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What really happens behind the build?
This series takes you inside the complex, often unseen world of construction, urban planning, and development - where ideas move from concept to reality through a mix of vision, collaboration, and constant problem-solving. Across these episodes, industry leaders share real stories from the front lines, offering an honest look at the challenges, decisions, and innovations shaping the built environment today.
From the evolving demands of modern construction to the political and community dynamics behind urban planning, to bold new ideas transforming hospitality - this series explores every layer of the process. You’ll hear how buildings today are more complex than ever, why early collaboration is critical, and how navigating approvals and public expectations can make or break a project. At the same time, you’ll discover how innovation, like Canada’s first pod hotel, emerges from identifying gaps and rethinking traditional models.
At its core, Behind the Build is about more than structures - it’s about people. Their stories around relationships, leadership, and lived experience that turn challenges into opportunities and ideas into lasting impact. Whether you’re a developer, architect, planner, in construction or simply curious about how the spaces around you come to life, this series offers a deeper understanding of what it truly takes to build for the future.
Siegrist Architecture is a Vancouver-based firm led by Duane Siegrist and Andrew Martin, two leaders focused on turning complex ideas into real, buildable spaces. Their work spans everything from multi-family apartments and townhomes to high-rise towers, mass timber and concrete builds, senior living environments, and mixed-use communities that bring people, work, and life together. What sets them apart is experience, not just in design, but in delivery. Years of working alongside clients, consultants, and municipalities have shaped a practical, collaborative approach rooted in relationships and trust. They know what it takes to move a project forward, and get it built well. At every stage, the focus is simple: strong partnerships, clear communication, and thoughtful design that holds up in the real world.
The result? Projects that run smoothly, spaces that work beautifully, and communities that last.
Meet your hosts.
Duane Siegrist, Architect. Builder. Connector.
Duane Siegrist is all about bridging big ideas with real results that work. For over two decades he built a trusted reputation and strong relationships in the building industry. Now leading at SIEGRIST, he’s spent over 25 years shaping multi-family, mixed-use, and community-driven projects - navigating municipal planning and building departments, with a deep understanding of clients and developer needs: creating marketable, well-constructed buildings that are livable, community-focused, and, above all, projects we can all be PROUD of.
He’s known for being as comfortable on-site as he is in the boardroom meetings and presenting design and problem-solving, working alongside teams to turn complex visions into spaces that actually work. Passionate about mentorship and raising the bar in the industry, Duane is driven by one thing: getting great ideas built, and bringing people along with him.
Andrew Martins, Designer. Builder. Leader.
Andrew Martins pairs a sharp, practical mindset with experience in design and construction to deliver practical, efficient solutions. An award-winning BCIT graduate, Andrew has built a reputation for cutting through complexity and maintaining momentum on even the most intricate projects.
With over 15 years of industry experience, Andrew’s unique background—leading both architectural and construction firms—allows him to bridge the gap between design and execution. He is a natural leader who aligns teams, anticipates challenges, and ensures every detail reflects the original vision. Andrew brings clarity and a relentless focus on quality, grounded in the belief that the best results come from doing things right the first time.
#podcast #construction
speaker-0 (00:01)
Building something that lasts takes more than great leadership. I'm Duane Segrist, co-founder of Segrist Architecture, here with my partner Andrew Martins. Join us for a look behind the build.
In this conversation, we explore how projects are developed and how they actually make their way through the approvals. At the core of this discussion is a shared frustration in the industry. Projects take too long, processes are heavy and strong ideas often get worn down along the way. Without clear leadership and a champion in the room, creativity, good design, and even a good set of development drawings can suffer. Our guest today is Russell Kling.
He understands that process deeply. He's a local developer who knows the rules, the boundaries, and the assumptions that come along with them. And just as importantly, he knows how to work within the system, thoughtfully and when necessary, how to push it forward. He brings a maverick mindset, not by cutting quarters, but by moving carefully, deliberately and with purpose. But this conversation isn't just about projects. It's about people and leadership. Russell's work is grounded in relationships.
balance and trust. And he doesn't do this alone. The support of his wife, Jelena and his three children, especially behind the scenes is part of what allows him to take on complex, high risk work and see it through. Development is always a we, it's never an individual effort. That was especially true on the Whistler project, where an outdated building on the village stroll was transformed through a maze of bylaws, codes, accessibility requirements and design coordination.
