Lewis Builders Announces New Partners

“I would like to announce a very exciting advancement in our company’s trajectory. Scott, Kenny, and I are taking on additional partners. This expansion of our ownership in key departments is going to help Lewis Builders exponentially grow in the same way as when I first took on Scott and Kenny as partners 4 years ago.

Please join me in congratulating each of them.” - John Lewis, CEO

Damien Georis
Vice President of Pre-construction & Design

Cari Hill, CKBD
Director of Interior Design

Matt Kremer
Director of Operations

Blake Stocker
Director of Business Relations

Outdoor Living at "Castle House" a Historic Renovation Project in Carmel-by-the-Sea

This month we share a small piece of an extensive historic renovation project commonly referred to as the "Castle House", an English Tudor built in 1925. The owners came to us for a whole home remodel inside and out, which presented it's fair share of challenges as a historic building.

"John (Lewis) is a much needed force in a process that often can get very bogged down," noted Kierstyn Berlin, Creative Interior Designer at Lewis Builders listing the planning and permitting departments, the vendors, the subcontractors, the clients and in this case the historical review board. "He likes to be efficient and he wants things to go quickly."

"This project was really unique because it was a historic restoration of an old English Tudor home without having a landscape very well delineated that supported the house, that extended the lines and the forms and the materials out into the site," said Michael Bliss, Landscape Architect hired to design the outdoor space.

Because of the historical status of the home our designers were required to retain certain exterior design elements for the house. "I was secretly very very excited that the existing original steel windows were going to be restored. It was a lot of extra work but to replace steel windows, you simply can't do it anymore" said Berlin.

All original doors were kept and restored and several areas of stone work on the home's exterior were seamlessly repaired to a perfect match.

“The fire pit and semicircle bench really complement the opposing turret and draws you outside from the living room, master suite or guest house" said Scott Julian, President of Lewis Builders. The design can easily accommodate 10 people comfortably.

Windows and doors were added to create a much more interactive space with the exterior.

"This was our first time working with Lewis Builders and it was really an amazing experience. They're at the top of their game, really professional" explained Bliss, appreciating the level of communication and diversity of the Lewis Builders team. "It was a pleasure being incorporated into their team in a way that really felt like we were integral to the process, that our voice was respected and the project was so much more successful because of that."

We hope to bring you more of this landmark project in the near future!

Women in Construction Week

In March we learned of Women in Construction Week, "an occasion to raise awareness of the opportunities available for women in the construction industry and to emphasize the growing role of women in the industry" says the National Association of Women in Construction...so we celebrated on social media with quotes from some of the women on our team!

"I am honored that our design-build team has such powerhouse women, that our company has attracted and retained amazing women who inspire me. I deeply respect and appreciate the women who are such forces in our company." - Tammy Lewis, Chief Administrative Officer⠀⠀⠀

"Most contractors are male. Just 9.8 percent of the construction industry is women. I’m happy to be among them and to spearhead the support for other women entering the industry, not just as designers but women project managers or subcontractors." - Cari Hill, CKBD, Director of Interior Design⠀⠀

"As a Korean woman, I am a minority, which can present challenges in a male-dominated industry. But I am seeing more and more women go into architecture and design, and there is a lot of room for the female perspective in this space. I enjoy working on designs for Lewis Builders projects on the Monterey Peninsula. I grew up here and am very aware of the local architecture and lifestyles that influence how people use their space." - Rebecca Skelin, Lead Designer⠀⠀⠀

Project Completion! An Ultra-Modern Farmhouse "Haven" in Carmel Valley

A whole home remodel in Carmel Valley is complete.

The owner's came to us wanting to take a dilapidated house, in a great location in Carmel Valley and make it a space for their family to grow while entertaining friends and colleagues. What came to be is a Modern Farmhouse design, paying homage to it's outdoors, with hints of our past Mid-Century inspired projects.

Take a walk through in the video above!

Light and nature stream into the living room through accordion glass doors and gable windows. The existing wood burning fireplace was kept, updating it with a black finish and framed with mantle, cabinets and a recessed television.

While the double island concept is not new, it certainly is super functional. They have become our client's favorite part of entertaining and are used for daily family meals.

The hide-away pantry came out great and functions as a full service pantry with sink, prep area keeping the kitchen uncluttered of the coffee maker, microwave, blender, and more.

The original redwood siding from this 1951 home was repurposed and used to make stunning cabinets and barn doors. We began by stripping the redwood siding, that was then torch-burned and brushed, followed by several layers of finish sealants.

Dining room features a walk-up beverage bar and this functional, temperature controlled wine enclosure that beautifully displays up to 180 bottles of wine. Both of which provide soft ambient lighting in the evening.

