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History
Interstate Door Sales was created by David E. Caldwell, an Economics graduate
from the University of Washington. Mr. Caldwell began work in the door and
hardware industry when he accepted a sales and marketing position with US
Plywood in 1958. While working with US Plywood, Mr. Caldwell not only
gained valuable experience in sales and marketing, but he also acquired a
great deal of knowledge in the wood industry and left with a lifelong
appreciation of the beauty of architectural hardwoods. Following his time
with US Plywood, Mr. Caldwell relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where
he accepted a position at Durand Door in 1965. He stayed with Durand Door
until its closure in 1969. Mr. Caldwell then began working at Minton Door
in a project manager/sales position until 1977. His understanding of the
hardware industry, hollow metal production and knowledge of wood products
allowed him to easily transition to work as an independent representative
for door, frame and hardware manufacturers.
In 1981 Mr. Caldwell started Interstate Door Sales Inc. (IDSI). IDSI, a
distributor of commercial and institutional doors, frames, and hardware,
was originally located at the San Francisco Builders Exchange where it
operated as a sole proprietorship. In 1984 IDSI incorporated, and shortly
thereafter Mr. Caldwell found a niche market in "Integrated Door
Assemblies". At that time, Integrated Door Assemblies were unheard of,
but IDSI so aggressively marketed and sold them, that they became the
largest distributor of this product in the country and they could be found
in most any commercial building in San Francisco.
In 1985 IDSI relocated to a larger facility in San Francisco's Potrero Hill
district. Due to a steady increase in sales volume, IDSI expanded to a
second warehouse in 1993. In the early 1990's the San Francisco Bay Area
construction market began seeing the early signs of growth preceding the
Dot-Com Era. Tenant improvement work overshadowed our work in other sectors
in 1997 - 2000, and the demanding construction schedules kept IDSI working
at an intense pace to keep up with the Dot-Com boom.
Following the Dot-Com bust, the bottom fell out of the tenant improvement
market. Rather than fighting every other distributor for what was left of
tenant improvement work, IDSI shifted its focus to biotech, hospitals, and
various types of public work. Coincidentally, these types of projects were
also an ideal fit for integrated door assemblies.
In 2004 Mr. Caldwell transitioned from overseeing a growing distributorship
to concentrating on specification writing as an independent consultant. He
promoted IDSI's Senior Estimator and Project Manager, Stephen Baccei, to
General Manager. Steve joined IDSI in 1992 after gaining 14 years of
experience in the hardware industry. Like many others in this industry, his
father was in the hardware industry before him. He continues to preserve
and seek niche markets in the ever-evolving door and hardware industry.
Steve is an expert in wood doors and hardware, and negotiates many of our
contracts on new hospital construction projects.
Another longtime member in the IDSI family is Lisa Walsh. Lisa started with
IDSI in 1988 by assisting Robert Strauss, a custom hollow metal expert who
pioneered many of the Integrated Door Assembly details you see today. Lisa
works exclusively in sales, marketing, and project management of Integrated
Door Assemblies. She has developed a large library of Integrated Door
Assembly details that offer proven solutions to architects on very complex
door openings. In January 2006 Lisa became President of Interstate Door.
The year 2006 was a major turning point for Interstate Door. We saw
completions of three major and highly complicated projects: The Olympic
Club ($800K), UC Berkeley-Stanley Hall ($1.2M), and Kaiser Santa Clara
Phase II Hospital Replacement ($2M). These projects proved not only that we
could manage large jobs in the office, but what we are particularly proud
of is our performance in the field. Our installation crew performed the
amazing feat of installing all three projects (as well as a multitude of
other smaller and medium sized projects) at virtually the same time on
schedule. Particularly significant were the rave reviews heard from the
OSHPD inspector on the Kaiser project.
2006 was also important in that two significant hospital projects were
awarded us. The entire door, frame, hardware, and installation contract,
valued at nearly $3M, was awarded to us on the El Camino Hospital project
with Rudolph & Sletten. Additionally, we negotiated a nearly $4M
package with Turner Construction on the Mills Peninsula Hospital project.
We also gained greater experience in the challenges of hospital retrofit in
2006. Our focus in 2007-2008 was on growing our business from many aspects.
We've increased our project diversity, everything from single door
replacement to small T.I. projects to multi-million dollar new construction
projects. We've hired additional project managers who specialize in
specific project types. We've hired assistant project managers so we can
sustain and manage future growth. We've also relocated our operation to a facility
double in size.
Interstate Door Sales will continue to seek niche markets, evolve and
expand the integrated door assembly market, and tackle the most challenging
projects.
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