Author: MacKenzie Junor

Employee Spotlight: Carpenter Foreman Shaun Hagler

January 17, 2023
By: Won Moc and MacKenzie Junor
In celebration and recognition of the important work Dr. Martin Luther King did to combat hate, racism and discrimination, we will hear from Carpenter Foreman Shaun Hagler on his experience in the construction industry, as well as how to support the success and longevity of BIPOC in our industry. Shaun Hagler grew up in New… read more

Lewis Leadership Update

December 12, 2022
We are excited to announce a transition in our leadership structure! Long-time Seattle President Jeff Cleator has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. In his place, Lewis has promoted former Senior Vice President Jay Sorensen. In Portland, we welcomed Tony Stewart as the President of our Oregon Division—a 30-year veteran in the A/E/C market. “This strategic… read more

Rainier Square: A Building Like No Other

March 4, 2022
by Mackenzie Junor, Marketing and Communication Specialist
Towering above the streets of downtown, the new Rainier Square Tower has been applauded for many things; namely its first-of-its-kind core construction, impressive height and unique curved facade. Sitting on a tight site in Seattle’s Central Business District, the building shares a block with Minoru Yamasaki’s iconic tapered-based Rainier Tower and redefines the Seattle skyline.… read more

Constructing a Clinic to Combat COVID-19

January 14, 2022
By: MacKenzie Junor, Marketing and Communication Specialist
Nestled in the heart of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s South Lake Union campus—amongst life-saving cancer research—is the Hutch’s COVID-19 Clinical Research Center (CCRC). The 10,000-square-foot clinic, located in the Minor building, is on the hunt for effective treatment and prevention medications for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. At the CCRC, researchers… read more

Collaboration and Trust Build Team Culture at the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health

December 9, 2021
by: Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
Last month, the team behind the Design-Build Institue of America’s 2021 Project of the Year—the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health—sat down with Kim Wright on the Design-Build Delivers podcast to discuss what made the project was so successful. The striking building, hosting three different public health organizations, is the culmination of three years of… read more

Driving Towards a More Sustainable Future

August 23, 2021
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
Historically speaking, it’s no secret that construction hasn’t had the greenest track record in the world, and while the industry is making progress towards a more sustainable future, that progress can often seem frustratingly slow. As forward-looking ideas such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) or water reuse undergo rounds and rounds of testing to prove they… read more

The Future is Bright for Women in Construction

March 10, 2021
By: The Lewis Women's Development Group
This week is Women in Construction Week, a national celebration of the growing number of women joining the construction industry, from carpenter apprentice to project manager and beyond.   Members of Lewis’ Women’s Development Group held a discussion about their experiences in the industry, their hopes for the future and the importance of representation as more and more women choose… read more

Discussing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Part 2

January 21, 2021
By: Won Moc, Marketing Director
This is the second blog in Lewis’ Martin Luther King Junior Day series, which shares the perspectives and experiences of several Lewis employees in celebration of diversity, equity and inclusion. Earlier this week, we heard from Celina Yee and David Torres on their experience in the construction industry and what diversity, equity and inclusion mean… read more

Discussing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Part 1

January 19, 2021
By: Won Moc, Marketing Director
In celebration of Martin Luther King Junior Day, we will hear from several Lewis employees on their experience as black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) in the construction industry, what Martin Luther King Junior means to them and how they are taking time to celebrate this year.   WM: Throughout your time working in… read more

Rainier Square Uses PNW’s First Damper System

November 11, 2020
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
When it comes to locations for an 850-foot building, you might raise your eyebrows at certain spots over others.  There are dozens of considerations….size of site, FAA regulations, seismic conditions, soil quality, and so on.  You can imagine that these make designing and building high rises complicated.  Rainier Square’s design certainly had to take all that into account.  But there is… read more

Washington State Convention Center: Aerial Update

June 24, 2020
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
The Washington State Convention Center Summit Expansion is well underway!  What you’re seeing in this video is the first of several zones to be erected as part of a construction technique known as “billboarding.” This technique is extremely useful for multi-level projects on massive sites, just like this one, because it allows multiple phases of… read more

Preserving the Facade at 400 Westlake

May 5, 2020
by Jacob Boyd, VDC Coordinator and Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
The Firestone Building has stood on the corner of Westlake and Harrison since 1929. At nearly 100 years old, it’s got some stories to tell. As a highly-valued historic Seattle landmark nestled in the heart of South Lake Union, the façade of the building is being preserved as a new, super-green 16-story office building is being built… read more

Building a Healthier Future at Population Health

April 30, 2020
by Brian Aske, Education Market Director
When we originally won the design and construction of the University of Washington Population Health project, I was not totally clear on what Population Health was, why the Gates Foundation provided a very large grant to the University and why the schedule was so aggressive. Today, we understand the real-world impacts of the project and… read more

Rainier Square:  So Where Do We Go From Here?

