ecological footprint while maximizing building performance. This was achieved in several ways, including rainwater harvesting and the optimal use of daylight.

A report by the WEF states that by replacing concrete with purpose-specific timber, the building’s greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by over 1,600 tonnes. The architecture also replaces the traditional central concrete support system with an innovative building envelope comprising an exoskeleton providing structural support for weight-bearing components.

Further afield, another exciting example of bioregional architecture, design, and construction may soon become a global first amongst the world’s universities. In Africa, the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) was built by 300 local builders educated in sustainable construction. The project, by MASS in Gashora, Bugesera District is bringing to life a 1,400-hectare, off-grid campus that aims to make itself a carbon-positive facility. Nearly 100 percent of its materials were sourced locally from the natural environment, including local timber, stone, and rammed earth blocks, while water is recycled on the premises. A solar array provides 1.5 megawatts of electricity, and regenerative land practices care for the Earth. The area’s original biodiversity and sensitive wetlands are also being restored in the process.

The World Economic Forum is playing an active role in driving the movement. With harmonious ecological and human exchange now being a guiding factor for its Davos Baukultur Alliance, placing bioregional architecture and construction at the core of its mission for regenerative urban development means that a focus on community well-being and protecting traditional cultures must drive social cohesion in ways that traditional architecture lacked for decades, and too often still does.

As its early proponents noted in the 1970s, bioregionalism cannot be considered as a mere design discipline isolated from its social responsibility. They argued that, due to the humanitarian aspect of how we use, divide, and exploit land and nature, decolonization and bioregionalism must be considered concurrently, as the mindset of colonization informs how Western society designs, how its communities form, and how communities are organized within this context while granting or denying access to natural resources. With the discipline slowly becoming more prominent, it would be encouraging to see these inclusive, ecologically sound values remain a guiding factor in bioregional design around the world as a means of achieving resolution between communities and the ecological systems they inhabit.

The post Establishing Harmony in Chaos<p class="company">Bioregional Architecture and Design</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Carefully curated, MC Homes’ interiors and exteriors make use of unexpected, textured palettes and the understated juxtaposition of old-world romance and crisp modern edge—all comfortably suspended in thoughtfully designed spaces finished to premium standards. As a result, the company’s designs are sophisticated yet unpretentious, popping with vitality and surprise.

Driven by the cohesive vision of a close-knit family and their team, the company’s construction division is committed to creating properties that are as sturdy and memorable as they are beautiful. Guided by an ethos that combines a commitment to high standards with unique design, MC Homes’ projects always push the envelope on time-honored style and longevity. From homes and commercial properties to a resort, the MC Homes team is understandably proud of its offerings.

Its well-considered business strategies have stood the company in good stead. As a midsize builder of high-end residential properties, driving revenue meant building an equally impressive project portfolio, and there have been many outstanding projects over the years.

The firm’s most recent development, Eagle Landing on Kentucky Lake in Grand Rivers, is not far from Lighthouse Landing and Patti’s 1880 Settlement. Working on the project in collaboration with Arnold Realty Group, a full-service team of 15 operating in the Paducah region, MC Homes is creating an amenity-rich development featuring commercial properties alongside lakefront properties, custom home lots, and luxurious villas. There are also garden homes for those who prefer the comforts of landscaped greenery, while owners who prefer to enjoy the passing moods of a marina can opt to invest in properties on the dockside. Residents will enjoy a laidback pace of life in a truly sublime setting.

Beyond the generous and modern hospitality facilities, Eagle Landing’s beautifully finished townhome villas are priced between $400,000 and $600,000. These properties are aimed at the vacation rental market, with some owners looking to occupy their properties full-time.

The upcoming Autumn season will see the start of construction on an equally lovely Marriott boutique hotel set right on the water’s edge, soon to welcome guests to its beautiful setting and plush accommodations. In addition to ample space and appealing aesthetics, this establishment features designer cabins and a beautiful amenity building with capacious event facilities and views to match.

Large projects such as these remind one that it takes more than a single swallow to herald summer. At MC Homes, all this magic is underscored and made possible by a disciplined team of 16 alongside a carefully curated selection of contractors. And, as the health of its in-house relationships and those with suppliers and collaborators directly impacts its reputation, the quality of its products, and the flow of its projects, the company goes above and beyond to treat everyone with the regard they deserve. Its client base reflects this.

With its general geographic reach within an hour’s radius of its headquarters, the company is known for commercial construction in addition to its residential developments. Some recent projects include a construction overhaul of a retail plaza in Mayfield, Kentucky, in 2021, after the town was hit by a tornado. The project was one of several the firm completed as part of the city’s rebuilding project that followed the devastation of much of its infrastructure. MC Homes also worked on projects that included an eye care clinic, a salon, and many others.

Beyond quality millwork and an outstanding eye for detail, MC Homes is also favored for its clear administrative and executive processes. Its design process alone includes thoroughly structured conceptualization meetings and open lines of communication from concept to delivery, because delivering excellence is part of its legacy.

