Practical Solutions

I was recently standing inside a gymnasium at one of our local schools. I looked up and saw a pair of doors about 12 feet above the floor. This is not uncommon when maximizing tall space, such as a second story room above the locker rooms and concession stand area adjacent to a gymnasium with very tall ceilings. The part that made me take a second look was the “unique” cutout at the top of the door. As you can see in the picture, someone decided to install a hoist inside the gym and figured it would be easy to simply cut a large hole in the existing door to run the wiring and hoist beam through. It is a very practical solution, even if it is not very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Here at PDMi, we work on all kinds of projects from large distribution facilities, to office buildings to interior renovation projects (and everything in between). Those of us in the architectural design world like to keep things aesthetically pleasing to the eye when many times the most practical solution is right in front of you. In this particular instance, the most practical and cost effective solution was to use the area that already had a big hole in the masonry wall to run the power and hoist beam to the new unit that was being installed years after the construction of the building was complete.

Although I wouldn’t always suggest this particular detail, it certainly gets the job done and was likely the most practical, and cost effective, solution for this specific application. PDMi can help you come up with a practical solution on your next renovation project. Give us a call, we’d love to help.

Partnerships

In our last e-bits, “Who is PDMi?”, we talked about who we are and what we do. Along those same lines, I’d like to touch on WHY we do what we do. It’s a pretty simple philosophy; we believe in a strong partnership between the client, the professional and the contractor. Without a strong partnership, successfully delivering projects becomes much more difficult.

We have spent many years in this industry helping clients realize a sound return on their capital investments. With a strong partnership among the project team, the odds of a successful project grow immensely. PDMi brings professional planning, design and project management to the team, while working alongside the contractor to get the project completed on time and on budget. The client, or owner, is integral in the process of making wise decisions that bring value to the overall project. With PDMi’s knowledge and experience, our clients feel confident that the correct decisions are being made.

Before you start your next capital project, give us call so we can talk about partnering with you to ensure the highest level of success.

Who is PDMi?

The title of this e-bits, “Who is PDMi?”, might sound like a question (or is it an answer?) on the popular TV quiz show “Jeopardy!” Recently, my 11 year old son has gotten very interested in watching Jeopardy! We spend many evenings watching the contestants battle it out for who possesses the most random knowledge on a variety of subjects.

This made me realize that there might be people out there that wonder “Who is PDMi?” PDMi is a full service design and project management firm. We do everything from the upfront planning through detailed design, to management of the construction project. We don’t always do each of these things on every project, but we certainly have the abilities to do all of them.

At PDMi, we work on small renovation projects all the way up to large new buildings and manufacturing additions. We not only work locally here in northern Indiana, but we are also licensed to practice in many States across the U.S. We routinely work in the industrial and commercial marketplace where we serve our clients that are looking to do projects of all shapes and sizes. It is not uncommon for us to be working on a small tenant buildout at a retail center, designing a new high end fine dining restaurant while producing construction documents for a 250,000+ sq. ft. cold storage warehouse somewhere 1,000’s of miles from here all at the same time. PDMi has the expertise to handle this array of projects and get them designed and delivered in a timely manner with the highest level of detail and professionalism for our clients.

So, the next time you are watching that popular quiz show on TV and the answer comes up as “A highly professional design and management firm with excellent client service and a high level of detail that can deliver your commercial or industrial project on time and on budget”, you can confidently respond with the question, “Who is PDMi?”. The late Alex Trebek would be proud of you for getting that one correct.

The collective “Who” that makes up PDMi would love to help you with your next project.