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integrated design build team , you have a great shot at having a unique collaborative experience . It ’ s amazing what can happen when no one cares about who gets the credit . If you think about a business , it tends to be bottom-line driven . We ’ re a privately held firm and while we need to be profitable , not everything we do is driven by the bottom line . There are a lot of decisions we make for the benefit of collaboration .
“ Our history in Florida dates to 1961 ,” Ryan continues , “ when we built the first launch facility , Launch Complex 34 , for the new Saturn rocket series at Cape Canaveral . We ’ ve called Tampa home for over 30 years and have been part of significant projects in the area . Our projects have touched every aspect of life in the Tampa
Launch Complex 34
Bay area , from travelers passing through Tampa International Airport ’ s Airsides ‘ C ’ and ‘ F ’ to visitors exploring The Dali ; from students living in one of our six University of Tampa residence halls to researchers studying genetics and cellular biology at Moffitt Cancer Center .
“ We also do a lot of K-12 construction . We ’ re building a large high school for 3400 students in Hillsborough County which is a 175-million-dollar project . We love working on projects like that that end up being the fabric of Florida . We ’ re not just a regional business by name ; we work where we live , where our kids go to school and where we ’ re going to retire . It ’ s meaningful to not only invest time in collaborating on a project with great folks on an awesome design , but also doing something that adds sustainable value to the community .
“ This is certainly something that drives our crew in what can be a challenging environment to build in right now . I think where our offices are located , we ’ ve been lucky to stay consistent from a macroeconomic standpoint , particularly considering supply chain and labor shortages post pandemic .
To mitigate those challenges , we strive to be great communicators ; to stay in touch with our trades and suppliers . We love being at the front end of projects because we can advise and try to resolve issues proactively rather than reactively . It ’ s increasingly important to make hard and smart decisions up front . Prefabrication is certainly something we ’ re always thinking about , and it extends to almost every aspect of a build with planning and offsite fabrication helping to make the on-site construction process more seamless .
Being integrated too gives us a better shot at achieving this because we pull together as a team .
“ Indeed , planning and prefabrication considerations extend to sustainability initiatives . The American Institute of Architects ( AIA ) has done great work over the last 20 years to integrate sustainable solutions into the construction process . While it was novel when I first started my career to make incremental changes , now , signing up to the AIA 2030 Commitment is essential . The AIA 2030 Commitment is an actionable climate strategy that gives us a set of standards and goals for reaching net-zero emissions in the built environment . So , we ’ ve signed up and agreed to follow those design practices , holding ourselves accountable on a yearly basis ,” he elaborates .
Continuing legacy
Looking to the future , Ryan shares his thoughts on the trends and technologies he believes will have the biggest impact on the sector moving forward . “ There is considerable value to be gleaned from modelling . Digital twins , for example , can be leveraged in so many ways . We were an early adopter of Revit , some 20 years ago , and learnt how to leverage it appropriately . Leveraging technology to quantify aspects accurately and model costs and decision making is game changing , as is
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