Sam Hutchinson likes bricks.
“The bricks don’t care about the height, weight, age, gender, race or religion of
the worker on the job,” he says. “The
only thing that matters is the quality of the craftsmanship.”
And it is on this principle that Hutchinson built Interface Construction Corporation, St. Louis’ oldest Black-owned general contracting firm, a firm that
celebrated its 30th anniversary this year.“We have been building history, one day at a time, for three decades,” says Hutchinson. “Over the course of our 30 years in business, the mortality rate for startup construction firms has exceeded 95 percent. Yet we have kept Interface thriving in an industry bereft of diversity and created, not just a
quality minority construction business, but one of the St. Louis area’s most respected and
successful independent general contractors.”
Young Sam
As a youngster at Sumner High School, Hutchinson’s favorite subject was biology, and he thought he might be a doctor.
He enrolled at Harris Junior College, and during his last year, a Shell Oil Company representative came to the campus looking for students with two years of math and science. He asked Hutchinson to come to the Wood River, Ill. plant for a test, which Hutchinson did. He aced the test, so after he graduated in 1963 with an Associate’s Degree in Pre-Engineering, he joined Shell, where he worked while attending Saint Louis University.
After graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering, he continued with the company, as an industrial engineer, a project engineer, and finishing as a construction engineer.
Then, in 1977, opportunity, as they say, “knocked.” The chance to start his own business appeared.
“There was a deciding moment at Shell when we were organized into skills groups, and a person from the Houston head office talked to us,” Hutchinson says. “He asked me what I wanted to be and I said ‘corporate vice president.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Get serious!’ That’s when I made up my mind to leave.”
Interface Inception
Shortly after that fateful skills meeting, Hutchinson was approached by Byron Farrell, then-president of Helmkamp Construction Company, who asked him if he were
interested in heading up his own company.
“He said the industry needed guys like me,” Hutchinson says. “He said ‘If you go into business, my firm and I will help you.’ I had money to invest in my business, and I put it all on the line. I had a wife, two kids and a mortgage, and here I was going into the construction business not knowing the statistics on the survival rate of contracting firms.”
Hutchinson seized upon the name “Interface” from his time at Shell.
“Interfaces are important in refinery operations,” he says. “That is the layer where the oil stops and the action of the water starts, and that’s difficult to ascertain, that surface between two surfaces.
“I wanted to get more Blacks involved in this industry,” he says. “So I named the company ‘Interface.’ I was between where the government was telling the construction industry that they had to have minority contractors, and the industry was saying there were none.”
While Interface is not the only minority-owned firm, it is the one that survived the longest. Hutchinson started his company with three employees doing road construction.
“I worked on every bridge that connects Missouri and Illinois,” he says, “from Red Bud to Hardin. My firm was able to develop into one of the finest concrete companies on the east side of the Mississippi. After the bridge into Alton, Ill. I transformed Interface into building construction.”
The Mark Of Interface
Now with 123 employees, Interface has left its mark on many construction projects in the institutional, commercial, industrial, life sciences and healthcare markets.
One of Hutchinson’s favorite projects, which turned out to be a signature event for Interface, was The Rivers Edge exhibit at the Saint Louis Zoo.
“This project involved atypical design requirements, such as blending buildings into the background, the use of landscaping to camouflage buildings, and laying electrical and water lines deeper than normal to prevent interference with animals’ daily lives,” Hutchinson says.
“Since we were working around live animals and Zoo visitors, we also added extra safety considerations. We were able to take traditional construction methods and create something very non-traditional. It was rewarding for us to participate in a project that contributes to the growth and prestige of St. Louis.”
Other Interface projects include St. Louis-Lambert International Airport’s East Terminal, laboratories at Washington University’s School of Medicine, a 100-bed Missouri Veterans Home, the St. Louis Public Library’s Schlafly and Old Post Office branches, the Clayton School District Administrative Center, United Parcel Service’s Gateway Distribution Center, the Saint Louis Zoo’s National City Sea Lion Arena, and renovations at SSM
St. Mary’s Health Center.
Speaking about Hutchinson, St. Mary’s President, William Jennings, says, “I am 100 percent sure that the work he and his team do at St. Mary’s is a direct reflection of Sam as a person, his values and his style.”
Last year, Interface did a fourth floor renovation and are now redoing the third floor, including expanding the Emergency Department, building a new outpatient imaging department, and converting inpatient units to private rooms.
“We have Sam’s team running all over the place,” Jennings says, adding that while, in some circumstances, that comment could be construed as “unfavorable,” he believed it was a “very favorable” reflection of Sam and the team that he’s built, because his staff—all the way from guys who sweep up dust to stay compliant with the air quality standards, to his superintendents—are part of our team and have integrated beautifully with St. Mary’s, not only with the maintenance and construction team, but also the department leaders.
“They communicate well and often,” Jennings says. “They deliver on time and consistently and that wouldn’t happen without Sam’s leadership.”
Sam’s Philosophy
Hutchinson is optimistic for the future of the construction business, even in light of the current economy. A fan of New York Times’ columnist Tom Friedman, Hutchinson has taken two of Friedman’s best sellers, “The World Is Flat,” and “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” to heart.
“The construction industry will have to adapt and adopt mythologies as we do buildings, roads, any kind of structures,” he says. “We will have to be energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable. Those are the problems on the horizon.”
Much of Hutchinson’s comfort comes in the fact that many of his clients return for his services. “Interactions you leave at the job site, but not relationships,” he says. “Trust is the fruit of the Tree of Truth, and because of that, my clients ask us back.”
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