It was a challenging renovation where the details mattered and collaboration was essential and it also became something entirely new for Canada.
speaker-1 (01:54)
Russell, all developments have their difficulties. You take difficult projects to the next level. Not only is this a renovation project on the world famous Whistler Stroll, but it was actually the first pod hotel in Canada. Doing something first is always extremely difficult. Pod hotels have always been popular in other places like Asia, especially Japan. Why and how did you think that this was even possible in a place like Canada?
speaker-2 (02:18)
So the starting point was I didn't think about the regulations or the Canada specific conditions. I mean, a little bit of background, Yelna and I, my wife and I, we'd worked in Manhattan for a long period of time and were fortunate to have done well. And we took off and extended a period of time to travel the world, which ended up being around three years. What transpired on that trip is that a common story kept on cropping up. And the story would be, you know what, we took a look and the places we want to stay are too expensive out of our budget and the places we can afford.
we're not interested in either they're not in town or they're filthy. And that's where the idea germinated. It so happened that we came back, we'd moved to Canada, we were looking to do something fun and we ski a lot and Whistler and frankly Vancouver were prime markets where this problem existed. Whistler in the peak of winter, a three-star hotel can run at a thousand dollars a night with a five or six night minimum just to give you an idea of where things are at. Or you can stay at the, there's a really nice hostel but it's a 20 minute bus ride outside of town and you're staying in a dormitory and there's sort of very little.
that bridges that gap. So we had this idea. We knew we wanted to put the first location somewhere close to where we live. It just so happened that, we wanted to own the real estate that was really important to us. It's a very specific project. The investment level is very, very high. The sort of traditional lease and TIs wouldn't have worked. So we were looking to acquire a property and Whistler turned out to be the first place where something that met all of our criteria came up.
speaker-1 (03:43)
Did
you do any marketing checks, idea validation demand studies?
speaker-2 (03:47)
For sure. So Whistler has most cities in Canada have something called a DMO, destination marketing organization. All the businesses in that, like so in Whistler, it's called Tourism Whistler. Every business, including ourselves, pays membership fees and they use those fees for many different things. But sort of the two primary purposes, one is to drive incremental business to the resort town. The other is to produce research and statistics. So they do lots of surveys and they produce pretty detailed research. So there was lots of data that we were able to get our hands on, you know, for us.
Given the product we have, of three quarters of our business is solo travelers, not necessarily single, but people traveling solo. About a quarter, give or take, maybe not a quarter, 20 % is couples. So we knew that that was really important to understand the percentage of travel to Whistler that sort of falls into those buckets. Ultimately with 88 pods, you don't need to have a ton of people to fill the place.
speaker-0 (04:38)
The neat
about this too is it seems like your life of work and your level of travel is sick. It allowed you for an innovative builder. You're almost testing it little bit as you're traveling.
speaker-2 (04:48)
Totally. You're 100 % correct. And my wife and I, when we travel, we care about location and cleanliness. we don't use the spa. We don't need any of the peripherals. when you're traveling in certain places, that might be $20 a night. And there are other places where, it sounds crazy, but certain places in Africa, we end up spending $2,000 a night only because anything below that, you're just not interested in staying either for the area or safety concerns or whatever the case is. we were fortunate we stayed across the spectrum.
And we knew, I think, had a very good feeling of what those key criterion are. Everything ultimately is a compromise. So when I think about our business in Whistler now, we talk about locations or in the dead center of the village, that was a non-negotiable. And then we talk about key elements of privacy and that all came into the interior design, which is, no, it's not a hotel room. That's why we can price it the way we do, but we don't want it to be a dorm bed, right? It needs to be, it needs to have, again, like key elements of privacy. So when you go to bed at night, need to be locked off to the outside world or close off to the outside world.
feel like you're on your own cocoon. And then the third element that I think is critical and certainly came out from all our travels, is sort of cleanliness and design. They kind of go hand in hand, sort of a really forward design and then standards need to be met because there's nothing worse than staying in a place that's dirty.
speaker-1 (05:59)
You you got some data, you found this niche. It's almost like you're thinking like a tech entrepreneur. Like it's almost like you're thinking differently than a developer would do. You thought completely outside the box. So what really made you confident about just pushing this idea? It is risk, right?
