A Chat with Brian Marble, Senior Superintendent at Mortenson Construction

Passion, planning drive quality results

By Chris Maday Schmidt

Brian Marble is a highly respected visionary builder with 35 years of experience in the construction industry. He’s an expert in all phases and types of construction, and possesses sound planning and leadership skills that have garnered him repeat requests from customers time and time again. Join Construction Superintendent as Marble shares his thoughts on challenges and changes in the industry, how he balances work and home life and his advice to aspiring superintendents.

(Q) Has your degree in arts and mass communication benefited you in your position? 

My primary bachelor of arts degree from UWM in 1976 was for journalism/mass communications. The journalism degree has been helpful in that strong communications with multiple people in the construction process is key to a successful project. Delivering consistent messages on safety, quality, schedule and project cost is critical for the whole team to develop goals and meet those goals. Listening to all sides is crucial.

(Q) You were awarded ‘superintendent of the year’ by American Subcontractors Association of Greater Milwaukee. What did this honor entail?

I was awarded the ASA of Greater Milwaukee’s first Superintendent of the Year award in 2007 after completing a challenging project with multiple subcontractors. On this project I worked closely with a large number of subcontractors and built strong relationships for future work.

(Q) What type of new or latest technologies are you using on your projects?

There are many applications where new programs can assist in designing and building projects. BIM gets the process going and many fabrication drawings and software systems allow suppliers and subcontractors to work off the same central building model. In the field, computerized layout has improved accuracy and efficiency and brought the working points from the BIM models directly to the floor and ceiling spaces. Mortenson’s engineers and foremen use tablets on a daily basis to plan, build and inspect our projects.

(Q) How do you share your passion for onsite safety and quality programs with your crew each day?

Each day the project team starts off the day with a 10-15 minute ‘stretch and bend’ session. During the session, we discuss safety trends, incidents on our projects and review how the work for the day will be coordinated to deliver quality results. A ‘plan of the day’ meeting is held immediately following stretch and involves foremen describing their planned work to the team and resolving conflicts before they affect the project.

(Q) What is your take on the skilled worker shortage? Are you seeing it? If so, do you have any ideas to fill the gap?

There is a shortage now that will become a bigger challenge over the next 10-20 years. The solutions include earlier outreach to students at junior and high school levels and strengthening apprenticeship programs. One specific initiative our project team embarked on was the TechTerns program. Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, CannonDesign and Mortenson Construction partnered with Milwaukee Public School’s Bradley Tech High School and WRTP/BIG STEP to bring real-world learning into the classroom for a group of 18 students. Over a two-year period, the TechTerns were exposed to the first-ever, public-private partnership collaboration for wide-lens career exploration via a building project—the Center for Advanced Care at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

TechTerns, a curriculum-based and community benefit-focused program, combined hands-on learning from 100+ design, construction and healthcare professionals and craftworkers. Fundamental to this program was the consistent full-day immersion with the owner, architect and builder. As a result of this program, a number of the students pursued careers in related fields. In addition to the TechTerns program, our team members actively participate in STEM outreach activities at local schools and universities.

(Q) Have you experienced major theft of materials or tools on jobsites; what tactics have you employed to prevent theft?

Recently there has been a small spike in theft as it relates to materials, tools, etc. Our approach has been to stress respect for your fellow craftworkers and secure tools within a good perimeter with locks.

(Q) What has been your most memorable or most challenging project during your career? 

In my 25 years with Mortenson, I have built several large projects on the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin campus—most notably, their Clinical Cancer Center in 2008 and the Center for Advanced Care, which just opened in October 2015. These two projects have been memorable mostly for the great teamwork between the construction team, the designers (CannonDesign), the project owners (Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin) and the many clinical staff and operations personnel that worked together to make the projects successful.

The biggest challenge is keeping the project moving ahead without impacting operations on a busy, 24/7 critical care campus. On most days while building the foundation, structure and enclosure, we were swinging materials with tower cranes while helicopters flew above and ambulances moved through our construction site. We strive to be a pleasant distraction for patients who watch us outside the windows, but never a disruption to the care they receive inside.

(Q) What do you feel are the biggest challenges with LEED projects?

The biggest challenge is how the final building occupants perceive the LEED process. If there is not an economic incentive to offset the cost of LEED administration (and there frequently is an incentive), the owner may decide to focus on the philosophy of sustainable design without the record keeping and LEED award.

(Q) What has been the most significant change you’ve seen in the industry over the past three decades? What types of changes do you foresee?

The industry is moving toward more fabrication offsite with final assembly at the project. I think this trend will continue to improve project safety, quality and speed to completion.

(Q) How do you balance your work and personal life?

The most important part of the balancing act is having a supportive family. The hours can be challenging and, if you travel a lot, you need that support. My family is the anchor.

(Q) What is your advice to tomorrow’s superintendents?

Continue to learn and adapt. You need to be able to change along with the industry.