Our 20th Anniversary marked an all-time high revenue for Rafn. 1998 was an apartment boom not dissimilar to the one we are seeing around us today. It was in the midst of that boom that we learned some very valuable lessons, lessons that continue to serve us well today. Rafn’s leadership adopted what we have come to know as our Golden Rules. They include things like not hiring for a project or taking on work for which we have no capacity, to always manage potential subcontractor failure proactively and with extreme caution, and to always use our tools, systems and processes to protect our customers and their projects from failure.
We also learned the value of a balanced portfolio of projects in the pipeline. In addition to a healthy dose of apartments and condominiums, Rafn continued to grow our Special Projects Group (SPG) through a diverse range of customers. SPG did multi-floor office build-outs in Key Tower, technology switching stations for Looking Glass, and the Oceanaire Seafood Restaurant in the Clise Tower. Office buildings were a staple in Rafn’s resume during this decade. They included the award winning curved wall tilt-up for Burnstead, the concrete and steel shell for Columbia West and the Mount Baker Ridge offices that were sandwiched between two single family homes.
Some of the most significant projects of this decade were those done in the name of the environment. Rafn was fortunate to get the opportunity to build the first LEED Gold project this side of the Mississipi – Islandwood. With the help of the creative folks at Mithun and the generous support of the Brainerd Family, the private school that was then known as the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center became the Pilot for LEED in developing all of their tools for construction documentation and training. Next came Traugott Terrace, the first low-income apartment project in the country to get it’s LEED Certification. And the last “first” was the Green Globe certification given to Blakely Town Center at the new Issaquah Highlands. Today Rafn’s portfolio of sustainably built projects is just one of the things that was developed over that decade that has really stuck. The Rafn culture continued to evolve through this time of growth. It became a culture that allows people the opportunity to build unique and interesting projects for great people in an environment that is safe, fun and structured. We became structured not by a timeclock or a uniform but rather through common tools and systems. Tools and systems that make doing the work easier, faster and more efficient all the while producing more reliable outcomes with a high degree of predictability. It is low stress because we have each other’s backs and because the work gets done consistently on time and under budget.
All of that adds up to another unique feature of the Rafn organization – people don’t leave. Tenure at the Rafn Company really began to add up during this decade. It was now not uncommon for people to have been with the company for over 20 years. We had our first retiree – Trygve Bjorndal in 1999. A world class craftsman Trygve is memorialized with our annual mentor award for the crafts person who gives most generously to others. We also began to see a trend in re-hires. Those rare birds who flew the coop for new adventures at other companies began to come back. They brought with them both valuable experience and a sense of loyalty that is inspirational and irreplaceable. Today we have Joe, Todd, Tim, Marc and others all who have stepped out for a brief education and then come home. In 2002 Shawn Rhode and Heather Bunn were added to the stockholder group as Jack Rafn prepared for retirement. The good people and the great work of the Rafn Company culminated in major rebranding effort in 2002. Our new logo and tag line appeared as a result of some serious outreach to our customers to find out how they thought about us. We then took that show on the road to make sure that our business partners really understood the breadth of the organization and to make sure that we knew how we could best serve our clients, associates and community.
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