Guido Brothers Construction Co. are a commercial construction and product management business, focussing upon work within the city of San Antonio along with the wider county. Boasting an impressive list of clients, including the San Antonio Zoo, the Children’s Museum, SeaWorld of Texas, the Freeman Coliseum, Lauren Guido Tew represents the fourth generation of a family enterprise going back to 1926.

With such an historic legacy to uphold, Lauren does not shy away from listing the factors that define this family firm. ‘The experience that we have in our team, coupled with the longevity of the industry, the integrity that is our backbone of our company, and the sheer quality of the services that we provide, are the factors that I believe make us a distinguished and recognisable entity in the wider market.

‘The most important and vital element of our success is the team that we lead today. We have a number of people that have been working with us for many years now, and in the 90 years that we have been around, we have seen and continue to see successive generations coming to us with the same levels of excitement.’

In recent years, the good name of the Guido Brothers has been upheld through the company’s involvement in a number of high-profile projects. With the Alamo Mission on their doorstep, Lauren and her team been intimately involved in work around this key World Heritage Site.

‘For the last five years, we have been renovating the historic buildings. The site that now occupies Alamo Plaza is a multi-purpose development, with a shopping centre along with a convention centre, which is bringing new life to downtown San Antonio. And of course, there’s the original Mission building at the centre, so working here has been a real privilege.

Looking to more recent projects, Lauren remarks upon the impact that Guido Brothers Co. has had in in transforming the wider community.

‘Most recently, we completed a fabulous project with the Children’s Museum here in San Antonio, which has been recognised with national awards. It is heavily focussed around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, and we anticipate that this will have a profound effect upon the local community; we’re very proud to have been a part of that.’

‘We worked for seven years on the Riverwalk Renovation project, with a particular focus on enhancing the beautification of the area, whilst also providing full accessibility to people with limited mobility, ensuring that were compliant with federal policy, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The Riverwalk is a hugely important part of San Antonio’s local community; it is popular with tourists, and it is a genuinely pleasant spot to visit. We were just awarded a new, large greenway park at the Brookes redevelopment centre that will integrate the living and commercial aspects as the city space is being developed.

‘Among the various other projects that we have completed within the last couple of years, we have done extensive work on improving the public spaces and parks around San Antonio; we have been involved in transforming this space into a wonderful educational site for the community.’

Having contributed so much to enhancing the infrastructure and community spirit within and beyond San Antonio, Lauren reflects upon how the evolution of the construction industry has enabled Guido Brothers Co. to establish new, long-lasting relationships with clients.

‘A number of years ago, new construction projects tended to follow this pattern: somebody would design a project and create a set of plans, which were then given to a construction manager for them to build. Now, though, clients and investors alike have all begun to realise that construction is in fact a three-legged stool – everybody needs to work together, so that they can come up with the best solution to the task at hand. I think that demonstrates how the industry as a whole has shifted quite noticeably.

‘We are being brought on from the very beginning of a project now, so we are involved in the conceptive stages, helping the entire team throughout that period until it enters the construction phases. This has enabled us to form closer ties with clients and made the projects themselves more sustainable. Open communication is vital to the creative process.

‘In addition, we try to stay ahead of the game wherever new technologies and business practices are concerned. To accomplish this, our team members regularly attend seminars, where they can adopt the newest ideas to the industry that will improve efficiency, and ultimately reduce the cost to the consumer.

‘As far as our business model goes, we want to take all necessary steps to retain our existing client base whilst being on the lookout for new ones. From an interval viewpoint, all that we really want to achieve is to build a satisfied team, who feel challenged and comfortably fulfilled. This shows through in the work that we do, and in the skill and fortitude that our clients demonstrate when we deal with them.’

‘We have also inherited a substantial legacy, being a fourth-generation family business, and more than anything we want to be in a position to carry this forward well into the future.

Speaking of the future, Lauren mentions a few of the upcoming projects on her drawing board: a number of new office buildings, renovation work for local schools, and a brand new corporate campus – ‘there is always something new and exciting.

‘As our company enters its tenth decade of business, we have every hope that our company’s longevity will surpass us all; we have a very bright future ahead of us as we continue to contribute to our community.