The Graduates Behind The Graduate Hotel

“We can usually connect over previous experiences at Auburn,” said Brown. “Plus, we get to gang up on the Alabama fans that we work with, and that is always fun.”

Doyle enjoys meeting graduates who attended Auburn in different years than him, like Brown and Harmon, and learning how the school has changed or stayed the same.

Almost two years ago, Harmon, owner of Harmon Engineering and Contracting, and Brown, project manager for the company, examined the site of Anders Bookstore on Magnolia Avenue, which would become the Auburn Graduate Hotel.

Harmon planned out the logistics of working in the tight space with heavy foot traffic. Then Brown and the others at Harmon Engineering prepared the site, demolishing Anders Bookstore, apartments and a parking lot. Next, they dug a nine-foot-deep pit for the foundation, removed light poles and rerouted utilities.

Doyle, a project engineer for the general contractor Robins & Morton, joined the project as the surveyor for the concrete and exterior of the building. He laid out the project using a robotic total station and poured concrete for the foundation. They worked together to build up from the underground parking garage to the rooftop bar above the five-story hotel.

As a subcontractor, Harmon and Brown are the first on a project and the last to leave. The hotel neared completion in August 2024, as they finished the sidewalk, exterior utilities and landscaping.

First In The Family

Doyle grew up in rural Blountsville, Ala. on a back road surrounded by family. His father, Mark, a self-taught framing carpenter, brought Doyle along to work on projects when he was a teenager. He absorbed the knowledge his father shared, learning how to build decks, frame houses and treat people fairly.

“It’s an honor learning from my dad because he’s knowledgeable about everything,” said Doyle. “He knew what it was like to be a laborer, and to be someone who could run multiple crews.”

But Doyle thought the medical field was a good option, so he enrolled as a pre-dental student at Wallace State Community College. A year later, his friend Tyler Criswell encouraged him to aim for a bigger goal and convinced him to enroll at Auburn University. With his sights set on becoming a dentist, Doyle worked every weekend at the sawmill to afford tuition.

“It was funny to break the news to my family because they are all Alabama fans,” Doyle laughed. “They were joking about it at first, but I think they realized that I was really doing it. I was really going to a university.”

Doyle didn’t fully convert to an Auburn fan, but he has a new love for the school, town and football team. He’s a proud Auburn fan except when they’re playing Alabama.

“My uncle, David Booker, played for Bama in 1979 and has a national championship ring for Bear Bryant, so I couldn’t give up on being a Bama fan,” he said.

Slowly, Doyle lost interest in dentistry and was considering other options. When he heard about the building science program, something sparked.

He remembers several building science professors who had a lasting impact on him, including Roger Rice, who passed away from COVID-19 in 2020.

“He would do extra stuff for us that the school didn’t require of him,” said Doyle. “One time we were all nervous the day before a test, and he said he’d get a pizza and meet us in the classroom that night to answer our questions.”

Doyle became the first in his family to earn a bachelor’s degree in 2020. Robins & Morton hired him, and he was quickly sent to one of their biggest jobs ever in Roanoke, Va. For two years he worked on the expansion of a 15-story hospital.

After having a son, he and his wife decided to move closer to home and return to the Plains. He was placed on the Graduate Hotel project in downtown Auburn as a surveyor on the management team.

“I love construction. It’s hard work, you’re out in the sun and it’s tough, long hours, but at the end of the day and at the end of a project, you get to look back and see what all those long hours were for,” Doyle said.

Building For The Auburn Community

Brown also learned about construction from his father, David, who was a deep foundation contractor for Morris-Shea Bridge Company. In 1998, Brown graduated from Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Ga. and came to Auburn University. Getting into the building science courses was difficult, but Brown remembers having amazing professors. Brown alternated working and taking classes every semester for the next few years. He worked at the sports bar Touchdown’s, where he met his future wife Morgan, and where he made a connection to his future career at Harmon Engineering.

Brown also got to participate in a co-op in West Virginia on a project building an extension on a lock and dam.

“When a barge goes up a river, it has to change elevations, so it goes into a big chamber, the doors close and the water rises up to the next level,” Brown said. It was so hot working on the river that after two weeks the six drill assistants were down to one, which was Brown. The other five quit because of the intense heat and difficulty of the work.

Brown graduated from Auburn in 2003 and was hired by Harmon Engineering, where he’s worked for 21 years. On the job, Brown is responsible for everything from the ground down, including utilities, sidewalks, roads and more. He also does civil design, environmental engineering and environmental cleanup.

“I love being able to go by jobs that we’ve done and point them out,” Brown said. “I like being able to have my hands on things and know what went into something.”

Some of the local projects he’s been part of include the new emergency department for East Alabama Medical Center, Well Red Bookstore on Donahue Drive and environmental cleanups for Auburn University. Across the country, Auburn alumni are also helping rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure.

“Auburn’s building science program is probably one of the best programs in the country in preparing people for the general workforce, so it means a lot to stay in town,” Brown said.

Auburn To The Core

Harmon grew up north of LaFayette on a dairy and beef farm. His father, Grady, was not only a dairy farmer, but also an engineer who taught mechanical engineering at Auburn in the 1960s until he decided to go out on his own and start a consulting engineering firm in Auburn.

Instead of consulting like his father, Harmon was drawn to civil engineering. After graduating from Chambers Academy, he came to Auburn in 1983 in pursuit of this goal.

When Harmon wasn’t studying, he was at home helping his granddad on the farm or working with his father. They’d built an apartment in his father’s shop in Auburn where he lived while attending college.

“I lived there, I worked in the lab, and I worked at night copying blueprints to help pay my way,” he said.

The first few semesters, professors tried to weed people out, but Harmon stuck with it. A week after graduating, he started working in North Carolina as the project manager for an environmental cleanup job on a Coast Guard base. He spent one year living out of a hotel room while cleaning up hazardous materials in the hangar where the military plated ships during World War II. The contaminated material had to be removed and hauled off the base to a hazardous waste landfill.

In 1991, after moving around for different environmental projects across the country, he and his wife, Deby, returned to the Auburn community. Harmon’s father had previously sold his consulting engineering company, but Harmon was able to buy it back, renaming it Harmon Engineering & Contracting.

Harmon feels blessed to have something to pass down to the third generation of his family. His sons, Thomas and Austin, both graduated from Auburn with civil engineering degrees.

Harmon has worked on several projects in Auburn, Opelika and surrounding communities. He’s excited to add the Graduate Hotel to the company’s resume.

“They’re doing some neat things that give it a touch of old Auburn even though it’s new,” he said. “It’s providing people a place to stay in the heart of Auburn close to Toomer’s Corner and in walking distance to everything you want to be part of.”

Located in downtown Auburn, the Graduate Hotel gives life to Auburn’s history through handpicked décor and design. Everything serves a purpose, from the orange and blue plaid carpet to the eagles on the lamps and the wallpaper that depicts the history of Auburn. The hotel opens in September 2024.

By Lauren Johnson