Subcontractor Spotlight: Air Design Systems
Lakeside Alliance is proud to spotlight Air Design Systems, Inc, one of only a handful of women-owned sheet metal/HVAC businesses in the United States. Air Design will perform ventilation ductwork for the Obama Presidential Center. Check out our Q&A with Vice President Bridget (Hickey) Chojnacki and General Manager Jacob Chojnacki below!
Q: What is Air Design’s role in the project?
A: Air Design Systems will perform the ventilation work on the project. We have a large, 34,000 square foot shop and fabricate our ductwork. As a WBE firm, we also wanted to work alongside MBE firms from the very beginning, so we joined forces with Complete Mechanical Piping, JC Insulation, RD's HVAC Inc., and engineering partner RTM Engineering Consultants. We will be working together as a united team. - Jacob Chojnacki, General Manager
Q: What sets your business apart?
A: Our People. Our people have built great relationships in the industry by focusing on quality workmanship, attention to what the customer wants, and doing everything we can to ensure that those in our office, shop and field stay safe. - Jacob Chojnacki, General Manager
Q: Air Design is the largest woman-owned ventilation contractor in the Chicago area. Is that a source of pride for the company?
A: Definitely, as it hasn’t been easy! It wasn’t “fashionable” for a woman to own a sheet metal company in 1977, the year my mom, Pat Hickey, started Air Design Systems in the laundry room of our family home. When she went to get a loan to start the business, she needed to bring in co-signers to get approved because she was a woman. As Vice President of the company, I try to learn as much as I can from the lessons of the past and my mom’s example to support and build up other women in the construction industry. - Bridget (Hickey) Chojnacki, Vice President
Q: What are the keys to success in your industry?
A: There are a few, but our owners have always pushed to be an honest and excellent company. It is the talent of our people, a cohesive team, that makes the difference. Pat Hickey wanted to build the company around union apprentices, so she established her business with workers from Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union 73. Many of those same apprentices remained at Air Design Systems and are now in key leadership roles. We are able to do some of the biggest work in the city, yet Air Design is also a small, really tight-knit community. - Jacob Chojnacki, General Manager
Q: What excites you the most about being a part of this historic project?
A: We appreciate the challenge set by Lakeside Alliance to get out into the community and make transformative commitments. Aside from goals to increase local business participation, workforce and community involvement, we partnered with a local school, ACE Amandla Charter High School, on the West Side of Chicago. We wanted to integrate students into the project and introduce them to the work we do in dynamic ways. Between hands-on workshops, site tours, technology donations and cultivating personal relationships with the students, we get to live out our values and create opportunities for young people. - Bridget (Hickey) Chojnacki, Vice President
Q: What is your greatest hope for the outcome of the OPC?
A: First, that our team provides unmatched fabrication and installation of the ventilation system. But what we desire most is for the way we’re doing business on this project, bringing in and centering the community, to be the new paradigm moving forward. This project has the potential to transform the industry from its core. - Jacob Chojnacki, General Manager
“We appreciate the challenge set by Lakeside Alliance to get out into the community and make transformative commitments...Between hands-on workshops, site tours, technology donations and cultivating personal relationships with the students, we get to live out our values and create opportunities for young people.”