Category: culture
It All Comes Together
At Mosaic, our overarching goal is to make our clients’ visions a reality by creating custom-built living and working environments they will love. We want the journey to fuel their ambitions, with a seamless, integrated approach they can trust will deliver on all counts.
Close the Loop
The best leaders are those who follow through. At Mosaic, we live by an unwavering commitment to finish what we start, and always close the loop on action items. Our Team is intentionally comprised of people with multiple talents and backgrounds. One thing we all have in common is our focus on client satisfaction when clicking that “complete” box or crossing off an item on our to-do list. And, we bring that drive to our clients. We follow up. We don’t miss details. We go the extra mile to ensure no open items exist, and no tasks are left undone.
“Closing the loop is one of the most impactful Mosaic Actions,” says one Mosaic leader. “We take responsibility to make sure that all tasks are completed and agreements are met.”
We’re always looking for action-oriented professionals to join our growing Team. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net.
Contributing to a Positive Environment
At Mosaic, we know we’re better, together. When rowing in the same direction, projects run more smoothly, challenges are more easily overcome, and expectations more clearly set and surpassed. A positive attitude isn’t optional on this Team, it’s in our DNA.
By cultivating a positive environment, where everyone feels welcome and supported, we achieve a happier, more engaged workforce—who in turn pay it forward to enhance the overall experience for our clients as well.
More than a lofty ideal, creating positivity is a daily practice at Mosaic. From bringing enthusiasm to a challenging task, to showing interest in the lives of our Team, clients and trade partners, we continually focus on setting up a positive environment which increases collaboration and partnerships to achieve our goals. We award a ‘Trade of the Month’ each month that recognizes and rewards a trade partner for going above and beyond on one of our projects, and bond with the companies that are responsible for the successful completion of the project. By creating positive experiences for our trade and vendor partners, our clients reap the benefits.
“Another way we ensure success is with our positive outlook,” says one Mosaic construction professional. “We’ve been there before and approach difficult situations with calm leadership; our clients sense this and are then at ease too. We address challenges with firm conviction and endless resolve to mitigate any issues that may arise, all while maintaining a productive project experience.”
Would you like to share your enthusiasm and skills in our positive work environment? Email us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net to explore the possibility.
Do It the Right Way
The Mosaic Team is unwavering in our commitment to excellence, bar none. We do things “the right way” using our experience to drive consistency, quality and efficiency in every facet of our work. It means being prepared and adhering to proven processes to eliminate mistakes and stick to timelines; it means always working with integrity as we deliver on client needs.
We hire for this fierce work ethic, which helps us win client praise and loyalty. We do right by our clients’ projects time and time again, using a well thought out plan, effective expectation-setting, and clear and consistent communications throughout our relationship.
“Our commitment to doing things the right way sets us apart in the field for a few reasons,” says one Mosaic Team member. “We focus on getting it right the first time, which saves our clients both money and time, and being consistent in this approach builds integrity and trust.”
Does our integrity-oriented work ethic sound like a good fit for yours? Connect with us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net to discuss the potential.
Communicate the Story
Telling a great design-build brand story comes easy—when you have a rich history, strong culture, and extensive client recommendations.
We know that compelling narratives are important to align project leaders and ensure we always bring the collective best work from our Team. Across all project types, our Team of highly skilled, design-build professionals know why they’re here and how they fit in. And they’re proud to do both, thanks in part to our compelling brand story.
We also know that differentiating ourselves in the industry adds credibility and inspires client confidence in our work. Communicating the story gives them a transparent view into who we are as Team members, and allows us to develop relationships—not just initiate transactions. We believe that transparency throughout the design and construction process is paramount to a successful outcome. By communicating openly, honestly and on a timely basis, we problem solve together and build trust with our clients and trade partners. We set realistic expectations regarding the project schedule, upcoming changes to the project impacting both cost and timing, and check in with our clients on a regular basis to ensure they are satisfied with the progress.
