Collier Breaks Ground on The Crash Pad
Recent News | December 2010
Southern hospitality, Southside style. The Crash Pad will be a hostel located in the heart of Chattanooga’s flourishing Main Street area, amidst the artisan restaurants and coffee shops nearby.
The Crash Pad will provide a base camp and community hub for travelers convening on Chattanooga to satisfy their appetite for outdoor adventure. The owners enlisted the help of River Street Architecture and Collier Construction to design and build the two story urban hostel.
The roughly 5,000 square foot structure will host as many as 30 travelers and will be built out of pre-cast insulated concrete walls. The Crash Pad will feature solar panels, a vegetated exterior wall and a garden as well. An existing structure will be recycled and re-purposed as part of the landscape, including two exterior walls which will be salvaged and left standing.
The project is also aiming for LEED Gold certification, a measure of environmental sensitivity through sourcing regional materials with high recycled content, focusing on healthy indoor air quality, and maximizing energy and water efficiency.
Read the full story.
Collier News: Year in Review
Offices, homes and hostels. New ventures, events and some volunteering too. For Collier Construction, 2010 was another great year of growth. And from kitchen remodels to new custom homes, we built a lot of good relationships in the process. So here it is, our year in review.
Brock Named COO
To kickoff the year, Hamilton Brock joined Collier to serve as Chief Operating Officer. His job: to help Collier continue our growth while remaining focused on quality customer service.
Building on Equity
Professional Services Group – a joint venture between Ethan Collier and Lurone “Coach” Jennings – was launched in May to focus on social equity in the construction industry. PSG combines construction management and professional development for minority workers, and the firm has been busy since its launch in May.
They Came. They Saw For Themselves.
From July to October, Collier hosted open house tours of an energy efficient home under construction. The SEE FOR YOURSELF tours gave visitors a behind-the-walls look into green building practices. Look for more tours in 2011.
6 New Townhomes in North Chattanooga
In August, Collier completed the construction of Hamilton Heights – 6 sustainable townhomes on Hamilton Avenue in North Chattanooga. Hamilton Heights was another successful collaboration between Elemi Architects and Collier Construction.
(re)source for real estate
In September, the Chattanooga Association of Realtors partnered with Collier Construction to host (re)source: The Value of Green Residential Properties. And after two great seminars, we’re making plans to offer the course on a quarterly basis in 2011.
Helping Rescue the Tennessee River
We not only had a great time volunteering for the Tennessee River Rescue, we also developed a new personal day policy in the process. For every hour of volunteer work, Collier employees receive two hours of personal time. It’s our way of giving back to the community, our environment and to our employees.
Young (and seasoned) Entrepreneur of the Year
Over the past eight years, Ethan has built a brand around “doing things differently,” and in October, the Young Professionals Association of Chattanooga recognized Ethan’s achievements as well as his contributions to the community, naming him Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Times Free Press Profiles Ethan
In November, the Chattanooga Times Free Press spotlighted Ethan in an article about his business philosophy as well as the challenges and successes of running a construction company.
Williams St. Rehab
In November, Collier teamed up with Elemi Architecture to begin a unique project that will involve the complete rehabilitation of a 1920s grocery store in downtown Chattanooga. The building will be transformed into a contemporary urban dwelling featuring an open floor plan with enough space for three bedrooms and two baths.
The Crash Pad
On December 1, Collier broke ground on The Crash Pad – a sustainable urban hostel located just off Main Street in Chattanooga’s flourishing Southside arts district. The project, which was designed by River Street Architecture, is slated for LEED Gold certification.
The President’s Award
And for the second year in a row, Ethan Collier received the President’s Award from the Home Builders Association of Southeast Tennessee.
In summary, 2010 was another transformative year at Collier Construction. We are proud of the projects we have built and the growth we have experienced. But even more, we are excited to have built a number of relationships with homeowners, architects, developers and designers. And to those folks, thank you for supporting Collier.
Employee Profile: Chris LeCroy
Chris LeCroy joined Collier earlier this year and has proven himself a critical addition to Collier’s team. So we've worked in a little Q&A so that you can get to know him better.
What do you do for Collier Construction?
I am a project manager and superintendent. I ensure that the owners are taken care of. I coordinate and oversee the installation of construction materials as well as maintain the project site and help keep the project on schedule and on budget.
Where did you grow up?
Athens, Georgia.
Where did you go to college?
I attended Berry College, then received my undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech. I graduated with a masters from Colorado State University.
What did you study?
I studied Construction Management at Georgia Tech and earned my Masters in Sustainable Construction Management from Colorado State.
What drew you to Chattanooga?
I like Chattanooga because of the rock climbing, and Chattanooga is a cool progressive town with a good atmosphere.
So you play some instruments. What are they?
Guitar, mandolin, banjo and harmonica.
What’s your favorite song to play on those instruments?
"The Weight" by The Band.
Besides music, what fills up your time on the weekends?
My dog. And getting into the woods, climbing rocks and stretching my IT band.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
The pre-construction part. I enjoy the planning and vision that goes into a project before it gets started. It’s something that I continually try to improve on.
At Collier, no investment is more important than our investment in personnel. We pour our resources into our people because we know that the long term success of Collier Construction rides on their expertise. View more of the people that make Collier Construction a great company.
INSPIRATION
To satisfy your taste for neat architecture, sustainable design and green building, we’re sharing with you just a little of what inspires us the most.
This time around, it’s Inhabitat.com. Inhabitat brings us daily doses of extraordinary architecture and a lot of nifty contraptions, gadgets and gear – all breaking ground in sustainability and energy efficiency. “Devoted to the future of design,” a team of Inhabitat writers cover everything from innovations in technology to the “practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.”
We like Inhabitat’s focus on sustainable architecture. Because a lot of writers inspired by environmentally responsible design, in turn inspires us.
So here are some of our favorites from Inhabitat:
BIG Designs Cascading Green Roofed Mountain Dwellings
Brazilian House Harnesses Natural Materials and Smart Design
And be sure to check out Inhabitat on twitter, facebook and flickr too.
Being Social
What can we say, we like to share. That is, on social media where we share photos of projects, link to interesting articles and promote good ideas. So we’d love to share with you too. Here’s how:
Like us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up on LinkedIn.
Contact us on Flickr.
Join us on GoWalla.
We hope to see you there!
