84 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {home & design} HOMES building boldly words by JOHANNA HARLOW Dave Rossi has an eye for the overlooked. When his high-end construction team gathers for dinner, Dave sends them one by one to the restaurant’s restroom and asks them for their observations. “What’s wrong from a design perspective?” he questions. “There’s five that I saw. Let me see how many you guys get.” If there’s water splashed across the countertop, “Is that faucet too low? Is the sink not deep? Is the water pressure too high?” Next, he’ll ask for the solution: “The spout needs to be taller, the bowl needs to be deeper, there needs to be enough room from the face to the back.” As the team continues to report their findings—the trashcan positioned on the far side of the paper towel dispenser rather than the exit side, the mirrors mounted too high—Dave nods his approval. “I want them to have that awareness and I think that happens when you train your people to open their minds more,” he explains. With a career spanning commercial construction, tenant improvements, earthwork projects and more, Dave, founder of CIQU Construction, understands that all the little details are crucial to the big picture. “When an architect or owner wants to do something, I can see all of the steps,” notes the Los Altos local. “Not just what it looks like, but all the logistics and how each piece fits, and what the timing and sequence is, and what the impacts could be, what the difficulties can be and the nuances.” Dave is the kind of person who gets his kicks assembling IKEA furniture without the instructions. Figuring out how everything fits together as a whole and in what order is a puzzle his brain enjoys. “Understanding how parts and PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: BLUESKY MEDIA / FOTOS BY T INC.
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