April 15, 2020
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
Even from the corner of Third and Denny, over a mile north of Rainier Square,  the tower looms large on the skyline.  Over the last year, the tower has grown each day, and now the curtainwall has reached the top of the building, the crane has been dismantled, and from here, the project looks complete.… read more

Progressive Design-Build on the UW Hans Rosling Center for Population Health

March 27, 2020
by Brian Aske, Director
Learn how the project team at the UW Hans Rosling Center for Population Health is using  progressive design-build to change the future of project delivery.   Designing and constructing a building is a complicated undertaking, leveraging the knowledge and skills of dozens of people and firms including designers, engineers, manufacturers, installers and many other experts… read more

Building the Future for Women in Construction

March 5, 2020
by MacKenzie Junor, Communication Specialist
We shadowed Journeyman Operator Mercedes Toro and Journeyman Laborer Karen Francis to learn what it’s like to work at Rainier Square, how they found a career in construction and what they are doing to change the future of the industry. The two have more in common than meets the eye.  On the corner of… read more

A New Life, A New Trade

February 18, 2020
by Jordan Gevers and MacKenzie Junor
At Lewis, each of our jobsites consists of hundreds of laborers and construction professionals performing hundreds of tasks.  Every one of those people has a unique story to tell about what brought them to the site that day. This is the story of how Donny McKay, an intelligent, hard-working and highly respected apprentice carpenter at… read more

The Anatomy of a Crane Jump

October 15, 2019
by Jordan Gevers and Gavin Klein
Next to the crews actually working on a jobsite, cranes are one of a project’s most critical resources. Standing hundreds of feet in the air, these high-profile tools keep materials and equipment flowing to the teams that need them. On high-rise projects, the cranes grow along with the building…a process many of us never see… read more

Building Rainier Square, Part 2: So, How’s This Thing Going to Get Built?

September 9, 2019
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
In part one of this series, we gave an overview of Rainier Square’s structural core: a series of prefabricated sandwich modules, hoisted into the sky, set in place between columns, welded, and filled with concrete. Simple, right? On paper, yes. Put a piece in place, weld it, then fill it. But that skips all the… read more

Rainier Square Tops Out 58 Stories Above Seattle: 360 Video

August 27, 2019
by MacKenzie Junor, Communication Specialist
https://vimeo.com/354960930 On August 15th 2019, nearly 650 people from throughout the A/E/C industry gathered at 4th and Union to celebrate a huge milestone in the construction industry. Rainier Square, Seattle’s second tallest building and the first in the world to use a game-changing structural system, topped out at over 850 feet. The building’s impressive height… read more

Population Heath: Why is Design-Build Fulfilling?

August 1, 2019
by MacKenzie Junor, Communication Specialist
We asked a member from each major partner working on Population Health, an integrated design-build project for the University of Washington, how this project differs from previous ones, and more importantly, if this delivery method has affected their career fulfillment. What we learned was relatively simple; the collaboration, the innovation and the results are what… read more

Building Rainier Square, Part 1: The Revolutionary Core

June 19, 2019
by Jordan Gevers, Marketing Manager
If you’ve ventured into downtown Seattle recently, you may have noticed some big changes happening at 5th and Union, home to the iconic tapered-base Rainier Tower and the rapidly-rising mixed-use tower known as Rainier Square. At 850 feet, Rainier Square will be the second tallest tower in Seattle. It will certainly change Seattle’s skyline, and… read more

Life as a Lewis Intern

October 15, 2018
By: MacKenzie Junor, Marketing Coordinator
We shadowed Lewis intern Cody Klansnic at Building Cure, a cancer research lab project for Seattle Children’s, to find out more about his experience here at Lewis. Cody is going into his junior year at University of Washington and beginning his studies in the Construction Management program. Cody Klansnic is one of our most unique… read more