TALK
We’re celebrating the best of summer—from PTO and parties to projects and popcorn-worthy premieres.
Ah, Summer. The season of rooftop regrets, inbox automatic replies, and clinging to your PTO like it’s the last slice of watermelon at the Summer Party. As the days get shorter and the AC wars rage on, we pause—spritz in hand— to reflect on another Summer well spent. This season, we’re spotlighting the things that make Stonefield tick—starting with you. Inside, you’ll get a glimpse of what one of our beloved Team Yankee members carries to work every day and the latest merch drop to keep you all looking sharp at your desk, in the field, or at the beach. We’ve also racked our brains to try and recall the events that transpired in Montauk at the Summer Party this year.. Hurricane Erin had the ocean boiling, the waves pumping, and did you know there is such thing as a “chicken tender tower?” Speaking of delicious offerings, we’ve also got a quick recap of Café Kylie —a pop-up coffee and matcha event hosted in Tampa.
Looking ahead, all eyes are on Project Stonefield—our first-ever company film showcase at the end of September, where each team pulls back the curtain to share with us what they do best. There’s been a lot of buzz leading up to such a special event, and we really can’t wait to see what you’ve all cooked up for us. Inside there’s plenty more—including employee interviews, another Where In The World of Stonefield section, and tons of car washes—yes, we’re sudzing up America one development at a time. Lastly, we’ve featured the third board game installment on the back side of this page for you all to challenge each other to, but for now, kick back, catch up, and let’s savor what’s left of summer vibes until Autumn fully sets in.
seLec Ts
MUSIC: I just found this bizarre country song which, it turns out, is actually quite popular. Highwaymen involves Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson telling tales of epic and sprawling reincarnations across four separate eras and occupations.
SOCIAL MEDIA: In the endless wasteland that is Instagram, one account rises above the rest as genuinely innovative and entertaining. @fatfellas. I generally despise AI-generated visuals, but this page transcends my hatred of the trend. If you don’t have a sense of humor, don’t bother looking it up.
FOOD: Sabor Unido in the Ironbound of Newark, NJ. Very kind family serving Brazilian & Portuguese food. Great shrimp!
PHOTOGRAPHY: After being disappointed by the feel of iPhone photos I decided to get back into 35mm photography. I started off buying this plastic chintzy Kodak EKTAR H35N. These cameras are designed to double your amount of photos by splitting the typical frame in half. So if you have 36 exposures you end up with 72 photos. Ultimately the Kodak was a disappointment, I returned it, and bought the Olympus EE-2, which is a wonderful tank-like camera from 1968.
EVENTS: The Williams Center is full of wonderful events, including a new event centered around sketching together called Flow State. It’s every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, and all skill-levels are encouraged to try their hand at drawing. It’s free too.
CHILDREN: My son, Marcel, is the best. Better than all kids in every way.
Photo taken by Sam Gavin in Montauk, NY
Michael Olivo shares some of his current recommendations. A little baby. A little camera. A lot of fat fellas.
ss25 design insighT
From the roar of folklore to the hush of incense smoke, Bali surrounds you with contrasts that somehow exist in harmony. These designs carry that duality forward—fierce and quiet, grounded and alive—stitched into garments meant to travel with you.
Some trips you remember. Others alter your sense of color, space, and story. Bali left us with all three—the warmth of its clay roads, the weight of its myths, the makeshift nature of its structures. The beautiful morning offerings placed everywhere as gratitude to the gods and to promote balance. The dense green pressing in from every side. That quiet hum of energy you carry with you long after leaving.
The spring/summer 25 collection is our attempt to capture that energy—the way light dances through leaves, the tension in a tiger’s poised stride, the balance of movement and stillness woven through the island’s myths. Each design carries a pulse, a subliminal potential energy ready to spring into life, just like that of a big cat.
Tigers appear again and again, sometimes circling, sometimes watching, always alive in motion and spirit. They embody both strength and grace, the duality of creation and restraint, the harmony of opposition. Their presence fascinates us, and we can’t help but to admire their elegance. That guy with great hair eating the sun, that’s Kala Rauh.
This collection is more than artwork—it’s the essence of a place, translated into line, color, and form. Bali’s energy, its stories, and its rhythms live here, distilled into a visual language meant to be seen, felt, shared, and carried with you as a reminder of that potential energy inside you—ready to roar. Wear the collection like a tiger wears its coat, embracing the dirt, scars, wear, and tear.
dAiLY cARRY
Every pocket has a purpose, every pin a memory—Jerry’s backpack is as much a time capsule as it is a toolkit.