How important has dedicated space for work/study from home become?! Hallway and bedroom built-ins satisfy this necessity.

Master bedroom features an open ceiling allowing for more gable windows as well as double sliding doors and a barn wood accent wall. Bath incorporates black hardware and farm sink details and features a curb-less shower with backlit niche and a frosted full width window. Skylight above providing additional daylight over the vanity.

We'll share the beautiful exterior of this home in upcoming news. Stay tuned!

Damien Georis Promoted to Vice President

An Alchemy of Art and Science

What Damien Georis understands about residential construction, he learned by making wine.

Damien Georis grew up in a Belgian farmhouse built in 1750, maintained for generations, and ultimately remodeled by his father, a process that ignited his own interest in residential renovation and design. Today, he makes his home in a very different landscape on the Monterey Peninsula, running the pre-construction and design process for Lewis Builders residential design-build firm. Although it’s not something he imagined, he realizes it absolutely makes sense.

Georis has a reputable name in this region, and he does know a little something about wine. Although, the Belgian-born vintner, who was making wine at Chateau Olivier—a Grand Cru classé of the Graves region in Bordeaux—was unaware of the legendary Georis dynasty, who has long been crafting fine art, fine food, and fine wine on the Monterey Peninsula. Nor did he know that the Georis family hails from the same tiny town as his father’s family.

Even more surprising, perhaps, was that Georis, who had left Belgium in 1998 to pursue winemaking in France, ultimately moved to the Monterey Peninsula in 2005 to make wine, at the behest of Walter Georis.

What Damien Georis couldn’t have anticipated is that he would find his way to Lewis Builders and quickly work his way up from design assistant to his new role as Vice President of Pre-construction and Design.  

“I recall being 9 or 10 years old and drawing floor plans,” he said. “As a teen, every summer in Belgium, I would work with my cousin, a contractor, till the time I moved to Bordeaux, and I was inspired. It was very typical to build your own home, which always held interest for me. Yet, when I caught the wine bug, I put that off to the side.”

Georis had studied in Belgium, earning a degree in agricultural engineering, a condition of entering an enology school in Bordeaux, where he achieved a national degree of enology. For five years, he worked in the wineries of Bordeaux, until he made the difficult decision to come to California.

“Moving to Carmel Valley was a bit of a risk for my wine career,” said Georis, “but I found what I was looking for: farming and construction and winemaking. I was on a tractor in the morning, at the winery in the afternoon, and presenting wine to an audience at a winemaker’s dinner at night.”

A Smooth Move

Damien Georis’ interest and ability in home design and construction resurfaced after he moved to the Monterey Peninsula, where he remodeled two homes. Georis began to apply his interests and aptitude for building design and construction after his friend, Kierstyn Bachmann Berlin asked if he would work with her on design projects for Lewis Builders.

“As Lewis Builders was getting busier, and I was helping as a design assistant,” he said, “I realized that was not my area of expertise. But I also had to deal with permitting on various projects, which I really enjoyed doing, so I became that person in the company.”

The building permitting process is a complicated world to navigate. But Georis has built his career on being resourceful and finding solutions. Perhaps more important to the process, he has proved to be a diplomatic, dependable man, who understands that both the business and this community are about building relationships and trust, says John Lewis, founder and CEO of Lewis Builders. 

“I’ve never met someone, who is not originally from this county or even this country, and for whom English isn’t even his first language,” said Lewis, “yet who is as well-known and as well-respected in the community. Damien is someone who came from a different industry, the winemaking world in France, yet has done an amazing job of learning the inner workings of getting building projects permitted.”

Lewis, who has been involved in construction projects in many different counties throughout California, has never known a county to be as complicated as Monterey. But Georis, he says, gets it.

The guy who was making wine, is now making construction decisions. He has taken a leadership role, not only in procuring permits, but also in studying conceptual designs and understanding what’s possible and what’s not, says Scott Julian, President of Lewis Builders. 

“Damien applies the mentality of winemaking methodology to the design-and-build business,” said Julian. “He intimately knows the complexities of making fine wine, and the challenges that arise if you miss a step, just like in the construction process. We knew he was a perfect fit for the complex planning and permitting we experience in almost every one of our projects.”

After three years of managing permitting and design, Georis’ new role as Vice President of Pre-construction and Design brings estimating, that third leg of the process, into his purview.

“From our first meeting with a client, we estimate cost. As we capture the wishes from the client,” said Georis, “we confirm the parameters of the project, refine the budget, and put it into our construction contract. Then, throughout the project, we make it work.”

