Opening Night At New GLFEA Headquarters
January 11, 2001

The food was fabulous, the jazz trio terrific (and looking great, too, with a bass fiddle center court), and the ambience just right for catching up with old friends and making a few new ones as the GLFEA showed off its new headquarters in downtown Detroit. Above the Campus Martius redevelopment site, the GLFEA presented its beautiful new office suite on the 11th floor of the Woodward Building (formerly, the First Federal Building) at Woodward and Michigan avenues during an open house Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001. More than 200 GLFEA members and friends were invited to the open house, with guests mingling from 4-8 pm.

Highlighting the completely renovated suite of offices is a glass-walled "hoteling" room featuring two fully fitted desks, computers, phones, and tables and chairs to accommodate GLFEA members needing an office or meeting space while in downtown Detroit. The room was designed with members in mind.

The association moved into the new headquarters offices in October and the remodeling was completed in the first weeks of the new year. In addition to the "hoteling" suite, the office also features a boardroom, a smaller conference room, executive director's office, reception area and utility room.

GLFEA members and friends meet at an Open House Jan. 11, 2001 to tour the association's new headquarters in an 11h floor suite at the 1001 Woodward Building in downtown Detroit.

GLFEA Executive Director Jim Walker with Don Shalibo, Barton Malow Co., Southfield, on the right.

The reception area of the new GLFEA headquarters with a view of the office "hoteling" suite in the background. You can just make out Frank Nehr Sr., Davis Iron Works, Walled Lake, on the left, and William Treharne, Midwest Steel Inc., Detroit, checking out the "hoteling" suite's computers and other office gear, available for use by visitors.

Touring the new GLFEA headquarters with the association's executive director, Jim Walker, far left, are from the left: Mike Rogers and Larry Kruth, both with Douglas Steel Fabricating, Lansing; Jay Dasai, Desai/Naser Consulting Engineers, West Bloomfield, and Gerd Hartung, Harley/Ellis, Southfield.

The GLFEA's new boardroom serves as the "coffee and dessert center" during the Open House.

From the left: Pat Devlin, Detroit Building Trades Council; Barbara Gattorn, Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce; Pat McQueen, Bank of Bloomfield Hills; Dick Blouse Jr., President and CEO, and John Carroll, both from the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce; Greg Newsom, Operating Engineers Local 324; and Don O'Connell, Great Lakes Construction Alliance.

Gary Broad, Midwest Steel Inc., Detroit, visits with Fran Gee of Federal Pipe & Steel Corp, Plymouth.

Don Makins, MBM Fabricators & Erectors, Romulus, on the left, chats with Jim Ellis of Barton Malow Rigging Co., Oak Park.