Some people travel with the bare minimum. Others travel like their going on a 2-week vacation to Europe. Jerry Michalkiewicz somewhere in the middle. His backpack is one part utility kit, one part memory box, and one part accidental lost-and-found.
First, the pins—five in total—clipped like little souvenirs from different chapters. There’s the steadfast Team Yankee (always representing), last year’s Ohio State championship pin (Go Bucks), a token from family park memories at Disney, a Vikings pin from a trip to Minnesota, and a baseball pin picked up in Tampa after catching the Tigers play the Rays earlier this summer.
On the wrist: a Shinola watch, proudly stamped “Detroit,” a subtle nod to Michigan roots. In the tech department, two sets of AirPods—one bought in a panic, the other rediscovered weeks later. The TI-84 calculator is a survivor of junior-year math, still running after thousands of drops.
A travel-sized toothpaste and mouthwash remain tucked inside, relics of an unpacked trip, but surprisingly handy. Flonase stands at the ready for allergy ambushes. And buried in the mix: a couple of well-worn books on habit building, fuel for a new chapter in life as a parent.
It’s part gear, part nostalgia, and a little bit of chaos— exactly what makes a daily carry worth digging into.
cLienT spoTLighT
What started as a handful of projects has grown into a coast-to-coast presence. Our car wash work is multiplying, carried forward by trust, teamwork, and tenacity. Here’s how Stonefield is making waves across the industry.
Stonefield’s car wash journey has gone from a small trickle of water to a tidal wave in just a few short years. What began in 2022 with a handful of referrals has surged into multistate partnerships with EL Car Wash, Spark Car Wash, and other big players in the industry—proof that trust and tenacity travel the furthest. Did you know the company’s first full site plan submission in 2010 was for a project called “Go Green Car Wash” in Westwood, NJ?
Those first projects weren’t spotless. Every new car wash project brought its fair share of snags. But consistent communication, patience with complex review cycles, and meticulous attention to detail polished those rough edges into long-term confidence. That gained trust, has built a pipeline of work stretching from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and down through the Southeast with no signs of slowing down.
Now, the ever-expanding pace is quickening. This summer, two new EL Car Wash sites launched in Florida—momentum fueled directly by the excellence of our Midwest teams. And while EL Car Wash still taps other firms across the Southeast, each opportunity is our chance to prove the point we’ve always known: Stonefield service shines anywhere.
The ripple effect runs deeper too. Several leaders at EL Car Wash cut their teeth at ModWash, where teams from NYC, Rutherford, and Salem left a lasting mark with their design work. The confidence of those leaders carries on, showing that quality work and quality people echo long after a project wraps.
In an industry obsessed with speed, suds, and stacked traffic lanes, our strongest advantage remains the simplest: relationships. Whether it’s a midnight phone call or a quick reply to an email, even the seemingly smallest spark of communication can set the whole chain reaction in motion.
cAfe KYLie RecAp
A recap of the biggest event in Tampa. A little friendly competition, some first-time fans, and few heavy hands. The recipe for a successful boozy workshop. Be on the lookout for Kylie, she may just show up at your doorstep next.
On July 31st, the Tampa office traded spreadsheets for sprotinis at Café Kylie, a one-day-only matcha and espresso pop-up hosted by their very own Kylie Roach. The event kicked off with a quick how-to on crafting the perfect base for your beverage of choice—think barista school, but with better company and less pressure to spell names correctly.
From there, the office split into two teams: Kids vs Adults. The kids took the first barista shift, and let’s just say Mikey P’s sprotini was... strong. The biggest challenge of the day? Not the latte art or the caffeine jitters. It was wrestling the cocktail shaker open to actually pour the drinks.
Highlights included Jerry trying matcha for the first time (he’s a fan) and a strong collective opinion that Kylie should take this show on the road. Plans are already brewing (pun intended) for the next event: a latte art class where employees will learn to make those satisfying, swirly hearts in their foam.
Until then, cheers to Kylie for shaking things up—literally— and proving that Tampa knows how to do coffee breaks right. Other offices—be on the lookout. Kylie might just show up on your doorstep with a jar of matcha powder.
