Case Studies Government

When Chris Knollmeyer drives around Boston and the surrounding towns, he can point to buildings he’s helped build or maintain. There’s the iconic Custom House in Boston’s financial district, historic condos in Boston’s Back Bay, Betty Power Public Library in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood, the roof on Harvard University’s Gund Hall. After a lifetime in […]

As Jon Wesley “Wes” Treder scrolls through the many applications for the San Luis Obispo International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ (IBEW LU639) five-year apprenticeship program, he can’t help but notice a serious lack of hands-on experience. “There are kids coming through who don’t know how to use a tape measure, or understand what a sixteenth […]

Standing before a judge or sitting down with a probation officer can test anyone’s stress level, especially in a place like Essex Probate and Family Court in Salem, Massachusetts, where the most sensitive of issues may be resolved to not everyone’s satisfaction. But the anxieties there may be somewhat lessened by the consummation of extensive […]

There was a time when a company meeting entailed a lengthy round-table conversation, with coffee and donuts scattered about. While the goodies may remain, the advent of tablets, smart phones and interactive wall screens, has lessened the need for those sit-downs—or at least created the means for supplementing them. Yet, all the devices enabling this […]

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) have gained popularity in the last 20 years, in part because favorable tax regulations have made them an excellent way for retiring leaders to set up succession plans that reward their team, and because by passing profits and losses to ESOP trusts, which serve as shareholders, certain corporations can avoid […]

When O&G Industries Inc., one of the Northeast’s largest construction companies, broke ground on Stamford, Connecticut’s, new police station in February 2017, it was the beginning of a welcome upgrade for the city’s public safety, and the public at large. The current 40,000-square-foot headquarters were built in 1971, and they weren’t big enough to house […]

For decades, if a truck passed under a concrete bridge with low clearance and hit one of the support beams, there was a standard fix. Depending on the severity of the damage, the struck section would be cut out and removed, a new beam lowered or hoisted in place and welded in. There’s a new […]

For 10 years, David Ward installed and maintained HVAC systems in commercial buildings throughout Portland, Oregon, but he was often frustrated by how frequently design engineers overlooked his recommendations for design improvements. “Working in the field, I knew when there was a better way to do something or else tell them that [the design] just […]

When the military has a project involving construction or engineering, it’s not swayed by low bid alone. The stakes are too high, the margin for error practically nonexistent. It takes a contractor with a track record to impress the brass. All the better if it’s a company known for completing work on time and within […]

Construction isn’t known for being quiet. But over the last 25 years, a force has quietly swept the industry: design-build. In 1993, only three states allowed design-build, a construction method in which one team is tasked with both designing and constructing a project. Design-build presents an alternative to design-bid-build, in which one team designs a […]