Innovator Spotlight - Julien Bartolo
As Director of Virtual Construction, Julien drives DAVIS forward with cutting-edge innovation. His unique set of skills helps our company stand out among the industry. Read below to learn more about Julien and the incredible work he does at DAVIS!
Julien – you’ve been at DAVIS for a while! Can you take us through a short history of your time here?
Well, I’ve been at DAVIS for 17 years! I started as an Assistant Project Manager on the Operations side, and I did that for about three years before becoming a Virtual Construction engineer. Now I’m the Director of Virtual Construction.
Construction has always been a big part of your life, right?
My family is all in construction in one way or another. My dad was a professional welder and my grandfather built furniture. I was always building stuff with my grandfather on the farm where I grew up. I enjoy all the noise, dirt, and smell—and of course, the process of seeing something from the beginning to the end.
I took a two-year vocational course in high school and signed up for the auto body class, which is what I really wanted to do—but the class was full. I ended up in a Drafting-and-Design class and grew to really like it—soon, I was working for a small structural firm, and that’s when I heard about DAVIS.
What have you enjoyed so much about DAVIS?
DAVIS has always presented new challenges that keep things very entertaining. In the VC group, we’ve always been fortunate enough to work with each of the different market sectors, and we help out everybody. I find that to be the key element that helps me continue to grow as an individual. We continue to work with everybody at DAVIS and create new relationships.
What’s your favorite part about leading our Virtual Construction group?
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? We take it a step further, where a model is worth a million words. With VC, we can take a model and give someone a better understanding of their building, and I feel like that’s extremely powerful. I love having that ability to help people do their work even better, and communicate in a more effective way.
What’s the key to the success you’ve had in your role?
We often work with virtual mock-ups that include layers of systems sandwiched together, and understanding how they fit is crucial. My curiosity about how things are built has been so helpful.
You recently gave a talk to some high school students at our Reunion Square jobsite. Can you tell us what that was about?
DAVIS was able to give an overview of Virtual Construction to those students, and we got a lot of interest and great questions about it. I even gave them a little Lego exercise each team was given five minutes to build a police car, but the instructions were ripped out. It was interesting to see how each team reacted to the challenge, and it gave us an opportunity to talk about how we deal with uncertainty and problem-solving in the construction industry.
That’s awesome.
Yeah, I always enjoy the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with the next generation of construction professionals. I think it's very important for us as members of society to share what we do with young people.
We have an upcoming Playhouse Competition that I'm involved in, too! It's a competition for high school students to design and build a playhouse, and it teaches them about construction, design, and teamwork. Activities like that are a great way to get students involved in something hands-on and practical, and interested in the industry.
What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in the field of virtual construction, and what qualities do you think are essential for success in this role?
Honestly my best advice would be to keep strong relationships with people—with so many projects I work on, I end up running into people I’ve worked with before. It feels like a really small world sometimes. Those relationships end up coming in handy when you handle them properly, and it’s so useful to have people you can contact in certain situations.
As far as work goes, I would say—you can’t eat an elephant in one bite. Don’t get overwhelmed by the big picture, and break projects into manageable chunks you can focus on. Patience is important.
You have a ton of energy. Where do you get that from?
A lot of coffee! (laughs) But I’ve always been this way—an early riser. My parents and my grandparents were the same way, and I got a lot of traits from them. They were always up early, starting their day early, and just going after it. They were physical workers, always working with their hands, and never afraid of getting dirty, building things.
