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CONSTRUCTION
™
The Industry’s Newspaper www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 17 H Number 3 H MARCH 2019
Windows strong
Semper wood
L-R: Caleb Maxwell with brother Matthew Maxwell, owner of Maxwell Window Company.
Mark Mattson, Marine vet and owner of Mark Mattson’s Woodworking
W
hen it comes to a working philosophy for his business, Matthew Maxwell uses the LeaDeRSHIP acronym he learned in the Army: Loyalty - Duty - Respect - Selfless Service - Honor - Integrity - Personal Courage. As owner of Maxwell Window Company, Maxwell uses the disciplines and training from his nine years in the Army to give his customers what they need, not what he can sell. In fact, when Maxwell got out of the Army in 2010 and worked for another window company in the sales department, he laughs when he admits, “I was not a good salesman. I didn’t have that pushy mentality to get people to sign on the dotted line.” Fortunately, his sales days only lasted
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for nine months, then he moved over to installations. This is where Maxwell really learned the window business and how new windows could benefit the customer. This suited Maxwell much better. He didn’t like being grouped together in the same category as shady window contractors who do the hard sell with sometimes less then honorable sales tactics. “That rubs people the wrong way,” he said. This other company laid Maxwell off during a lean period. When he started Maxwell Window Company, he “had just $500 bucks to my name at the time.” Maxwell got busy networking with other businesses and joined his local Chamber of Commerce. He credits his father’s neighbor with getting his first continued on Page 14
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ark Mattson came from a Marine Corps family. He followed in the footsteps of his father and two brothers and enlisted after junior college in San Marcos didn’t work out. While in the military, Mattson was a communication chief/radio operator. He used to handle all sorts of electronic equipment - radios, wires, computers, phones, etc. Speaking of his time in the Marines, Mattson said he had a “very cool MOS [Military Occupation Specialty] and I definitely enjoyed it.” Mattson’s operations officer wrote him up for a decoration for his good work. But the military was having a drawdown at the time, and instead of being allowed to re-enlist, Mattson had to
separate. He returned to his native Texas in 2013, after 12 years in the Corps. Now, as owner of Mark Mattson’s Woodworking, he uses natural wood as his medium for communicating Mattson was always handy with his hands. “I’ve always been interested in working with tools and building things,” he said. He “did a bunch of projects growing up” with his dad (fences, patios, etc.). Post-Marines, he built a couple of workbenches for some friends, then for the mother of a good friend of his who was a hobbyist and needed a whiz-bang workbench for all her stuff. Via people posting Mattson’s work on social media, word started getting around. The more folks wanted things continued on Page 14
Living teamwork on the fast track
pawGlass recently completed work on Samsung Electronics America’s new Plano, TX office. The Dallas office project was a twostory, 215,983-square-foot tenant finishout that SpawGlass’ North Texas Division completed in six months, achieving substantial completion on Jan. 15. This fastpaced project required a tremendous amount of coordination and communication between the project team and the design team. “We built relationships with everybody early on and then led and directed the project to make this happen within Samsung’s timeframe,” says Zeb Young, project manager. “There was a level of teamwork and communication that went above and beyond as far as being able to work through things with subcontractors, our team, and with Samsung.” Young credits this multi-faceted level of coordination with making it possible for
Samsung Electronic America’s Plano, TX office.
him and Superintendent John “JP” Morrow to tackle the unique challenge of having drawings in progress and changes coming constantly on such a tight schedule. In addition to the two lobbies, the scope included administrative office, conference rooms, lab space and social hubs. The open office is divided into quadrants with different themes for the different user groups within those quadrants. The four corners of the building harbor unique common areas, referred to as “destination parks,” consisting of coffee machines or an ice machine, sinks and benches. The social hubs on each floor provide dining space with booths or banquet seating and chairs surrounding a central feature stair. One area where a lot of coordination was crucial to project success was the facility’s lab space, which included radio frequency chambers, clean rooms, and network labs that doubled the power requirements for the project as well as continued on Page 14