While the firm was originally founded as Mitchell Construction in 2010, focusing on residential building, its commercial work began in 2016. Today, its residential work continues to represent an estimated 70 percent of its projects. However, its entry into commercial construction was followed by a design division, which was introduced six years ago.

The advent of 2020 brought tremendous expansion, transforming the company into one of the biggest in its area today. “We’ve doubled twice in size as far as revenue goes since then,” says owner, James Mitchell.

The company is also proud of its charitable work. As a proud builder of high-end homes raffled in aid of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, MC Homes is now building its eighth beautiful St. Jude’s Dream Home, awarded on September 11, 2026, with this year’s goal being to reach $1 million in raffle sales.

MC Homes’ involvement gained traction when Mitchell attended the hospital’s builders summit in 2019. During this time, a hospital tour and visits to some of the patients made a deep impact on him and on his view of doing good in the world. The event marked the beginning of a historic relationship with St. Jude’s. “This is one of our big charity efforts,” he says.

As Lady Luck would have it, this year’s St. Jude Dream Home is located in the Eagle Landing development and has sold around 10,000 tickets so far. Designed in MC Homes’ signature style, the company describes this most recent build as a craftsman-inspired lake cottage featuring carefully considered luxury punctuated by natural materials and timeless architecture. Rich in layered textures, fine finishes, and bespoke millwork, the cottage offers a sense of elegant, easy living.

MC Homes typically takes these charity home opportunities to exceed expectations, showcasing some of its most beautiful designs and finishes, ensuring that whoever invests in these homes gets only premium quality and the company’s signature attention to detail. The team partners with other contributors, collaborating with big national names like Bosch and a host of other suppliers that support nearly 50 locations where Dream Homes are constructed every year.

In the meantime, the MC Homes team also continues growing its own portfolio. And, with a proven track record of 300 percent growth in recent years, there is no stopping this future-oriented team. As the company continues building on its reputation for excellence, it continues expanding its presence across central Kentucky with the goal of accessing construction markets in Richmond and Lexington, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee, among other locations.

Never losing sight of its commitment to craftsmanship, accountability, and integrity, MC Homes is proud that its unwavering reputation for premium construction and design will continue doing justice to its foundational maxim of always doing the right thing and exceeding expectations, while paving the way to long-term success.

The post Inspired Design, Refined Construction<p class="company">MC Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded in 1993, the company strives to surpass expectations by developing life-long relationships while delivering the highest quality product possible, which helps create a vibrant community spirit where everyone lives, works, and plays.

Family ties
Jim Cutter, Founder and President of Cutter Construction, nurtures client relationships from the start of projects to the final walk-through and beyond. His wife, Connie Cutter, has managed the company’s office operations for more than 20 years, handling accounts receivable and payable, quarterly taxes, payroll, and much more.

“It is hard to list out everything Connie has truly done for this company. Her accuracy and attention to detail is unmatched and provides a trusted source for our customers. I can’t think of anyone else that could better manage this position,” says Jim.

After returning to the family business last year, Connie and Jim’s daughter, Hope Cutter, also plays an important role, particularly in design and meeting customer needs. “I love the design aspect—helping with layouts, finishes, selections; that’s where my passion is,” says Hope.

Those family ties are strong, and it’s clear Cutter’s commitment has kept the company running smoothly over the years. What’s important to Jim are both his people and helping others.

“We care more about relationships than we do the profit, and it’s hard to find people like that,” Jim says, adding that he’s lucky to have employees who do. “It’s really hard to find people who care as much as we do.”

The role of remodeling
Certainly, the business has come a long way since it started doing small projects that Jim could handle alone, an approach that typically meant building one or two homes while still completing small projects along the way. These days, Cutter handles all types of projects: entry-level homes, custom homes, custom remodeling, and commercial contracting.

“We are glad to take care of a wide range of projects. From small projects—that could be installing a storm door or building a front porch—all the way to larger-scale projects like whole home renovations, or adding a second floor,” adds Jim.

Whether serving real estate developers to build a 14-family building, or a private homeowner to finish their lower level, Cutter Construction is ready to serve anyone with a residence, condominium, apartment, or multifamily building.

Jim emphasizes that the company’s continued success is largely thanks to the firm’s commitment to remodeling, especially during the recession years. “Many small custom-home builders couldn’t hold on because if they were only building three or four homes a year and that shrank to one or zero, they had no income. Our remodeling skills have kept us busy the whole time,” he shares. “Looking back, remodeling has always been a strong presence in the building of our business and helped get us through the leaner times, like the recession and COVID, when people weren’t building homes.”

Award-winning projects
Keeping a good roster of partners that Cutter can finish jobs with is vital, Jim stresses, and is essential to providing the quality customer service on which the company prides itself. Caring deeply for the company’s numerous projects while delivering top quality to clients is something that has not gone unnoticed by the broader industry, and Cutter Construction has been honored with its share of awards, including three Builder of the Year awards from the Home Builders Association of Kentucky and the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky.