speaker-2 (06:16)
Yeah, 100%. I mean, think ultimately there's no guarantee in anything in life. So there's always a certain amount of risk that you have to be willing to take on. think, you know, combination of A, the research we've done, B, a sort of gut feel as to where we thought there was a gap in the market. And seems also the knowledge, like I don't know it's a good or a bad because it means we work a hell of a lot, but maybe unlike a traditional development where you have a developer who ultimately sells it off to an operator or where at least the developer and the day-to-day operator are two separate entities or two separate people.
two separate firms. We knew we were developing it and would be then operating it ad infinitum. So I think in many ways it might make, and this is where people like Duane were exceptionally helpful in the design process, but it does make the design that much more important and complex because you're going to be operating the business inside of that space. So you actually care where every receptacle is going to go. You care where every door, whatever, and especially in a potter till like
every square inch, every cubic inch, should say, volume is absolutely critical. so spending time, like everything's a trade off. I add like volume in this room, I lose it from that room, right? Like my footprint is my footprint and we're working in small spaces. But I do think that in some, and I think especially in any novel idea or sort of bleeding edge idea, the concept of being both the developer and the operator, I think there are huge synergies in that. But you're actually building towards what you know you need.
speaker-0 (07:41)
Stepping back for a moment, what becomes clear is that this project wasn't just about finding a building. It was about recognizing a very specific opportunity. The location was right in the heart of Whistler, fronting the village stroll, with the potential to make a stronger urban statement. But just as important was the idea behind it, something more attainable, more accessible, designed for shorter stays and not for the rich and famous. As the conversation continues, it turns towards that moment of commitment.
when the property was secured and the concept was set. And the question shifted from what could be done to what it would take to move an idea like this through resistance into reality.
speaker-2 (08:23)
So part one was actually acquiring the building. That's a whole different story and it took about 18 months, given it was a timeshare and you know how timeshare works. Every unit has 50 owners, right? And so you just multiply that out. Some of those owners have left it to their kids and they're sick, you know. So when you think about the number of signatures required and you need a super majority. And so that was an extremely complex process in and of itself. The second piece, Whistler for good and for bad is it's a village. Let me make an example. Maybe in a large city, think generally as long as it's zoned correctly and the use is the same, there's
very little ability for the municipality to step in and say, no, no, no, you can't, you can't switch from like this hotel to that hotel. They have no real ability to do that. In Whistler, which is a village, the way that all of the legal documentation is written is, is effectively, anytime anything changes, you have to go kind of cap in hand to the municipality and they have an ultimate veto right. And it was short-term accommodation before, it's still short-term accommodation, but really anything triggers the need to go and get the municipality to bless it. And that's when it becomes complex because
that political element, they should have ultimate control. And if they're thinking about things the right way, it's a great policy that they have ultimate veto right. The problem with all of that is that it becomes this intensely political process that I actually, it wasn't that I wasn't prepared for it. I just never even dreamt of it. I'd never experienced it in my life. If you ask me afterwards, I can't believe, know, blood, and tears legitimately, right, to get through it. And we were through it at the end. And the third piece is even once you have that sort of tacit understanding that you can move ahead.
Then you move your way down to kind of the mid-level plannings, the planners, and then, and to Dwayne's question, there were probably more consultants that I thought, like, I didn't even know all these consultants existed. Like, I think we had like maybe like 18. You know, I did expect it to be complex. I did expect that we would need many consultants. There would be many mouths to feed. So that wasn't a shock. was, but that was, that was a process we had to manage. Obviously the unexpected part was that, that middle piece. I always expected the acquisition to be hard and I always expected the build.
to be, you know, building is bureaucratic, it just is. Maybe it was more bureaucratic than I expected, but that middle piece of like, maybe the guy is just gonna say, he can just say no, or the couple guys around the table if they want, for no reason other than they're like, no, we don't want it.
speaker-0 (10:32)
So
reframing this a little bit is that Russell, you were quite content with the idea of getting the space because you knew its use would be approvable in many ways. So you had something, you know, the thing that you didn't know was probably the amount of regulatory hurdles that you needed to overcome. And that meant sometimes throwing a bunch of consultants at it to help it move through its process. What was behind all of that? What drove you to actually sort of nudge this over?
