{"id":1004797624,"date":"2026-05-21T04:05:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004797624"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:05:53","slug":"honoring-a-legacy-inside-adolfson-peterson-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/honoring-a-legacy-inside-adolfson-peterson-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring a Legacy: Inside Adolfson & Peterson Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The full conversation is available on our\u00a0YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Gordon Peterson (left) and George Adolfson (right) met in 1946. Image courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson Construction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Celebrating eight decades of activity and spanning five generations of family involvement, Minneapolis-based Adolfson & Peterson Construction has a storied past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all began in the last year of the Roaring ’20s, when George Adolfson immigrated from Sweden to the U.S., with no more than $40 in his pocket, and began working as a traveling bricklayer in the Twin Cities area. It wasn’t until 1946 that Adolfson met former naval engineer Gordon Peterson, an encounter that led to the founding of a general contracting firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1979, Adolfson and his family bought Peterson\u2019s interest in the company and, since then, the firm has remained 100 percent family-owned. Between 1980 and 2000, AP Construction expanded beyond the state of Minnesota, with the firm having built more than 3,000 projects totaling nearly 300 million square feet to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ ALSO:<\/strong> How Construction Headwinds Are Shaping Development<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What’s the secret behind its longevity and success? In this interview with Commercial Property Executive<\/em>, George Adolfson\u2019s granddaughter Andra Adolfson and grandson Scott Weicht\u2014both actively working in their grandfather’s company\u2014discuss being raised around the firm, current construction industry challenges and their vision for the company for the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like growing up around George Adolfson and AP Construction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Scott Weicht currently serves as president at AP Construction. Image courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson Construction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Weicht: <\/strong>Both Andra and myself, being third generation, we’ve been able to grow up with George and Maya Adolfson (editor’s note: his wife), which was very special. <\/strong>We were able to retain a lot of the oral tradition of what we heard it was like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolfson: <\/strong>Not only did we spend our childhoods with them, but all of us grew up working for the company. Our parents worked for Adolfson & Peterson. We went in as small children. We worked there through college and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us more about your grandparents. What was Maya’s role in the company?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Andra Adolfson is the director of business development at the company. Image courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson Construction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Adolfson: <\/strong>I just don’t think the company would have started without Maya. They were a team and a partnership. And in a traditionally male-dominated industry, oftentimes you talk about all the men in the business, but she really was integral. She supported him. I think it was her idea initially to start a company. She did the accounting and bookkeeping early on. It was a great partnership and the company wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for our grandmother as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weicht: <\/strong>We’ve really looked to both George and Maya. They were The Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andra, how do you balance honoring that legacy with making decisions that push AP Construction forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolfson: <\/strong>As a longer-term employee and somebody who’s part of the family, my coworkers come to me for the history of the family and the company and context, perhaps. And I always say we’re still a family business. The DNA of that original small group in the early years is still here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Maya and George Adolfson, the power couple behind AP Construction’s success. Image courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson Construction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

My grandmother and grandfather felt very strongly about providing lunch for employees in the early days and we had a cook come in and make lunch for everybody. That kind of hospitality and community, \u2026 of knowing each other and eating together \u2026 has been in the company for 80 years and it’s still around today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re designing this new office building and when we’re planning our new space, (people told us) they want a giant lunch table to eat together every day. It’s a whole different way of knowing a coworker, to just sit down and share a meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you say were some key moments that shaped the company into what it is today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weicht: <\/strong>(George and Gordon) started with homes in the suburbs of Minneapolis and very quickly moved to doing commercial work in the 1950s. By the mid 1950s, we were seeing records that they were building K-12 schools, University of Minnesota work, a lot of government buildings as well. And that carried through to the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolfson: <\/strong>I think another important kind of transition was AP\u2019s expansion starting in 1980 with Colorado and then Dallas and then Arizona and other parts of the country. I think that kind of expansionist mindset was important. And I think we were, for the Midwest region, one of the first general contractors to open offices in other parts of the country. So that was visionary\u2014to be looking beyond the Midwest and looking to expand into other markets that early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ ALSO:<\/strong> Top Commercial Real Estate Developers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And not just into other markets, but also into multiple asset types. How important is diversification for a contractor, especially in times of economic slowdowns?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolfson: <\/strong>During 2008-2009, we had offices all over the country and the downturn in the economy impacted those offices at different times. And so, having just that diversity of being in different regions was just a huge benefit to the company. I remember our Colorado, Wyoming and Texas offices, they seemed to be more resilient to that global financial crisis. And if they felt the downturn, it seemed to be later than the rest of us. And I remember thinking at that time that \u2026 we were <\/strong>protected because we were so diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n