Bryan Haider , a mechanical engineer , is senior project manager heading up the Ayres team that includes professionals from the firm ’ s architectural ; structural ; and mechanical , electrical , and plumbing services divisions .
Ayres began its involvement with Kwik Trip by working on projects that involved updating and remodeling existing stores .
In a typical project , “ we were giving the store a facelift and expanding the capacity of things like the coffee bar and soft drinks area ,” Haider said . “ Now , we ’ ve also been remodeling and updating their kitchens and quite a bit more .”
Two years ago , Ayres designed plans to enlarge and upgrade the kitchens in about 60 existing stores to add
deep fryers , which now allow those stores to prepare Kwik Trip ’ s signature fresh chicken meals on site .
More recently , Ayres has designed plans for more extensive remodeling and expansion projects involving existing gas stations and stores that Kwik Trip purchased with the idea of converting them to their signature line . The goal in these projects is to provide customers coming into these buildings with the familiar look and feel of the many other Kwik Trip stores they have visited .
“ Kwik Trip likes to keep that brand uniformity across their stores ,” Haider said .
The challenge of wedding old and new
Each of these conversion projects involving buildings that Kwik Trip has purchased presents its unique challenges , Haider said .
One particularly daunting challenge is figuring out how a building was constructed , especially in cases where the original blueprints and other design documents no longer exist .
“ When there ’ s no documentation for how something was built , you don ’ t really know what ’ s behind those walls ,” Haider said . “ That makes it much harder to figure out how to use the client ’ s money in the best way .”
But Haider , who handles the HVAC and plumbing design work , welcomes such projects for the challenge they pose to his engineering skills .
“ Personally , that ’ s something I really enjoy ,” he said . “ I like to dig into existing structures
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