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When did you join BL Companies?
Jan 7, 2013
What made you decide to work
at BL Companies?
Joining a
team withall design-services
integrated within one
company appealed to me as a
great opportunity for better
understanding of the many
considerations specific
to individual professional
disciplines, some of
which I previously had little
interaction with.
What is a “day in the life” of Paul
Graebener look like for you at BL
Companies?
On-site at Garden
State Plaza mall in support of
(client)Westfield’s wide-ranging
capital improvements I’m
typically engaged in assorted
duties including: solicitation of
design consultant services,
coordinating and reviewing
deliverables from multiple
teams of varied disciplines,
corresponding and meeting w/
clients, tenants, code
enforcing representatives and
managing their expectations,
scheduling, verifying existing
conditions, approving submittals,
finishes and installations, filing
permit applications, monitoring
budgets, minimizing conflicts/
oversights/etc., and ensuring
integrity of design intent from
concept through closeout.
Alterations are non-stop at GSP
which is reportedlyWestfield’s
highest revenue producing
center in their north American
portfolio; it features 300+
stores (including 5 anchors)
and curiously also boasts the
shortest escalator in North
America, with a total rise of
only 3’-4” high. GSP attracts a
broad range of shopping tourist
internationals as attested by the
wide variety of multilingual &
heavily accented conversations I
routinely catch portions of and
the diversity in manner of dress
observed on my rounds about
the center, and is further borne
out by the presence of a
currency exchange retailer.
Shortest escalator in North America!