By Dan Sullivan
Catholic Herald

Faith important to project's general contractor

SUPERIOR -- Donald Odermann is a lifelong Catholic, so he jumped at the chance to play a big role in the restoration and enhancement of the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Odermann is president and chief executive officer of Lakehead Constructors Inc. of Superior, which served as general contractor for the cathedral restoration and enhancement project.

Besides his professional life, there is another equally important part of this man, his Catholic faith.

"The Catholic Church means a lot to me," he said.

Odermann and his wife, Denese, are members of the Holy Assumption Parish in Superior. He serves as grand knight of the Knights of Columbus Holy Assumption Council and is involved in the parish building committee.

As a graduate of the former Cathedral High School in Superior, Odermann said the education he received at this parochial school instilled in him lessons that remain with him today.

"To this day, the school instills values in every student and you can see that in every student," he said. "It gives values that you carry on in life and I carry into my business."

Following high school Odermann earned a degree in business from the former Mt. Senario College in Ladysmith and was just two credits shy of having another degree in art. He fondly recalled drawing the cathedral for a college art class.

"It was a charcoal sketch of the church," Odermann said. "I've always been fascinated by the cathedral."

After college, he gained engineering experience during a stint in the military. It was this diverse experience that led him to construction field.

Although it's out of their usual industrial scope, when the cathedral project was first talked about, Odermann wanted his company to be involved.

"This is not something we do every day, but there are not churches worked on like this every day either," he said. "What we do well at is unique projects and challenges. At our company, we succeed and enjoy challenges."

Besides Odermann being a past member of the cathedral parish, one of his partners, Mark Hubbard, although not Catholic, has cathedral ties. Hubbard's wife, Diane (Minter) Hubbard, comes from a long line of cathedral parishioners.

"It was a project that we knew right away that we wanted to bid on," Odermann said. "We have worked on churches before and we've built churches before."

Odermann said it was an awesome task to be able to assist in the preservation of the cathedral.

"It's a unique structure and it's not being duplicated today," Odermann said. "It needed to be preserved."

He credited the diocese and the cathedral parish with realizing the work needed to be done on this building.

"The stewardship (practice) of the parish and its pastors of the present and past recognized this," Odermann said. "There was a need and the artwork added will only enhance things."

The work done on the cathedral was not the normal remodeling job.

"A lot of work that went on were techniques of the past," Odermann said. "We had to use substitute materials or be able to find materials."

Recalling one phase of the project, Odermann said the entire floor of the main part of the cathedral was removed. "It was entirely opened to the basement," he said.

Structurally there were concerns and issues that had to be dealt with. Adding a new stairwell was another challenge.

Another unique aspect of this project was constructing the altar area. The new altar floor was placed on approximately two and one-half feet of Styrofoam, then encased with a lightweight concrete floor and topped with a terrazzo finish. The Styrofoam was used to minimize the weight bearing on the structure below.

Another issue faced was the installation of new duct work in a way that it didn't take away from the original design of the church.

"Adding the air conditioning duct work was quite a challenge," Odermann said. "They also removed the old organ and repositioned things so a new organ can be put in front. The choir was also moved from the back to the front."

He said there is a certain amount of pride involved with the completion of a construction project.

"Anybody that's a contractor, anybody that's a project manager for a construction project knows the feeling of self-satisfaction that you were a part of something great," Odermann said.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2005