You could have said, I'm selling this space and I'm moving on to the next.
speaker-2 (11:05)
So actually, if I would have pat ourselves on the back, and this is myself and Yelena, think one is we work exceptionally hard. And so I think it's, you know, whatever the saying is, 10 % inspiration, 90 % perspiration, to be honest with you. think part of it is just hard work and unwillingness to give up.
speaker-0 (11:20)
It
is. That's it. You knew it was hard work, I think. if you didn't know it was hard work, you just were hard working.
speaker-2 (11:26)
You could easily have given up along the
speaker-0 (11:29)
Yeah,
no, that's what I do want to hear that because it's confidence in something and I think that's something about your wrestlers personality here and I need to sort of I've seen it my way. I want others to hear this is that you had some gut feel about it. There was something you knew this was going to be a success or you weren't sure right? I guess that's a question.
speaker-1 (11:32)
confidence there, right, Duane?
At its core, this project was really about confidence. The Whistler pod hotel didn't come from a standard template. It required taking the time to understand the intent behind the rules, questioning why certain approaches were considered the only option and doing the harder work of demonstrating that a different solution could still meet the same objectives. It wasn't about pushing back for the sake of it. It was about thoughtfully navigating the system and earning the right to move something forward that is innovative and new.
We go back to the conversation as Russell describes the process.
speaker-2 (12:28)
So if we just take a chronological quick drive through of the process, the first piece was actually convincing effectively there's a head of municipality. Think of it as like a CEO of a company and there's a very small coterie of people at the top. So step one was convincing them that they should green light it, which we needed their buy-in and that's really what took.
the better part of a year and a half. At the beginning, they just said, no, like we're not interested. And so if we just take the flyover, there was this sort of convincing that when I say the top people, these are not the planners, these are just the people overseeing everything, literally like the heads of the municipality, paid staff. And that needs to get worked out both on them. And so you need to sort of sell the vision to them. And you also need to frankly sell the vision to counselors, because counselors, and I'm gonna come to this in a second. So let's take the other extreme, you've got counselors, you've got senior, and then you've got planners. And I think that there's a structural issue
And this is probably true for the majority of municipalities. The structural issue is that if you're a mid-level planner, the skew of like our project, an innovative bleeding edge project, which turns out to be hugely successful, no one ever comes into your office and says, well done, mid-level planner for getting this across the lines. Okay. get no benefit from that zero. Like nobody even knows your name, but if it goes pear shaped and the developer puts up something there that he or she promised to do.
something different, but it ends up being like a disaster and it's half of what they promised or not even a shade of what they promised. Ultimately, know, council probably, you know, start throwing their toys out the window with senior staff and then senior staff for sure, they just turn around and throw the blame onto the middle of the planners. And so the skew is really bad. It's like approving something unusual that isn't like cookie cutter, no benefit for me. And if it goes, if it goes bad, like I, it's just, I'm going to get dumped on like all day long by everyone.
So I think you have this like structural issue, frankly, and that's where you get sort of stuck in the mud of, think where Dwayne wants to go with this is like, sometimes you feel like they're looking for a way just to push you back. we need another meeting for what, like, I'm just going to look through the rule book and, and I'm going to find something prescriptive. And for us it was, there isn't another pot hotel. So like, what are we up, the rules we're applying in a purely prescriptive fashion.
make no sense whatsoever. And this is where you need someone like Dwayne to say, okay, well, you know, two can play that game, right? So if you want to put it to us that we have to meet these ridiculous prescriptive things, we'll meet them. We'll just call the space what you want us to call it because it, fits this prescriptive need. It's sort of this ridiculous game, frankly, at the end of the day, where they want you to meet this prescriptive checklist and you get there by meeting the prescriptive checklist. But in the process, the whole
The intent kind of gets lost along the way, right?
speaker-1 (15:10)
you're doing this for the better of Whistler and it's a new idea coming to Canada. It's already proven idea somewhere else, right? So how do you get through a development permit? Was there any specific guideline or zoning that like pushed you back, like set you back or like, wow, this is a challenge?
speaker-2 (15:26)
building was a 45, 50 year old building. Like it hadn't seen a dollar of maintenance in like probably four decades. It was barely occupied. And when it was, there was like a guy with no teeth drinking Jack out of a bottle on the balcony. Like we weren't taking this crown jewel. So I always was like shocked why this was any, everybody wasn't just like, my goodness, like go for it. Right. But anyways, again, that took a while drew our realtor was critical and just telling us not to give up really along the way.
