Head of the Class
108-year-old Irwin & Leighton, Inc. helps colleges and universities attract best and brightest
Irwin & Leighton, Inc. is firmly at the head of the class among its construction peers.
For more than 100 years, the King of Prussia, Pa., firm has been designing and building in Philadelphia and beyond. And in recent years, its impressive and successful projects for academic institutions have boosted its reputation.
That shift has been a result of the economy at large, says Travis Gedney, President and Chief Executive Officer.
In 2016, universities and colleges spent an all-time high of $11.5 billion on construction, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a private company that tracks construction industry spending. While a percentage of that went toward renovations, the majority funded 21 million square feet of new higher education space across the country.
The $11.5 billion spending toward on-campus construction last year was the second consecutive year that the institutions spent more than $11 billion on new facilities, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.
Penn State is among the universities doing the spending, and it called on Irwin & Leighton to help complete a student housing project at its University Park campus in State College, Pa. The dorm, Robinson Hall, was named in honor of Sarah E. Robinson, the first music instructor at the university.
For over a year, Irwin & Leighton was deeply entrenched in getting the recently opened dorm ready for students, serving as the design-builder of the new 324-bedroom dormitory that will help accommodate Penn State’s growth.
“We brought together the architect and the mechanical and electrical teams from day one,” Gedney says. “It’s worked out to be a very seamless project.”
Beyond the work at Penn State, Irwin & Leighton’s team has completed projects for the Ivy League’s Princeton University in New Jersey, Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., and others.
The schools continue to grow, and Irwin & Leighton is there to help them do so.
“They continue to attract the best and the brightest students, and they need the best facilities to do that,” Gedney says.
Beyond the Classroom
In addition to targeting academic work, the CEO says the firm is pursuing other growing industries, including the senior living and medical sectors.
“The senior living area hasn’t reached its peak yet,” Gedney says, estimating that it will continue to see increased activity throughout the next 10 years.
And where some people are ready to write off the retail sector because of internet and e-commerce competition, Gedney says, “not so fast.”
“People still want the experience of going out,” he says. “So, retail is not going anywhere.”
And neither is Irwin & Leighton. The company, which employs 48 people, has anywhere from 25 to 30 projects in varying stages of progress at any given time, Gedney shares.
Over the course of its history, Irwin & Leighton has seen its share of booms and busts. But through it all, its leaders found a way to adapt.
“Certain pieces of the economy were busy during certain time periods,” says Gedney, and Irwin & Leighton’s leadership has always found a way to zero in on those projects to keep crews working.
For example, as telephones became more prevalent and mainstream, the company built AT&T and Bell Telephone buildings. As television gained popularity, the company built RCA’s manufacturing facilities in Camden, N.J. And as the population grew, so did the demand for educational and medical facilities. “Academic and health care facilities have been an integral part of our company from the very beginning,” Gedney says.
“We survived the Depression doing a lot of government projects,” he adds.
Employee-Driven
Throughout the company’s history, “it’s the employees that have made it all possible,” Gedney says. And the firm’s founders, Alexander Irwin and Archibald Leighton, set Irwin & Leighton up for success with their decision in the 1950s to make the company employee-owned.
“It gives people a stake in what they are working for,” Gedney says. “They can help us do our very best.”
He says it keeps employees dedicated to the mission at hand: providing outstanding design and construction service to every customer in order to earn customers’ trust and future business.
“The tenure of our employees is exceptional,” Gedney shares, citing one superintendent who is celebrating 51 years with the company.
Legacy of Strong Leaders
Solid leadership and dedicated employees have created a legacy of quality, integrity and tradition for the company.
Gedney, just the fifth CEO in the company’s history, has been serving in this role for four years. Before he stepped into the top position, he worked his way from a Project Manager to Director, then to COO and President. He transitioned to Irwin & Leighton from a family-owned firm.
“Each new generation of leadership can make changes and quickly adjust to the new working environment,” Gedney says. Since he’s been at the helm, he has made communication and a team approach his top priorities.
“It’s a great working environment with a lot of camaraderie,” says Nicole Marker-Reither, Irwin & Leighton’s Director of Business Development. “Communication flows freely through the office.”
“We are not a family-run company, but we are a family,” explains Gedney, who takes pride in Irwin & Leighton’s positive working environment and atmosphere.
In addition to community outreach projects, employees regularly hold social events and activities, which helps foster community and camaraderie.
“We really want to enjoy coming to work and the people we work with,” Gedney says. “Lots of times in this industry it’s a fight, and we don’t want that; we want to work for and with people who enjoy one another and can accomplish great things.”
With an average employee tenure that exceeds 10 years, it seems they are.