Person to Person
Having known since he was a child that he wanted to build things, Richard Alexander headed to Clemson University to study for a degree in Construction Science. He then spent another five or six years in commercial construction working on high-profile projects in Atlanta, because, he’ll tell you, “that’s what you’re encouraged to do when you get out of school.”
Yet, while the big city projects he worked on were interesting–banks, shopping centers, office buildings–Alexander says he just didn’t find them that rewarding. In fact, the projects, which might have roundly fulfilled those childhood dreams of “building things” for most young construction professionals, weren’t really what Alexander perceived as “building” at all.
“I’ll admit I enjoyed driving by a major bank in Buckhead and being able to say, “I worked on that,” Alexander says today, “but it just wasn’t the same as delivering a project to a person. And for me, that’s what building is really all about.”
While that may sound like a tagline, over time, Alexander discovered that handing over a project at completion to a specific individual was one of the things he most enjoyed about his chosen profession. So, he made a conscious effort to leave commercial work behind and moved on to ply his trade with a large remodeling firm in Atlanta. That might be where the story happily ended, were it not for that city’s notorious overcrowding and traffic issues. “We bought a house and my commute to the office was maybe 35 minutes in the beginning,” he says, “but the area was growing so fast that barely a year-and-a-half later, it took an hour and 15 minutes to go the same distance.”
Knowing something had to give in the quality of life department, Alexander and his wife stood back and took stock. “We could have gone any number of places, but we chose Winston-Salem because it’s a great place to raise a family,” he says. “I took a job as operations manager with KT Isenhour Construction Co., here, and we were building 12 to 15 custom houses at a time, in the $500,000 range and above. It was fun, and close to where I wanted to be, but just not as hands-on as I wanted to be.”
And, Richard Alexander is a hands-on guy. “That’s not to say that you want to cut me loose with a saw and have me frame an entire house, but I like to be there for every part of the process,” he says. “It may even be that I’m a control freak,” he adds with a laugh. “I enjoy building and I also enjoy making sure that it’s the way that I want it.”
So he left the firm after five years to start his own custom building company where he could not only manage the projects, but really be there for the customer. Where he would be able to look at the finished project and say with pride, “I built that.” That was in early 2005, and it’s fair to say that Alexander had found his groove.
Since that time, he’s developed a reputation for delivering projects with an emphasis on both great design and an enjoyable process. “As a consumer, I appreciate it when I have a good experience, and I want my customers to enjoy the process as much as the product,” he says. “In the early years, when most of my customers were Baby Boomers, I always asked myself, ‘How would I want my parents to be treated?’ and I acted accordingly. These days, I ask, ‘How would I want to be treated? What would I want?’ Frankly, when the customer is happy, I’m happy, and it also makes a better project all the way around.”
He’s also developed a taste for executing the more challenging projects, such as the five houses he built in the Ardmore neighborhood near Baptist Hospital, where the lots are narrow and the majority of homes have stood for nearly a century. “The narrow lots meant limited space to work in, and there was the issue of making the homes blend into a neighborhood of that age,” he relates.
He performed a similar feat with a house in the West End. “That project was one of the most rewarding for me because there’s an historic resource commission that must approve everything you do in that neighborhood,” he describes. The commission passed his plans in the first-round, and the finished house was eventually featured in the Parade of Homes. “A lot of people drove right by it because it didn’t look like a new house; it looked like it had always been there,” Alexander notes. “That’s the kind of result I want on every project.”
Maybe most important, whether he’s remodeling a space or building from the ground up, is the opportunity to do something a little different from any of the projects he’s done before. Indeed, he’s the one to call if you want someone who is going to be genuinely interested in delivering exactly what you want from a design standpoint, who is flexible and willing to give you feedback and who is also willing to go out and find the perfect light fixture or door knob to ensure the look is exactly right.
“French Country is a great look,” he says, “but if I’m doing French Country, I’m not satisfied with hanging some board-and-batten shutters on the front of an otherwise ordinary structure. I want to really nail the look.”
