September brought a new production facility in Lawrence, Kansas, and a month of focus on mental health across our regions. Below we recap the month’s milestones, community work, and new thought leadership.
A Second Lawrence Fabrication Facility Opens
On September 16, Team Members, local officials, and state leaders gathered to cut the ribbon on a new 110,000-square-foot production facility in Lawrence, Kansas. The building houses U.S. Metalworks operations and is our second location in the city since 2022. The added space gives Metalworks room to build more of the systems that go into projects locally and across the country, it adds 50 skilled jobs to the roughly 160 Metalworks Team Members already in Lawrence.
“Our Lawrence team continues to set the standard for precision fabrication and collaboration,” said Kevin Sears, President of U.S. Engineering Metalworks. “This expansion allows us to grow our capabilities, create more opportunities for skilled tradespeople, and strengthen the supply chain for some of the nation’s largest and most complex building systems.”
University of Kansas students will also design a public art piece for the facility. Tyler Nottberg, CEO and Chairman of U.S. Engineering Holdings, met with KU School of Architecture and Design students and professor Dan Finnell to start the collaboration, and the students presented three initial concepts drawing on our company history and Kansas roots. The project gives students hands-on design experience and adds something lasting to the Lawrence community, part of our mission to Leave a Legacy.
National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Construction has one of the highest suicide rates of any industry. John Marlow, Vice President of Project Development at USE Construction, sits on the MCAA’s Mental Health Committee and recently completed Mental Health First Aid at Work training with other Team Members. This month, he joined the Rocky Mountain Mechanical Contractors Association TradesWork podcast to talk about mental health in the trades. “We don’t know what’s going on outside the gates of our project sites, and we need to give people an opportunity to talk,” John says. “We need to be able to listen and listen non-judgmentally.”
Rebecca David, our Chief People Officer, is a certified trainer with the QPR Institute. QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) works like CPR for mental health. It teaches practical steps to recognize warning signs, ask someone about suicide with compassion, and refer them to help. “Safety at U.S. Engineering includes psychological safety,” Rebecca says. “My hope is to build a network of trained Gatekeepers across our organization so no one has to face a crisis alone.”
Thank you to our Team Members in the Westminster and Roanoke offices who wore purple and teal in support. If you or someone you know needs support, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Giving Back in Our Communities
On September 10, a U.S. Engineering team competed in Wings 4 Water, a cook-off that raises money for clean water access. The team placed 7th out of 42 booths with three flavors: Flyin’ Hawaiian, Star Spangled Banger, and Smoked Maple BBQ. Thank you to Ron Carpenter, Brian Woltkamp, Johnny Carlin, Emily Mallinson, Scott A Edwards, and Carolina Martinez for representing us.
In Alabama, our U.S. Engineering Innovations team asked local schools for their supply lists for the 2026-2027 school year. Team Members collected donations for two weeks and delivered the supplies to the school district the week of September 14. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
Thought Leadership: The Standard Behind the Spec
Institutional projects like the University of Colorado Boulder’s Chemistry and Applied Mathematics Facility (CHAP) come with three sets of standards: the design drawings, the facility standards, and the preferences of the facilities team that runs the building after closeout.
In their article, Senior Project Manager Aaron Denning and Superintendent Ryan Gentry explain how they find where those standards conflict. They then work with the design team and the university to resolve the differences before they reach the field.
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