Playgrounds Unlimited
The business that is Playgrounds Unlimited officially incorporated in 1996, but the motivation behind it took shape a bit before that. The idea sprang from Co-Owner and President Joe Mendes, who wanted to build his son a playground to celebrate his first birthday. This intention eventually spun into him carving out a niche in the construction industry and moving into playground construction full-time, with two partners to help his new venture get started.
BCS Concrete Structures
BCS Concrete Structures is a Texas-based concrete contractor operating out of the city of Mustang Ridge and serving various parts of the state overall. Since its inception, its operational mission has been to redefine the skyline of Austin, the state capital, as well as that of the greater central Texas area.
Top 40 Woodworks
Top 40 Woodworks, a millwork shop based in Kamloops, British Columbia, began its story in the 1990s when it was founded by Jack Mendes. In the early years, Jenny Gayfer worked as a wholesale supplier to Top 40 before she came to work for Mendes directly in 2012.
Conquest Equipment
Heavy construction equipment provider Conquest Equipment began its operations 14 years ago when it was founded by Greg Hodgson and his son Lee. Many of those who started with Hodgson are still with the company today, including Rental Account Manager Sam Shimwell. He started his Conquest journey in marketing before moving into end sales but still does additional work in the marketing department. He says that, from the first day of operations, the company has had a positive environment with a strong internal emphasis on teamwork and abundant opportunities for employee growth.
Fathom Studio
Fathom Studio in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia represents the coming together of two initially separate ventures: Ekistics Planning & Design and Form:Media. Director of Planning and Founder, Rob LeBlanc, created both businesses in the mid-1990s. Ekistics served as an urban planning and landscape architecture firm, and Form as an interpretive planning, wayfinding, and graphic design agency. In 2014, Ekistics added architecture to its services under the leadership of Chris Crawford, and in 2019, LeBlanc merged the companies to create Fathom Studio. Soon after, Crawford, and Director of Landscape Architecture, Devin Segal, joined as partners, and together grew the firm from around 20 to over 45 professionals today.
Property Management Company (PMco)
Construction and Property Management Company (PMco) is a full-service real estate management business based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The company was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and is the property management and small projects division of Doucet Developments, an Atlantic Canadian development firm.
Alterman
American electrical contractor Alterman was founded in 1923 by its namesake, Nathan Alterman. In its earliest days, Alterman would push a shopping cart up and down the streets of San Antonio, Texas to provide service-oriented electric work for the downtown core. His son Richard took over for his father in the 1950s, and a decade later, Alterman began taking on larger projects for clients such as the HemisFair ’68 exposition held in San Antonio. The company began to establish itself as a reliable electrical contractor for the area.
Robbins Construction Group
Robbins Construction Group, based out of South Carolina and primarily serving the southern United States, specializes in design-build construction. Now in its fourth year of business, the company has seen tremendous growth both in sales and in its project expertise, with five new states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Florida) added to its out-of-state project portfolio. In that time, Robbins has also succeeded in adding Home Depot as a retail client for stores in the Tennessee and potentially in the Texas and Florida markets, and has further increased its own staff to 25 people, continuing its rise in the southern U.S. market.
Panelized Building Solutions
Panelized Building Solutions (PBS) of Toronto, Ontario was launched in 2013, and has made great strides in growing the business. Vice President of Operations Paul Marchesani started running the company with the founder, Vince Leto, in 2020 and it has seen greater strength and diversification ever since, as well as increased capacity and new builders added to its roster.
Adding Value With Outdoor Kitchens
National Grilling Month begins once again this July, and countless people across North America will be returning to cooking outdoors in conjunction with the hot temperatures of the season. As grilling takes center stage again, the outdoor kitchen is becoming more of a consideration for both new homeowners and those looking for their next home renovation project.
KEIM Mineral Coatings of America
Dedicated to providing top-tier mineral paints, paint manufacturer KEIM Mineral Coatings of America operates from Charlotte, North Carolina and was incorporated in 2007. The American business is a wholly owned subsidiary of its main company, Keimfarben, a producer of mineral-based products and systems that was established in 1878 in Germany by chemist Adolph Keim. He invented and patented the first mineral silicate paint in the company’s initial year, and the company has continued to stand by its product for over a century.
