Eastern Construction Company Limited is celebrating its 75th anniversary, having come a long way from its beginnings as a Windsor, Ont. contractor with a small staff and modest agenda.
While the company is now based in the Greater Toronto Area and is known for its complex ICI projects, president and CEO Dean Walker still identifies with its roots.
“We will always be a rather humble company and let our accomplishments speak for themselves,” he says.
In January, Walker, a 21-year employee at Eastern replaced retiring president Bryan Arnold, who had been with the company for 47 years.
The new president says many employees stick around for decades.
“It is part of our culture; the way we operate that keeps them here.”
Sustainable building practices are big part of how Eastern operates and mass timber represents an important segment. The company has completed more mass timber projects in the GTA than any contractor and Walker says it has gained a comfort level with the medium.
“Our BIM team understands the additional pre-planning required for timber structures and all of our construction trades are more familiar with it now,” adds Heather Anne Popovich, COO and director of operations.
Currently Eastern is construction manager of the Peel Regional Police Operational Support Facility, a complex five-storey hybrid mass‑timber project in Brampton. To meet net-zero requirements, the building will have a high-performance envelope, solar PV, heat pumps and EV charging stations.
Popovich says the pace of innovation with sustainable technologies is accelerating, making this an “exciting time” for the construction industry.
One of its more complicated jobs recently was the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) headquarters, a mass timber structure certified under the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard.
Aside from the schedule pressures and the demands of constructing the mass timber design, the TRCA presented Eastern with other challenges, including the construction of four waterwalls that play a key role in the facility’s passive, low‑energy HVAC system.
“It was a task to co-ordinate subcontractors for this — something that had never been done before,” says Walker.
With looming labour shortages on the construction horizon, Eastern continues to take skills training and talent acquisition seriously. It has expanded its student co-op program, bringing on more young workers, many of whom come back to work full-time after graduation, says Popovich.
“They bring new ideas, different perspectives,” she says. “Some of our technology has been driven by their ideas.”
Eastern operates with about 125 employees and Walker says the executive leadership team visits all of its sites monthly or more often, meeting with clients, consultants, subs and “our people, talking with them and listening to them. They appreciate that.”
He adds collaboration sits at the heart of the company’s philosophy and it’s why Eastern’s focus is primarily on design‑build and construction management projects.
While the new Integrated Project Delivery model formalizes the kind of collaborative approach the company values, Eastern has yet to take one on an IPD.
“One of the problems for us is that a requirement to qualify for an IPD is having prior IPD experience,” he says.
In January, Eastern introduced “a light rebranding,” that includes a refreshed website, showcasing its work in a less formal fashion with high resolution photography to prospective clients. The new look also better serves prospective job-seekers.
“The first place anyone that is looking for a new career checks out is a company’s website,” says Popovich.
She points out the difficult times of the pandemic have helped the company adapt in times of uncertainty, fitting for the period builders face today.
“There obviously is concern that our construction industry can be affected so much by global issues,” says Walker. “We need to be more aware than ever of what’s going on and adapt…be ready to help our owners, consultants, our people and subtrades move forward despite what happens beyond our control.”