“We are especially honored to receive these awards since they are selected by our industry leaders,” says Jim. For the last 10 years, Cutter has been ranked by the Cincinnati Business Courier among the largest 25 builders in the region. Cutter also received the BBB Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics in 2011, a non-industry award that goes to a selected company proven to use excellent work ethics in their marketplace.

“There’s also the Bob Weiss Wisdom Award, an important award for dad,” says Hope. “Bob is a great person who was devoted to and led the state of Kentucky Home Builders Association for over 40 years. Dad was honored and shocked to receive this award.”

Adds Jim: “The Bob Weiss Wisdom Award is an important award to me because Bob ran our state Home Builders Association for over 40 years, so he’s been around every builder in the state of Kentucky and knows everybody in the country when it comes to home building. He’s retired now, and every one of us who knows him, even if not in Kentucky, knows what a well-respected person he is to our industry, and what a great leader he was.”

Additionally, there’s the 2007 Donald M. Wiedeman Lifetime Achievement Award, which Jim is also very proud of, for dedication, loyalty, and service to the association and industry.

Dedicated to the community
Ongoing community commitment has always been a driving force for Cutter Construction. This is exemplified in the company’s involvement in skilled trades and career pathway programs at the junior high and high school levels, as well as NaviGo, a non-profit offering an academic coaching model that helps young students find a career path, co-founded by Jim in 2010.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether they’re interested in construction, aviation, sales and marketing, or the medical field,” Jim says. “I spend a lot of time in schools and with families, helping students figure out their career path. I also sponsor many trade programs that provide skilled trade training to young people. It’s important to develop the next generation.”

In addition to supporting his alma mater, Newport High School, and Newport Central Catholic High School in developing leadership capacities, Cutter has sponsored more than 20 local sports teams over the years. Additionally, Cutter has held leadership positions with Kids Voting of Kentucky, the Diocesan Children’s Home of the Catholic Diocese of Covington, Northern Kentucky University, Campbell County Lodge Boys Home, NaviGo, and Children’s Inc. Cutter has helped fulfill multiple wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Jim has served on the Make-A-Wish-Foundation board for over 15 years.

Hope, too, is involved in the community, particularly as a Program Director with Oh She Built That, a non-profit traveling woodshop that trains girls and gender-expansive youth not only in woodworking skills but also in confidence and resilience, serving students aged 9 to 18.

“I love doing it. If Oh She Built That didn’t come to some of these schools, some of these students might not have access to these skills otherwise,” Hope says. “I went to a great public high school, and woodshop was never even offered. It’s great we’re putting power tools in the hands of girls who might not have thought they wanted to build something, but they walk away so proud they’ve made something with their own hands! Some of them may never pick up a drill again and that’s okay, but it is a lifelong skill they carry with them.”

Shaping the future
With everything Cutter Construction has going on, what is this team considering next? Jim has some thoughts on the importance of developing the next generation of leaders for his company and the broader industry. Indeed, while weathering COVID and the recession were challenges for the company, Jim’s more pressing goal is to retain and coach more like-minded people.

Again, it’s all about forging and maintaining relationships, he adds. “The amount of time we take and the focus we put on relationships with our customers exceeds anybody I know,” he says. “The commitment we have to satisfy all people and take good care of them is our core philosophy. It really does come down to the relationships and people,” he says. “Although we feel like we are really good at building, the reason our phone continues to ring every day is due to how we treat people.”

The post Building Relationships, Trust, and Dreams<p class="company">Cutter Construction</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Understanding that space is always at a premium, both remodels and custom builds are planned for maximum functionality. The Glenaden Homes team guides clients to make informed choices that unlock their family’s style and meet their needs through options that create a home that is contemporary, energy-efficient, quiet, smart, and secure.

Honest and open communication at every step of the building and remodelling process means homeowners have full access to their project’s schedule, budget updates, daily progress reports, and decision-making tools thanks to Glenaden Homes’s cutting-edge software. Clients remain completely involved and informed wherever they are, guaranteeing peace of mind and confidence in the development of their dream home.

Owner-operator Daniel Burrows began modestly, obtaining a temporary position at a framing firm after graduating from university while deciding what to do for a living. He oversaw his own framing crew a year later, and soon after—thanks to his innate fascination and overall talent for “all things construction”—a builder he was working with hired him as a site supervisor and project organizer for several significant restorations in an exclusive area of Toronto.

“I started a contracting business because taking what I’ve learned through my education and framing just seemed like the obvious next step,” Burrows says. “Framing teaches you all the aspects of the build. As a framer, you go in and build the footings, which is the first thing you do for a house. You understand why you’re doing it, and who’s coming up after you.”

After discovering his passion, Burrows launched his own construction business and has been renovating houses and establishing a respectable company for more than 20 years. In turn, clients, architects, and designers continue to recommend Glenaden Homes because of its dedication to honesty, integrity, and high-quality service.

After 20 years of project management and operational process experience for F1000 technology businesses, Vicki Rollins joined Glenaden Homes in 2016, making the fulfilling transition from high-tech, Fortune 500 companies to residential building, helping clients realize their visions and goals. To keep projects on schedule and within budget, her objective is to continuously enhance project discipline and procedure.

