TAKE 10 WITH ED WESTBROOK

Now that the Shelter in Place order is gradually lifting in California, how has it impacted QuarryHouse and their projects? We checked in with our Co-Founder and CEO, Ed Westbrook, who manages not only a regional staff but also an international one during the pandemic. Ed's unique career includes thirty years of bespoke stonework and a stint as an animal trainer (he trained the Hamm's Beer Bear and Hartford Insurance Elk). He leads the QuarryHouse team with a dedication to the craft of stonemasonry and his trademark sense of humor.

QH: What are some of the challenges that you and your staff have faced since the Lockdown in Verona, Italy, and San Francisco Bay Area's Shelter in Place order?

EW: Communications were the first issue as we had to make sure staff could connect from home and get the information they needed. Italy was more severe as they locked down the shops and fabrication plants, so many of the artisans were sent home. Our staff has done well in getting back up and productive as we have continued to process estimates and shop drawings, which will help us be ready to move forward once the SIP orders are relaxed. 

QH: What are some of the unique solutions QuarryHouse has come up with?

EW: We have been moving towards a photo rendering technique on our high-end marble work, and this accelerated a process that we believe is the future of working in high-end finishes. We use high-resolution color-corrected images of the marble slabs and insert them into our CAD shop drawings; this allows us to have a precise layout for book matching and vein layouts. It lets our clients mix and match over many revisions without costing a lot in time and effort compared to doing actual physical layouts with tape or such on weighty and fragile stone slabs. 

QH: How do you keep the morale of your staff up during this period of social distancing and self-quarantine?

EW: We talk a lot, trade humor over emails. 

QH: How do you reassure your clients that their projects will progress despite the setbacks?

EW:  We are staying in close contact with our client's teams and are concentrating on resolving paperwork and submittals that will speed the work once we return onsite. We are always working in the process of shop drawings versus factory orders, so having that work done in advance is a big positive. 

QH:  What was the biggest challenge you had on a project?

EW:  Wow, that is a big question spanning 30 years. QH has faced many difficult challenges in our history; I guess a good example currently that we just completed was a large scale granite-clad house at Lake Tahoe. It was the worst winter on record, and we worked close to 5000 tons of hand-split and set granite in 8 to 10 feet of snow. Our crews would shovel out a section in the morning and use propane heaters to warm the stone and materials enough so we could work in the afternoons!

QH:  How will QuarryHouse’s international stone sourcing be handled in the future? 

EW: I think we will be working more in a digital remote mode for a while, but eventually, as the pandemic issues resolve, I believe that the designers and clients will want to return with us to buy and inspect their stone. Shipping will also present some challenges as it is unprecedented that the entire shipping system worldwide slowed or closed, and they will have some issues in getting logistics up to speed, yet I am confident they will and life will go on.

China Camp Village, China Camp State Park, San Rafael, Ca.

QH:  What has been the upside for you of working from home? 

EW: I volunteer with several organizations, and I have had some time to focus on helping where I can. One group is Friends of China Camp State Park, a local Marin group that runs and maintains the State Park as a private/public partnership. The core volunteers have been deemed essential workers, and we donned our junior ranger uniforms for park maintenance and patrol. I sent a picture of me in my uniform to my good friend Suzanne Tucker, of Tucker & Marks, and she wrote back, asking, "where Yogi and Boo-Boo were?' 

QH:  How do you maintain a work/life balance while working from home?

EW: I segregate my day into sections with office and staff work, chores, volunteer work, and some relaxing time in the garden or up on our mountain retreat. 

QH:  The most adventurous thing you've done in your life?

EW: In a past life, my wife and I were animal trainers and handlers for movie and television productions working with a Kodiak Bear, wolves, red stag deer, chimpanzees, and elephants. We worked on a 500-acre farm in Pennsylvania and traveled the US filming.

QH: A book that everyone should read?

EW: I am reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari; great spanning look at humans on the planet the other place you can find me is with my head buried in our company library where we have over 200 volumes on stone and craft.

Ed and Sasha in California