She then led the design and construction of the National Constitution Center. Now, she owns and operates her own construction company.Twenty years ago, she became the first female founded and owned union commercial general contractor.Early on, Bittenbender brought in a female partner, Angela Vacante.Nearly half of the company's employees are women.
"Our culture is very different," she said. "We understand that the first priority really is the family and the children and we provide flexible hours.""My company really likes to do projects that have impact in our community and our citizens. One prime example, we're really proud of"We are a woman-owned, minority-owned business enterprise as well," said Kelly.
Using technology that marries the best of pre-fab and general construction, Falkbuilt builds interior walls.She takes care of everything from design and development to manufacturing and installation. "We do it in a unique and different way. We do it in a sustainable way. We do it in a faster way. We do it in a way that really offers options to the design community," she said."We're digitizing the components and making them off site, but they're already sized and ready to order," she said. "So that you have walls that are going up about 30% faster than you would with just general construction.
The product is flexible so you can essentially bend the product to fit instead of knocking down walls. And you can re-use it, which means minimal waste, less material and zero dust."We're not taking anything to the landfills," she said."We're building for a better tomorrow," she said.Kelly and Bittenbender Construction have worked together on a number of jobs. This is Kelly's third company.