Cover Story — March/April 2006

Harry Mashburn Brings Design-Build Experience to National Presidency

South Carolina contractor wants to improve the industry's image and incorporate builders as owners' advocates earlier in the construction process

By Mark Shaw

Harry Mashburn's firm, Mashburn Construction, Columbia, S.C., has been a Carolinas AGC member for 25-plus years, and Mashburn himself served as president of the Carolinas chapter in 1994 before he began working on national committees. (photo ©george fulton photography)

One of South Carolina's most savvy design-builders made his debut in March as the 2006 president of the Associated General Contractors of America.

Harry Mashburn, founder and president of Mashburn Construction Co. of Columbia, S.C., took the reins as national president at the association's annual convention in Palm Springs, Calif. Mashburn will work on a theme of "contractors as the owners' advocate" in encouraging his AGC colleagues to work more closely with project owners to get all parties involved earlier in the construction process.

"Early collaboration is the key to a project's success," Mashburn says. "That includes major vendors too. Architects and engineers need to design according to the capability of the materials, and they need to know about that up front. It means establishing a new type of relationship among all parties involved in a project."

As part of his integration initiative, Mashburn has pushed AGC to step up its joint activities with the Construction Users Roundtable and other owners' groups and find ways to more fully integrate contractors into the construction process.

Jane Andrews, Mashburn's vice president of administration, has been with the company for more than 30 years. (photo ©george fulton photography)

"We want owners to look to the construction industry, and specifically, contractors, as professionals who are a vital part of the whole process, not just a commodity," he says. "It is getting better, but it could be improved."

Mashburn also sees a strong need to educate the industry about new project delivery options. "The old design-bid-build mentality is still ingrained in many organizations," he says. "That has got to change. It's hard to finance, and it's hard to defend from a product standpoint. I don't know exactly what the long-term solution to that is, but it's going to involve time and money."

Mashburn will also encourage the establishment of a blueprint for the future of product development at AGC. "We need more research about product development strategy, perhaps even a task force to look at that," he says. He also sees AGC expanding its role in developing guidelines for building information modeling and the contract documents that cover it.

Mashburn's larger industry priorities include expanding the industry's skilled labor force. "The average age of construction superintendents in the U.S. is 49, and we're going to need around 200,000 workers a year just to keep up with coming retirements and new demand," he says. But the industry's image needs work before that will happen, he adds. "We have a horrible image, the job of last resort, and we've got to invest heavily in changing that."

On the immigration issue, Mashburn says: "It's not only good to learn Spanish these days, it's nearly essential to what we do. We must find a way of making [immigrants] legal workers in some fashion. They are excellent workers and craftsmen, and we couldn't run our jobsites without them."

Harry Mashburn President/CEO Mashburn Construction Co. Inc. Columbia, S.C. Founded in 1976 by Harry Mashburn Building general contractor specializing in health care, office, retail and renovation projects $60-80 million annual volume Client geography Mostly the Carolinas Age: 63 Born in Elizabeth, N.J., 1942 Raised in Philadelphia Married to Betsy for 43 years Children: Lee, 36; Paul, 39; Pat, 41; 7 grandchildren Church Kathwood Baptist Church, Columbia, S.C. Education B.S. (1964) Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University Military Service: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2 years Activities; Golf ("I'm not good enough to be upset with my game."), travel, fly fishing, theater, chamber music Best Vacations: Warm, sunny beaches; Italy, Spain, England American Bar Association: Member, Litigation Section, Construction Industry Forum Books: Mostly nonfiction-biographies, history ("Real people's lives are more interesting than made-up stories.")

Industry Leadership

Mashburn brings to the presidency a long pedigree of AGC service and leadership.

His firm has been a Carolinas AGC member for 25-plus years, and Mashburn himself served as president of the Carolinas chapter in 1994 before he began working on national committees and task forces.

"Harry has always been a deliberate and listener-focused leader," says Steve Gennett, president and CEO of the Carolinas AGC. "He senses the real direction of an issue, summarizes the expectations of a group and helps reach a solid consensus. He has served us very well."

On his way to the national presidency, Mashburn has chaired the Building Division, AGC's Construction Marketing Committee and the joint AIA/AGC Committee.

