R.C. Stevens completes religious, industrial, healthcare, office and commercial.projects in Florida.

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R.C. Stevens Construction Co. maintains that it is one of the originators of the design/build process. Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., the general contractor was founded in 1926 by builder and architect Raymond C. Stevens. The company says Stevens was the first builder in Orlando to offer design services – first for high-end homebuilding and later for commercial and industrial projects.

The first commercial design/build projects R.C. Stevens undertook were in the 1930s for clients such as the Orlando Utilities Commission, Hughes Electrical Co. and the Sentinel Star newspaper. The company went on to complete jobs for the first Coca-Cola bottling plant in Central Florida, as well as a Minute Maid citrus concentrate plant.

Today, led by President Tim Keating, and former owner David Smith, currently vice president of development, R.C. Stevens provides construction management, general contracting, design/build and program management services for a range of sectors, including industrial, healthcare, office and commercial.

To learn more about R.C. Stevens’ current initiatives and achievements, Construction Today spoke with Smith, who has been with the firm since 1971 and served as president from 1993 to 2007, when a planned ownership/succession plan was finalized.

Construction Today: What have been some of the company’s most recent challenges?
Dave Smith: As we’ve grown, delivering consistent and dependable construction services and design/build projects has become a greater challenge for us. To offset that challenge, we analyzed our internal project delivery processes and developed the Right Track project delivery system. It’s a structured, 13-step approach to design/build and construction management that is based on honesty, integrity, a single point of communication and the open-book approach.