“Construction is known for being chaotic; maybe you know stories about people not hearing from their contractor, not knowing what’s coming up next, being rushed to make decisions,” she says. “That’s just not the background I come from, so I quickly put some process, rigour, and systems into place around how we run our projects.”

This means Glenaden Homes employs very robust processes in how it manages projects, using construction software that gives homeowners, trades, architects, and designers access to the project portal where they can see a detailed day-by-day schedule. If clients can’t get to the job site personally, they can still receive frequent updates during the week.

“We do bi-weekly site meetings, and the portal also tracks their budget,” Rollins adds. “We have pretty detailed budgets for our clients, and we help them manage those.”

There’s a change order process, file repository, and everything that comes from the designer in terms of doors, trim profiles, crown moulding details, paint schedules, and tile layouts, all laid out coherently to ensure the process is easy to view and follow.

Working primarily in the west end of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), over the years Glenaden Homes has elevated its offering to service discerning, luxury-minded clients. “We do a lot of major structural and complex renovations because there’s not a lot of barren land in Toronto,” Rollins explains. “Most people, due to limitations with the city, find it easier to renovate an existing house versus a new build.”

Burrows’ structural background in particular helps in those aspects, and he’s been sought after by certain architects who have complex renovations and trust him with that work. “Probably one of the biggest differences we find in our space, with builders we’re competing against, is there are a lot of strictly management companies at our level,” Burrows says. “I can’t call myself a master builder, but I have all the traits, knowing about every aspect of a build: how to wire, how to tile, how to do the trim, and pulling out the details in architectural and designer drawings.”

Very quickly, Burrows started working with an architect/designer, Rollins tells us, learning how to execute the quality finishes that many clients expect. And those clients often have very particular specifications, with each project presenting its own unique details and complications that Glenaden Homes needs to solve for.

“Everything we do is custom finished for the client, so there’s no A, B, or C tile package to choose from or a builder’s grade kitchen package,” says Rollins. “For our clients, the world is their oyster when they’re selecting their finishes, and then we work with them and their design team to find unique details.” These details can include glass floors, elevators, and saunas, to name a few.

Keeping these requirements on track and on budget is key for Glenaden Homes when it comes to servicing its many clients who expect top-notch quality service from beginning to end. “One of our customers, who’s a lawyer, had a client complain about how they didn’t know what was going with their reno,” says Rollins. “Our client pulled up his own project portal and said, ‘Here’s my schedule. I know everything that’s happening next week.’”

Indeed, Glenaden Homes’s rigorous step-by-step process (starting with pre-construction, which could take anywhere from two or three months to six months, depending on the size of the project) stresses the importance of making all the interior design decisions for the project ahead of time to ensure ease and satisfaction. “We have all the details, so once projects start, clients aren’t stressed making decisions, and we have a good handle on everything,” says Rollins. “We make sure we order products and materials with long lead times on time, so we don’t have any hiccups.”

To be sure, reducing stress during a potentially hectic time is something the Glenaden Homes team prides itself on. “We keep open lines of communication through various means as much as possible,” Rollins shares. “We try not to be shy about things; we never have a client calling us to ask what’s happening. Never. It doesn’t happen.”

The Glenaden Homes team is also passionate about working with designers who have distinctive visions and ideas for a project, while understanding and trying to stay in their own lane as much as possible. “We’re the implementation team, and working with architects and designers, we understand and appreciate everyone’s value,” says Burrows. “It makes it fun for us. If we were in design-build, we wouldn’t be introduced to some of the unique details we’ve executed. We are happy to work with different architects and designers that homeowners have chosen, and then they come to us, so we get to implement lots of different ideas.”

Along with ensuring customer satisfaction, Glenaden Homes’s commitment to superior quality is imperative, and this stems in part from working with designers. “They all want their product to be Instagram-worthy and photographable to the point where they can highlight their work, and so we keep that close to our hearts,” Burrows says. “We want it to look as close to what the designer wants as possible so they can brag about their work, and then we can quietly brag in the background,” he laughs.

Glenaden Homes also strives to select first-rate craftspeople for its subtrades, utilizing robust quality assurance processes and bringing both the designers and homeowners in throughout the process so everybody sees what’s happening. This commitment has paid off in numerous ways. While the company has been a member of BILD for several years now, this was the first year it decided to put some of its projects into the ring for the organization’s RenoMark™ awards.

“We were thrilled to find out we placed in the top three finalists for both of the projects we submitted,” says Rollins. “We didn’t win, but to be a top finalist the first time you submit two of your projects was very rewarding.”

In the renovation world, challenges are numerous, particularly when it comes to constantly “digging up the unknown.” This is when it becomes vital to be able to shift and pivot, says Burrows. “We see it time and time again; we make assumptions on how things are put together, and it’s just not that way,” he says. “Then you have to have the wherewithal to say, ‘we’re not going in this direction now, we’re going in this direction,’ and not lose time.”

