Valley Forge: High Energy! An Inside Look at our Valley Forge Office

Date Posted: 12/31/2007

Lubin Studios

The Delaware Valley office of Barry Isett & Associates, Inc. (BIA) has been called by some a "creative enclave,” with its vaulted ceilings, exposed masonry and large windows that overlook the Schuylkill River Trail adjacent to Valley Forge National Park. In the fall of 2006, BIA’s Norristown office relocated to the Lubin Studios Building in West Norriton Township, Montgomery County, where movie pioneer Sigmund Lubin produced over 100 theatrical films in the early decades of the 20th Century.

Now redeveloped as Riverview Corporate Campus by O’Neill Properties Group, the 52,000-square-foot adaptive reuse project is also a BIA project, as we provided the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design long before the opportunity arose to become a building occupant.

BIA’s home is the single-story portion of the former studios building, which began life as a brewery in the 19th Century. Schools, office buildings, recreational facilities, and new communities are all experiencing their genesis here for a variety of public and private sector clients including the Lower Merion School District, Granor Price Homes, Muhlenberg Greene Architects, the Municipality of Norristown, Montgomery County Community College, BartonPartners, Blue Bell Contracting Corporation, the IEI Group, KCBA Architects, Keystone Properties, Architectural Concepts, and Methacton School District, among others.

The core team at Valley Forge enjoysthe support of colleagues from the Lehigh Valley building and land services groups. Kerry Good, PE, head of the Civil Department, and Bob Korp, AICP, manager of multi-discipline projects, each typically spend a day each week at Valley Forge to work with civil project manager Claudine Fritz, EIT, and staff engineers Andrew Miller, EIT; Tarra Gosnell, EIT; Sean McGranahan, EIT; and Peter Haas, EIT. This young, highenergy team enjoys chewing through project workload. “We used to pull all-nighters in college,”notes Tarra. “When necessary, wecan sure do the same for our clients!”

Randy Kocher, a senior civil AutoCAD technician, provides onsite project assistance one day each week and coordinates Valley Forge drafting projects all week long with the Lehigh Valley AutoCAD tech team.

Alex Ulmer, PG, head of the Environmental Services Department, divides his work week between Lehigh Valley and Valley Forge, while Matt Walter, MCP, with the Construction Services Department, is making Valley Forge his primary office to provide code review and related services to Montgomery and Chester County municipalities.

Company directors Neal Kern, PE, PLS; Ross Sotak, PE; and Kevin Campbell, EIT; join company president and chairman Barry Isett, PE, PLS, for monthly staff sessions at Valley Forge Kevin Campbell, the Director of Corporate Resources, is in the office every Thursday to meet with staff members, clients, interview potential job candidates, and lend assistance in a variety of ways. Jennifer Isett, Director of Business Operations and Support Services, is a weekly regular at the Valley Forge office as well.Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our Information Technology staff, led by Jim Bonczek who spends a day each week at Valley Forge, colleagues working in the Valley Forge, Trexlertown, Allentown, and Hazleton offices can all reach each other by dialing a four-digit telephone extension. There’s no difference between calling an associate on a different floor of the same building to telephoning a coworker 90 miles away, the distance between our Hazleton and Valley Forge offices. All computers have access to the same servers, so teams readily share work documents. In this way, MEP department lead Rob Siglin and staff member Tim Bodor keep in close communication with their Lehigh Valley colleagues and the Valley Forge survey team, Robb Beers, PLS, Jeff Downes, Brian Gougler, Robert Wiskoski, and Barbara Yuhas share workload and information with the Trexlertown and Hazleton staff.

Bob Heist, in charge of Business Development, and Administrative Assistant Eileen Gillmer round out the Valley Forge team, keeping projects flowing.

How does the Valley Forge staff feel about their professional home? Survey Coordinator Barbara Yuhas, who celebrated her 9th anniversary with BIA on November 1st, captures the sentiments of her colleagues when she says:

“The building and environs are really beautiful. Architecturally, it is an old building, which I really like, but it is very modern and urban inside…When you enter the building, it’s a good feeling, because it opens to a large expanse, with high ceilings and tall large windows, you get this open airy bright feeling…I can look out and see woods and the Schuylkill trail (with) people jogging, walking and riding bikes. It’s just nice to look outside and see deer, fawns and buck, and even a fox family! It’s a nice respite, when working, to stop and take a moment to enjoy the serenity, which is a perfect reminder from nature to get things in perspective.”

“I think this move to this neighborhood has given us a renewed sense of pride, in the company, our work, and ourselves. We’re proud to have people come to the office, to meet with us and introduce ourselves to new clients here. It’s been very rewarding.”