Te Ams
Te Ams
inTeRview
With Iman Hussein
I met Iman the first time I was asked to help compose these interviews for the newsletter. She popped in, admirably, to ensure her people were comfortable being peppered with questions. When we settled down in August for our talk at the old Soldato office below hers, the conversation was quickly candid and deep, as we spoke about more than what appears here in part one of this extensive two-part interview. I was the one tasked with asking questions that day, but I couldn’t help but think that it was more like a conversation with someone who was used to being on the other side as the one doing the prodding. While opening up about my family and aspirations during the conversation, it struck me that many encounters with her employees probably feel similarly fluid.
I wanted to talk to you because your name comes up all the time in these interviews. People drop your name often, but just the first name. That’s impressive.
My email is just Iman. That was part of my negotiations. I said, “I’m not taking the job unless I get my first name as my email.”
You seem like you are not from an engineering background.
Definitely not. I’ve worked in the land development industry since I was 16. My sister was an accountant for a developer and needed an extra set of hands to file and do the bitch work. My uncle was kind of a developer, and I worked with him. So it was in my family.
Did you go to college?
Yes, I went to Rollins, a liberal arts school in Orlando. I studied psychology. I was close to finishing but never did.
How does psychology inform what you do here at Stonefield?
It comes up when trying to understand people and help them deal with things. I’m trying not to be such a psychologist or play a game with people, I’m just trying to understand them.
What did you pursue instead of continuing psychology?
I was working at an architecture firm. And my former boss was very demanding–quite the diva–as they usually are. I worked there for a few years and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t really going anywhere. I was very career-oriented, so I wanted to get out of the industry and switch to something completely different. I’ve always been passionate about psychology, so I was considering going back to school. That’s what eventually led me to Stonefield.
I went to a conference in Las Vegas with my husband, who knew Chuck and his partner Tim. It was a retail convention where a lot of our clients go, and it’s great for the engineers to show face. I told my boss at the time that I would do some business development while I was there. Chuck would tell me he was looking for someone in administration, an office manager. But I told myself that I won’t work for an engineering firm. I didn’t tell him that. I was like, oh yeah, you know, let me ask my friends; I’ll let you know. And then we get to Vegas, and in Vegas, you kind of get a little bit more, you know, loose. So, he finally asked me point blank. I didn’t want the job, but as a courtesy I agreed to the interview.
I was an hour late to my interview. I texted Chuck and Tim and told them: my former boss is holding me hostage. It was another day where he was being the diva he is. It was 6 pm, he was telling me, I need you to do this or that. And he asked me a lot of questions like where are you off to? Where are you going? I didn’t want to tip him off. I ended up showing up like an hour late. Chuck and Tim sat in at the beginning, but then they ended up leaving. Jeff asked the questions, and from there, it was pretty much history.
How did you deal with that tangle of leaving the other job? How did your former boss take it?
He locked me in his car for like three hours when I told him I was quitting. I told him that I was going to go work with my husband, who had just left his job. So he told me that we would get lunch. He and his girlfriend at the time, now wife, took me to lunch and started asking me what I wanted to do. I already gave my notice. They kept telling me they had ideas for this and that, but I knew it was all bullshit. I’d seen this happen so many times before.
We came back from lunch and he was like, so what do you think? And I asked, can I have time to think about it? I had pretty much made my decision, and he wasn’t letting me out of the car. So I was like, okay, let me just tell him because he’s not letting me out. He would not take no for an answer. It was like a standoff, and I out-stood him. And I kept telling them, I don’t know what to tell you. I made my decision. You’re not going to win.
Here are a few quick questions about your life outside of work. Have you ever fallen in public?
I’ve had a few funny falls. I’ve walked into glass doors. I had some embarrassing falls, and I flew off my bike in Central Park; I was in the middle of a crowd. I had to play it off, so I popped back up. I also fell hard enough while snowboarding to break my wrist.
What’s something you should spend more time on, but don’t?