While it comes to renovations, you never know what you’re going to find when you start “peeling back the layers,” he adds. “We’re always problem-solving because of that.”

Looking ahead, he says that Glenaden Homes hopes to be continually challenged. “If we can have projects that keep getting more interesting and exciting, like how it’s been so far, we’ll be happy,” he says.

And keeping clients happy means staying the course with the company’s trademark dedication to organization and communication. “Having a process in place is definitely something that helps us,” Burrows says. “We have a tight project management process, and we also have high-quality customers.”

Glenaden Homes also works from a solid trade pool, aiming to use the same trades for every project, ones who appreciate the company’s vision and goals. “Everyone knows what we’re all gunning for,” Burrows says. “We appreciate finer things.”

Rollins agrees. “All of our crews and trades really take pride in what they do, and that’s important. When you’re doing something like this, it’s important to have that coming from everybody involved in the project.”

Essentially, it takes more than skill to build a house: creativity, passion, commitment, and organization all come together to create a rewarding result. “You’re always problem-solving,” says Rollins. “No two days are alike, but I think our process helps make them not chaotic.”

The post Finer Things: Building with Integrity, Intention, and Communication<p class="company">Glenaden Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

There is, indeed, nothing ordinary about this young giant’s multi-brand service platform and its vigorous yet sustainable growth.

ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada’s commitment to providing industrial and commercial facilities across Canada with the advanced tools, training, and operational support needed to succeed—alongside specialized products—is truly impressive. The company’s offerings include turnkey dock levelers, overhead doors, and loading docks, as well as round-the-clock service, installation, repair, and maintenance, making it a trusted partner for forward-thinking operators. But it is perhaps the company’s ability to leverage its operational expertise to create long-term value that truly sets it apart.

The company’s sheer speed and scale have made its expansion breathtaking, but at the same time, it has maintained stability across the business. Its reputation for growth, opportunity, and long-term investment in people continues to attract experienced professionals and talent from across the industry. As a result, the company is now an employer of choice for industry professionals.

Its drive to extend its reach brings about continuous change, an aspect of the business that its teams continue to embrace. Today, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada offers customers vertical integration through a powerful network of leading industrial door and loading dock service providers, including Door Doctor, Lenworth, Pro-Door, and many others. Together, these established brands combine deep expertise, with national scale, shared resources, and innovation needed to better serve customers across the country. “We are not just servicing; we are able to install our own products across Canada,” says President, Gordie Lazare.

As a leader in an industry with a measured sales cycle, being different is neither an accident nor a gimmick, but rather a finely-honed, conscious business strategy aimed at providing customers with a level of service never before seen in this slow-to-evolve corner of the industry. Following its latest acquisitions, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada continues making a name for itself as a thought leader committed to revolutionizing its industry through sophisticated, sustainable change and strategic expansion.

Supporting industry-wide evolution in this way also serves to maintain a committed and focused environment where people can thrive. Inspired to face difficult tasks head-on, President Lazare enjoys meeting challenges in unconventional ways—and so does his team. The result is a robust and engaged workplace culture and customers who are enamored with the Direct Business – Canada offering. “Having been in the industry for several decades, being able to bring together this depth and breadth of expertise while creating an environment where people want to win together is what excites me,” he says.

“I love bringing that perspective, that structure, and that investment into organizations because it’s not the norm,” Lazare continues. “As we continue to grow and take advantage of national opportunities, it’s better for our own people to grow from within. It’s an exciting time in the industry.”

Indeed, to further secure its future prospects, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada is investing in the future with a new training facility, which will provide a steady stream of optimally qualified technicians to staff its branches nationally.

At ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada, change is intentional and measurable, and the company is proud to serve at the vanguard of modern business thinking. After all, how many companies in the dock loading space have a complete human resources team focused on talent development and culture, along with a team retention strategy that is second to none?

The company’s onboarding process serves as another example of its philosophy. As ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada continues to grow its presence across Canada, each branch is thoughtfully integrated into the organization with a focus on supporting its people, strengthening operations, and preserving local expertise that customer value. The result is a seamless transition that equips every team with the resources, technology, and support needed to thrive as part of a national network,

“We want our branches to be focused on the things they love to do and the things that they do very well,” says Lazare. Newly acquired branches get a boost from new technology and sophisticated systems, while strong supply chains provide an improved customer experience. All aspects of human resources and safety, alongside industry compliance, are brought up to standard and secured—complete with access to the highly skilled technicians who form the foundation of the business.

All these value-adds create exceedingly successful businesses that can then remain loyal contributors to the industry in the long run—all while being assured a bright future that would not necessarily have been possible before joining the Direct Business – Canada network.

As the company reinvests in itself to drive scale and commercialization, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada’s goals are to expand its staff count of 400 (at the beginning of this year) to 1000 and its existing delivery fleet of around 220 to approximately 350 over the next two to three years, with national service coverage. To this end, the team is well on its way to exceeding expectations; this is a group that people want to come to because of that very same group—because of the people, with the backing of a large company behind them. By continuously driving value into every business in its network while providing customers with a comprehensive selection of cutting-edge services, everything Direct Business – Canada touches is underscored by its penchant for patience and continuous improvement.

