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The Dirt on DIRTT: Brian Crawmer

Brian Crawmer, partner at Agile Interiors, discusses the company's relationship with DIRTT and the types of projects he enjoys working on the most.
Published December 13, 2017

The Dirt on DIRTT: Brian CrawmerFor Brian Crawmer, partner at architectural construction and design company Agile Interiors, establishing a professional partnership with DIRTT Environmental Solutions back in 2005 proved to be extremely beneficial. DIRTT—a customized interiors manufacturer that utilizes modern technology to provide its distribution partners pre-fabricated modular solutions, and design and configuration software—originally caught his attention due to its one-of-a-kind business model, which is currently reshaping the construction industry.

“It was really the uniqueness,” Crawmer recalls. “It was the uniqueness and the ability to provide an answer to a much-needed construction method. Construction has been the same forever, using conventional materials, but it didn’t have the answer of technology and speed and efficiency and design all at the same time.”

As a result, Agile Interiors has been able to provide its clients with an "absolute" regarding project pricing, speed and design.

Crawmer describes the pricing as an "absolute" because "it’s a technology-driven pricing structure.”

“Since it’s a pre-manufactured solution, we already know what the price is,” he continues, which is completely different than conventional construction.

This keeps customers from having to pay more than they originally bargained for at the beginning of a project, making the process a much smoother and more productive operation.

Plus, rather than requiring several months to build out a 20,000-square-foot floor flan, for instance, it would only take about a week. This includes “a total solution, with all power and data and a full modular solution,” says Crawmer. “Our efficiencies are known because we know how long it will take to put it together and install it and complete it.”

Conducting business this way is not only changing the industry's landscape in Houston, where Agile Interiors is based, he says, but across the country.

It also doesn’t hurt that Agile Interiors is an OFS Brands partner, as well. OFS Brands is a family owned office furniture company that has branched out and purchased several other companies to form “a pretty substantial answer to where commercial and healthcare interiors,” in particular, are going, explains Crawmer, who actually grew up involved in the office furniture business.

These sectors are changing in terms of interior design expectations, too. Today, people are looking to include break-out areas and huddle rooms, versus the interior standard 50 years ago.

“There’s so much more collaboration going on,” Crawmer states, “that we decided to partner with OFS Brands so that we can answer that need from a design standpoint.”

The Dirt on DIRTT: Brian Crawmer

Between the "absolute" efficiencies made possible by DIRTT and the design capabilities also offered by OFS Brands, Agile Interiors is always able to leave clients with a good impression. However, it still faces its fair share of challenges.

In fact, the most common relates to its extraordinary capabilities.

“I think that the challenge that we would face is educating the marketplace, educating the design community, and the end users, of our capabilities,” Crawmer shares. “That’s the thing—just making sure that people are open enough to embrace something new, versus the way people have been doing things for 100 years.”

While there are many people who can recognize there may be a better way to do things, others have a more difficult time wrapping their collective heads around these alternative methods.

For this reason, Crawmer particularly prefers to work on projects in which the client has an open mind.

“A favorite project of ours is one where a client embraces us and our relationship, using our knowledge, creating a more purposeful solution,” Crawmer explains.

This is why he enjoys informing potential clients about Agile Interiors’ more effective approach:

“My favorite part of the process is educating the prospect or the client on new possibilities and new ways of doing things,” he says.

The Dirt on DIRTT: Brian Crawmer

Agile Interiors doesn’t just value the relationships it has with its partners—it also values the relationships it has with its vendors, such as the Dillmeier Glass Company.

Not long after the company became a DIRTT distribution partner, it began working with commercial glass fabrication company Dillmeier Glass.

Crawmer decided to work with Dillmeier Glass because he and the owner, David Dillmeier, shared many similarities in the way they run their businesses, he explains.

“I realized he’s a very similar person to me—cares about his customers, cares about relationships, does what he says when he says he’s going to do it," Crawmer says of Dillmeier. "And so, it’s a perfect partnership because our values are lined up.”

Reliability is another reason Agile Interiors and Dillmeier Glass have maintained such a long-lasting relationship.

“Whether we’ve made a mistake or they’ve made a mistake, he’s always been able to step up and make it right and help us keep our commitments to our customers by doing things when we say we’re going to do them, finishing a project on time, and keeping commitments regarding price points,” explains Crawmer

He shares one instance in which a measurement error almost made Agile Interiors miss a deadline:

“We made a mistake on a measurement for a full floor of glass sliding doors— frameless glass sliding doors—and we had the wrong dimensions, and the customer had to move in on Monday," says Crawmer. "I called David [Dillmeier] on Friday, asked him for a favor and if he could make these frameless glass doors for us.”

“He ended up working through the night with his team and produced a whole floor of frameless glass doors,” he continues, [which amounted to at least 80] “for us in one day. And we drove over to Arkansas [Dillmeier Glass factory location] and picked them up and drove them back, [and] installed them on Sunday evening in order for the client to move in on Monday morning.”

This is why relationships are so important to Agile Interiors. With such an incredibly talented and innovative internal team, as well as dependable and skilled partners and vendors, it's no wonder that Agile Interiors continues to thrive, and help change the construction industry, with each and every project.

“It’s about the solution and the value we bring to a customer’s design need,” says Crawmer.

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