2. 23
CONSTRUCTIONEXEC.COMS
ome companies—like some building materi-
als—stand the test of time.
David Allen Company, Raleigh, N.C., is
one those companies, and it’s itting that the
company masterfully installs some of the construction
industry’s most durable and appealing materials around:
granite, marble, tile and terrazzo.
In March, David Allen Company earned the honor
of being named Associated Builders and Contractors’
(ABC) Contractor of the Year—an award bestowed on a
company that outshines others for its corporate integrity,
commitment to the professional development and safety
of employees, dedication to expert craftsmanship and
esteem in the industry at large.
Founded in 1920, the company has grown to become
one of the nation’s largest marble, granite, terrazzo,
tile and underlayment contractors, with nearly 500
employees and craft professionals in its Raleigh, NC,
headquarters and branch oices in Birmingham, Ala.;
Columbia, S.C.; Washington, D.C.; and Miami.
Its stunning craftsmanship can be seen in the
looring and inishes of most major airports on
the East Coast—with over four million square feet
of terrazzo installed in airports including Ronald
Reagan National, Charlotte Douglas International,
Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood
International. Airports currently under construction
include Charleston, Tallahassee and Sarasota. he
company has helped transform numerous educational,
government, hospitality, institutional and medical
interiors and exteriors into works of art through
its meticulous focus on detail and museum-quality
installation methods. Some iconic projects that
exhibit David Allen Company’s skills include the
Distinguished Specialty Contractor
David Allen Company Earns ABC’s Top Award
BUILT
LASTBy Lauren Pinch
3. 24
CONSTRUCTIONEXECUTIVE|APRIL2016
Smithsonian, the National Archives, the White
House, the Pentagon, and the headquarters of the
CIA, NASA and NATO.
David Allen Company’s foundation is built not only
on the strengths of its experienced workforce, but also
its industry relationships. Many of the company’s craft
professionals are second- and third-generation employ-
ees, while several of its general contracting partners
have been doing business with the company for more
than 75 years. he leadership team of Chairman Robert
Roberson, CEO David Roberson, President Art Odom,
Executive Vice President Martin Howard and Secretary-
Treasurer Terry Preston collectively have more than 200
years of service with the company.
“From the very beginning of any project, we have to
be committed to superior performance and craftsman-
ship. With the materials we provide—marble, granite,
terrazzo, and tile—there is no place for inferior work,”
Robert Roberson says.
Pride in quality permeates every inch of the busi-
ness—not just the stunning details of its corporate
headquarters, but also the attention paid to every
employee’s well-being and quality of life. Executives turn
the lens on their own performance by conducting 360
reviews to seek feedback from peers, staf and customers
to ensure they’re meeting the company’s mission, vision
and goals.
David Allen Company is one of the few irms of its
type with a full-time safety director on staf. In 2015,
it earned ABC’s STEP Platinum status, and its safety
incidence rate is exceptionally low, with an Experience
Modiication Rate of 0.63.
he company shines in its professional development
eforts as well. Executives regularly host training forums
for oice staf, mid-level managers and craft profes-
sionals, and encourage employees to attend educational
seminars hosted by tile and terrazzo experts such as the
National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association (NTMA).
he executive team is responsible for setting many of
the gold standards the industry uses today. Both Martin
Howard and David Roberson serve on the technology
and quality control committees that write the standards
for the entire specialty. For example, the industry needs
a new standard for installing a new variety of extra-large,
remarkably thin (3 millimeter) tiles, and Howard has a
seat on the committee that writes those standards.
In addition, the company is staying ahead of the exte-
rior inishes trend of installing energy-saving rain screen
systems with porcelain tile or ventilated façades that
allow air to breathe throughout the system, shielding the
exterior from radiant heat and managing the dew point
to generate cleaner, drier air inside the building. “hese
systems have been used in Europe for years and are just
beginning to be part of buildings in the United States,”
Howard says.
“When you expect your inished product to be high
quality, you have to expect your installers and your entire
team to execute high-quality work,” he adds. “hat’s one
reason we invest so much into training and education.
We expect a lot, and we ofer a lot. We want to give our
team members the tools to produce an exceptional inal
product that brings added value to an owner’s building.”
he result of this commitment to education, training
and safety is what keeps project owners coming back
David Allen Company installed the main lobby flooring for the University
of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Energy Production & Infrastructure Center,
with Turner Construction serving as the construction manager.
David Allen Company worked with Skanska-Trident Joint Venture to reno-
vate the Gaillard Center, Charleston, S.C., to include new custom terrazzo
flooring in the portico entries, lobbies and promenades.
DavidLaudadio
MattSilk
4. 25
CONSTRUCTIONEXEC.COM
THE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Robert Roberson, chairman, has led the company for more than 56
years. Having served as president of several associations for the marble,
granite, terrazzo and tile industry, he is a highly regarded industry leader,
technical consultant, editor of industry publications, teacher and trainer.
