Hottel Sponsors Annual Golf Tournament

It’s nice to have some normalcy back with most CVOID restrictions lifted. We had the opportunity to sponsor a hole in Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral’s Annual Golf Tournament in June 2020.  From Hottel (starting left to right) in the picture below is Bret Nielsen, Joel Knight, Dave Kantner, and Ken Fennell.

Huge thanks for everyone from Saint Sophia’s for hosting this event.  It was great to see members of Saint Sophia’s and other members of the community, such as Father Steven Zorzos, Deacon Panayiotis Steele, Janice Calomiris (President of the Board), George Wallace from WTOP Radio Sports, and Eleni Planzos who organized this event.

““

Hottel Assists in Building New Alexandria Restaurants

Alexandria Restaurant Partners (ARP) plans to open two new waterfront restaurants soon in Old Town Alexandria. Barca Wine and Bar and Ada’s on the River will be their flagship restaurants, chosen out of a list of ten restaurants. Barca, meaning “boat” in Spanish, will be a wine, tapas, and charcuterie bar. Barca’s will include an outdoor extension that offers seating on the pier.  Ada’s will be a larger restaurant, serving woodfire food such as steak, seafood, and grilled vegetables. These establishments will be designed with a relaxed, California-vibe atmosphere in mind.

When this project began in 2019, ARP hired Gage Construction Company to oversee the restaurants’ construction.  Lance, Gage’s Senior Project Manager, had already decided to use Harvey Hottel for Plumbing, even though other companies had submitted bids.  Lance felt confident in Hottel’s work because of previous project experience.  Gage Construction and Hottel worked together on Joe Theismann’s Restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia.  According to Lance, the Thiesmann project was very challenging because the restaurant only closed for four days during the four-month construction period.  Daryl and Leo, from Harvey Hottel, scheduled teams to work odd hours, so that the work could be completed with minimal disruption to the restaurant.  This began the great working relationship between Gage Construction and Harvey Hottel employees.

Barca Wine and Bar and Ada’s on the River came with a different set of challenges for the Hottel teams.  The project was both a design build, requiring a great deal of coordination with all of the other contractors. “We ended up working with Leo (Hottel Field Superintendent) very closely and really teaming up on getting everything done. Also, the other contractors worked well with us. The ceiling looked like spaghetti; it was so jam packed. It took a lot of coordination. Again, working with Harvey Hottel there’s never been an issue. We have asked a lot from Hottel on both projects, and they always show up with a smile on their face,” Lance described.

The smaller Barca restaurant on the pier was a challenging project for Hottel, because there were significant modifications.  During the design process, everyone realized that the containers were set too high and needed to be lowered. Due to the fact that there was limited room underneath for plumbing, 12-inch holes were drilled through the concrete to have the traps countersunk into the holes of the pier.  Daryl, Manager of Hottel’s Plumbing Department, mentioned that they had done this before, but not on a pier in the middle of water! It was a cool and unique learning experience.

Lance made a point to bring up that there were some challenging issues that Gage Construction really looked to Hottel for their expertise. Specifically, the design originally had all the gas lines for the outdoor heaters in an accessible trench, which was not possible because there was so much concrete. Gage, Hottel, and the other contractors brainstormed for a creative way to run gas lines. Fortunately, everyone worked together to form a new design that was approved, allowing the project to move forward.   Lance noted, “That is typical on how we work together, and you need to have that creative problem solving with whoever you work with. Our personalities also work well together and that’s a huge reason on why I keep going back to Hottel. It’s because I know what they are capable of.”

Lance, Daryl, and Leo have built a strong relationship and now friendships, which is what allows them to work so well together. They are not afraid to roll their sleeves up and get involved.  Additionally, Daryl emphasized on how many of these jobs would not be possible without Leo on the team. Leo and the other guys will work whatever hours needed. As Daryl concluded, “Leo and his team had completed everything by end of day. Leo goes above and beyond to make sure these projects go well. He is a very smart man and deserves a lot of credit.”

““

Saint Sophia’s Church Writes a Great Testimonial

Hottel is always looking forward to hearing from our clients and about the work we have done. We continuously work with Saint Sophia’s Church on maintaining their equipment and installing new equipment if needed.

“After researching and interviewing several HVAC companies in our area we decided to go with Harvey W. Hottel, because they are a reliable company and they presented us with great choices and pricing that fit our Cathedral needs. I was especially pleased by the explanation of the way the new unit would be installed and how it would work. As well as other HVAC and plumbing issues we had.

We were very pleased with the service we received from Harvey W. Hottel. Kenneth Fennell and the installers were very knowledgeable and professional. They were very attentive to our needs and answered all of our questions and concerns. Richard Hottel and crew should be very proud! 

Pete Panagiotopoulos
Saint Sophia Cathedral, WDC
Cathedral Administrator

““

Strawbale House with Geothermal Heating and Cooling

Beautiful passive solar home with geothermal heating and cooling that has a net-zero footprint. This house is built from resources that we found right on the land where it’s located; strawbale walls that surround 3,500 SF of space with a mud mixture for the walls. Trees from the property, such as black walnut, cherry, locust and hickory are used throughout for ceilings, flooring, doors, and other accents. We worked closely with the owners and designer to strategize on the installation of geothermal heating and cooling, high efficiency triple pane windows, radiant flooring, tub, master bedroom and gym. We also installed a 3-ton water to water unit with a storage tank and a hot/cold water coil for the air handler. Take a look at the before and after pictures!

““

We Speacialize In Geothermal Heating and Cooling

DID YOU KNOW: Geothermal energy has the smallest carbon footprint of any other heating or cooling source. It can also be eligible for tax cuts and maintains a longer lifespan of 25 years for indoor and 50+ years for outdoor underground components (Comfort Pro Inc., 2019).

Mark Hottel, Owner and Designer, and Mike Kephart, Project Manager, specialize in geothermal energy. Cost savings for monthly operating expenses coupled with new Federal tax credits offered,  provided our homeowner with the incentive to procure the benefits and comfort of geothermal heating and cooling.

The scope of work included four new geothermal heating and cooling units with associated sheet metal ductwork, geothermal piping, electrical, and controls. Additionally, two geothermal water-to-water units provided the hot water for the radiant floor heat for the following areas: basement, garage, and master bathroom.

From maintaining the project timeline to ensuring a quality installation, the Harvey Hottel team was able to deliver another quality project. Contact us today!

““