The Philadelphia-based, family-run contractor, specializing in demanding institutional and historic renovations, navigates complex project sites, evolving technology and a changing labor landscape to uphold its reputation for quality.
Heartwood Building Group Inc. has built its reputation largely on tackling demanding renovation contracts, often in occupied hospitals, universities and the industrial sector in Philadelphia. A small contractor by Philadelphia standards, it does $10–$14 million sales annually, relying on a close-knit permanent crew of about 40 that climbs to 80 during peak season.
More than 30 years at Heartwood (founded in 1995) carpenter foreperson Bill Zaun says the company treats its employees well. “It’s a family-run business and if you work hard, they’ll keep you busy.”
Navigating the Challenges of Historic Renovation
A good of example of busy is a current job at the University of Pennsylvania’s Quadrangle Dormitories, known as “the Quad,” an historic Gothic-style square with dorm structures dating back to the 1890s. Heartwood is in the final year of a three-year, three-phase project tabbed at about $11.5 million.
The job has been anything but straightforward. Work has included the usual wall and ceiling work plus moving and reshaping kitchen and bathrooms that have required major mechanical and plumbing upgrades. The upgrades have sometimes cropped up unexpectedly and affected Heartwood’s schedule and scope of work. “You can imagine when you start doing that in an old plaster building with terra cotta floors and many other older types of construction materials it turns out to be a much bigger project than expected,” says president and part owner Kimberly Galie.
The original design drawings of the historic dormitories lack details for mechanicals and other infrastructure, says Zaun. “There have been unforeseen issues such as duct risers, conduits and pipes in unexpected places.” Furthermore, some bathrooms and dorms had to be moved, approved “on the fly” by the university.
Galie’s brother Mike Schillinger, who also is part owner of Heartwood and its secretary treasurer, says that operating within the limitations of the historic fabric, characterized by atypical materials that are sometimes in poor condition, has complicated the job. “We do walk-throughs with an architect once or twice a week to discuss ideas and remedies to issues that weren’t expected. We try to help with the design.”
Getting the okay for modifications hasn’t always been quick and easy. “It’s been a long process to approve changes,” says Galie. “The university has a lot of checks and balances.”
Complicating the job, adds Zaun, is that university classes are in session throughout the project. Noisy tools such as hammer drills and chipping guns are off limits during specific hours in established “quiet zones.” Infection control risk assessment (ICRA) walls with insulation-filled cavities help buffer construction noise.
Other challenges include the tight site that lacks laydown space for materials and equipment, and the busy workplace there are roughly 100 workers from various subs and “about a thousand students walking around at all times,” says Zaun. “We have forepersons meetings every Friday for about two hours and a project manager’s meeting every other week where we usually do a two-to-three-week look ahead on the job.”
Into the final phase of the project, Zaun says Heartwood’s team has ironed out many of the project’s wrinkles. “We have everything pretty much down to a science now.”
Projects in High-Demand Sectors
Another challenging project at the University for Heartwood was the new addition and renovation to the 19th century Burk-Bergman Boathouse on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. After 150 years, the boathouse’s exterior walls were “walking out” and had to be pulled back in place and reinforced before Heartwood could perform its contract. “What we walked into was a falling down building,” says Galie.
Heartwood’s scope of work included cold form metal framing, interior drywall, exterior sheathing, millwork, hardware, acoustical ceilings, wall panels, roof repairs and balcony upgrades.
“A lot of the original timbers were rotted so what we did was save the integrity of the building and tie a new building into it to make it look like part of the older building,” says Zaun. Heartwood installed an engineered polymer cladding system (AZEK Trim) consisting of 1x6s and 1x4s to mimic the original wood cladding. An African mahogany deck was installed at the addition’s entry and behind the original building. The new roof was tied into the old roof by “sistering up” existing joists and connecting new ridge boards.
Zaun says the job had to be completed over winter while the building was largely unoccupied. Installing scaffolding on the building—only about five feet from its neighbor—while maintaining a clear path for pedestrians was tricky. Working with several specialty contractors pressed up against each other in the tight space created scheduling headaches. “It was probably our most complex job in a small space because we had to coordinate schedules with a lot of trades to get everything done in a short time during the off season,” says Galie.
Last year, Heartwood completed an addition to Citizen’s Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. A small job, it was demanding, nevertheless, because of the tight deadline, only a few months during the off-season of the baseball team. The scope of work included cold form metal framing, drywall and interior finishes to the two-storey building that features a playground for the children of ball players and a family lounge with high end finishes.
Galie says hospital renovations have been a major sector for Heartwood. It is often daunting work largely because of stringent site safety and ICRA requirements. “How you do the project and not be seen (or heard) by the rest of the facility is essential.” Over the past 20 or so years, these renovations have become more complex, often stretched out to multiple phases. Heartwood works closely with the general contractor to establish a work plan day one.
“We’re one of the first contractors in Philadelphia to do ICRA barriers,” she points out. In many cases, ICRA-compliant enclosures are full-height partitions made with studs and drywall and sometimes fire-rated COREX (a corrugated plastic wall product) on the exterior that doesn’t require sanding or finishing. The wall cavities are sometimes filled with sound insulation to eliminate disruptions to hospital operations.