David Roberson, CEO, oversees the company’s terrazzo operations,
managing single terrazzo contracts exceeding $20 million. He served
for 12 years on the board of directors of the National Terrazzo and
Mosaic Association (NTMA), where he chaired its technical and
promotional committees and served as president for two years, during
which he set up NTMA’s Industry Promotion Fund. Since retiring
from the NTMA board, he initiated, founded and for years chaired
the NTMA Industry Benevolence Fund that has aided many in the
industry facing medical hardship.
Arthur Odom, president, is a certiied public accountant with more
than 30 years of experience in construction accounting and inance,
including many years working with CPA and general contracting
irms. He is past chairman of ABC of the Carolinas and a current
national board member, as well as past national board member of the
Construction Financial Management Association.
Martin Howard, executive vice president for tile, stone and
branch operations, has more than 30 years of experience in the
construction industry, including general contracting. He is a highly
regarded expert and consultant in the technical aspects of tile and stone,
and serves on four National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA)
committees. He also serves on the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) A-108 Committee and the U.S. Technical Advisory
Group to ISO TC-189, which writes consensus standards for the tile
industry worldwide. With six years of service on the NTCA Executive
Committee, he will become NTCA’s president in October.
Christopher Walker, vice president-Northeast Region, manages
the Metro DC and Northeast branches. He has more than 25 years
of experience in the tile and stone industry and is a board member of
ABC’s Virginia chapter. He also serves as chairman of the ANSI A-108
Committee and U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC-189. He is
an executive oicer of the NTCA, serves on multiple industry technical
committees and is considered an industry expert.
Chad Love, vice president, manages Birmingham, Ala., branch
operations. He has more than a decade of experience managing tile,
stone and terrazzo projects, and is an expert in an array of other
looring materials. He is currently the Alabama state director for the
NTCA and sits on several committees for associations, including ABC
of Alabama and Associated General Contractors, and is active with the
SubAla Association.
Terry Preston, secretary-treasurer, acts as special assistant to the
chairman. As an MBA graduate, she is a recognized expert on negotiat-
ing acceptable contract language and often tutors other subcontractors.
She serves on the board and is a past president of the American
Subcontractors Association of the Carolinas, and is a past president of
its Triangle Chapter.
to the company again and again when they desire the
highest quality installation their budget can aford.
“Our goal, as an ABC member, is to be the preferred
trade contractor,” Art Odom says. “We want to provide
the best customer service and be the best craftsmen to
the construction team, but we can’t always be the lowest
cost. We hope our customers recognize this, and I think
they do. hey appreciate our integrity and are comfortable
knowing that our team members will deliver the results
that contribute to a successful project, and do it safely.”
In addition to investing in team members’ professional
growth, the company fosters an environment of employee
health and satisfaction. It has a itness center and ofers
personal training sessions onsite at its headquarters.
David Allen Company prides itself on earning top
honors in peer-reviewed awards programs and has received
many such awards that justify that pride. his year, it won
an ABC Excellence in Construction Award for its interior
inishes at Grandview Medical Center, Birmingham, Ala.,
with project partners Earl Swennson Associates, Inc. and
Brasield & Gorrie, LLC. It also earned three NTMA
2016 Honor Awards for quality installations on High
Point University Student Excellence Center, High Point,
N.C.; Gaillard Center, Charleston, S.C.; and Bow Creek
Recreation Center, Virginia Beach, Va.
A CULTURE OF ‘FAMILY’
While David Allen Company is not a family business in
the strict deinition, it operates with the same mindset
as one, with a long legacy as its foundation and team
member loyalty steering the course for the future.
At the turn of the 20th
century, David Allen, the
company’s namesake, was just 14 years old when his
father died. He took on the role of head of household
for his four siblings, and soon was managing his father’s
small masonry business. With an early client list of
upscale homeowners and local commercial business
owners, David Allen started his tile, marble and terrazzo
company as a proprietorship in 1920.
Robert Roberson joined the company as an oice
assistant and accountant in 1957, intending the job
to be temporary. Ten years later, Roberson bought the
company while Allen transitioned into retirement.
“From that very humble beginning, Mr. Allen’s atti-
tude about his work was that of a very proud craftsman.
He had a tremendous reputation, and he built the
business on his integrity, which relected his Christian
values. He was highly regarded in the industry, though it
was more local at that time,” Roberson says.
“Over the years, becoming one of the nation’s largest
tile and terrazzo contractors was never our goal; it
5. 26
CONSTRUCTIONEXECUTIVE|APRIL2016
resulted from our performance and our desire to be a
preferred, reliable and capable team member.”
David Roberson, Robert’s younger brother, joined the
irm 45 years ago. Even though he had earned a business
degree, he started in the ield like everyone else, pushing
a wheelbarrow. He is now responsible for the entire
terrazzo operation. “Our company has grown naturally
under the core values of excellence and professionalism,
customer service and integrity,” he says.
Last year, David Allen Company began a self-inanced
employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). his means
employees are especially invested in the value of professional
development and their own long-term leadership potential.
