Ken Flower
President
Woodward Design + Build
With more than 100 years of building history, Woodward has a portfolio that’s shaped much of the New Orleans skyline. The company delivers turn-key commercial construction services and provides design and construction services to industries including health care, education, hospitality, distribution and multi-family.
As president, Ken Flower provides direction and oversight to preconstruction and construction operations, the firm’s self-performing divisions, and manages the overall performance of the company. He has also been an integral part of the firm’s most recent initiatives, which encompass implementing the latest design/construction technologies and tackle issues of sustainability and diversity and inclusion.
What are you most excited about in the coming year? We’ve been working on the Ochsner Neuroscience Center for a few years now, in pre-construction and supporting their fundraising efforts. My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s, so supporting research and treatments for neurological issues is important to our family.
Working with Loyola, we are building a new dorm, as well as working on a renovation at the Broadway campus.
The Saints are kicking off the new season with improvements to their practice facilities and a brand-new locker room in the Superdome… just in time for them to use it in the Super Bowl. All our projects utilize lean construction methods and are really crisp and efficiently run. It’s exciting to see both our new and veteran employees get excited about learning and implementing new methods and improving the client experience and the profession of building construction.
What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today? The challenges continue to be mostly macroeconomic issues like interest rates, inflation and insurance. These issues seem to have caused some sort of perfect storm and have stalled some private investment and real estate development. I’m optimistic the fever will break soon, however, and we’ll see more innovative developments and much-needed affordable housing projects kick off around town.