Design Development

Most business owners go through a pivotal moment—their first real look behind the curtain at how buyers value companies. For Rens Hayes, that moment came when he went through a sale and due diligence process for his father’s structural steel business. What he learned from that experience completely changed how he approached building and scaling his own company, H&O Structural Engineering. In this episode of Independence by Design™, Rens and host, Ryan Tansom, break down how he engineered ...

For roughly 40 years, developers looked at a six-acre oceanfront site in Long Beach and couldn’t get it done. Then B2K did. In this episode of Design Development, Jon Weiss explains what finally unlocked the 1.2-million-square-foot Superblock - and why getting a project built often has less to do with the idea and more to do with timing, local buy-in, construction strategy, and understanding the economics early enough to make the right decisions. Jon is a fourth-generation builder and partner...

Early in his career, Patrick Carino tracked real estate opportunities with aerial maps pinned to the wall and a binder full of spreadsheets. It worked, but it exposed a bigger problem: real estate is inherently visual, yet much of the information developers use to make multimillion-dollar decisions is fragmented across spreadsheets, maps, inboxes, and relationships. That frustration eventually became DealNav. But it also opened up a much bigger conversation about how great developers actually...

(Ep. from 10/24) Rens Hayes IV is the co-founder of H+ O Structural Engineering, a pioneering firm focused on innovative solutions in real estate development, design, and construction. With a background in steel construction and engineering, Rens's journey in the industry has been fueled by an early influence from the family business and a commitment to lifelong learning. He is a certified value growth advisor and has utilized his expansive knowledge to scale H+O nationally, emphasizing ...

A dog run almost triggered another stair. The solution? Convince the building official that the space wasn’t assembly space. It was a fitness center. For dogs. That story is a good snapshot of this conversation with Ben Kasdan, Principal at KTGY Architecture + Planning. Great multifamily design isn’t just about creating something that looks good. Every decision sits at the intersection of resident behavior, building code, construction cost, site constraints, operational efficiency, and ultima...