That’s a good one. This sounds a little self-centered, but myself. Breathing. Meditating, going away on wellness retreats, you know. I’m not a high-strung person, but everything happens internally for me, so I may be externally ok, but inside is something else. Another lifelong thing that I’ve wanted to do is learn how to swim. It seems like a life skill that I don’t have. I took surfing lessons in Hawaii, but I had to tell the surf instructor that I didn’t swim. He was like, “what are you even doing here?”
inTeRview
With Andrew Vischio
Andrew and I met on a day where there had been serious flash floods nearby, which prevented our photographer from joining us. Without the need for a simultaneous photo shoot, Andrew and I leisurely ambled into a conference room alongside the open area of the office at 92 Park. And without flash bulbs and direction of where to cast a glance, the interview, in turn, had a casual feel. Andrew comfortably rolled up the sleeves to his white oxford shirt and explained his relationship with civil engineering, detailed the supper club he hosts at his home, and laid out his love for the perpetually-doomed baseball franchise that wears orange and blue.
Where did you go to college?
Georgia Tech from ‘05 to 2010. I did one year at grad school as well. I was definitely not destined to be an engineer–by any stretch. It was just a kind of process of elimination, frankly. I changed majors three times. I started as a nuclear engineering major, which I think is the only reason why I got in. The nuclear engineering program was so small that they were probably thinking, oh, someone wants to join this? Yeah. He’s in. So I bounced from nuclear to just straight up physics. And I did that for a semester and I didn’t love it. And then I landed on civil engineering, which stuck.
It sounds like it went from theoretical to practical somehow?
That’s exactly how it went. In college I discovered that the way my brain works is that I need something to be tangible in order for me to really comprehend it. Once physics starts introducing, you know, the hardest levels of calculus, then I checked the fuck out.
So then how did you get out of Atlanta? How did you escape?
I love Atlanta. But, I knew that I wanted to go back home. My wife and I started dating in March of our senior year of high school. We met at Staten Island Tech. But we didn’t know each other at all until literally three months before we graduated. So, for the better, we stuck it out. We were in a long distance relationship the entire time. She went to Boston University.
So I was looking for a job in 2010. I was about to graduate, and I was looking for a job in civil transportation, specifically. I thought I would just go work for New York City DOT. They were not hiring. I was like, oh, I’ll just work for NJ DOT– not hiring. It would have been significantly easier to get a job in Atlanta, but I knew I wanted to live in New York City. I was searching for jobs with one arm tied behind my back because all of my connections were down south.
My sister went to Bucknell, and Stonefield had posted a job there. I graduated in December 2010 from grad school. So in early 2011, I was looking for jobs. My sister was like, hey, this company’s hiring. I started in March 2011 at Stonefield when the first office at 36 Ames Ave. I left Stonefield June-ish, 2015, to go work for Jersey City. I was always enamored with the idea of working for a public agency, and I thought it would be really cool to work for the city where I lived. And then, you know, seven years later, I became completely jaded. I think the biggest reason was, I couldn’t escape work. I would get bummed out going downtown for dinner. I’d be walking around, and I would say oh, shit, that’s a project that I need to get to.
I had a cup of coffee with a large private engineering firm called Dewberry for two years. And then I was feeling pretty bummed out about that job. I felt a little bit isolated. I never really connected on a personal level with my co-workers. I was actually playing around with the idea of just changing my career trajectory entirely.
So is that around the time when you went back to Stonefield?
I got texts from Chuck out of the blue and he was like, hey, you wanna grab a cup of coffee? It was late 2023, November 2023. I met up, and he got me up to speed on how the company was doing. He let me know that they were interested in bringing me back. I think that I realized that I valued the enjoyment of the work environment and my coworkers more than I thought I did. I thought I was a person who could just sit down in my cube and work all day, be a worker bee. And it turns out, I found out that I’m not that person. I was excited about the idea of coming back to a company where I could be friendly and social with my coworkers.
What other stuff are you into? What occupies your time?
I like to cook and we like to host. We have dinner parties. We like to host so much that friends of ours gave us a stamp that says Pine Street Supper Club. It’s become tradition for us to host Christmas every year for our family and friends. So I type the menu out every year on this old, vintage typewriter. I type it out and I put our stamp on it for each place setting. Oh, and I’m also a huge Mets fan.
How long will a Pine Street Supper Club typically last?
Too long. The amount of food that we serve is so obnoxious. We’ve been doing cold anti-pasta and a lot of other courses. I make pizzas, too. And even here at the office, for the past two years, on a day in May, I’ve been bringing my Ooni pizza oven to work.
What’s your Citi Field food recommendation?
If you have time, pastrami. It’s like the second or third level back by home plate. They also have it in the Piazza club. It’s not like fancypants food at all. They do thick-cut pieces; the guy slices it right in front of you. It’s really good.