“For the most part, training and developing our peo-
ple, on all levels, is an ongoing process,” David Roberson
points out. “For example, within a four-man terrazzo
crew, a new person will train on the job with three more
experienced workers. hese crews often include father-
son pairs or brothers and cousins. For a period of time,
three generations of craftsmen—grandfather, father and
son—were working together on jobsites.” Many laborers
move up the ranks to become crew leaders and super-
intendents, and a few former summer interns are now
full-time project managers.
“People sometimes laugh when I say we are a small
company,” Odom remarks. “But it feels small because it is
a family afair. We pride ourselves on the longevity of our
team members. he very fact that family members want
their brothers and sons to join the David Allen Company
team tells us a lot about how our leadership values our
team. hey are family to us. It goes back to our founding
principles that we treat others as we’d want to be treated.”
Even with this supportive culture and positive beneits,
David Allen Company struggles to attract young people
into the industry. Getting an 18-year-old to commit to a
ive-year program to become a master craftsman is a rarity,
especially when a college degree takes only four years.
“Everyone in the industry is recognizing we have to
train craftsmen in less time,” Odom says. “Some learning
can be done online, but a lot of our skill set is hands-on.
We must ind a way to blend those together, and it’s
a signiicant problem. We’re going to have to work
together in the construction industry and with educa-
tional institutions to develop training programs in the
vocational schools and the high schools to ill the needs
for construction in the years to come.”
As a step in the right direction, David Allen Company
hosts tours for local technical and design students,
performs terrazzo demonstrations, and provides a
scholarship for students interested in construction and
design. Company leaders also are working with the ABC
Carolinas Chapter to inluence the state legislature to
provide grants for vocational programs.
WEATHERING THE ECONOMY
Adding to the industry’s workforce woes are the chal-
lenges of compressed schedules, tight budgets and mate-
rials price luctuations, which David Allen Company has
weathered gracefully during the economic downturn.
“General contractors were committing to owners’ fast
schedules, the demands of which iltered down to all of
the trade contractors,” Odom says. “he stacking of the
trades can be really hard on our projects.” For example,
electrical, mechanical or other crews can’t be working on
scafolding above craftsmen installing a terrazzo loor.
Typically, a building is already 70 percent complete
when David Allen Company comes onsite, and if the
schedule is running behind, the inish crews doing the
inal detail work get rushed.
“Now that the economy is improving and work is
becoming more plentiful, that compressing of schedules
is not as demanding as it was the last three or four
years,” Odom says. “Budgets are still tight, but budgets
are loosening up to be more realistic. Also, everyone is
Martin Howard (left) and Joseph “Bo” Martin, vice president of finance,
talk numbers in David Allen’s Company’s artfully designed Venetian
Conference Room at the Raleigh, N.C., headquarters.
The Raleigh headquarters features nature-themed flooring and paneling
designed and created by the company’s terrazzo staff artists Vickie Wilson
and Samantha Reed.
DavidLaudadio
PeterDamrothPhotography
6. 27
CONSTRUCTIONEXEC.COM
beginning to realize wages must increase to train skilled
workers in the trades, and this is going to help with the
budget issues.”
“We try to work with the best general contractors,
most of whom have returned to the scheduling mode
of inviting everyone to the table, getting all the stake-
holders involved, and creating the schedule together, as
opposed to imposing unrealistic expectations,” Howard
says. “hat is making a positive diference.”
THE ABC NETWORK
For Odom, the Contractor of the Year award symbolizes
a culmination of the company’s dedication to the associ-
ation and the networking opportunities it provides.
“To me, ABC is the association of the top performers.
If you’re a long-time ABC member, you will be com-
mitted to your employees’ safety and training and open
competition. It’s a humbling experience to be respected
by our peers in what I consider to be a top association.
It makes me very proud,” he says.
Odom has been an ABC National Board Member
since 2006 and has chaired the Free Enterprise Alliance
and Political Action Committee for several years. Chris
Walker, vice president of the Washington, D.C., branch,
and Chad Love, vice president of the Birmingham
branch, have both served as board members of the
Virginia and Alabama chapters.
“Many of my best personal friends are ABC business
associates,” Odom says. “he longevity of friendships is
common in this industry and in ABC.”
he company’s chairman recognizes the value of
contributing—both to the industry and to associations
like ABC—because it encourages the younger generation
who will take on leadership roles.
“Although we have been around for 96 years, if we
continue to focus on what is important—our integrity,
professionalism, craftsmanship and customer service—
there is no reason we cannot celebrate another 96 years,”
Roberson says. “Our years of experience bring great
value to our performance, but we must not forget—it’s
what we do today for our customers that will allow us to
write the next chapter of who we are.”
Lauren Pinch is managing editor of Construction
Executive. For more information, email pinch@abc.org,
visit constructionexec.com or follow @ConstructionMag.
Backed by a 96-year legacy of delivering top-quality work, Robert Roberson (left), David Roberson and Terry Preston work closely to manage specialty
projects for major institutional and commercial clients all along the East Coast.
PeterDamrothPhotography