Mashburn's leadership grows out of an entire career spent in the construction industry, learning it from the inside out. "Harry's success is a great blend of understanding the business aspects of construction and appreciating good design and craftsmanship," says Columbia architect and long-time colleague Thompson Penney of LS3P Associates Ltd., Charleston. "He has a strong sense of the value that architects bring to their clients and to contractors." The two men also worked together on the AGC/AIA Committee.

Starting from Scratch

Mashburn didn't set out to be a contractor. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State in 1964, he spent two years working in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on an atomic demolition munitions team. They were trained to drop behind enemy lines and blow up powerplants, dams and other infrastructure-"real James Bond stuff," Mashburn says. "But when my battalion was sent to Vietnam, I didn't go because there was no nuclear capability over there. Instead, our group stayed at Fort Bliss, Texas, where we tested war reserve components at White Sands, N.M. I also gained some sitework experience with the Corps."

After two years, Mashburn left the military because "I knew I'd never get to be a general," he says, and because he wanted to try his hand at construction in the private sector. "I also had a family to feed," he adds. He had married his college sweetheart, Betsy, during his senior year in college, and two of their three sons were born while Mashburn was still in the service.

Back in Columbia, he worked as a field superintendent for McDevitt & Street for two years and later as a project manager for a well-respected local contractor, McCrory Construction, building offices and shopping centers "all over the place. I cut my teeth in retail," he says. "I went to work in the private sector during the recession of the early '70s, when offices were sitting empty and people were going bankrupt. It was a good time to learn about the business of construction, but it also helped me decide to start my own company."

The Charleston Cancer Center, Charleston, S.C., built by Mashburn Construction, is a new 25,000-sq-ft medical office building with a 17,500-sq-ft oncology upfit. (photo courtesy of mashburn construction co. inc.)

Mashburn Construction Co. was born in 1976 with three employees-Harry, one superintendent and Harry's assistant, Jane Andrews, who is still with the company after 30 years. Their first job was building an It's the Levi's store in Columbia for Nat Love, a local car dealer whose family remains a Mashburn Construction Co. customer.

"I think Harry and his guys have built six or eight dealerships for the Love family over the years," says Michael Love, Nat's son, and president of the Love Automotive Group, Columbia. "Obviously, we trust them with our core business."

Mashburn Construction grew steadily through the 1980s, doing mostly office, retail, shopping centers, light industrial projects and suburban office parks. "It was difficult starting from scratch," Mashburn says. "But we gained a lot of experience working directly with owners and developers, and that helped me learn how to be an owner's advocate."

Spreading Out

Then the recession of the 1990s hit, and Mashburn Construction sought new markets, including some hospital and medical office building jobs. A decade later, health care projects make up nearly 30 to 40% of the company's portfolio, with another 30 to 40% in offices and mixed-use, and some retail and renovation jobs.

"We have a more diverse project base now, but that has also required more business development," Mashburn says. His youngest son Lee, 36, heads up business development for the company, and his oldest son, Pat, 41, runs the company's Myrtle Beach, S.C. office. Middle son Paul, 39, is vice president of operations.

Mashburn Construction's retail project portfolio includes Sparkleberry Crossing, Retail Lot #9, a 25,000-sq-ft design-build retail center in Columbia, S.C. (photo courtesy of mashburn construction co. inc)

Nearly 90% of the company's jobsites are in the Carolinas, and it is doing more urban renewal work in downtown areas. The company's own headquarters in downtown Columbia was an urban renovation project. "I believe in downtowns," Mashburn says. "We have our office here and three jobs under way in downtown Columbia alone."

Mashburn also was one of the founders of Columbia's City Center Partnership, which spearheads projects in the city's business improvement district. "Harry's firm was one of the first companies to renovate an old building for a downtown headquarters," says Matt Kennell, president of the City Center Partnership in Columbia. "Since then, they have been involved in several rehabs and new projects downtown. You can see their positive mark almost everywhere in downtown Columbia."

Mashburn plans to spend the next year as the national president of AGC spreading his passion for promoting contractors as master builders and sharing the lessons of a lifetime in construction.

"For years, networking with my AGC peers has helped me learn how to run my company," he says. "AGC has fulfilled so many of my needs-for education, training, business and industry changes. I have tried to give a lot of that back through service to the association. Now I'll have the chance to complete that journey."