building-envelope
(6)
Aurimas Sabulis Is Teaching Skyscrapers to Think Like Factories
After architects rejected a faster design system, the Dextall founder learned to return control to the people holding the pencil. Now software, factory panels and a stubborn appetite for proof are converging on New York’s skyline.
Émilie Gagné-Prud'homme Makes the Technical Feel Human
Before she marketed membranes and insulation, Émilie Gagné-Prud'homme worked behind the scenes in theatre and photography. Her career shows how creative production, customer empathy and technical fluency can meet inside one of Canada's most material businesses.
The Company Under Canada’s Roofs Is Turning Membranes Into a Climate Data Business
SOPREMA spent decades making the layers nobody sees. Now the Drummondville manufacturer is making those layers legible - with local factories, trained installers, carbon data and a growing stack of services around the building envelope.
The $5.3 Billion Company Hiding in Plain Sight on America’s Walls
Cornerstone Building Brands does not build the house. It makes much of what keeps the weather out - and has quietly assembled one of North America’s broadest portfolios of windows, siding, stone and metal systems.
Walters & Wolf
Walters & Wolf is an employee-owned (ESOP) building-envelope contractor based in Fremont, California. Founded in 1977 by John Walters and Randy Wolf, the firm designs, engineers, fabricates, and installs curtain wall, architectural glass, metal panels, stone cladding, GFRC and architectural precast concrete, plus interior door/frame/hardware systems. With roughly 600 employees across seven locations in five western states, it is one of North America's largest building-envelope manufacturers and has clad landmark projects for Apple, Google, Adobe, Kaiser, and Sutter Health.
Chris Wolf
Chris Wolf is the Chief Executive Officer of Walters & Wolf, one of the leading glass and glazing contractors in North America. Based in Fremont, California, he leads a 650-person employee-owned company that designs, engineers, fabricates, and installs architectural glazing, curtain wall systems, and door openings for clients including Google, Apple, Adobe, and Kaiser. Wolf rose through the company over 15 years as Vice President before taking the helm as CEO around 2022. Under his and prior leadership, Walters & Wolf has become widely recognized for its deep commitment to lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System, maintaining a library of over 6,000 improvement videos and earning recognition from lean manufacturing expert Paul Akers as 'the best lean company I know.'