We have a rich history of being a referral-based company and our story gives clients a front-row view into how our past experiences helped us get where we are today. We intentionally deliver a better experience than our clients expect, and complete each project as if it was our own office, business, facility or home.
That brand promise is central to the story we share amongst ourselves, our clients and trade partners. It is not a pitch; it’s a way of letting our clients know we understand their needs and will help them articulate what they want to accomplish.
“Many of our clients are repeat customers,” says one Mosaic professional. “No matter how difficult the path, our clients know we do what we say and always make it right, and by working with us, they add to the chapters of a great book we’re helping to write, together.”
Interested in contributing your voice to our industry-celebrated story? Get in touch at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net.
Anticipate Needs
Being proactive and anticipating client needs keeps all parts moving like a well-oiled machine. Our attention to detail not only keeps budgets and schedules in check—it keeps client accolades rolling in, and Team pride rising.
As leaders in our field, it’s in our DNA to anticipate client needs and bring ambitious visions to life. By foreseeing potential obstacles, we limit surprises and ensure expectations are both met and exceeded.
This focus on anticipating needs means we are always thinking ahead, ready to equip clients with solutions for situations that haven’t even occurred, and questions that have not yet been asked. It also means we listen carefully to their vision and concerns throughout the process, ensuring continual understanding and ability to shape exceptional outcomes.
Delivering a successful project requires our project management and trade teams to leverage their past experience to keep a project moving forward and on track. By asking questions and thinking outside the box, we are able to anticipate situations that may have a cost impact, design change or schedule delay. For example, since our cannabis clients only have a certain amount of space to use to grow their product, we developed a tiered racking system for vertical grow opportunities that allows clients to double, triple and even quadruple their product output. By anticipating needs, we help our clients achieve their desired outcomes.
“Anticipating needs is critical for proper planning and allows for ample notice to trades and clients alike,” says one Mosaic Team member. “By doing this, we bring a heartening mix of confidence and attention to detail that satisfies trade partners, and inspires client trust.”
Are you interested in sharing your talents and knack for proactive solution-finding with our Team? Email us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net to discuss mutual opportunity.
Building Relationships is in our DNA
We don’t just build spaces – we build relationships. As one of our core values, and a stated Mosaic Action that our Team members consciously model on a daily basis, building relationships guides us in creating the expert and focused company we are today.
We build relationships and trust to create a shared vision with our clients, our trade partners and a strong culture and work environment for our office Team.
Our clients know that when they hire Mosaic, we take extreme ownership of all project details. They work with us again and again, and make referrals because of the quality of work we provide, the respect we show, and the trust they experience. Our clients know they can rely on us 100% and can count on us as a resource and consultant long after project completion.
Taking the time to foster relationships also empowers us to address the challenges inherent within our industry. After all, having a strong bond helps us proceed through tough situations together—and come out stronger on the other side. For example, there have been challenges obtaining many different materials for our projects due to the global pandemic and supply chain disruption. The strength of our relationships helps us source other product options to keep the projects moving forward.
“When you trust who you are working with, you can rely on each other to get the job done,” says one Mosaic Team member. “It leads to a smoother overall process when all stakeholders are being upfront and honest, and putting in their best effort.”
As we have expanded rapidly over the past few years, we’ve become even more conscious of building relationships within our Team. We enjoy getting together for our bi-monthly board meetings, sharing experiences and ideas, brainstorming, reflecting, and connecting as a Team. We also start many days with a morning email titled, “The Morning Boost,” a carefully curated, thoughtful quote to get us going each day.
If you would like to become our next Team member sharing your knowledge and celebrating with us, email us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net. We look forward to connecting with you!
Living our values: (Mosaic) Actions speak louder than words
From vision to reality, the transformation of a space is unique to every location, and every design-build client. To guide our clients through this transition, we rally around our shared Mosaic Actions.
We believe that everyone should enjoy the spaces where they work and live and strive to create living and working environments that align with our clients’ wants and needs. Through our consultative approach, we focus on learning about their plans for the space with the goal of making their vision into a reality.