Renaissance Meets Reconstruction

Damien Georis is, in all things, an artist and a technician. Were he to make wine just by the numbers, he would yield a standard product, says Lewis, without much depth, flavor, or interest. That would be chemistry without creativity. Were he to make wine with an artistic approach and not respect the chemistry, it wouldn’t be stable enough to sustain. Damien understands the importance of a harmonious alchemy of artistic and technical skills.

“Similarly, in construction,” said Lewis, “Damien has to understand the permitting, the zoning, the planning, the budgeting—the technical aspects—and marry that to the aesthetics of the design and the sensibilities of the client. We want both beautiful and sustainable.”

That’s what Damien Georis brings to Lewis Builders projects.

“I appreciate the art and the science of wine,” he said, “which are the same elements in construction. It’s all a grand human adventure.”

Historic Renovation in Monterey for Stanford University is Complete!

With the site's purpose of being housing for students at Hopkins Marine Station we were given a very short completion window, one that other companies interviewed felt was unreasonable. However we produced a design/build schedule that gave Stanford the confidence to choose us and our teams rose to the challenge...completion on time, and during a pandemic!

Hopkins Marine Station was founded in 1892 and is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located ninety miles south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The university acquired the residences in 1999 with grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and long-time Hopkins supporter Mrs. John Floyd to provide badly needed student and research housing.

The four buildings are located next to each other within 10 minutes' walking distance of the Marine Station. All four required extensive remodeling, including the historic Abbott House, a large Victorian built in 1895. The other buildings located on the same property are the two-bedroom Floyd House, the one-bedroom Berlin House and a one bedroom apartment.

The now 7 bedroom Abbott House was completely reconfigured to maximize and improve upon an original compartmentalized floorpan. This meant creating a spacious and open kitchen, creating multipurpose work and dining lounges and consolidating bathrooms, now with separate units both upstairs and down.

The Abbott house alone will accommodate 21 students. The 3 additional structures, also completely renovated with their own kitchens and baths will bring that total to 30.

The Abbott house is considered a historic building which meant we could not change certain exterior design elements. All windows were expertly reproduced, including the stained glass and the buildings repainted the same color they were at the beginning of the project.

The neighboring Floyd House has been remodeled as a guest house for visiting researchers and alumni.

"Historic renovation is one of our core competencies. From our permitting and planning department working with the historic review board, to our talented design staff, to our specialized expert craftsmen who complete the work, Lewis Builders is well-suited to take on these kinds of projects."

- John Lewis, CEO

Scott Julian promoted to President of Lewis Builders

Growing up, Scott Julian was motivated by the reach of his father’s real estate and property management businesses into the community, but he was inspired by his dad’s work ethic. It was he who introduced Julian to the tenets of motivational speaker, the late Zig Ziglar, who said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

It is this principle that has guided Julian’s actions in life and in business, whether he was running his own landscaping company during high school, for which he was bestowed the local chamber’s “Young Business Person Entrepreneur Award”, or today, as he takes the helm as President of Lewis Builders residential design/build firm in Carmel.

“I've been fortunate to have several influential leaders invest in or inspire me,” said Julian, “which fuels my passion to create opportunities for others. In the past few years, we’ve hired college graduates and have grown them into managers. We’ve hired aspiring designers and helped develop them into award-winning designers. We’ve hired master builders who previously worked for themselves, and are now providing them with a team, proven processes, and a fulfilling career.”

Julian’s own career development, from serving as COO for the past four years, to adding President to his role in the firm, is an example of the mentoring mentality on which Lewis Builders CEO John Lewis built the company, and has served as the foundation on which they’ve developed their team.

Building a Business

Within a year after graduating from high school, Scott Julian had his contractor’s license and had established the first of many businesses he would develop during the next 25 years. In 2016, he was working as an “Aging-in-Place” consultant, offering home-modification recommendations to enable residents to live safely in their homes for as long as possible. Seeking a qualified builder who understood and practiced the concept, he discovered John Lewis, an Aging-in-Place specialist, certified through the National Association of Home Builders.

Lewis believes in “Change Your Space, Change Your Life.” He believes in possibility, in productivity, and in developing a democracy both within his business and in working with clients, enabling everyone to have a voice and a role in the process and the outcome.  

“I’ve always believed in attracting and retaining team players by focusing first on their goals and what they need,” said Lewis. “A mistake business owners often make is spending time attracting ‘A players’ and then not leaning into their intelligence and expertise. I’ve worked hard to create what I think is a true democracy, a safe place where intelligent people with different views come to table to express their ideas through healthy conflict, and then extract the most viable solutions, ideas, creativity, and inspiration.”

