If “The New American Home (TNAH) built by Element Design
Build” sounds familiar, it’s because it should. Element built America’s premier
show home for the International Builders’ Show® in 2014 and is back at it again
– for round two – led by owner and visionary Josh Anderson.
There is a notable difference, however, from the
experience of two years ago: Element is handling both the design and construction of this year’s project.
“Since our last experience with The New American Home [in 2014], our company
has evolved,” explains Josh. “Today Element Design Build is a full-service
design/build builder and remodeler. We handle architectural design,
construction and interior design – including the furnishings.”
After working for a general contractor for 10 years, Josh
began his business in 2009 – in the midst of the housing recession. The Las
Vegas/Henderson market was hit especially hard, yet it is due to the recession
that Josh got his start. “If the world had not fallen apart, I would have never
gone out on my own,” says Josh. “I started by doing bank work – because banks
didn’t know what to do with the homes – and my business grew from there.”
Today, Element’s team consists of five designers — for architecture
and interior design — and eight on the construction side of his business. In
order to remain focused on the customer experience, Element intentionally limits
the number of projects they take on each year – approximately 4-5 custom home
projects and 5-6 high-rise condo and penthouse remodeling projects.
From the onset of this construction business, it has been
Josh’s intention to focus on the customer experience. He’s found it to be all
too common for people who have built a custom home before to have had a
horrible experience. “I can’t imagine anything worse than a client spending that
kind of money and hating the builder at the end of the project.”
It was this stereotypical scenario that was the catalyst
for Element’s mission – create an incredible customer experience.
“We quickly realized that in order to deliver that type
of experience, we needed to control the entire process – from start to finish,”
says Josh, “which is why we have now evolved into a turn-key builder.”
While this shift from a construction-only to a design/build
firm occurred about a year ago, Josh has already seen positive results. His clients
are happier because he has eliminated the back-and-forth that often occurs between
the designer and the builder; and as for his team, everyone is at the table
from the start, making it a seamless transition from design to construction to
interiors.
Josh is the first one to admit that The New American Home
2014 building experience was less than ideal. “That was insane!” says Josh. “It
was like the perfect storm of situations where you’d never want to be building the national show home,” he chuckles.
“The timeframe was tight, and we were experiencing a huge labor shortage in our
area, so we had a few issues to solve. But we were able to make it happen, and
I am so proud of what we accomplished.”
With Element Design Build back at it – designing and
building The New American Home 2016 – the natural question is: Why? “I am a
sucker for a challenge,” says Josh. “My thought process going into this again
was, I wanted to create a better experience for our team. This time, we have
more time and are able to retain control of the design and construction process.
I want our team to actually enjoy this experience and have some fun.”
Element has also received worldwide exposure for their
participation in TNAH; from that, the design arm of the business is working on
projects that will be built across the country. “This part of the experience
has been quite rewarding,” says Josh.
“One of the things that is most enjoyable about working
on The New American Home is seeing our team’s depth of cutting-edge innovation
in home performance, technology and design grow,” says Josh. “Our team has a
knack for discovering what’s new – and making it happen.”