At the end of the day, vision, consistency, operational efficiency, and servant leadership mark the way forward for this team of industry experts who thrive on the thrill of the chase. Lazare says it best when he praises them for their gumption, laser focus, and capacity to pivot at lightning speed in uncertain times. “I respect our team because they’re confident, because they push the limits, and because they balance aggression with professionalism very well,” he tells us.

This leaves us with one undeniable fact: joining ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada is the answer to economic empowerment, improved performance, and a lasting legacy for those in the dock loading industry struggling in a space in dire need of a renaissance.

The post Modernizing the Loading Dock: Inside ASSA ABLOY Direct Business Canada’s Rapid Rise<p class="company">ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded in 1978 by two brothers in Ohio, the company originally handled residential cabinetry before relocating to Florida and, under the leadership of Ethan Adams, pivoting entirely toward commercial construction. Today, as a second-generation, family-owned organization, Adams Group employs 156 team members and serves clients across a broad region in the fields of healthcare facilities, universities, sports complexes, and other complex commercial environments.

Adams Group was incorporated in Florida in 1984, and as opportunities grew, the company shifted its focus exclusively to commercial construction projects. Its geographic reach and capabilities have expanded well beyond that original footprint, and what began primarily as a casework operation now includes custom architectural millwork, solid surface fabrication, specialty solutions, project management, drafting, engineering support, and installation services, all delivered under one roof.

That integration is central to how the company describes itself: not simply as a manufacturer, but as a full-service partner capable of carrying a project from concept through completion.

Adams Group’s mission statement, “Building Beautiful Environments. Thriving Relationships,” is more than a marketing tagline. According to Human Resources Manager, Tara Szatkowski, the mission drives daily decision-making across every department, from estimating and drafting to manufacturing and field installation.

Szatkowski has spent a decade with the organization and says the people-first philosophy runs through every level of the company. “It is definitely all about our people,” Szatkowski says. That focus shapes not only how the company treats its workforce, but how it evaluates candidates during the hiring process.

“We look at whether they are humble, hungry, or smart,” Szatkowski says, describing the traits Adams Group prioritizes when building its team. Those same values, expanded to include “wise,” also form the foundation of the company’s internal playbook and guide how employees collaborate, solve problems, and serve customers. Adams Group encourages team members to listen first, take ownership, continuously improve, and prioritize long-term outcomes over short-term gains.

Szatkowski describes the company as one that has resisted the impersonal drift that often comes with growth. “We still care about each individual,” she says. “We know a little bit about each person, who their spouses are, who their children are, who’s having babies, who’s getting married, who may be going through a difficult time.” She points to the company’s willingness to organize fundraisers for team members facing financial hardship, medical difficulties, or family loss as evidence of that commitment in practice. “That’s how we as an organization help to build those thriving relationships within the organization,” she says.

Another defining feature of Adams Group’s business model is its integrated service structure. Rather than functioning purely as a manufacturer, the company provides estimating, drafting, engineering support, project management, manufacturing, solid surface fabrication, and installation, all coordinated through a single organization. Szatkowski describes this as something close to a one-stop shop experience for clients, one where they can watch a project develop from the earliest drafting and engineering stages through manufacturing and into installation, with a project manager involved throughout. “A PM is with the project throughout the process,” she says, noting that installation teams in the field are ultimately responsible for realizing the vision established earlier in the process.

Executive Vice President, Curt Bennett, expands on the benefits this structure provides to different stakeholders. For owners, the integrated approach means fewer handoffs, better coordination, and a single point of accountability instead of multiple vendors to manage. For architects and designers, early collaboration with Adams Group’s drafting and manufacturing teams allows practical feedback on constructability while preserving design intent. For general contractors, having one trade partner responsible for multiple scopes simplifies scheduling and reduces the coordination challenges that can arise when many vendors are involved on a single project.

Szatkowski credits this cohesion for much of the company’s staying power. “We would not be where we are today if it wasn’t for each piece of that puzzle working together,” she says, pointing to the collaboration between estimating, drafting, engineering, the manufacturing shop, and the departments that follow.

To keep it all running smoothly, Adams Group has continued to invest in automation and digital tools. On the production side, the company stays current with commercial equipment, including robotics and machinery that generate data used to refine workflows. On the administrative side, the focus has shifted from simply storing information toward building repeatable workflows and processes that scale as the company grows. John VanErem, Executive Vice President, notes that the real investment in digital workflows lies not in the cost of the tools themselves, but in the effort required to put them to full use across the business rather than testing them on the margins.

Szatkowski notes that artificial intelligence has been introduced in select areas of the organization rather than applied uniformly. Her own department uses it in HR functions, and the accounting team recently implemented new AI-driven capabilities to help manage monthly invoicing. “We have used it in different branches of the organization,” she explains, “but it’s not used throughout the organization.”

