Each step in the process of completing a project is vital and can often be the difference between a project that goes relatively smooth, to one that adds years of life to everyone involved. I’ve had gray hair present itself on my scalp after a few projects—I swear it wasn’t there at the beginning of the project.

The individuals involved at each step can vary from owners, designers, engineers, contractors and municipal or government entities. Each brings a different set of responsibilities to the table and can require a different approach to accomplish the task. Add to that the varying degrees of projects from small private jobs and commercial mid-size projects to large-scale state infrastructure work. No two projects are the same.

I’m going to skip the following steps … design, estimate, review/ redesign, approval, physically releasing the project for production (there are other steps involved, but I only have a limited amount of page space) solely to focus on problem solving. As I mentioned before, each step is crucial, but we also
often hear of contractors and designers being left on their own to solve field or design issues on the back end. Some have shared that the response they have been provided by other companies is in line with, “Let us know what you’d like to do about it,” or “You might want to hire a third party to review these plans. ”It’s a bad scenario and sadly, some clients are accustomed to being in this position.

We, on the other hand, have always jumped on the opportunity to be part of the solution. It gives me great pride to state that we have never turned down the opportunity to tackle any problem head on to assist our clients. It’s second nature to us. We often don’t even realize the manhours spent in review,
concept and design that are tied to problem resolution. In the end, we collaborate on solving issues for our streets, our neighborhoods, shopping centers, restaurants, parking lots, additions to hospitals, our airport, you name it … it’s our city. We are all professionally and personally invested in each and every project that our company has the opportunity to take on.

I’m not much of a salesman and I don’t have a catchy tagline for this topic, but … “Our staff is an extension of your company, we are partners until the job is done.”

Photo/Foto: John Horta