Technology vs. Tradition
Over 35 years in the field, Galie has seen a lot of changes in how projects are managed. It is a “virtual age” where pre-bid walk-throughs are a thing of the past and few onsite job meetings are the norm. Every Heartwood foreperson carries an iPad, typically used for site photos, filing punch-lists and viewing updates/revisions to drawings.
In his role as a superintendent, Schillinger says PlanGrid construction management software allows him to manage multiple projects with automatic updates on his iPad. “It is seamless and saves a lot of time.”
While both Galie and Schillinger value the time savings new technology provides, they agree that in-person meetings offer opportunities for the contractor to deal directly with the general contractor, other specialty contractors and design professionals on any unexpected problems on the project.
“I like paper, and I like in-person meetings,” says Galie. “I feel like I can get more done sometimes that way.” The “flip side” is some in-person meetings can be unproductive, “if you have nothing new to offer.”
She sees another drawback to the digital world: specialty contractors might have to bid on five or six “iterations” of drawings before the final drawings are completed, and the contract is awarded. “It has made it easier for some people but not necessarily for all the specialty contractors,” she says. And while Building Information Modelling (BIM) offers a predictable workflow for mechanical specialty contractors and others, it is less useful for wall and ceiling contractors like Heartwood, she adds.
A Changing Industry: Talent, Margins and Contracts
In and around Philadelphia, Galie sees an increase in custom work such as specialty baffle and metal ceilings specified for standard jobs such as university dormitories. “There’s even an uptick in wall panel systems (and drywall partitions) for both sound and esthetics. Frankly, I think it’s a great improvement. Rather than do a vanilla job it is nice to do jobs with innovative products.”
Structural standards, particularly on large institutional projects such as universities and hospitals, have also increased. A 33 ml, 20-gauge stud wall is standard even on many of the simplest jobs. “You can get away with a 19 ml stud on lightweight commercial, but we used to use them a lot more than we do now,” Galie points out
Recently, the contractor built a 44-foot high partition in a warehouse using 8-inch 14-gauge studs. The wall was pre-engineered and required two lifts to install. “That never would have been done in metal studs two decades ago,” she says.
With a bachelor’s in civil engineering, Galie started her career at the company in the 1990s working for her father Mike, who saw potential in his daughter in management at a time when the field had few women in project management or estimating roles. Today, Heartwood has two other women in senior management posts and the contractor and many others employ a spate of women in management.
Building a Legacy and Investing in People
Heartwood is a certified WBE (Women Business Enterprise) contractor and is a member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the United States. Galie is a member of the Board of Directors for Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry (AWCI) and is an active participant in the Women’s Forum.
The company’s president is hoping that her daughter, Victoria, who works for Heartwood will take over the company one day. Victoria is just 25 but has a degree in construction management and received a fellowship through a program called Women in Construction. She is also in the AWCI’s Emerging Leaders Program. “Victoria is learning estimating, project management, submittals, payroll, payables…. We’re a small company so she is learning it all. That’s how I learned it with my father.”
Heartwood has been involved in recruitment initiatives for young women, including one coordinated by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia called Girls Inc. Galie, who says the outreach program targets high school students, points out that the specialty contractor has a 35-year history of projects at the hospital. Some of Heartwood’s apprentices have been streamed through the Carpenter’s union CARP, an outreach program for inner city young people.
While the pace of construction in and around Philadelphia is slow that could change if big projects on the drawing boards get the green light. It could lead to labor shortages in the industry. “A lot of our long-time people are starting to time out,” says Schillinger, adding that finding and keeping quality tradespeople who want to stay for a long period has been a hurdle. “When I was growing up, the industry was seen as a lifelong career, but I think more of the younger generation see it as a job, not something they want to do for 20-30 years or more.”
While apprentices are hired through the union, Galie adds that Heartwood looks to trade fairs at high schools for potential future employees. “I think it is the best place to recruit kids because this is a great life, a great business to enter into for any young person who is talented with their hands.”
Galie says subs in the region face slim profit margins, particularly in the hospital sector. “It is a bit concerning for the future. We’re hoping to continue to do what we’re good at which includes contracts like hospital renovations but with office renovations in decline since COVID, the hospital sector is seeing more competition,” a key factor behind the shrinking margins.
Another issue is the uncertainty of material prices. Heartwood’s approach to volatile supply chains is to try and lock in prices with its vendors based on when the job delivers. It has stored materials in rented warehouses when the materials were “a good deal” or the job was delayed, but Galie says it is not an ideal practice because of potential damage to materials over time and through extra handling.
She adds another recent hurdle specialty contractors are facing is with changing contract language. It is more in-depth/complex now and often most “conducive to the general contractors, not their specialty contractors.”
While Heartwood and others in the field face new challenges, the company doesn’t forget that its chief asset is its employees. Schillinger says every employee, regardless of their tenure, has a say in the company’s operation—it is part of why so many employees have stayed with the company for decades. “Whether it is safety concerns, an issue with the job…we want to hear from them.” Heartwood also invites employees to various events throughout the year, culminating in a large Christmas party. “We’re personable with them and we don’t see them just as workhorses.”
Galie hopes that tradition is maintained after she retires—possibly in five or so years. She hopes “younger, brighter minds than mine,” including her daughter Victoria will be at the helm to carry on the company’s legacy.
Zaun is confident with the company’s direction. “They have kept it in the family, going over two generations. They have good reason to want to take it to a third generation.”
Don Procter is a freelance writer from Ontario, Canada.