And ultimately we did turn the tide. There's an element of pushback that I respect, which is this is a new idea and we want to make sure that it's going to work before we give it our blessing. And I respect that. we, anyway, we got them across the line, the sort of upper echelon of the Muni and council. And actually I believe that for whatever reason, like if memory serves correctly, we had to have like a council vote just to even start the process. So we had two or three times we had to go for a vote. They were like the sort of
litmus tests of like temperature read. I don't think there's ever been a more examined project of like everything being poured over by everybody, documents, construction. You know, one of the things Dwayne probably remembers is later in the process, and I'll come to your question, they even told us, we want to sign off on the materials you're using inside. Like we need a sample board of the exact materials. And this was at a stage of the development where we hadn't picked them yet. So like suddenly you're in a panic. You're like, okay.
speaker-1 (16:49)
Inside the building? Inside. Like actually inside. Inside.
speaker-2 (16:53)
If we just fast forward, the level of spend per square foot in Pangaea is, I'm gonna say multiples of what it is in the four seasons. Per square foot, not in aggregate, but per square foot. Like our finishes are spectacular. Because every cubic inch counts, every cubic inch is dialed and finished. There's basically no drywall anywhere. Like everything is like tile. Like the place is beautiful. It's a small space, but it's beautiful. And we ended up spending, I would bet you 10x what the municipality had dreamt of, but they expected us to spend 1 10th X of what they asked us to, right.
speaker-1 (17:21)
Was there a moment during the design and construction at the pod hotel actually felt at risk? Like maybe a moment that made you think this could end right here.
speaker-2 (17:29)
think you question yourself and your sanity every day, right? And you say, like, do I have my head screwed on straight? Like, why am I doing this? There are days definitely where is it worth it, right? The drama, the trauma, the pain. I mean, I wouldn't say there's like a macro, like a game over risk. There were many stages. So let's put it this way, from a financial perspective, there's kind of two parties to fault here, but consultants are expensive. The killer is like the project takes a year longer than it should have to come out the ground.
Okay, that's the killer, right? Or the death by a thousand cuts. You have a budget, but then your contractor is like, no one's taking on fixed price work. you know, like, and then we can go into the whole like, well, what are the incentives to keep costs down if you take a percentage of that on top? And for sure, the project was delayed. took three years, pretty much, to come out of the ground.
speaker-1 (18:17)
What finally shifted the perspective of, let's call it planning or the city? What got them on your side to know that this was a good project for Whistler that would actually benefit the community and the strip?
speaker-2 (18:30)
Great question. So where did it change? You know, it's a small town and everyone is interested in what's going on. we had, ⁓ it's not even, like I said, very above board. Like we had conversations and I think we had council. So council is very different. Let's think about their incentives. Their incentives are actually much better aligned frankly than paid staff because they do reap the benefits of being a cheerleader for something that does really well.
So there was a slow process of education, but we knew that they were really excited about this possibility of not only redeveloping an old property that was in the dead center of town, like primus location, terrible property over there. So I think there was this exciting, we get rid of the old. I think there was an excitement about bringing Canada's first anything, right, to Whistler. So we knew that they weren't, they weren't like telling us, we're good to go, but they were telling us we're interested, we want to learn more. This is all good. And then ultimately, I believe
I don't want to say we forced it, but I think we somehow navigated things so that it went to like an early litmus test vote where they had to sort of say, like, are we going to move forward or not? And do we want this? And that's why I say like Drew, who was incredibly instrumental in moving it forward. So I'd say probably after about a year of discussions, there was actually a vote at council. went there, staff created a presentation, they reported it, there was Q &A, but it's all like, can sit in and see it, but you're not speaking, right? No one's questioning you.
And then they voted, like thumbs up, they voted to proceed. And that was a huge turning point because then it was like the direction was now coming from above that we need to move forward. And now I felt like that upper echelon felt like, whew, like off our shoulders, okay, somebody else kind of made the decision for us. And now there was, I don't know, there wasn't necessarily pressure for it to move forward, but there was like the wind was blowing in the right direction at least for things to move, right?
speaker-0 (20:19)
I want to step back to the project from my perspective for a moment. One of the things that really stands out in working with Russell is how important strategy became at key moments in the process. There were points where the project felt like it was being carefully tested and not because anybody wanted it to fail, but because the system was holding tightly to only what it knew.
