KERR CONSTRUCTION 9/14/07 4:00 PM Page 31

from how people used space at the begin-

ning of the last century,” explains Doug
Willoughby, a project consultant who
joined the firm in 2003 and who works

b e f o re
heavily in design, estimating and docu-
mentation. “Families are the same size,
but require more room. The most obvious
[solution] tends to be an open floor plan.”
As a result, Kerr invested heavily in
developing the company’s in-house
design department over the last several
years. Expected to top six people within
the year, the department will help the
company reach its goal to compliment the
end-user’s vision.
“We have professional architects and
systems that don’t allow anything to fall
through the cracks,” he notes. “We have
consistency throughout the job where the
same project superintendent is responsi-

a f t e r
ble for [the project] from start to finish.”

‘Fully-integrated Process’
A well-known attribute of Kerr Constru-
ction is its emphasis on design/build.
“There are only a handful that really do
design/build in any significant way, and
most of those [companies] subcontract
the design,” Kerr claims. “We try to bring
more in-house. We find that the job runs
smoothly if we can get in on it from the

start. The more outside people that get
involved, the more disjointed things get.”
Having complete control of the process
from inception to construction is impor-
tant to Kerr, who says it is “an excellent
way to keep all of the parameters of the
project in balance from the beginning.
One of the reasons we don’t like bidding
on jobs for other architects is that when
the client gets the price, they realize they
can’t afford to do the job,” Kerr says. “One
of the things about the design/build
process is that you are designing for a
person’s budget.”
The design/build philosophy is one
embraced by all members of the team.
“What we perceived was that the conven-
tional design/build model in the industry
was very primitive,” says Willoughby. “We
thought it was possible to achieve some-
thing essential by refining the process:
Give the client a great degree of control
from the initial meeting to the end of
construction by incorporating design
services under the umbrella of a construc-
tion company.” ■
renovate to UPDATE
Many building trends are dictated by what
occurs in today’s real estate market. In
areas where land is hard to come by,
developers build up. Or, in British
Columbia, Canada, instead of looking for
new land to build on, homeowners reno-
vate. In fact, home renovation has been
the solution to the high cost of living in a
region frequently touted as one of the best
places to live, says Peter Simpson, CEO
of the Greater Vancouver Homebuilders’
Association.
According to Simpson, home renovation
“is a growing trend that people need to
pay more attention to in the future.”
Expensive and sometimes unavailable
for new home construction, land is a pre-
cious resource in the greater Vancouver
area. “If you own a home here you have
reason to celebrate,” Simpson says. And
for that reason, people who relish their
location are not so quick to abandon it,
making renovation an attractive option.
With roughly 115 renovators out of 610
members in the association, Simpson
says it’s a very strong construction seg-
ment. “In the greater Vancouver area $2.4
billion was spent on home renovation and
repair in 2006,” Simpson says.
Conversely, about $4.5 billion was spent
on new home construction during that
same period.
In its entirety, British Columbia’s resi-
dential construction market has remained
steady. “Unlike some markets in the
United States, we’re still at a high level of
housing starts for the area,” Simpson
maintains. “In 2000, we hit a low of about
8,000 home starts annually. Gradually, in
2004, that grew to 19,500 start-ups, and
over the last two years we’ve leveled off at
about 18,700 start-ups. We don’t expect
any [change] in that number.”
But not all renovation is done to boost
aesthetic appeal. An aging demographic,
the shift toward working out of a home
office and the need for energy retrofits all
drive renovation regionally, Simpson says.

OCTOBER 2007 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ 31