LA Stories
Lakeside Alliance Interns Reflect on a Summer of Growth
Over the summer, each one of our five interns came ready to learn — even if that meant overcoming new challenges. To provide the best possible experience, the Lakeside Alliance team delivered the next-level, on-the-job experience they dreamed of at one of the world’s most complex, specialized and historically significant projects: the Obama Presidential Center.
Subcontractor Spotlight: Elite Electric Co.
If there’s one thing Ron Spata takes pride in, it’s the team he’s built at Elite Electric Co. By staying true to their values and treating people right, Elite Electric has established a culture workers want to be a part of, leading to almost no turnover. And now that team will be among the last to leave the Obama Presidential Center project site.
Workforce Spotlight: Pascual Vargas
For Pascual Vargas, a Senior Foreman with Escarpita Construction, the Obama Presidential Center project is a family affair: his son, Angel, and his brother, Daniel, are also among the company’s crew working to bring the Center to life.
Final Year Reflections: A Letter from the Lakeside Alliance Principals
We’re not quite at the end of our journey, but we wanted to take this time to thank you for coming along for the ride. There are more milestones to achieve and celebrate before the Center opens its doors. We hope to see you there when it does.
Polished Pebbles: Building Dreams and Breaking Barriers
A sea of bright pink represented women’s growing footprint in the construction industry during Polished Pebbles’ “Pink Hard Hat: Building Dreams and Breaking Barriers” conference at the ComEd training center on the city’s Southwest Side in May.
Subcontractor Spotlight: Twenty Eleven Construction
As founder and President of Twenty Eleven Construction — an MBE-, WBE- and DBE-certified firm helping build the Obama Presidential Center — Vanessa Rhodes-Lovelace is breaking barriers and making history.
Workforce Spotlight: Veronica Stark
Veronica Stark has always been good at crafting things with her hands. Before deciding to make the switch to a career in the construction industry, she worked in theater as a costume designer.
Women Are Making Steady Gains in Construction
Here in Chicago, women’s representation has outpaced national gains in the last five years, rising from 6.6 percent of construction workers in 2020 to 10.5 percent in 2025, the Census reports. We see this growth in practice every day at the Obama Presidential Center job site.
Pathways to Progress
For Black History Month, we wanted to look back at the pathway to progress. So, we sat down with one of the people who helped pave the way: Pamyla Brown, Diversity and Inclusion Co-Lead for Lakeside Alliance.
Subcontractor Spotlight: A-1 Roofing
Rabin describes the Obama Presidential Center as a career-defining moment, explaining that the roofing scope of work for the Center has been extraordinary. He welcomes the challenge and is confident that his team has the workmanship and commitment to doing things right that is required to pull off what he describes as perhaps the most beautiful roof of his career. How so? Read on and find out.
Workforce Spotlight: Tony Frizell
Tony Frizell is a lifelong Chicagoan, native to the South West Side. He graduated high school and started working in construction the very next day.
Enclosing the Building Marks an Exciting Chapter
This phase of work calls for different trades and subcontractors with the skills to meet the demands of a complex design using high-performance materials that are relatively new to the construction scene. It also provides the opportunity to shift the type of work that can be performed on the interior, especially as winter arrives.
Social Value Meets Construction at Chicago Build
Kelly and Ernest shared their insights and experience on a panel called “Implementing Social Value in Construction” — so read on to hear their advice for building a more inclusive, sustainable and healthy industry.
Subcontractor Spotlight: Cleveland Marble Mosaic Company
Cleveland Marble Mosaic Company (“Cleveland Marble”) celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024…On the Obama Presidential Center project, Cleveland Marble is responsible for engineering, supplying and installing the stone support system and granite cladding on the exterior of the Museum Building, Forum and the Library, as well as exterior site granite pavers and granite site walls.
Workforce Spotlight: Daniel “Danny” Mendoza
Danny got his official introduction to masonry in a Job Corps building trades program 20 years ago. Today, he’s a marble mason for Cleveland Marble, the subcontractor installing granite panels on the facade of the Obama Presidential Center. In this role, he is responsible for setting stones from the mast climbers and leading one of the setting crews — a job that requires not not only skill, but nerve. While working on the Center, Danny traverses heights of up to 225 feet.