Page 70 - BusinessWest October 31, 2022

Construction
Managing Change
Bryan Hughes Builds on Experience
as President of Western Builders
BAy Joseph Bednar
s Bryan Hughes listed off some recent projects at Western Builders, where he took the reins as president on Oct. 3, he mentioned the
new Girls Inc. of the Valley headquarters on Hampden Street in Holyoke.
“I’m excited to see that project, how they’re doing in that building,” he said, “because I have some memories there.”
He certainly does, as the property
was previously the headquarters of the O’Connell Companies, of which Western is one of five divisions. The main construc- tion division, Daniel O’Connell’s Sons (DOC), is where Hughes cut his teeth in the industry and then built his experience and skillset for nine years.
“We have the capability and the capacity to broaden those horizons and take on more challenging projects because of the experience level of our people.”
While at DOC, Hughes filled numer- ous roles over the years, most notably as a project manager on several college and university campuses, overseeing proj- ects that ranged between $30 million to $80 million in overall construction cost, including Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum and the UConn Athletic Village.
“We had a lot of diverse projects, and I was able to learn a lot just being in the field,” he told BusinessWest.
Construction management wasn’t his first career path, however. “I’m math- and science-based for the most part; that’s how my mind works,” he said of his enrollment at Lehigh University to study engineering.
“I landed on civil engineering because I was interested in the building side of things and heavy, highway-type construc-
70 OCTOBER 31, 2022 CONSTRUCTION BusinessWest