How would you pitch baseball to get someone interested in it? I love it too, but it is definitely a boring sport.
This is how I pitched it to my wife: It’s a soap opera for guys. The season has ups and downs. Ebs and flows. People get traded. People get hurt. People get promoted from the minor leagues. People get sent down. Win seven, lose three. You go on a ridiculous hot street. Coaches get fired. I was at the game where we lost the 2015 World Series. I had to go to that game–I didn’t know if they were gonna get back for another 20, 30 years. I saw the Royals celebrate on our field.
What was once a roaring artery of commerce has softened into a sanctuary of green and stillness. Look closer — do you know where you stand? Guess the city one of our 7 offices shares with the mystery location below
In the mid-19th century, this quiet ribbon of water was anything but. Carved by hand and opened in 1834, it quickly became a restless artery of commerce — a liquid highway shuttling millions of tons of coal toward cities that crackled with new industry. Barges creaked through its narrow channel, pulled by mules along shaded towpaths, the air thick with grit, steam, and the steady rhythm of progress.
But progress is impatient. Steel tracks and iron locomotives soon outran the old canal, and by the early 1900s its currents had stilled. The official closure in 1932 left behind a hushed corridor of stone locks and moss-draped walls, where nature slowly reclaimed what men had forced.
And yet the story did not end. Decades later, preservationists reimagined this forgotten passage, not for commerce but for wandering souls. Today, it stretches more than 70 miles as a park — a winding trail of water and woodland, where runners trace the mule paths, kayaks drift through mirror-still pools, and cyclists roll beneath cathedral-like canopies of green.
Once an engine of industry, now a sanctuary of silence and motion — but can you tell where?
The answer can be found on the back page.
wheRe in The woRLd monTAuK memoRies
Skipping stones and skipping sleep. A night that only ended because the sun forced it to. Isn’t that how summer should feel? Blink and it’s gone—good thing we didn’t.
On August 23rd, Montauk was in rare form—sky spotless, post-hurricane waves pumping in with a hypnotic rhythm, and a sun that warmed but never burned. We claimed a patch of sand as if it had been waiting there just for us. Down the beach, we gave in to that timeless urge—skipping stones and climbing anything in sight. Call it primitive, call it pointless, but it’s the kind of play that makes adults feel ageless again.
Later, we migrated from sand to lounge chairs at The Montauk Beach House. Our private corner came alive— plates shuffled, glasses clinked, laughter echoing from every conversation. Setting sun on skin, we basked in the light like a lizard under a lamp. A few dove headfirst into the water to cool off, while others drifted toward the poolside DJ to heat up. You’d be hard pressed to call it lounging.
When the poolside hours dissolved, the night splintered. Some chased sleep, others chased dinner, but both paths met at the same destination: the club. Our own table, bottles rolling in one after another, bodies blurring into motion until the whole room felt alive. Time evaporated.
And just when it seemed over, it wasn’t. We found ourselves back on the beach, a fire clawing upward against the Atlantic wind. Faces lit in orange glow, voices rising and falling with the tide. The dips were skinny as the first streaks of sunrise spilled across the horizon. The night turned morning. The weekend turned memory. The story still echoing—until we do it all again.
STONEFIELD NEWSLETTEr
Each Stonefielder answered 10 of the 20 questions below:
1. What song would hit at a funeral?
2. You find yourself alone in a zoo after close – what animal are you kicking it with?
3. What’s a hill you’ll die on no matter how stupid it is?
4. If you could un-invent one thing, what would it be?
5. What inanimate object best represents you?
6. If your brain was an internet browser, what 3 tabs are currently open?
7. What’s your favorite emoji? Which one give you the ick?
8. What fictional character do you irrationally hate?
9. What’s your dumbest injury story?
10. What’s your ideal bar look like when you walk in?
11. What’s something you wish people would stop pretending to like?
12. Are hot dogs tacos or sandwiches?
13. What’s the best fast-food chain?
14. If you were a candle, what would your scent be?
15. What’s your favorite condiment?
16. What skill or subject do you consider yourself a black belt in?
17. What’s your favorite music genre? Movie genre?
18. What’s the best streaming service?
19. What trivia category are you the best at?
20. What meme best represents your life?
michAeL wALdRon
nicK sALvensen
JAKe esTAbRooKs siTe
siTe siTe
Team Delta Tiny