Danard Electric
Electrical services provider Danard Electric is based in Tacoma, Washington and has a diverse clientele across the state. The company was formed in 1947 when Ben Danard wanted to start a company for electric home heating; he didn’t like what he saw in the industry at the time, and knew he could provide better quality and customer service.
FBM
Architecture, interior design, and planning firm FBM of Halifax, Nova Scotia has been operating for over a century, and according to Design Director Susan Fitzgerald, it has always had people who are interested in shaping the city of Halifax and in creating appealing spaces.
McStain Neighborhoods
McStain Neighborhoods got its start in Boulder, Colorado in 1966 as a small home-building company. Over time, that endeavor grew to be one of the larger private builders along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains—an area running through cities like Pueblo and Casper—with its work mainly focusing on the border town sector of the metropolitan area of Boulder itself.
Corbec
Corbec is a Canadian family-owned galvanizing company now approaching 60 years in business. Founded in 1965 by Robert Hall, the company is now owned by his son John.
Dakota Partners
Real estate developer Dakota Partners Inc. specializes in affordable housing and sustainable building practices. From its base in Massachusetts, the company serves clients across the east side of the country. It was founded in 2006 by Chief Executive Officer Marc Daigle and President Roberto Arista.
The KYA Group
Specialized general contractor KYA Group operates out of Santa Ana, California and focuses on facility modernization through the lenses of project management, design, and maintenance. The company began operations in June 2013, when its founders saw a need in the marketplace resulting from hurdles in the public sector regarding facilities and maintenance.
Gil-Son Construction
Electrical and mechanical contractor Gil-Son Construction of Halifax, Nova Scotia began operations in 1986 as a small general contractor specializing in interior fit-ups. Its original owners exited the company in 2012, with a set of new owners wanting to continue operations. The current Owner and President Daniel Hiltz took part ownership in the company in 2014, and aimed to change the direction of Gil-Son’s trajectory.
Vesta Marble and Granite
Vesta Marble and Granite is a Canadian installer and manufacturer specializing in stone fabrication, templating, and installation. The company got its start in Ottawa in 1985, when President and CEO Nat Polito saw a gap in the existing stone industry. The sector, he determined, was lacking in alternative solutions to its more common problems. So Polito decided to start his own business to address this need.
Transwall
As of 2023, Pennsylvania-based office space solutions provider Transwall will have been in operation for sixty years. Over the decades, it has become known as a premier provider of interior solutions for offices and workplaces and has concerned itself with a turnkey business model that has garnered it a tremendous reputation for “doing things right and doing the right thing,” according to Senior Executive Vice President Marc Valois.
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Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC)
Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC) provides a depth and breadth of services, programs, and opportunities for manufacturers. Headquartered in Owen Sound, Ontario, with a national presence, EMC also encourages young people to enter the manufacturing workforce and is always looking for ways to enhance the sector.
Facing Up to What’s Facing Construction
When you think of the world’s largest industry, perhaps agriculture or energy come to mind—but it turns out they’re not the biggest.
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
After profiling the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) sustainability efforts in previous articles, Construction in Focus caught up with the organization once again, this time to learn about an exciting new report. State of Decarbonization: Progress in U.S. Commercial Buildings 2023 discusses the sector’s progress, the current status of data availability, and mechanisms available to reduce the carbon emissions of commercial buildings in the United States—the first report to compile all of this information into a single source.
Cushing Terrell
There is a quote attributed to Wayne Gretzky that you have likely seen in PowerPoint presentations. It is the one about skating to where the puck is going, rather than where it is. In hockey, Gretzky seemed to have a preternatural ability to anticipate the best place to be. In business, Cushing Terrell has that same knack.
Animal Arts Design Studios
When thinking about architecture and building design, we know much time and thought goes into creating sound, healthy, and attractive structures for people, but what about housing for our animal friends? Animal Arts Design Studios specializes exclusively in animal care design, including animal shelters and veterinary hospitals, with a proven track record of success with more than 1,500 projects in 40 U.S. states, Canada, and overseas, ranging in size from 600 to 110,000 square feet.
Enercare
Coming together to address a vital energy need in the market, Enercare and Subterra Renewables are working to decarbonize living in the way we interact in our homes, transitioning away from fossil fuel powered systems to renewable geothermal energy. Finalized in Q4 2023, the partnership of these two Canadian companies represents a first-of-a-kind industry relationship aimed at providing quality products, service, and results to clients, all while helping to reduce our carbon footprints.