In a competitive commercial millwork market, Adams Group positions itself as something broader than a manufacturer. Christopher Wernimont, Operations Engineer, describes the company as a relationship-driven organization that combines the capabilities of a large operation with the personalized attention of a trusted partner. Over more than four decades, Adams Group has built a reputation for quality craftsmanship and exceptional service while continuing to invest in technology, innovation, and process improvement, and that combination is a matter of continuous improvement as much as scale. Adams Group describes itself as committed to finding better ways to increase efficiency, solve challenges, and deliver greater value to its customers, all while maintaining a people-first culture. The company places its clients’ trust as central to that commitment, with the goals of anticipating challenges, delivering on commitments, and building long-term relationships that lead to repeat business.

Ultimately, the leadership team notes, what sets Adams Group apart is not only what the team builds, but how it builds it, with quality craftsmanship, integrated services, continuous improvement, and a steadfast commitment to relationships.

With skilled labor remaining one of the construction industry’s persistent challenges, Adams Group has built a deliberate pipeline for developing new talent. The company partners closely with Pittsburg State University in Kansas, which offers degree programs in wood technology and related fields, to connect with students entering the industry.

Szatkowski describes an internship structure designed to give students broad exposure before narrowing their focus. Typically, the company brings on two to three interns each summer. Students who have declared an interest in a specific path, such as project management, can concentrate their internship there, while others rotate through multiple departments to see how each operates.

Near the end of the summer, interns are generally given the option to return to whichever department, or departments, resonated with them most, whether because of the work itself or the people they worked alongside. “It gives them the ability to see a little bit of everything,” Szatkowski says of the program’s design.

Bennett, VanErem, and Wernimont tell us that employees are given the opportunity to see the direct impact of their work because Adams Group manages projects from concept through installation. That visibility, paired with opportunities to expand skills across manufacturing, project management, drafting, and field operations, is central to both attracting and retaining talent. Retention, they say, ultimately comes down to culture and an environment built on respect, teamwork, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Bennett highlights the Naples Beach Club Market Square and the Doak Campbell Stadium renovation. The Naples Beach Club Market Square project featured high-end finishes that highlighted the installation team’s craftsmanship and attention to detail, and it required close coordination between project management and field operations to meet a demanding schedule.

The Doak Campbell Stadium renovation, meanwhile, showcased the drafting and engineering team’s ability to integrate a range of finishes and material types into a cohesive, buildable design, while the manufacturing team delivered high-end products at scale without sacrificing quality.

Szatkowski speaks more broadly about the sense of purpose the team draws from its work across the board. “Our team is proud of every project that we do,” she says, describing the satisfaction that comes from contributing to spaces built for hospitals, schools, and other community institutions. This connection to the communities Adams Group serves, she says, is a significant source of pride companywide.

Of course, client retention is closely tied to the same relationship-driven culture that shapes the company’s internal operations, and Szatkowski attributes much of the company’s repeat business to its people and its approach to customer service. “I think the longevity of some of our people and the customer service that we provide in the entire process keeps clients and customers coming back,” she says.

She acknowledges that projects do not always go exactly according to plan but says the company’s response in those moments matters as much as the outcome itself. “Even if everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, they know that we will do our best to make it right,” she says, whether the issue originates on the job site, in the drawings, or in the manufacturing shop.

In addition to this level of trust and transparency, sustainability has become an increasingly important consideration for Adams Group’s clients. VanErem describes the company’s approach as one rooted in quality and long-term performance, supporting projects that use FSC-certified materials and contribute toward LEED certification requirements when specified, while adhering to Architectural Woodwork Institute standards to ensure durability and precision.

Looking ahead, the company’s recent acquisition of Mill-Rite Woodworking has expanded its capabilities in specialty wood and stone fabrication, solid wood moldings, and high-end veneer work, positioning Adams Group for continued growth in the high-end commercial interiors market.

Reflecting on the company’s history, Szatkowski points to its longevity as an accomplishment, particularly within an industry known for its sensitivity to economic cycles. “It’s safe to say that sustaining for 48 years is a feat in itself,” she says. “Especially in the construction world, construction ebbs and flows with the economy, and Adams Group has stayed strong.” She credits that stability to the leadership of Ethan Adams, who took over the company from his father and uncle and steered it toward the commercial focus that defines Adams Group today.

Bennett, VanErem, and Wernimont close on a similar note, describing a legacy Adams Group hopes to build that extends well beyond the buildings it constructs. The company aims to be known not only as a manufacturer or installer, but as an organization that develops great people, creates opportunities, and makes a positive impact on everyone connected to it.

As the marketplace continues to change and technology continues to evolve, the principles that have shaped Adams Group since 1978—integrity, continuous improvement, servant leadership, exceptional craftsmanship, and a commitment to helping people thrive—are expected to remain constant.

For a company built on the belief that beautiful environments and thriving relationships go hand in hand, that continuity may be its most defining trait.

