KRESA Career Connect Campus Earns H&H Painting an APC Top Job 2026 Honorable Mention
The hardest part of the KRESA Career Connect Campus was not the surface we coated. It was the 115,000 square feet of mass timber decking we were not allowed to touch.
American Painting Contractor featured the project in its Top Job 2026 issue with an honorable mention, under the title “Excellence on Display.” The recognition is for the scope of work, so here is the scope.
A Building Designed to Show its Own Structure
The KRESA Career Connect Campus was built for hands-on career and technical education in Kalamazoo County. Structural steel, ductwork, gas piping, and MEP components are left exposed on purpose so students can see how a modern building works.
That single design decision moved nearly every coated surface from behind the drywall to full view, and it raised the acceptance standard on every finish we applied. There is no ceiling tile to hide an overspray line on this project.
What the Coatings Scope Included
The work covered several separate systems on one site:
Each of those systems carries its own surface prep requirement, its own environmental window for application, and its own inspection standard. Running all of them meant sequencing around active trades rather than waiting for a clear building.
Protecting 115,000 Square Feet of Mass Timber Decking
Mass timber is structure and finish at the same time. Once it is stained, dented, or hit with overspray, there is no touch-up. There is no replacement.
Our team protected and masked more than 115,000 square feet of mass timber decking before overhead intumescent and high-performance coatings work began. Maintaining the natural appearance of the wood while spraying adjacent steel meant extensive masking, staged access, and a daily inspection of the protection itself.
Masking at that scale is not a prep step folded into the schedule. It is its own line item and its own crew hours.
Safety Coordination on an Active, Multi-Trade Site
H&H worked under the MIOSHA Partnership Program on this project, which meant monthly safety walks and a Job Safety Analysis completed daily before work began.
On a site with overhead steel work, spray application, floor preparation equipment, and multiple trades sharing the same bay, the JSA is what keeps a sequencing decision from becoming an incident report.
What the Recognition Covers
APC Top Job recognizes commercial and industrial painting projects submitted by contractors nationally. The H&H feature runs in the Top Job 2026 issue under the title “Excellence on Display.”
To read it, visit the APC digital editions library and select the Top Job 2026 issue. The H&H feature appears on printed page 35.
The Finished Facility
The completed campus pairs durable, high-performance coating systems with the visual standard a public education facility has to hold for decades. Automotive bays, health sciences labs, corridors, and open commons all carry different coating systems selected for how each space gets used.
For a building whose purpose is workforce development and hands-on learning, the coatings are part of the curriculum. Students walk past exposed, coated structural steel every day and see how the building was assembled.
Planning a complex commercial painting or facility coatings project? Contact H&H Painting to discuss the scope, scheduling requirements, and specialized coating systems your facility may need. Call 269-748-0933.
