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Horst Construction Becomes an Authorized Builder for Varco Pruden Buildings

Varco Pruden Buildings (VP) is a world leader in providing innovative pre-engineered steel building systems. Each year, VP supplies materials for approximately 6,000 buildings—ranging from 1,200 square feet to more than one million square feet. Today, VP welcomes Horst into its network of nearly 1,000 independent Authorized VP Builders across the United States and Canada, as well as throughout Central and South America, Europe, and Asia.

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Horst Construction Provides Hot Design Trends for Senior Living Facilities

While Horst Construction considers themselves to be experts in constructing senior living facilities, they also participate in many discussions at the owner level, advising their clients about the best ways to attract new residents and make facilities as welcoming and useful as possible. For this article, Horst collaborated with interior designers, marketing teams, and other experts to share top senior living facility design trends for 2018.

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Horst Completes Two Major Religious Projects

Horst is proud to announce the completion of two of its major religious construction projects: ValleyPoint Church in Glen Mills, PA and State College Alliance Church in State College, PA. While each project that Horst undertakes is completely unique and personal, what these two places of worship have in common is their greatly expanded capacity to meet the needs of their growing congregations.

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Horst Offers 10 Lessons Learned from Challenging Construction Projects

While Horst does their best to ensure that challenges are discussed and addressed up front, there are always lessons to be learned from their generations of experience working on hundreds of projects.

1. You WILL encounter problems during the process.
Problems inevitably arise during any construction project—no project is completely free from issues. That’s why we address the snags as they occur and share best practices among our PMs to avoid future difficulties.

2. Prepare for the land development approval process.
Land development is a lengthy and difficult process, so it’s best to be well informed and temper your expectations. Become familiar with your municipality’s amendments, and which parties are required to review different aspects of your project.

Read All Top 10 Lessons

Horst Warns Owners to Beware of Change Orders

Horst Construction considers it their job—and responsibility—to educate and inform the buyer. The way they do this is by asking questions that help to clarify the grey areas of a specification document or offer alternatives, when their experience dictates a better approach.

All qualified bidders want to win your job—it’s how they go about that process that is cause for alert. Many contractors shy away from asking questions because, many times, it adds scope and increased cost, which may become a disadvantage competitively. Asking questions may also reveal imperfect work or impractical design elements in the architect’s drawings, making the contractor look like the bad guy.

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Horst Wraps Up Busy Month of October

The leaves have changed, the weather is finally cooling off, and Horst Construction has had a busy month this October, celebrating fall, exceptional clients, and exciting opportunities. The Horst team celebrated Manufacturing Day with students from Pequea Valley Intermediate School, competed in the ABC Keystone Chili Cook-off, and attended the Cocalico High School career fair. They also participated in a philanthropy event and won an award at the Excellence in Construction Awards ceremony.

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MSAs: The Ultimate Way that Horst Quickly Meets Customer Needs in An Emergency

Imagine that you’re the manager of a convenience store and you get a call in the middle of the night to inform you that a car just drove right through your front entrance. Now that you’ve been jolted from your sleep, it’s time to get someone to repair the damage, order a custom fitted door, and help get your store operating normally ASAP. Wouldn’t it be great if you could count on one company to do all of your major repairs and facility updates—without having to go through the bid process or time-consuming negotiations? That one company is Horst Construction and an MSA is the way to get it done.

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Cheers to Turkey Hill!

Turkey Hill Minit Markets is joining a number of other convenience stores, grocery chains, and other retail entities offering the sale of beer and wine. A Pennsylvania law passed in 2016, called Act 39, specifically allows the sale of alcohol (beer and wine) in convenience stores. Thus, consumers have updated their expectations and many are asking when they might be able to find local convenience stores that are selling these products. A change of this magnitude is not a quick and easy evolution, however. Horst Construction has participated on the team that is evaluating what this will mean for the impacted stores.

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Horst Construction Selected to Convert, Preserve, and Expand One of Collegeville’s Most Memorable Places

Horst Construction is excited to announce that it has been selected as the General Contractor for a new Providence Place Senior Living Community in Collegeville, PA. Construction is scheduled to begin later this fall.

The site is the former Collegeville Inn, located at the intersection of Germantown and Ridge Pike in Lower Providence Township. Locals fondly remember the Inn for its smorgasbord restaurant, banquet facility, and of course, the carved bear that welcomed guests. The site is both nostalgic and scenic. Its proximity to the Perkiomen Creek will create a peaceful setting for future residents.

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Meet the Client: Horst Construction

A Master at Capturing Space… One Church at a Time

by Francine Carb, President

Meet Rick Lown, RA, NCARB, Master Planning and Preconstruction Services at Horst Construction, and our client.
“In 7th grade, all the students were required to take woodshop, metal shop, and drafting. In drafting class, we had an assignment to design our dream house and project it as a 3-D image. Game over…I was beyond fascinated. From that moment on, I was determined to follow my dream and become an architect. The idea and act of ‘capturing space’ is what keeps me energized and engaged every day.”

 

Rick has over 29 years of experience in design and construction. Having been involved in the planning, expansion, and renovations of over 150 religious institutions, his specialty is Master Planning and Design-Build projects.

Rick’s journey was filled with challenges and rewards. He was the only one in his family to go to college and was accepted to Lehigh University. When he was just about to graduate, Pennsylvania changed the rules to become a Registered Architect; he would now need a master’s degree or specific Architecture Degree in order to practice the profession. He attended Drexel University’s night school, driving from his job in Lancaster to Philadelphia and back—for 6 years! He sat for the intense 12 hour-a-day, 4 day exam, and passed it. In those days, becoming an architect was similar to preparing to become an MD, including 3-4 years as an apprentice. Even back at Lehigh, the curriculum was designed to weed out those less serious about the profession.

At Horst Construction, Rick’s job—and passion—is bringing a church’s vision to reality. He works intently with building committees to listen to their vision, evaluate their programming needs, and create schematic sketches that offer options to consider, while keeping with the original goals of the committee. Rick began developing his own Master Planning methodology back in 1998 and continues to develop this journey—keeping it current and modern. As one of his clients, Fellowship Church states, “It felt like we had found the missing piece—a company whose desire was not just to complete a project for us, but also to work by our side as our partner throughout the journey.”

As a member of the Marketing and Business Development team at Horst, Rick aims to make a connection with his clients early on—creating an atmosphere of teamwork, partnership and trust. According to Rick,

“Our partnership with Markitects keeps Horst engaged and focused on what is most important and effective for the company. They help us vet and develop the best ideas into actionable plans. I appreciate Francine and her team—they always bring us back to strategy, goals, and ROI. More than a sounding board, they have our best interests at heart, and help us execute in line with our objectives.”

Learn more about Markitects’ partnership with Horst Construction.

Markitects, Inc.

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