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CONSTRUCTION
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The Industry’s Newspaper www.constructionnews.net
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(210) 308-5800
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Volume 3
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Number 12
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DECEMBER 2015
Buildings are for people
Innovative indeed
L-R: Fernando Perez, Andres L. Mata and Esteban Zamora staff the Edinburg office of Negrete & Kolar LLP.
Employees get ready to roll out with a new day’s loads.
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egrete & Kolar Architects began in 2003 when David Negrete and Roger Kolar, architects who have practiced in south and central Texas for more than 30 years, combined forces. The firm has offices in Austin and Edinburg. When Kolar retired in 2011, Negrete’s wife, Diana, bought Kolar’s remaining shares and became a partner. She handles human resources and accounts payable. “After Roger retired, we reorganized as Negrete & Kolar LLP,” David says. In Edinburg, established in 2012, there are three fulltime employees, but David says he is evaluating recruitment of talented, passionate people.
“I’m always looking to find passionate and intelligent people,” he says. “The rest can be taught. The most difficult short- and long-term issue is to have the right personnel in line with what we are doing.” Edinburg office senior project manager Andres L. Mata has been with Negrete since the beginning. “He is a critical element in making everything work,” Negrete says. The firm handles a variety of work for local school districts, such as Edinburg, McAllen and Mission ISD’s, as well as municipal work for the cities of McAllen, Mercedes and Edinburg, among others. They’ve had seven on-call projects on the
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nnovative Block, located in La Feria, is a one-stop shop for all things masonry, says president Charles Mueller. Other than that, the company has several areas that really do make it innovative. “We have a really high-tech German machine that makes some of the best block in the country,” Mueller says. “We’ve also been instrumental in getting a lot of concrete recycling going in this area.” Mueller founded the company in 2004 in partnership with Tom Peterson Construction. “We’re kind of a large distribution company,” Mueller says. “Our main customers are McCoys, Home Depot and all
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the big contractors around here. We sell a lot of aggregates, all sorts of cement, concrete.” Most of that product goes into walls and fences, Mueller says. The company acts as a general contractor on some jobs. “One of our more recent endeavors was paver installation for TxDOT and other big municipalities,” he said. “We are actually the contractor. We manufacture pavers as well as block. It’s easier to get your paver specs if you are in charge of the job.” His business philosophy is simple. “We try to be competitive on price and provide really good service and a continued on Page 14
Getting in The Groove
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eneral contractor and business owner Lou Menendez and his wife Valarie turned an existing 1,200-sf building into an exciting new restaurant experience for the Texas Gulf Coast/Rockport area. The project, The Groove Restaurant, took about eight months to complete, opening in December 2014, and cost $200,000. “A comfortable inviting warm vintage boutique style environment is what our goal was,” Menendez says. “We believe that we hit the nail right on the head. Something different than what everyone else had. I personally general contracted the entire project and physically performed the majority of the work myself, except for the electrical and plumbing.” Menendez started with the demolition of the interior walls, floor and ceiling. The existing 8' roof was removed
and was reframed with a raked roof tapering from 8' in the back of the building up to 12' in the front. “I wanted an open rafter, natural wood look with no insulation exposed above,” Menendez explains. “The solution was to install a rigid insulation that was installed on top of the roof and under the finished roofing material.” All new electrical, plumbing and insulation was installed while the walls and floor we're exposed. “A clean open kitchen concept was a must, especially because of the 5,000-lb wood fired oven that we incorporated,” he says. “I wanted the wood fired oven to be the focal point so that all of our customers could view and be intrigued by the wood fire cooking up meals from Neapolitan-style pizzas, as well as some of our fresh fish and lobster.” The vintage look of The Groove sets it apart from anything else in Rockport.
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