Timing is Critical

We are currently working with a repeat client located in the Detroit area. This client specializes in manufacturing of metal products and galvanizing. They have been a great client for many years and are very in tune with their products and their process. We met with the V.P. of Operations earlier this week to look at a building addition to house a new galvanization process line. They know that they need to relocate the existing line into the new addition, but since timing is critical, they cannot afford to have the existing process line out of order for long. This is a very “normal” problem that we come across often in the manufacturing world. The real money maker for every manufacturing plant is the process and the product. The building that houses that process is secondary.

This instance created a unique problem. The location of the building addition is adjacent to two different roof slopes of the building and thus created a challenge for us regarding adding onto the building. The client needs a certain clear height inside the addition for a few tanks, so we could not simply add onto the building below the existing roof line. However, if we added a taller building, it would create additional roof load on the existing roof(s). Our solution was to add a small pit inside the addition that the tall tanks would sit down in, therefore allowing the remainder of the new building addition to be lower than the existing building without adding load to any of the existing structure. By coming up with this rather simple solution, we can now construct the new addition while the existing process line stays operational and they can then limit the down time needed to move the existing process line to the new addition once it is constructed.  

If Timing is Critical on your next project, give us a call as we’d love to help you find a solution.

Prepare Before You Start

As spring break quickly approaches (many of you may already be home from spring break), I couldn’t help but think about traveling for spring break.  This year our family is set to take a short road trip to Chicago where we will then catch a flight to a much warmer place! Thankfully my kids are old enough these days that we don’t have the dread of long road trips (and long airplane rides) with little ones. In the old days, we were always told “good luck” traveling that amount of time with two little kids. Back then my wife and I did very well because we planned ahead. We made sure they had movies downloaded from “insert your favorite streaming service here”, arts and crafts along with lot of snacks of course! The hours typically went quickly with no major incidents or melt-downs.

Why did the long travel days, that had every chance of going badly, go so well? The answer is “we prepared before we started”. Just like all building projects, if you don’t prepare before you get started, the chance of the project going well greatly decreases.

Three questions to answer before you start your next building project:

• What Do I Value? Wants vs. needs must be balanced on every project.

• Where am I Compromising? Compromise is not a bad word, it is only bad when you compromise and didn’t know it.

• When Do I Need the Project Completed? Having an overall schedule with milestone dates will keep the project on time and your stress level under control.

We always had fun & built memories along the way because we prepared for the trip. I knew what I valued, which was time with my family, and understood there may be some compromise to accomplish that goal. The kids normally had all the snacks eaten before we crossed the first state line, but the trips still went smoothly!

Let us help you prepare before you start your next project. Give me a call; we would love to take the trip with you.

Unique Architecture

My family and I recently took a weekend trip to Louisville, KY. We had a nice time seeing the sights and exploring what the city had to offer. As we were walking around downtown, a very unique building (at least it used to be a building) caught my eye. In the picture, you can see that they kept the façade of this old historic building on West Main St., but tore down the rest of the building. They actually made a city park out of what used to be the building. There are playgrounds and sports fields where the building once was. I have never seen this done before and it really caught my eye. Whoever designed this was able to keep the old historic charm of the adjacent buildings, while creating an outdoor gathering space for the general public.

This got me thinking about “Unique Architecture” and how it can be used on all kinds of projects. For instance there may be a local municipality that has deemed a specific building or area as historic and one way to work with that local governing body would be to think outside the box and keep a façade in place, while removing the rest of the building. We often come upon clients that want a unique architectural feature in their building, such as a comic book store wanting their building to mimic a famous landmark in a Marvel comic series, or an owner that loves New York City and wants his building to take on the look of the New York skyline. There are endless options when it comes to unique elements in architecture.   

If you’re in the market for something unique or something that stands out from the rest, give us a call, we’d love to help you bring your unique architectural vision to life.