World-Class Talent
RCDolner says the sky is the limit with the amount of work in store for the company. “We think of ourselves as a specialty contractor that has to balance the amount of work we undertake to the ability of the partners and key staff,” Koshner says. 

“It’s the quality of people who are handling the account, so we will take on as many projects that we feel we have the teams to do,” Dolce adds. “We have world-class talent here that is still available on a very personal level. Many members of our staff have worked on mega projects throughout their careers. We have very deep experience and knowledge because we train from within.”

“We try to stress that our people should have the opportunity to meet with our clients, architects and engineers, which is the exact opposite of what my early training was about,” Koshner recalls. “I was kept in the back office and wasn’t allowed to go to meetings. I was told what happened afterwards.   

 “But, the world is changing,” he says. “We’ve given our people the opportunities to jump in on every phase and learn through exposure. I think our training has been enhanced dramatically by doing it that way.”

In addition, the company hires architects and engineers fresh out of college every year. “We see a lot more educated young people coming into our industry in the capacity of field management and even field supervision,” Chartouni notes. “Years ago, many field supervisors did not have college educations; they just grew through the ranks. That’s no longer the case. All of our supers are college grads, and most people in management have architectural or engineering degrees.”    

Koshner says that all three principals remain personally involved in projects and clients seem to like the idea. “My partners and I own our business outright, so we take pride in that our names are on the door and we enjoy what we do,” he says.    

“The niche we have created is that we do difficult projects,” Dolce adds. “We do projects that you have to think about. If you look at the projects that we have been working on in the last 10 years, they’ve required creative minds and people who are capable of solving problems. That’s the reason we continue to do this. It gets our juices flowing.” 

“Ten years ago I would have said I was looking forward to the day I retire,” Koshner admits. “Today, I would say the exact opposite. I’m having as much fun as I’ve ever had in my life. When you’re in the right place at the right time, and when you work on challenging and exciting projects with interesting people, it’s really a lot of fun.

“The marketplace is exceedingly busy,” he continues. “When the megafirms are doing jobs of hundreds of millions of dollars and more, and the client is looking for personal attention and they know the megafirms don’t have their A-teams available, they seem to be knocking on our door, which has been really wonderful.”