Fast 15: Shane Hartzler

Shane Hartzler grew up in a small town north of Kansas City, Mo., in a household with three sisters.

“Me and my dad are very close,” he joked.

It’s probably no surprise, then, Hartzler chose to follow in the footsteps of his father, who is a project engineer/estimator for a small company in Kansas City. Hartzler’s career has started with a company whose name is synonymous with construction in Arkansas, and he’s made a quick impression.

He joined the business in January 2016 and in less than two years was promoted to project superintendent, the youngest in the entire company.

Hartzler’s focus right now and for the next year-plus is helping oversee construction of the Stadium Drive Residence Halls on the south end of the University of Arkansas campus, next to Bud Walton Arena. The two buildings total 202,027 square feet and are the first large-scale mass timber buildings of their kind in the U.S. Specifically, they are the first residence halls in the country being built using cross-laminated timber.

Between 80 and 100 workers are at the job site now, and Hartzler said that number will double, if not triple, once the structure starts going vertical. It’s scheduled for completion in July 2019.

Hartzler worked summers for his father’s company while attending Missouri State University in Springfield. He graduated in December 2015 with a degree in technology and construction management. He was a member of a construction management club at MSU and made a connection with Nabholz during a job fair during his final semester.

He soon had a job offer in the company’s Rogers office and went to work as a project engineer one month after graduation. He cut his teeth as an assistant project manager for the UA’s Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, a 54,000-square-foot building dedicated this past November.

Hartzler said managing the safety, schedule and quality of each project are his main goals. And while hard work has been ingrained from a young age, his best advice for young professionals is guidance he also follows.

“Something I was told is to make sure you’re working to live and not living to work,” he said. “That’s something I’ve always tried to make sure I was doing.”

Hartzler enjoys spending time throughout the year on the lake, and he is engaged to be married in the fall.