This article originally appeared on the Construction Productivity Blog.
Construction superintendents are among the hardest working individuals in the entire industry. They play a critical role in project success, coordinating nearly every detail on the field. In addition to mental resilience, fierce leadership skills and grit and determination, today’s most successful superintendents are embracing tech and innovation to empower their teams.
Our 2019 Tech Powered Superintendents list recognizes the field leaders who are progressing the entire construction industry forward.
22. Dennis Parker
Company: Hoar Construction
Job Title: Assistant Superintendent
Location: Birmingham, AL
Dennis Parker joined Hoar Construction in 2008. Since then, he has remained a forward-thinking builder always pushing the company to try new building methods and strategies, including implementing new innovation. The construction superintendent has consistently advocated to stay at the forefront of technological change, maximizing everything from iPads and BIM to 3D cameras and schedule planning apps.
Interview:
- Favorite project you ever worked on: Mercato in Naples, Florida. Right before the market fell out in 2008, I was a co-op on Mercato, a huge mixed-use project. The development featured everything from a grocery store to a movie theater, and from an office building to mixed-use condos. It was great being on a project of that size because I got to see so many different types and styles of buildings in different phases of construction; not to mention, working with so many different superintendents and learning a little something for each one was great.
- The construction technology can you not live without: Smart tablets and smartphones. I don’t know how anything was built before they existed with the amount of coordination and details that must be shared and adhered to daily.
- Accomplishment you’re most proud of: Getting a college degree — there was a time in my life when personal successes, or any accomplishments, were more fleeting dreams than obtainable goals.
- What’s something about you that surprises most people when they first learn it?: My name. I am of European and Chamorro descent, and look Hispanic. When I introduce myself, “Hello, I am Dennis Parker,” the name doesn’t match the face and I notice a slight pause in their voice when they return the gesture. Amusingly, I get this reaction more from people of Hispanic descent. I get a kick out of it every time and in certain situations, it leads to great conversations that help me to break the ice and connect with the people I meet.
- What’s one construction trend that you think is overhyped?: The delivery method of Design-Bid-Build. I don’t think that it is ever going away due to the nature of someone having a need, hiring someone to help put that need on paper, and then hiring someone to bring that need to life. However, the line between boots in mud and red pens to drawings is starting to disappear. The rising superintendent crop is not your grassroots, rise from laborer to project superintendent. They are college-educated men and women with the ability to move from the construction front line to the boardrooms of owners to help facilitate every aspect of their vision. Technology demands a superintendent that can marry the office with the field. When you have technology like immediately editable pictures, drawing screenshots, FaceTime, fully integrated software that streamlines project information and feedback from all parties involved, you don’t have to have a mediator between need and product. Technology has always been birthed out of necessity, and eventually, the technology improves or replaces the reason it was created. Sharing and coordinating specific information has never been easier, which will eventually lead to a more focused delivery method being the new trend.
- The best piece of advice you’ve ever received: Construction is not a 9-to-5 job, it is typically 24/7. Even if a superintendent isn’t physically on the job site, our phone never leaves our side. We have to answer when it rings because that is the nature of a project — anything can happen and most of the time it does. An older fella I worked for some years back said he saw a lot of his younger self in me. One day after a long 10-hour day, he saw that I was settling into my desk to knock out a couple of hours of paperwork. He said to me, “Young man, go home. This is how you make a living, this is not your life. Your life starts when you get home.” Never will forget it, and this coming from a man that had a recent heart attack just a few years ago really helped it sink in.
- Your theme song: “You can’t stop me,” by Andy Mineo
- You just won the lottery. Now what?: Pay off my wife’s and my student debts! I might be too practical to make this one good. Pay off all our debts and set up my kids’ futures. Then, pay off my family’s debts and close friends’ debts. No one has time to make any lasting memories and moments with friends and family because our time and efforts are demanded elsewhere. Then I’d set up a business that if anyone can come to me with a good idea (business, widget, anything, everything) I will give that person enough money to open the first door. Then if there is anything left over, maybe a really, really, nice bass boat for me.
