Tradespeople are a vital part of every construction project, but at Creature, our in-house trades teams are the crux of our strategy. Our unique building platform demands the entire team, from our designers to our tradespeople, be tenacious, strategic, and innovative. It’s that integration, that continuous feedback loop, throughout the entirety of each project that ensures we can deliver the seamless, speed-sensitive, high-quality capital projects that our healthcare and corporate clients come to us for.
Jeff Black, Creature’s Plumbing Lead, says it this way, “What sets us apart is the cohesive team culture, where everyone is directly connected and aligned. I thrive on the collaboration with our project managers and superintendents. I’m especially proud of the continuous feedback loop between our MEP team and prefabrication partners, which drives us to constantly enhance the quality and efficiency of our installations.”
Our tradespeople are heavily involved through the entire project, from early design through estimating and commissioning of a job. Therefore, their ability to problem-solve and collaborate at the job site and beyond is critical to our success. That’s one of the reasons we cross-train our tradespeople, so that we have an army of trained and certified tradespeople with experience in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and general trades.
“I do anything and everything I can to help ensure smooth and efficient job flow and produce a high quality product,” Warren Graf, General Trades Foreman, explains. Having this multi-skilled team in-house allows us to lower our overhead for our clients and provide them with additional service and maintenance offerings while allowing flexibility in work options for tradesmen. “I love the advancement opportunity we have,” Jesse West, Electrical Lead, added, “and the quality of work we do is always above and beyond expectations.”
Achieving that extremely high quality of work in this fast-paced, complex new facet of construction requires a new way of working, and a large part of that is incorporating technology into a traditionally tech-averse industry. Jerry Robbins, Senior Mechanical Manager at Creature, explains the process of learning this new way to build: “I have learned so much from the people here. I’ve been in construction my whole life, so I was not sure at first, but technology really does work. I think that this is the way a large part of the construction industry is going to go… Creature has shown me that there’s a new way to do a lot of things.”
There is no room in our way of building for the siloed inefficiencies of the traditional construction industry. If we are to produce world-class capital projects for our clients with vastly improved speed to delivery without sacrificing quality, our designers, contractors, and especially our tradespeople must be committed to ruthlessly eliminating outdated ways of working. “The work I do at Creature differs from other construction sites because we are constantly trying to innovate the way we work. We have the ability to adapt and overcome any obstacle with our MEP teams,” Jesse West speaks to how our team accomplishes that lofty goal.
Not only are our tradespeople valued at Creature, but they are also crucial to the future of our industry. We are so grateful to our trades teams for their dedication in changing the way we build. It’s no easy task to change an industry that’s been doing it the same way for centuries, but all it takes is a few thoughtful, bold, savvy people to ask if there’s a better way to build — and to have the drive to make it happen.