The post A Four-Decade Legacy of Building Beautiful Environments<p class="company">Adams Group</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Natare Pools boasts a more complex history than one might assume at first blush. The business began in the 1960s in Indianapolis, Indiana, launched by its Founder, Owner, and long-time President, Mike Walsh, a young swim coach at the time. With a young family, and looking to improve his fortunes, Walsh identified a gap in the swimming market when it came to obtaining important equipment like swim caps, buoys, and competition products. He then decided to open Mike’s Swim & Gym as an equipment distributor and spent the next two decades steadily building it.

It was in the 1980s that Walsh saw an opportunity for his company to become a manufacturer as well as a distributor, which allowed it to grow even further, morphing into Recreonics, a one-stop shop pool equipment supplier that became known across the United States. A decade following this, the company changed its name once more to its current identity: Natare Pools. The change was also internal, as Natare became solely about manufacturing after Walsh split with his business partner; as a result, the partner kept the Recreonics name and still operates that business from Louisville, Kentucky.

Growth continued, and another big change to the Natare identity took place. The business was purchased from Walsh in 2022 by his workforce, making it an employee-owned company, something that came about to reward the employees’ hard work and ensure that its people were being taken care of.

Current President and Chief Executive Officer, Troy Yoder, says everyone in the company shares in the benefits now, including annual profit sharing; becoming employee-owned has further improved performance in an already-motivated workforce. Yoder says that internal operations are handled the Natare way, which boils down to doing a job the right way without making excuses and going the extra mile to make the customer happy.

The Natare workforce also offers design services and consulting for any pool-related project. When it comes to consultation, Sales Manager, Joshua Albertson, notes that these services are something that the company engages in with its clients every day. Everyone at Natare is ready to answer any question or follow up on any interest when it comes to what a customer wants to accomplish.

The current team is what makes the company work so well today, says Albertson, describing the outstanding group of people who are more than just colleagues or co-workers, but more like friends and family, making this a great place to be. He says that the average tenure among the roughly 55 Natare employees is 13 and a half years, an impressive statistic.

Yoder adds that the company has had great luck, especially this decade, in finding good people who are willing to do what it takes to get a project done the Natare way. He believes the company has a strong team of young workers who are eager to travel the country in pursuit of the next project, which translates into wins for the company, the customer, and those employee-owners themselves.

In addition to the combined strength and intellect of the many people that have worked—and still work—here, founder Mike Walsh’s blood, sweat, and tears went into making the company what it is today, Yoder says. This effort was made without selling to outside interests, although Natare still gets those inquiries daily.

According to Albertson, becoming an employee-owned business has helped everyone understand that the happier the customer is, the better the chance Natare will have of working with them again. “As owners, we depend on the next project,” he says. “We are all the boss.”

To be sure, the last four years of employee ownership weren’t always smooth sailing. Early in the new phase of the company’s story, Yoder says that the challenge was getting Natare’s people to buy into the idea instead of simply leaving things up to a leader figure. Since then, it has been a continually positive experience for Yoder and everyone to see the company’s progress as well as the workers’ excitement. Even clients comment on how the care, detail, and precision of the workforce has improved from its already-high standard.

Beyond its continuing internal evolution, the main way the company has grown in the past decade is through the volume of work it is taking on. “We have the infrastructure in place to handle a lot of varied projects at one time,” Albertson says, something that could not have been said even as recently as five or six years ago but is possible now that the company has the right people in place. As these projects are not all in the same phase of development at the same time, Natare has the capacity to work through each one, whether a project is in the production, fabrication, or installation stage.

Indeed, Natare Pools has a busy docket at this time. The number of projects on the go, as well as their complexity of scope and vision, is interesting, Albertson says. As the world is ever-changing—and events halfway around the world still affect local operations—there is a strong degree of anticipation over these growing opportunities, and there will always be something to work on for the long-lived business. Yoder says that the swimming pool industry is moving, and the number of opportunities is not slowing down.

Along the way, Natare Pools has built not only its skill set but considerable recognition from both its industry and the local communities that benefit from its projects. The company has even netted a few awards for its consistent effort and attentive work ethic.

Looking ahead to the latter half of the decade, Natare Pools sees no need to reinvent itself—only to continue building on the foundation that has carried the company for more than six decades. That means refining its products and processes, embracing opportunities as they arise, and continually finding ways to make a strong operation even better. As Albertson puts it, “If things can get even one percent better, then everyone benefits in the end.”

That philosophy reflects much of what has defined Natare throughout its evolution: a willingness to adapt without losing sight of what matters most. From its beginnings as a small distributor to its emergence as a leading manufacturer of complete aquatic systems, the company has grown by recognizing opportunities, investing in its capabilities, and putting people at the center of its success.

Yoder half-jokingly says that the goal moving forward will be to keep heads above water. Behind the humor is a straightforward commitment: manage every lead and project as effectively as possible, continue delivering products and services to the highest standard, and remain responsive to the customers and communities that have helped shape the company’s journey. For Natare Pools, staying true to the Natare way is about continuing to move forward together, one project at a time.

The post Serving Industry the Natare Way<p class="company">Natare Pools</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.