“The Mosaic Actions are part of our culture and our DNA,” said Ira Singer, Co-Founder of Mosaic Construction. “The Mosaic Actions stand as a flagpole for our Team to rally around. When our Team is focused on the Mosaic Actions, our workflow has a more successful outcome and our client relations and trade partnerships are positively impacted.”
As a rapidly expanding national, award-winning, construction and renovation firm specializing in commercial, multifamily, residential and cannabis design-build, we care deeply about our Team members and making our company a great place to work. We’re a tight-knit entrepreneurial Team that not only delivers uncompromising customer service, but encourages collaboration, mentoring, professional development and a sense of community every single day.
Our Values and Mosaic Actions
From our people to our projects, we are dedicated to providing a positive environment and exceptional experience for our Team of driven, relationship-focused professionals looking to make a positive impact in the exciting world of construction. We also understand the importance of giving back to our community, supporting one another and delivering excellent work to our clients, it’s in our Mosaic DNA.
How do we make this a reality? We continually model, educate and mentor our ‘Mosaic Actions’ which include:
- Anticipate Needs
- Communicate the Story
- Do It the Right Way
- Contribute to a Positive Environment
- Close the Loop
- Build Relationships
These actions are how we live our shared values and ethics. They guide how we conduct business and help to create an elevated experience for our clients and our Teams. It’s how ‘It All Comes Together.’
If it sounds like these are actions that align with your values and ethics, you may be a good fit for our Team. We’re always looking for talented individuals to join us and contribute to our positive work environment. If you’d like to be our next Team member and share your knowledge with us, email us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net. We look forward to connecting with you!
Mosaic’s cohesive Team starts here: Building relationships and learning from one another
Building relationships is one of Mosaic’s core values that our Team members model consciously. As we have expanded rapidly over the past few years, we have become even more deliberate in building relationships within our Team. One of the vehicles we use to build and foster relationships is our bi-monthly board meetings. They are a touchpoint for sharing experiences, reflection, ideation and of course, connection.
As recently as three years ago, Mosaic’s Team used to meet in our 10-person Conference Room. Today, with Team members throughout the country, and a roster of more than 25 people, we have become more intentional around building relationships with one another and sharing best practices. Now, when the company gets together, we typically gather over Zoom—and our agenda continues to focus on the actions that hold us together, including building relationships and our other Mosaic Actions.
Building strong relationships benefits both our clients and our Team members. To ensure our Team benefits from the experience of our peers, in our bi-monthly board meetings, we share procedures and priorities, and creative solutions from the field. In these meetings, we communicate the story of our successes—and analyze the places where we can improve. We anticipate needs, close loops, and bring it all together for our clients and our Team members. As their trusted design-build partner, we often accompany clients to zoning or permitting meetings, even when out of state, so all questions and concerns can be answered and explained. We are involved early in the site selection process and will attend site walk-throughs with clients while they are considering an asset location, or in the due diligence phase to provide expertise and added value to their decision making.
If you would like to be our next Team member sharing your knowledge and celebrating with us, email us at hiring@mosaicconstruction.net. We look forward to connecting with you!
Restoring The Notre Dame Cathedral
“We will rebuild Notre Dame together,” pledged France’s President, Emmanuel Macron directly following the fire that caused widespread destruction to the 850-year-old gothic cathedral in April of 2019. The French and the global community appear unified in the goal to rebuild the NotreDame as $1 billion has been raised so far toward that effort. However, exactly what restoration will look like is a different story.
On May 27, the French Senate passed a bill ordering that the cathedral, which lost its iconic 90-meter spire to the fire, must be restored to exactly the way it was before. The bill also removes a clause giving the government the power to override planning, environmental and heritage protection, and public regulations, which means the Senate and National Assembly must agree on a final version before it becomes law.
How to restore the Notre Dame is the international architectural controversy du jour. We may yet see an even newer bill that will impact the final plans. More than half the French want it rebuilt as it was, with one quarter favoring a more modernist approach.
