Throughout the year, all divisions of the company, including Clark Interiors, are organizing community service events to spread the fortune of its success to those in need.

Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, Clark Construction Group is commemorating the achievement in an unconventional way, avoiding the fanfare many organizations display to gain exposure. Throughout the year, all divisions of the company, including Clark Interiors, are organizing community service events to spread the fortune of its success to those in need. "Our community service campaign is designed to include anything from educational activities to community outreach programs," says George Domurot, senior vice president of Clark Interiors. "The idea is to have employees from all the different departments and divisions choose service activities that are meaningful to them."

Clark Construction Group's focus on remaining a good corporate citizen extends to its dedication to clients and fully understanding their needs. As the country's first interior contractor, Clark Interiors says it offers a level of expertise and service that is hard to find in the industry. Completing projects of a wide range of sizes, the company says it offers construction management, preconstruction and general contracting services.

When parent company Clark Enterprises Inc. was formed, founder and CEO A. James Clark recognized the need for a special approach to interior construction projects. "Many years ago, Mr. Clark envisioned that tenant construction, or interior construction, required a more service-oriented approach, due to the fast-paced nature of the business," Domurot says. "Although tenant work was really in its infancy at the time, [Clark] envisioned that the office building market was something we should pay close attention to as a growing segment."

With its service-oriented approach, the company says its dedication to exceeding clients' expectations gives it several advantages over its competitors. "The main thing we work harder at than the other organizations is that we try to fully understand the client's needs from the beginning of the project to the very end," Domurot says. "It's important, because clients don't move that often, so there are entirely new sets of problems and issues that are presented to them at the end of a 10-year lease that many organizations don't have to think about in their normal day-to-day business.

"Companies have so many decisions to make in addition to whether they are staying or moving. They have to decide if they want to change their image or reinvent themselves in any way, and many of these changes happen at the same time," he continues. "It's really a matter of having very good, open communication and understanding clients' expectations and helping them through these issues."

Committed to maintaining open communication, the company has been able to complete projects for clients that require special considerations beyond that of a typical interior contracting job. Clark Interiors recently worked as the general contractor in the $13 million renovation of the American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., a project that required additional considerations in terms of security and special requests.

The Red Cross renovation project "included restoration and modernization of the entire building to provide a safe, comfortable and efficient work environment for Red Cross personnel," the company says. "The original structures, though well-maintained, were inefficient, and did not meet modern safety and technological standards. Renovation was imperative, yet interior and exterior interventions were required to be nearly invisible."

As an official historical landmark, the project required a great deal of additional considerations. For example, "work required careful protection of three rare Tiffany windows, which are the largest secular suite of any Tiffany windows remaining in their original location," the company says. "The team replaced 116 windows throughout the building, using a custom window that replicated the original historic profile details.

"The historic light fixtures and building hardware are prominent original features in the newly-restored building. Each fixture and much of the door hardware were carefully removed, cleaned and refinished to its original bronze color, and then reinstalled. Missing fixtures were reproduced from records of the original fixtures obtained from the Cooper Hewitt Museum." To ensure it completes complicated projects such as the Red Cross renovation on time and within budget, Domurot says, "it is a matter of generating a solid team and leading them in the best way possible. We believe we have the skill to lead the team - it starts with fully understanding schedules and having a high level of design expertise. We have to understand their needs and help move through the process to make sure the team maintains the final completion date."

Changing Trends
To provide services that meet the changing needs of its customers, the company closely watches trends in design. In today's market, Domurot says, there is an increased emphasis on lighting systems, both in terms of style and functionality. "Since there is so much attention paid to lighting today, we really have to focus on how it will work in the space - it must function well in each particular working environment," he explains.

Today, many companies are looking for an increased emphasis on high-end specialty materials. "Many clients seem to be spending more money on the niceties," Domurot says. "For example, we're using a lot of marble and granite in lobbies and reception areas because companies want to impress their clients as much as possible."

To provide the highest level of function and design, the company uses custom-made lighting fixtures, carpet, mechanical/electrical equipment, stone, marble and millwork for each project. "The products we use are not sitting on the shelf somewhere - every component needs to be manufactured specifically for each project," he says.

"As a result, on-site engineering must agree with what the architect has designed throughout the project. Field engineering becomes very important, because when we have a custom piece of glass or stone manufactured, sometimes it won't even arrive for 12 to 14 months, but it still must fit correctly. Additionally, if we buy a piece of stone today, it might be coming from somewhere like Italy, which makes scheduling issues even more complicated."

Overcoming Challenges
The company is able to overcome the challenges inherent in scheduling, and has earned a reputation for completing projects on time and within budget. "We use the latest scheduling software, and we have also developed a state-of-the-art scheduling department," Domurot explains. "This is important, because as the contractor in these projects, we have already agreed to the cost and the time goals, so we must have systems in place to support these demands. One thing Clark truly has a reputation for is schedule adherence."

Using complicated scheduling systems requires a high level of training for all employees, he adds. To ensure each employee has the proper skills, the company operates Clark Corporate University, a formal training program that is open to all employees, offering classes in writing, communication, scheduling and various software programs, Domurot says. "All the information taught in these classes support our operations in some way, and we're constantly looking for ways to improve our information technology," he adds.

Along with business-related classes, Clark Corporate University offers classes in safety, as well. Operating under the philosophy that a safe job site is a well-run job site, the company says it takes pride in its strong safety record. "We have a comprehensive safety department that is strongly supported by our corporate offices," Domurot says. "We have a national safety director, and each region has safety officers. In the Mid-Atlantic, we have 40 safety officers that are working with people in the field every day. We pay close attention to our own safety standards that are governed by OSHA."

In addition, the company has partnered with a Web-based software company called ConstructWare, and now offers a customized program that assists in the communication among all disciplines. Through using this software, "the owners can sit in their office and look at weekly progress meeting minutes; they can go to the Web site and look at their particular project to see how we're doing with the scheduling requirements," Domurot says.

With this formal training program, the company says it is able to hire employees with experience in various fields, as long as they have the motivation and desire to succeed. "We believe you don't have to specialize in engineering and architecture to do well at Clark Interiors," Domurot states. "If you have good business sense and are a well-rounded person, you can be successful at Clark."