Architects

Ryan Hutchins to direct Gilbane's New England operations

Sept. 29, 2010
5 min read

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BOSTON, MA – Gilbane Building Co., one of the nation’s largest privately held construction companies, announced today that it will direct its growing business in the New England region from Boston, Mass. The New England region, with district offices in Providence, RI, Glastonbury, CT, and Bedford, NH, will be overseen by Ryan E. Hutchins.

Hutchins is being named senior vice president and regional manager for Gilbane’s New England region.

The shift of operations to Gilbane’s offices at 155 Federal St. in downtown Boston reflects a significant increase in business in Massachusetts. In the last four years, Gilbane has doubled the number of construction projects it oversees and increased the number of employees in Massachusetts from 80 to 160. Four senior-level positions were added in Massachusetts in the last two months.

 “There is tremendous history and tradition in our company, and I’ve watched it grow and develop very strong market positions around the country,” said William Gilbane, Jr., president and chief operating officer of Gilbane, and a fourth-generation member of the company’s founding family. “To see Boston – the center of New England -- now become the center of the region is really a huge milestone for the company.”

Gilbane’s Massachusetts operations have grown dramatically, even during a time of historic levels of economic difficulty. The company had eight employees in its Needham headquarters and 80 in Massachusetts in December 2005, when it moved the office to Boston; today Gilbane employs 39 people in its Boston office and 160 statewide.

Mr. Hutchins, who was vice president and Massachusetts district manager, is being elevated to regional manager because under his leadership the Massachusetts office has achieved substantial growth in spite of difficult economic times, according to Daniel P. McConaghy, executive vice president of Gilbane Building Co.  Mr. Hutchins will report to Mr. McConaghy, who noted that there are increased opportunities for growth in the next few years in the real estate and construction markets in the Greater Boston area and other New England states.

“Ryan is a native of Massachusetts and has demonstrated dramatic leadership,” said Mr. McConaghy. “The last five years have been a period of tremendous growth under Ryan's leadership in Massachusetts.”

Mr. Hutchins joined Gilbane in 1998 after earning a Bachelor’s Degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Designer Selection Committee of the Massachusetts Port Authority, on the board of the Friends of Children Trust Fund, and a corporator of Wentworth Institute of Technology. Mr. Hutchins received his M.B.A from Babson College in 2007. He was born in Springfield, raised in Longmeadow, and lives in South Boston with his wife, Allison, and their daughter. 

Mr. Hutchins has helped increase Gilbane’s presence in Massachusetts with improvement projects for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park; constructing complex facilities for companies like Genzyme; building new urban communities in neighborhoods like Channel Center in South Boston; working with educational institutions like Harvard University, Tufts University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and building schools in communities including Salem, Woburn, Worcester, Malden, Longmeadow, and Quincy.

The company’s health care work has grown to include clients such as South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., Southcoast Hospitals Group in New Bedford, Mass., and Lowell General Hospital.

Gilbane has worked with the Massachusetts Port Authority, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Department of Capital Assets Management, and University of Massachusetts Building Authority.

The promotion of Mr. Hutchins and shift of the center of New England operations to Boston follows the company’s growth in business in a diverse range of sectors, including public, private, and nonprofit.

“Over the past five years, we have seen a great growth in our business in the Commonwealth and done so with an incredible core group of employees along with some great talent acquisitions,” said Mr. Hutchins.  “We have built a team that will allow us to continue to be a market leader for years to come.”

Founded in 1873 by William Gilbane and his brother Thomas as a carpentry and contracting firm in Providence, Gilbane remains a strong family-run company. Now run by members of the fourth and fifth generations, Gilbane has 29 offices nationally and has annual revenues of more than $4.4 billion.

Gilbane is well known for landmark projects, including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Vietnam War Memorial, and National World War II Memorial, and the company constructed the Winter Olympics facilities in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Gilbane’s clients also include Pfizer, Fidelity, Bank of America, Citizens and Verizon. The company’s New England operations were previously overseen from Providence.

 

Recent projects included providing construction management or related professional services for:  the modernization of 250,000 square feet of historic warehouse space at Channel Center in South Boston; 975,000 square feet of space for Fidelity Investments at 245 Summer St. in Boston; a 57,000-square-foot  cell-culture manufacturing facility expansion and 186,000-square-foot office and laboratory building for Genzyme in Framingham, Mass.; the $100.9 million new Quincy High School; the new $248 million Department of Mental Health Psychiatric Hospital in Worcester; and Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s 140,000-square-foot Sports and Recreation Center.

 

Gilbane contributes scholarships and support through a partnership relationship with Madison Park High School in Boston.

The company is listed by Forbes magazine as the 141st largest private company in the country and was named for the last two years by Fortune magazine as one of the best 100 companies to work for. The Boston Business Journal listed Gilbane as the fourth largest general contractor in Massachusetts for 2009.

It was included in the Boston Globe’s Top 100 companies to work for last year. Gilbane also was the fifth largest construction management firm nationwide for guaranteed-price projects, according to Engineering News-Record magazine.

The company operates in a broad range of markets, including corporate, federal and public, health care and life sciences, transportation and water treatment, K-12 and higher education, and criminal justice.

For more about Gilbane, please see www.gilbaneco.com.

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