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Projects
From the Field: Go Behind the Scenes of the Neyland Stadium Project
Learn how a Marvin Architectural Project Manager helped connect the dots.
Ever on the move, when Casey Lobdell first heard that the University of Tennessee was thinking about putting automated windows into the venerable Neyland Stadium, he knew he needed to spring into action. Time may wait for no one, but it especially doesn’t wait for the start of SEC football season. If this part of the stadium project was going to be completed before the start of the Volunteers' home schedule, it was going to need to get going — and fast.
Such is the life of a Marvin architectural project manager*. With roughly 35 Marvin APMs spread across the United States, this sort of hybrid business development role within the company works as a dot-connector, focusing on relationship building, linking Marvin and Marvin dealers with residential and commercial architects, as well as general contractors and builders, to help provide custom solutions to unique architectural challenges.
To hear Lobdell tell it, an APM’s role and skill is really inquisitiveness and knowledge collection, and then knowing how to turn that product-and-solution information into successful partnerships:
“The number one skill an APM has is the ability to uncover and understand the priorities and problems that each design and project presents,” Lobdell said. “And then to leverage their product knowledge and technical expertise, present options and solutions that address the design needs, meet budget constraints, and fit the architectural language.”
For the Neyland Stadium project, Lobdell quickly got up to speed on the priorities and problems. The athletic department was interested in adding easily operable, automated windows to their skyboxes and suites to replace the existing hard-to-reach manual windows that were rarely opened, leaving attendees feeling cut off from both the football game day experiences as well as the concerts and other events held at Neyland. Lobdell believed that Marvin Connected Home windows were the perfect solution for all of the project’s needs and his experience with the product, his understanding of the customizations available, and his relationship with area dealers would help bring it all together.
As the job title — architectural project manager — would suggest, partnerships with architects are especially important. And for the Neyland Stadium work, this was surely the case. Peter Ludman, principal architect at Cope Architecture, and one of the key architects on the project, shared, “Casey's ability to work with us and really ask the right questions on what exactly we were trying to achieve, what the important qualities were for the product, as well as being able to demonstrate it live was a testament to his willingness to make sure that the product was the right one for this situation.”
Once the go-ahead was in place, Lobdell’s dot-connecting acumen again came to the fore. He’d identified HomeChoice Windows and Doors in Knoxville as the dealer partner to help facilitate the project. Co-owner Buddy Sexton recalled Lobdell’s call:
“Casey Lobdell, the architectural representative with Marvin, called us and said, ‘Hey, we might have a unique opportunity coming up. You think you guys could handle it?’ And of course we said, ‘yes, absolutely.’”
In this case, that “unique opportunity” consisted of delivering almost 400 highly custom windows, each needing to be installed and operational for the upcoming season. Lobdell worked with the Marvin manufacturing team in Fargo to ensure they were in place and ready, coordinated with the stadium general contractor to schedule out installation, and then nearly like clockwork, things started to roll.
“It was a very logistically challenging and sometimes nervous process,” Lobdell said. “But once we got into the cadence, we were actually hitting that 40 every single week all the way up to the last week where we committed and we actually ended up delivering 80 instead of 40 on the last week to hit our goals.”
On the whole, Lobdell knows he’s often a project’s go-to window and door person, the individual who a wide range of partners turn to with questions.
“A lot of times the questions focus around something project specific that is closely tied to a Marvin product. ‘Can Marvin do this?’ ‘Is Marvin capable of this?,’” Lobdell said. “But I would say the most common questions are design specific: ‘Help me work through this detail.’ Or ‘Do you have any supporting documents on how we can do this seal detail to make it flush?’"
In the end, it’s the answers to these seemingly little questions that turn into successful projects — and sometimes really big projects that you get to check up on from time to time.
“I've never really watched Tennessee football before, but if I see them on, I'm always going to peek and check in on it, see if I can catch a glimpse,” said the Atlanta-based Lobdell. “Looking up and seeing all the automated units open, it's a pretty cool experience to know you were a part of that.”
For another in-depth glimpse at a role making a difference at Marvin, check out From the Lab: Meet a Marvin R+D Manager.
*Note: Casey Lobdell’s present position is Regional Manager Architectural Sales, Southeast