Case Studies April 2013

There must be something inherently healing about the town of Danvers, Mass. In 1874 Danvers offered the pastoral setting favored by prominent Kirkbride-plan hospitals, which were designed with the idea that a building itself could have curative properties. The Kirkbridian Danvers State Hospital opened to the public in 1878, staying in operation until 1992. Little […]

Rogers Memorial Hospital (Rogers) provides nationally recognized behavioral treatment and specialty psychiatry services tailored specifically for adults, teens and children. Rogers boasts a century-long history of treatment in the southeastern Wisconsin. Rogers’ Oconomowoc campus serves as an anchor to the Rogers Behavioral Health System and offers a variety of treatment programs on 50 acres of […]

Bridgewater State University (BSU) is one of the only Massachusetts public institutions with a fully functioning observatory. Perched atop the campus’ cathedral of science is The Marshall Conant Science Building (MCSB). BSU built the state-of-the-art MCSB in 1964, but five decades of evolving teaching styles, technology and an increasing student enrollment rate left the building […]

The Lander Group LLC (Lander) is a small, veteran-owned construction business headquartered in Bangor, Maine. Philip Lander founded Lander in 2005, a year after retiring from a long military career as a pilot. “We were formerly known as Atlantic Defense Company,” says Josh Lander, Philip’s son and COO of Lander. “Our niche is in Veterans […]

In 1913 a directory entitled “Society of the Allied Building Trades” was published. It contained a small classifieds list of construction firms in the New York City area, and established the forerunner of The Blue Book. From 1913 through the late 1920s revised editions were issued every few years. Today, exactly 100 years later, The […]

The Construction Underground (TCU) is a construction professionals networking association and subsidiary of Speedy Concrete Cutting, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-headquartered sawing and drilling company with five offices and 25 years of activity in the Southeast U.S. TCU is particularly unique among construction associations in that it charges no fees, generates no revenue, and is supported […]

Broadway Mechanical-Contractors Inc. (BMC) has seen companies come and go. After all, its owners, the Nurisso family, have been in the industry for 100 years, 60 of those spent running BMC. Now in the hands of the fourth generation of family ownership, BMC continues to serve San Francisco and the Greater Bay area with expertise, […]

Dave Bahl Sr. founded Weldall Mfg. Inc. (Weldall) in 1972 as a part-time welding operation, leasing a single machine to work on small projects. Bahl Sr. then incorporated Weldall in 1974 after the team had grown to five employees, and continued success required Weldall’s first physical expansion later that same year. From the beginning, Bahl […]

Just as a small acorn can grow into a mighty oak, Universal Forest Products Inc. (Universal) grew from a manufactured housing business wholesaler into the nation’s leading manufacturer and distributor of wood and wood-alternative products. Started in 1955, Universal now dominates the lumber industry from its corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich. The company is […]

J. Earl McGinnis founded McGinnis Lumber Co. Inc. (MLC) in 1922 in hopes of providing regional builders with quality lumber at competitive prices. J. Earl owned and operated MLC until his death in 1969, but MLC remained in the family. James E. McGinnis Jr., J. Earl’s son, headed MLC successfully for decades before passing control […]