Tom Glass, owner of Glass Construction, in Washington, D.C., relishes historic projects. “I like the idea of recycling buildings and houses and keeping those buildings in use,” he says. He is standing in front of a Beaux Arts bank building that he converted into a house — an award-winning project that garnered publicity.
Photo Credit: Charles Steck
Tom Glass revels in the history of the Washington, D.C., neighborhoods he works in — Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Kalorama, Cleveland Park, and Dupont Circle. His interest in period houses drew him from the Midwest to Washington. “There is a great inventory of beautiful historical houses all through the city. Many of them in bad shape. The owners also love these old houses and have the means and money it takes to restore them. I want to do it right and work with quality architects and quality materials,” he says.
Glass is especially drawn to the simplicity of the Federal style of the late 1700s. “Things in that period were handmade — the bricks, window sashes, and hand-hewn timbers,” he says.
He started Glass Construction in 1990 and the company has saved the façades and replicated the interiors of Federal, Georgian, Victorian, Second Empire, and Italianate houses. “We have also worked with architects who have a contemporary design aesthetic — quite often putting those interiors into historic buildings.”
One especially successful modern/historic meld brought attention to Glass Construction’s specialty and helped launch the company. The Capitol Hill project required converting a 1906 Beaux Arts bank into a home. “It had been vacant for 15 years or more and was on the verge of being torn down,” Glass says. The client wanted open spaces and industrial finishes to serve as a backdrop for his extensive contemporary art collection. That modern look had to mesh with the original plaster crown molding and arched windows. The 1994 project received media attention, Glass says, including an article in Architectural Digest, Preservation magazine’s Great American Home Award, and a Builder’s Choice award from BUILDER, a sister publication of UPSCALE REMODELING.
The client, originally from Philadelphia, asked a Philadelphia firm, Brawer & Hauptman Architects, to design the bank renovation. Glass Construction cleaned and renovated the exterior of the 1906 building and gutted the interior, adding a custom steel staircase leading to a steel mezzanine.
Photo Credit: Halkin Photography
To build on that recognition, Glass entered other national and regional design contests including the National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s awards, the Chrysalis Awards, Washington Spaces’ design competition, and the Associated Builders and Contractors Excellence in Construction awards.
“Winning national awards from different competitions led to a lot of phone calls and business,” Glass says, noting that national and regional magazines, including The Washingtonian, Southern Accents, and House Beautiful, have contacted him about projects. Winning awards also led to a segment on Good Morning America and contact with Home & Garden Television. “I’m not sure it translates into a lot of work,” Glass says. “But what it does do is to keep you in the arena. You can promote it on your Web site. When we win an award or are published in a magazine or book, we send out postcards to all of our architect clients.”
Glass does not advertise in magazines or newspapers targeted at homeowners. But, he is updating the company’s Web site. “That is such a vital part of marketing yourself,” he says. The revamped site will have more project photos, a photo gallery with thumbnail images, and less narrative. “Our goal is to make it sophisticated and easier to navigate,” he says.
Architectural Range
Almost all of Glass Construction’s work comes from architectural firms. “They bring clients specifically to us for our particular skill set,” Glass says. Working with different architects provides him and his staff the opportunity to learn new techniques and work in a range of styles. “If I worked with just one architect, it would limit us,” he says.
Glass Construction collaborated with architect Michael Holt on the exterior and interior renovation of this 1802 house (above). The exterior work included re-pointing the brick and stone façade and underpinning an existing 12-foot-tall stone retaining wall to make space for a garage.
Photo Credit: Hoachlander Davis Photography
Glass also likes having an architect act as arbitrator in any disputes or issues with the homeowner. “Our clients have extremely high standards — sometimes they have misconceptions about what is to be built or the level of finishes,” he says. In these instances, he says that the architects he works with have been fair-minded and have helped to resolve issues.
Glass Construction’s reputation with architects also allows it to pursue negotiated contracts rather than bidding. “We have so much work that comes specifically to us that we do not need to get involved in bidding wars, which I find to be a huge waste of energy, money, and time,” Glass says.
He says that as long as clients continue to choose the lowest bidders, most of whom are bidding low due to inexperience, cheap materials, or substandard trade contractors and labor, the industry will struggle with a negative reputation. “If a homeowner’s main focus is the cost, that is not someone I want to work with. I want someone who is excited about the design or how they will live in the house,” he says.
Glass prefers to save clients money by being efficient. “We have spent years developing the managerial system we use to run our projects. From scheduling to resource and material management, we save our clients money by being productive,” he explains.
The best way to do this, he adds, is to be involved in the projects starting at the “cocktail napkin stage.” This allows the company to provide budget numbers from the early stages of design and prevent sticker shock. He says that clients expend “emotional energy” on creating a design — energy that is wasted if they can’t afford to build the project.
Because asking a client for their budget is a touchy question, Glass avoids any direct inquiries. Instead, he takes the preliminary design and prices each stage and walks clients through the basis for the pricing. “Then I let them react to it,” he says. They can either agree or disagree at this point. If they disagree, Glass says, he and his staff go back and use value engineering and alternative ideas to come up with a more feasible project.
Veterans and Newbies
The company’s team of 21 employees produce and manage about eight to 10 large projects every year, each of which takes about 14 months to complete. The construction costs range from $1 million to $6 million.
Glass relies on seven veteran construction managers, most of whom have 20 years of experience. The construction managers work with superintendents. Managers oversee projects, interact with the homeowner and architect, set the schedule, and hire subcontractors. Superintendents work with the carpenters and trades, inventory deliveries, and keep the site clean and safe. They tend to be younger and more computer-savvy, so are often the ones who update weekly status reports, write meeting agendas, and keep the site log.
Photo Credit: Hoachlander Davis Photography
Tom Glass and architect Christian Zapatka worked with historic preservation boards on this Georgetown remodel, to blend an 1870s house, 1950s addition, and a new great-room.
Photo Credit: Hoachlander Davis Photography
In the past few years, Glass has hired employees with divergent backgrounds: a graphic designer, a salesperson, a writer, and a former flower shop owner. “They like what we do and wanted to get involved,” he says. “I am a believer in hiring young people and training them.” He asks them to start by working in the field.
A production manager oversees the entire field team, splitting his time between the field and office. One of the best decisions he made, Glass says, was when he created an acquisition manager position six years ago to take over purchasing and orders — a role originally assigned to the superintendents. “It takes a lot of time and energy to deal with problems or mistakes in specifications. I’ve taken that off their plate. They are there [on the jobsite] to build. They are happier and more productive,” Glass says.
The acquisition manager works closely with the architect, estimator, and production manager to order materials, provide pricing from vendors and fabricators, and create a delivery schedule. “Materials for upscale projects can have extraordinary lead times — 14 to 16 weeks for certain products,” Glass says. The office team also works hard to handle paperwork and documents, which allows the field team the freedom to concentrate on production.
Glass meets regularly with the entire production team to review projects, but over the years he has delegated much of the day-to-day work to employees. His main function now, he says, is to act as the “rainmaker,” meeting with clients and courting architects he would like to work with. “I make sure we have work in the pipeline and maintain good relations with our clients,” he says. The company’s current backlog and ongoing work will keep the team busy through 2010.