The design panel was one of those pivotal moments. came with a lot of preparation, a lot of anticipation and a sense that the outcome mattered well beyond the single meeting. That moment captured the tension between caution and possibility, and it marked a turning point in how the project moved forward.
speaker-2 (20:59)
want to be as prepared as possible. So I actually remember that day very clearly. And I remember being out in the parking lot and then walking in there. I remember that we sat through a presentation that was right before us. And then we came up. You sometimes I think it's a little bit like how I always joke how like my wife said three kids. If you only remembered the first one and going, you'd never have a second or a third, but you, you remember the good stuff and you kind of push the bad stuff out. And I think maybe that's a little bit the case here where I remember immediately afterwards, like you're nervous. I didn't think it had gone well at all, but with hindsight, like,
that was wrong, right? You know, or in the grand scheme of what could have, you're always going for gold. You know, you know what you want to do and the goal is to get there and you have a plan and you want them to accept it. And I remember we went there and they were like, I don't think they said no to anything. They're just like, and we want this here and we want that there. And there's two kinds of ads that there are, one I don't mind and one I hate. The one I don't mind are the, we're going to add something that's going to add cost. doesn't affect your life, but it's going to add cost. And that's kind of annoying, but okay.
But then there's the, like, we're gonna add it there and actually that runs counter to how you envision the space looking or working. And there was a few of those, you just deal with them and we moved on and it's okay. I remember there were certain aspects of the exterior they wanted and, you know, I just wanted to bang the table and be like, these are terrible ideas, but you can't do that and you just accept.
speaker-0 (22:13)
But even during construction, this is a renovation project. Every renovation is fraught with it's designed to almost fail in many ways. So what unexpected surprises as you're pulling this building apart, team approvals, what was it? Anything in construction?
speaker-2 (22:31)
We ran up redoing the entire roof. We landed, we landed redoing everything ultimately. And you know, it's one of those, again, I go, it's a little bit like developer operator and you're together. It's like, as you're pulling things apart, do you just jam it back together because you're not going to be operating it in 10 years time. And so that kind of who cares. Or do you go, well, I'm going to be operating it in 25 years. So like, you know, we're not going to do plastic when you're copper pipes, we're going to do, we're going to do everything that like a traditional developer would be like, are you out of your goddamn mind? Like this is three X the cost, but
We were looking, and again, I go back to, think that's a bit unique in this scenario. We were looking at the 20 year life cycle cost, not the development cost, right? So sometimes, actually not sometimes, on a lot of things, we spend way more than probably anyone else would have done because we knew, you know, while we're doing it, now is the time to basically redo everything, right? New roof, new wiring, new plumbing, new everything, right? It was all needed. Just like, would it have lasted another two or three years if we didn't do it? It would have, but you know, then you're like ripping open drywall and...
walls and whatever the case is. yeah, I just think the 70s or the 80s, whenever the ball, I think it was around the 80s. It was like the wild, wild west in Whistler. Like I have a photo of the, that was the only building on this, that in the building to the immediate north of it. And everything else was like a meadow where where the crystal lodges now is just like they were cars parked there. It was a meadow. So it was early days and, and things got thrown up really quickly. And it is amazing that they lost it as long as they did when you kind of peel it back, you're like, Whoa.
speaker-1 (23:58)
So Russell, you took something that was derelict, old, and created something new, but using an unconventional format, again, first pod hotel, not even in Whistler, but in Canada. So you have that idea. Do you see any shifts in how cities might be approving unconventional housing formats in the future, like pod hotels, micro units, new housing models?
speaker-2 (24:19)
I wish I could tell you yes, I would tell you I don't think the hurdles are any different than when we did it. think, I can't tell you how many municipalities we've had discussions about and they're like, we would love to have one here. And I go, well, okay, but like we did try, we've had discussions along the way and we were just told by somebody, no, no, no, no, no. And they're like, oh yeah, like we're gonna work on that and we'll be back in touch. You got my number.
speaker-1 (24:39)
It sounds like you learned a lot from this journey.
speaker-0 (24:42)
It's the transition, it's the life lessons here, it's the lessons, and that's just experience.
speaker-2 (24:47)
Yeah. And it's not even, I would say that is not so much, that was a lesson of our experience, but it's more like, just know what I see around us and conversations I've had with others. And, you know, I always go back to my favorite story. always tell people, and this is true. Even if you're building a house in Vancouver, I'm like the empire state building was built in the 1930s, 102 stories, whatever it is in one year and 40 days, one year and 40 days from start until people moved in one year and 40 days, 1930s kind of like what is wrong, you know,
speaker-0 (25:16)
Yeah, there you go. What does it take to get a building built? Obviously shorter, less personalities.
