Building What Matters

Jon Holmen has spent nearly his entire career in one school district, starting as a third-grade teacher and working his way through nearly every role in between. 

Today, as Superintendent of Lake Washington School District, one of the largest districts in Washington, he’s thinking about how schools need to evolve to prepare students for a rapidly changing future. 

In this conversation, Jon talks about how the district is approaching AI in the classroom, why students helped push sustainability higher on the agenda, and the two decades of energy conservation work that's saved the district more than $20 million. 

He also explains how those savings flow back into teachers, classrooms and student programs, why modern school facilities need to serve the wider community and what it takes to turn long-term sustainability goals into practical change. 

Host Matt Allen, EVP and Chief Client Officer at McKinstry, sits down with a longtime partner to talk about education, sustainability, technology, and what it means to build better schools for students today and in the future. 

Learn more about Lake Washington School District:

• Website: https://www.lwsd.org/
• LWSD Sustainability and Resource Conservation Action Plan: https://www.lwsd.org/services/facilities/sustainability/sustainability-and-resource-conservation-action-plan  

Connect with McKinstry:  

• Website: https://www.mckinstry.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mckinstry/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LifeAtMcKinstry
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeatmckinstry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifeatmckinstry 

David Mortenson has spent his career thinking about what comes next in construction and what it takes to keep evolving as the industry changes. 

As chairman of Mortenson, one of America’s largest builders, he’s helping shape new ways of designing, building and delivering projects. 

In this conversation, David talks about the lessons construction can learn from manufacturing, the company’s investment in R&D, using AI to rethink old workflows, and why the scale of renewable energy and data center projects is forcing builders to work differently. 

He also explains Mortenson’s practice of “try-storming” instead of brainstorming, the importance of getting ideas straight from people closest to the work, and how the company is investing today for where it wants to be in 2035. 

Host Matt Allen, EVP and Chief Client Officer at McKinstry, sits down with a longtime partner to talk about innovation, long-term thinking and what the next era of the built environment could look like. 

Learn more about Mortenson:    

• Website: https://www.mortenson.com/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mortenson/  

Connect with David:  

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mortenson/  

Connect with McKinstry:    

• Website: https://www.mckinstry.com/   
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mckinstry/   
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LifeAtMcKinstry  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeatmckinstry  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifeatmckinstry  

Dave Sabey has spent more than two decades building data centers, long enough to watch the industry go from a niche bet to the backbone of the AI economy.

Along the way, he picked up a few convictions that still guide him: that fiber-optic cable would beat copper wire, that a project only succeeds if the community around it comes out ahead too, and that the country is going to need a lot more power than it currently has.

In this conversation, Dave walks through his most important lessons, from his early read on Eastern Washington to the questions he’s now asking about what the modern office is really for.

He also talks about growing up in Burien, a coach who reshaped the direction of his life, why he’d take a “team of teams” over a conventional org chart any day, and how one data center project left a small town with a brand-new high school, fire department, and library.

Learn more about Sabey Corporation and Dave Sabey:

• Website: https://sabey.com/
• Dave Sabey: https://sabey.com/team
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sabey/

Connect with McKinstry: 

• Website: https://www.mckinstry.com/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mckinstry/  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@LifeAtMcKinstry 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeatmckinstry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifeatmckinstry 

Seattle Children’s CEO Dr. Christopher Longhurst wants to reach a million patients across a million square miles.

That kind of scale will take more than doctors and hospital beds. It will require smarter technology, better-connected data and a new approach to how care is delivered.

In this conversation, Dr. Longhurst explains why he believes AI can make medicine more human, how technology will help extend pediatric care across the Pacific Northwest and why the hospital’s next campus could become Washington’s first all-electric hospital.

Along the way, he talks about being adopted from foster care, his wife Emily, who he calls his secret weapon, and Bob Barker, their goldendoodle who volunteers with patients. He also explores what becomes possible when hospital operations and building systems start sharing the same data.

Host Matt Allen, EVP and Chief Client Officer at McKinstry, kicks off Building What Matters with a leader operating on the frontier of medicine and technology.

Learn more about Seattle Children’s and Dr. Christopher Longhurst: 

• Seattle Children’s: https://www.seattlechildrens.org/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislonghurst/  
• X: https://x.com/CALonghurst 

Connect with McKinstry: 

• Website: https://www.mckinstry.com/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mckinstry/  
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@LifeAtMcKinstry 
• Instagram: instagram.com/lifeatmckinstry 
• Facebook: facebook.com/lifeatmckinstry 

What does it really take to deliver the schools, hospitals, and infrastructure communities depend on? 

In this trailer, host Matt Allen—Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer at McKinstry—introduces Building What Matters, a new podcast featuring candid conversations with the executives responsible for turning ambitious plans into buildings that serve people for decades. 

Follow Building What Matters wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the McKinstry YouTube channel to watch full conversations.