Case Studies

When Mike McGrath is on a plane, he’ll flip through the inflight magazine. Inevitably, once or twice a year he spots a project MG McGrath Inc. has worked on. “Thankfully, a lot of the work we do ends up being iconic for various cities,” Mike says. It’s not uncommon for MG McGrath projects, like the […]

When Kessler Construction LLC broke ground in March 2016 for an exclusive subdivision just a couple of miles from the traffic beltway that encircles the hustle and bustle of Tallahassee, Florida, the foundation was laid for much more than just another neighborhood of upscale, custom houses. The Southern Oaks project marked the start of Leon […]

Bill Swarbrick Jr. used to light the lamp as a productive forward on Northern Arizona University’s Division 1 hockey team, scoring 42 goals over three seasons during the 1980s. Since then, he’s done even more lamp lighting at Superior Lighting Inc., which has offices in Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa. Co-founded in 1968 by […]

To paraphrase Robert Frost, good fences make not just good neighbors but good neighborhoods as well, and Olympus Precast LLC seems to be making both of those and more in Utah’s Wasatch Front and beyond. It’s even helping to make what should be a pretty nice city, in the process. For within easy proximity to […]

Most people look at the Cleveland skyline and see a wall of glass and steel; Patricia McElroy, CEO and CFO of Duct Fabricators Inc., sees a legacy of jobs well done. Founded in 1962, her family’s business has installed HVAC ductwork in many of Cleveland’s most notable buildings, including the Quicken Loans Arena and the […]

Russ Ellington remembers installing his first set of flood panels. It was 2013, and a post-Hurricane Sandy and Katrina world. The U.S. government, in response to the hurricanes, required larger geographic areas to have flood protection in order to be federally insured, and general contractors and engineers were scrambling to include such protection for buildings. […]

Science and art meld when Mid-Am Metal Forming Inc. undertakes a project, an example being when the Missouri-based metal-bending specialists were contracted to top off the Milwaukee Art Museum’s vast reception hall in 2001. In designing his first U.S. building, as well as his first museum anywhere, the esteemed Spanish architect and structural engineer, Santiago […]

When the city of Pasadena, California, or one of the nearby communities, tinkers with its zoning code or elects a new Planning Commission, principals Rob Tyler and Javier Gonzalez pay attention. The firm they co-founded more than 30 years ago, Tyler Gonzalez Architects, has a vested interest in reading the pulse of the community. Much […]

Ever hear the story about the bridal shower turned literal? The one where the night before the big day, an inebriated bride-to-be hung her gown on a hotel sprinkler head, causing it to break and flood not just the bathroom and her room, but much of the entire floor as well as some of the […]

Every builder of luxury condos or multi-family buildings defines the term luxury differently. In a lot of cases though, it’s about the glamour: Counters made of high-tech, replicated stone; movie theaters; concierge services—even places for your cat to get a shampoo and massage. Developers will go to any lengths to distinguish their properties in crowded […]