Case Studies

Oil, like farm crops, shifts up and down in price every week, month and year. But unlike crops, oil companies can’t grow a fresh supply every season. Limited supply and worldwide demand make it a tough industry to thrive in, as evidenced by the last few years in which oil prices have plummeted due to […]

In March 2017, Denison Glass & Mirror Inc. broke ground on its new 40,000-square-foot fabrication facility in Denison, Texas, a space over three times the size of the company’s current space. Mark Gampper, president and owner of the glass contracting company, says the additional space will be crucial for Denison to grow its unitized wall […]

Brothers Igor and Russ Krivor noticed a trend back in 2007 that has endured for nearly a decade: “Millennials are renting longer and buying homes later,” they say, citing a statistic that millennials will spend, in aggregate, 80 percent more rent in their lifetimes than baby boomers. The brothers, who co-founded real estate development firm, […]

Operating amid the hustle and bustle of Canada’s biggest city of Toronto, Joseph Waldman has a knack of seeing regions ripe for development north and south of the 44th parallel and even overseas. The constantly on-the-go president of Highgates Group, Waldman is the man behind many successful projects in such diverse locales as Ontario, Iowa, […]

There was a familiar challenge Renaissance 3 Architects P.C. undertook in 2004 when it was tapped to lead the team that would redesign and renovate the landmark Chevron Science Center that housed the University of Pittsburgh’s chemistry department. One of the largest chemistry teaching and research facilities at any American college or university, the 14-story […]

When altering landscapes for development in the Southeast, little things can add up. Case in point: the tiny silt particles that aren’t supposed to be discharged into waterways without treatment. Blake Thomas, the 32-year-old project manager of Reel Neet Erosion Control, remembers filling a jar with such water and setting it on a shelf in […]

According to George Pacheco, president of Pacheco Brothers Gardening Inc., nothing is as dangerous to athletes as sliding over a sunflower seed stuck in synthetic turf. Not only does it cut “like glass,” but it can cause infections. Sunflower seeds aren’t the only thing hiding in the plastic turf. “On a regular soccer or football […]

A century and a half ago, Archbishop Hughes of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral stood before worshipers and proposed “for the glory of Almighty God” that a grander church be built “worthy of our increasing numbers” in an area of near-wilderness that has since become downtown Manhattan. The cornerstone was laid in 1858, and the new St. […]

In the medical world, high blood pressure is a “silent killer,” often caused by clogged arteries. The world of foodservice equipment, water heaters, steam boilers, cooling towers and other equipment that uses water, has its own silent killer: scale buildup and corrosion. Much like plaque can clog arteries, scale and corrosion buildup clogs plumbing systems […]

During the 40 years Louis Sigman has worked in Colorado’s glazing construction industry, he has lived through the leanest of times. So he had a pretty good idea of what to expect when he took the reins of a glazing contracting company shortly before the economy took yet another nosedive. While working for his family’s […]