Here at Mosaic Construction, we believe that if a classic structure could be as faithfully restored as possible, then it should.
“Watching the fire unfold was significant to me,” says Andy Poticha, our Principal and CEO, who spent his honeymoon in Paris in 1991. “Visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral was one of my most memorable events. As someone trained in architecture, it was very difficult to see one of the world’s premiere monuments almost completely burn down to the ground.”
While we’re not cathedral or gothic specialists, we understand first-hand the value of restoring properties to their original form. The Notre Dame Cathedral is an architectural, historical, and cultural feat that deserves a triumphant restoration.
The Challenges Of Restoring Such a Structure
President Macron and Prime Minister Édouard Philippe want the cathedral rebuilt within five years, which critics believe is unrealistic. It’s worth noting the Herculean effort required for the full restoration, including but not limited to archaeological and forensic expertise.
“Evidence for the evolution of that building is in the physical fabric, so you’ll need an army of archaeologists all over it to better understand which parts they’re repairing and what they belong to,” says architectural historian and broadcaster, Jonathan Foyle. “The stripped roof and upper masonry will reveal aspects of the building’s history which probably haven’t been understood. Notre Dame has virtually no building records. We know (that construction) started in 1163 and was basically completed by about 1240, but there are no building accounts.”
John Burton, an architect and a surveyor of conservation, who works at Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, predicts a painstaking forensic process of sifting through valuable debris that will require special committees to assess each of the elements, “from stained glass to gold plating. It will then be down to a master architect to bring the overall design together.”
Architect Peter Riddington, who worked on the restoration of Windsor Castle after it was damaged by fire in 1992, refers to these groups as committees of taste. “My guess is they will need to have a committee of taste to make decisions on even the most fundamental things like, what is the cathedral, once restored, going to look like,?” he adds.
Once this preliminary work is completed, the building process can begin but only by the highest level and most specialized of trades.
“A lot of people in the stone industry become sculptors … but cathedral work is very, very different,” according to Christian Frenzel, an Australian cathedral stonemason, who recently restored gargoyles at the Smyth Memorial Chapel located inside Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery. “Some people who have worked for 50 years as stone masons would not be allowed to do cathedral work. It is very elite…Tracery windows have to be millimetre perfect and if there are flower ornamentations on there, then that will have to be almost perfectly replicated.”
Controversy Over Modern Design
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Notre Dame experienced previous restorations. “Notre Dame is not a building that has been fossilized in time, Foyle said. “It has not remained static since the early 13th century.”
For example, it’s prominent spire was the product of a restoration in the 1800’s, made taller and more elaborate by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The same restoration included profound changes to the facade and interiors. Yet that’s hardly the same as many contemporary proposals.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Prime Minister Philippe announced a competition for original ideas for the cathedral, and designers flooded Instagram with their renderings. Some were outlandish, including installing a swimming pool on the cathedral’s roof.
“I believe that Notre Dame should be resorted to what it was. Period,” says Poticha. I don’t understand changing anything or making it different.”
He’s not alone.
“I think the problem is that architects want their intervention to be visible,” says Frank Matero, University of Pennsylvania architecture professor and chair of historic preservation. “They see the creative act as highly visible. But the best restoration is that which is invisible.”
Restore to Its Original Form
Though the specter of additional changes hovers over the current Senate bill, the French and preservationists writ large have spoken, and their voices are loud and clear to restore the Notre Dame to its original form.
“It still is a Gothic cathedral,” says Frenzel. “To fulfil traditional conservation and restoration guidelines, it has to be rebuilt as it was.”
The silver lining is what survived the fire. Firefighters were able to preserve the cathedral’s main structure, including the outer walls and two bell towers. Artifacts and artwork were saved as well, like the Crown of Thorns, the Blessed Sacrament, and more items.
“This is a 12th century masterpiece,” says Poticha. “I keep thinking about its historical significance.”