Luke MacDougall

I spent ten years in the field as a superintendent and general superintendent, then president of a general contractor. The field years were at Shawmut Design and Construction, where I built retail stores, restaurants, hospitality spaces and corporate interiors, most of them inside occupied or tightly constrained buildings, in California, New York and other cities. After that I served as president of Reaume Richardson in Los Angeles, running preconstruction, operations and project execution.

My approach to running a project comes from my experience in the field. The superintendent is the last line of defense to execute the work and manage quality control, ensuring what is being installed aligns with the design intent of the project. This also requires developing judgment on which items require a call with the design team, an RFI, or making a call in the field to get the project moving and not bog down the design team for items an experienced builder should decide. Those years taught me to plan ahead early, to sequence the work so the trades are not waiting on each other, and to have the difficult conversation while a problem is still small.

Running a company tested that judgment at a larger scale. It meant building estimates, refining company standards and setting up every project in preconstruction, where most of a job’s outcome is decided before anyone is on site. I started MacDougall Builders to bring both halves to every project we take on.

I’m closely involved in every project we take on. We’re the right size so every client gets that level of attention, and we’re selective about the work we take on, so each project is the right fit and we’re ready to deliver it. My week is built around the field: the three-week look-ahead with the trades, the field walk with the owner and the design team, and the report that goes out on the cadence each owner chooses, to keep everyone aligned and clear roadblocks proactively to keep the project moving forward.

The office work that used to take a superintendent’s evenings, the daily logs, the meeting minutes and the look-ahead drafts, is augmented by our tools and systems to streamline things, so our team can focus their attention on executing the job.

That is the company I wanted to work for, and it is the one I am building.

If you’re planning a restaurant, hospitality, hotel, retail, adaptive reuse, tenant improvement or creative office project in Los Angeles, let’s talk.