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The spectacular view of New York City's skyline, extending from Columbus Circle to the Empire State Building, is what prompted Justin Nolan, Director of BuildingBlok®, to enter the construction industry. The cranes and scaffoldings crowding the sidewalks told him that New York City was in a construction boom and was full of opportunities to make the construction process more efficient and productive. Nolan recounts, “I started BuildingBlok® to bolster the construction industry, with specific tools, leads, and construction networks. The goal has always been to help companies manage their projects better and grow their businesses faster.” Located at the heart of NYC, BuildingBlok® provides a comprehensive range of services for small and mid-sized contractors in design planning, bidding, construction, and job costing.
A Humble Beginning:
Before starting BuildingBlok® in 2007, Nolan worked in Finance. When he joined the Hill International consulting firm, he noticed the bottlenecks in the construction industry. “On the very fast first day at Hill International, I was led to a huge room full of unmarked cardboard boxes, stacks of paper, and hundreds of filing cabinets. I was asked to trace out Change Order #1 from the piles in the file room.” That project was already delayed by more than 3 years by then and was running nearly $300 million over budget. Nolan faced countless impediments while searching for the project details, getting the information only to figure out that the subcontractor who had done the work had gone out of business waiting for his payments. In his next task, he was asked to perform punch-listing. During those days, Nolan spent each morning walking around the building with printed spread sheets over 10,000 items long. With a camera and compass, he checked every item on the list, then copy his notes to an Excel file.
This firsthand experience taught Nolan that project bottlenecks often laid in rudimentary, manual processes. He realized that the widespread use of technology could bolster productivity and reduce workloads. Nolan started incorporating technology into these laborious manual processes. He founded BuildingBlok® in 2007 to provide an online construction management system to make these processes efficient and simple.
“The first BuildingBlok® prototype was a punch-listing tool that allowed us to make updates on a Personal Data Assistant,” Nolan reminisces. Understanding that technology can help overcome the odds, Nolan started looking for an anchor client. Today, BuildingBlok® has become the preferred choice among many in the industry, like Ash forth, CHS, RICE, BOBBITT, Gateway, Robert Wolfe, Sunora, and many more in APAC region.
Web Based Project Management Meets Construction Management
Construction stakeholders—contractors, engineers, architects and facility owners—all need to be on the same page every day, with up-to-date project information.
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BuildingBlok® integrates the many tools required by the construction industry on a single platform
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