I recognized early on that my role as the owner of a construction company would look drastically different than most other owners and that my strengths would lie not in the detailed understanding of construction science, but rather on building meaningful relationships and creating opportunities.

One such opportunity Wyatt Builds is fortunate to be involved with is a 5-week pilot program with Tuskegee Department of Construction Science and Management (CSM), initiated by Ed Ticheli, with support from the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority.

The CSM Program at Tuskegee is one of only three historically black colleges in the U.S. to have an accredited construction/building science program. Seven interns have been selected to participate and will be learning more about project financing, the historic tax credit process, building management and project development. They will also spend time alongside architects from Hendon+Huckestein and the Wyatt team at our newest job site, Market Lofts on Third (formally the American Red Cross Building).

Market Lofts on Third is a similar project to The Lofts at American Life two blocks over; a federal historic building being converted into 192 naturally occurring affordable housing units also developed by Ed Ticheli.

One last note of interest, four of the seven Tuskegee interns are women. Women in construction only account for 10.3% of the industry. I’m excited to see this amount of participation and look forward to growing our representation in the construction industry.

Mary Wyatt Crenshaw, Owner/CEO of Wyatt Builds