speaker-2 (25:21)
You wouldn't get a permit in one year and 40 days right now.
speaker-1 (25:25)
Not a conventional one. No, definitely not. Yeah, that's crazy. So I want take it back to where you started. You started with a vision, right? And you had a strong vision. It came from an experience. Did the experience and the end result of this match your initial vision? Because now you're done it. You're running it. It's there. You have it. You know, that's any entrepreneur's goal is to like have an idea of vision, go through the process, get to the end. And now you're there. You have it. Did it match your initial vision or was there anything different?
speaker-2 (25:54)
I would say pretty close, pretty close. I mean, there are obviously certain things you think may work better, certain things may work worse. You realize some things you worried about on issues, maybe certain things that you didn't think you're worried about, you should have worried about. But I would say by and large, like I think the key test is if you could go back and change anything, what would you change? I think that's the question because that will tell you. And there is very little that I would change.
speaker-0 (26:22)
So what is the thing that sticks out? have every project I can think of two or three moments from.
What was it?
speaker-2 (26:31)
I guess the one thing is I just probably never expected to put this much time into it. That's the truth. And I think I should be better. I could be better. I constantly try to remind myself, you know, we have limited time on earth. Kids are getting older. You need to be really try to be diligent about where you spend time. there's, you know, something like this, there's just always more work to be done. so, you know, finding that balance can be tough from time to time, especially as somebody who's just naturally wired to not want to leave any stone unturned to make things perfect. So.
But that's not specific to Whistler or to a pod hotel or to Pangaea. It's just an enterprise where I didn't quite expect the intensity that I would be personally investing in it. The flip side of it is, you know, it's been a great learning curve. You know, I love the industry. I love the village. I love the town. We never probably would have bought a house there and we have a beautiful home there and we spend lots of time there and it's changed our lives in the winter and our kids. So there's so many positive knock-on effects of just, those were just the things that happened without any plan, just fortuitously.
It would you
speaker-1 (27:29)
do
it again? Is there a Pangea 2 in the future?
speaker-2 (27:32)
I would, but it would need to be a much cleaner sale, I would say, just from a time perspective. So we have looked, we still look, we look like, I don't want say daily, we're constantly, we have brokers who, I don't want to say they work for us, no broker works for us, brokers who know we're in the hunt and afford us opportunities when they come up. Maybe, yeah. So like if the stars align, but I think we, but they really need to align. And like I said, I think people talk a big game about wanting innovation and wanting these things, but
rules and regulations and processes need to change to make it easier.
speaker-0 (28:04)
not telling you how to design and I think those are that's the problem with our profession is that the architect and the ego perhaps but it's the architect and his vision but what we have to remember it's our clients vision and we have the tools and ability to help them get there and I think that's what's exciting and that's what makes our job most interesting. I do want anybody who's listening to this I think what my reflection is that this was a this was a risk project it was truly unique it pushed boundaries.
This was an experience led project. know, I certainly proud to be your friend and I'm certainly proud to support you in anything that you take on. Cause I think it's just the energy and everything that's behind us. you had a lot of trust and I don't know, ⁓ Andrew, think not only trust, I think you had a lot of trust in yourself. You knew what you were doing and you're certainly a leader. You're a leader with a vision and when others didn't understand or see that vision and that's what's really awesome. So thank you.
This is great.
speaker-2 (29:04)
Well, my pleasure and I would just say like right back at you, Dwayne, you're obviously a super critical component of the team and just somebody I have immense respect for.
speaker-1 (29:14)
Yeah, thank you so much, Russell.
speaker-0 (29:19)
As we wrap up this conversation, we want to thank Russell, not for just sharing his deep experience, but for the perspective he brings to his work. His approach reflects a deep understanding of both the process and the people involved.
It's grounded in collaboration, balance, and long-term thinking. With the steady support of his family and especially his wife, Jelena, behind the scenes, Russell shows how meaningful projects get done. Not by going it alone, but by building trust, asking the hard questions and staying committed from start to finish. We're grateful for the insight, the honesty, and the time he shared with us as part of Behind the Build.
Another Everything podcast.
speaker-2 (30:02)
podcast. ⁓
speaker-0 (30:07)
of Patterson