In 2017, Lewis brought Julian and Kenny Boyd into partnership, starting with an invitation to join him in Florida, at a weeklong master course in business, with entrepreneur, business strategist and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. The trio went with two goals in mind: to get to know each other better, and to immerse themselves in the psychology and practices of “better business.”

“We came back, business partners,” said Julian, “with a three-year plan and the goals and the strategies to successfully implement it. That John and Kenny saw the potential in me and thought enough of me to invite me on this journey with them has been life changing.”

“John Lewis,” says Julian, “is a visionary and a leader. Kenny Boyd has the financial experience and acumen to put the guard rails around the entrepreneurial visions.” 

“I’m honored to have earned their trust to be promoted to President,” said Julian. “I am the process and people person, creating systems for what is a really complicated industry. Particularly now.”

After four years of working with Lewis and Boyd to develop the Lewis Builders team, Julian is directing the daily business, enabling Lewis to focus on the future, watching for trends, and developing the highest level of building design.

“I have every confidence that Scott Julian is in the best possible position to lead us,” Lewis said. “From an operational standpoint, no one is more well-suited, more capable, more deserving to lead our democracy than Scott.”

Leading a Company During COVID

For Lewis Builders, the new decade dawned with a full docket of design and building projects, and the promise of a productive year, which didn’t plan for a pandemic. However, the company quickly put processes in place that, in many cases, enabled them to implement pandemic protocols and continue to provide services. When COVID shut down construction, they shifted to strategizing, so they were ready to roll once the order was lifted.

“In Monterey County,” said Julian, “it is very difficult to get construction and remodeling projects properly designed and permitted, even when there isn’t a pandemic. But, having a clearly defined process that moves the project forward, executed by a team of talented engineers, designers, and contractors committed to our clients, often has resulted in finishing in record time. Even now.”

In addition to working with a dynamic team as he deals with the day-to-day demands of business, Julian relies on the support of his biggest champion, his daughter, Alexa.    

An unprecedented year, 2020 proved a trying time for all, filled with unforeseen challenges. Against all hope, 2021 seems to have begun as a continuation of that. “Yet, because of this,” said Julian, “I have learned so much about resiliency and determination, and how essential it is to work as a team, always guided by our core values. If we can do that, we’ve got this.” 

Groundbreaking in Tehama

After a long permit process...during a pandemic...we are approved to start work on a 9000+ square foot home in Tehama in Carmel Valley.

This smart new home will feature some of the latest home automation, west facing panoramic views and an indoor pizza oven!

“While this is certainly an exciting groundbreaking for the construction of this magnificent 9900 square foot home, we are also celebrating our team for securing of all of the complex entitlements necessary to build on this special piece of land.”

-Scott Julian, Chief Operations Officer

New Home Build in Monterra

Project completion! Our custom new home build in Monterra, an exclusive community nestled in the hills high above Monterey, is complete.

Prepare to be captivated by the inviting design and craftsmanship of this brand new estate. Take a look in the video above!

As you enter this spacious home you're welcomed with impressive ceiling height and warm wood floors. Formal living and dining rooms feature stone walls, accent lighting and cast stone fireplace surrounds. Extensive windows fill the living spaces with views of the bay through majestic oak trees.

The expansive kitchen features a 10' island, gorgeous quartz counter tops, custom designed plaster range hood and a butler's pantry.

Master retreat features a sitting area with fireplace, sweeping views and a magnificent spa bath.

Multiple French doors connect to the outdoor spaces which feature a covered patio with a wood burning fireplace and a generous tile deck!

Construction during COVID

When the shelter-in-place order went into effect, companies dedicated to building and improving shelters were shut down, mid-hammer swing. But, for Production Manager Blake Stocker, the work didn’t stop there. He and his crew turned their attention to developing the new protocol and procedures that would be required to restart their construction projects.

“A lot of clients had their own ideas of what would make them feel safe and secure as we resumed work in their homes,” Stocker said. “We had our own strict guidelines to follow, but we also needed to listen to what would make people feel at home with us on site. We’ve been on a steep but essential learning curve to figure out that balance.”

Everyone on the job must wear a mask at all times, which can be cumbersome during labor-intensive work. Signs are posted at each job site to remind crew what protocols to follow, including adhering to a social distance while working together.

“It isn’t easy,” said Stocker, “but at least our crew is used to wearing masks and glasses as a safety measure. If only the masks didn’t cause the glasses to fog up.”

Lately, Lewis Builders has received an influx of new construction projects, which Stocker attributes to people becoming accustomed to staying at home.

“People are evaluating how they live in their homes,” he said. “They’re also getting used to working from home and are looking for ways to reconfigure their spaces to accommodate home offices.”

By Lisa Crawford Watson for the Monterey Herald