By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University/Image: Bob Holloway
A 4-H project. An exceptional teacher. A commitment to quality. A priority on energy conservation. A transformational product.
All those are elements of this story about a remarkable business in rural Kansas.
Bob Holloway is founder and owner of Advantage Architectural Woodwork. Holloway grew up west of Colby where he was active in 4-H. His grandfather enjoyed ood working, so Bob decided to try it as a 4-H project when he was 14 years old. He discovered a love of woodworking.
“I made an outdoor bench for my first project,” Holloway said. “My mom and dad still have it and still use it to this day.”
“I had a lot of support from my grandfather. We also had a really good shop teacher who would take his Sunday afternoons to help 4-H kids work on their projects.”
Holloway participated in the student drafting competition. After winning the state drafting competition at Pittsburg State University, he toured the wood technology labs there. With help from a Dane G. Hansen Foundation scholarship, he enrolled in the program.
Holloway graduated from Pittsburg State with a bachelor’s degree in Wood Technology and a minor in business. He worked at Merritt Woodwork in Cleveland, Ohio and then came back to Kansas to run a cabinet shop in Osborne. “The small town boy missed home,” Holloway said.
In 2010 he saw a woodworking magazine advertisement that sparked his interest. It advertised a Colorado workshop about innovative European window and door technology. Not only did Holloway attend that workshop, he became convinced that it could be the basis for his own woodworking business.
In 2011, he came back to his hometown of Levant, near Colby, and with his wife Shawna founded their own business called Advantage Architectural Woodwork. The business specializes in building handcrafted energy-efficient wooden European window and door systems.
“The Europeans developed these highly energy efficient window and door products,” Holloway said. Now he and his crew are building them in Kansas.
Much of this work is based on a German research institute that advanced the concept of a “passive house,” referring to a building in which design principles and building techniques result in a structure with minimal need for conventional heating and cooling systems.
These are highly insulated, airtight, and well-ventilated structures that produce significantly reduced heating bills, for example. High quality windows and doors from Advantage Architectural Woodwork are part of this system.
“We are manufacturing these windows and doors for people who are building high performance houses,” Holloway said.
Advantage Architectural Woodwork has produced window and door systems for customers from California to New York and as far north as Yukon territory in Canada. The construction design uses high insulation, and positions these high quality, airtight windows at angles that maximize sunlight.
“In the wintertime, our windows are essentially heating the building,” Holloway said. “There is a really big payoff (from using these systems) for buildings in colder climates.”
Customers have ranged from a Kansas farmer to the son of legendary actress Lauren Bacall.
“I enjoy seeing the construction process through from start to finish. The cherry on top is to hear feedback from customers,” Holloway said. “It’s great when we hear from customers after their first heating season that their monthly heating bills have been cents, not dollars.”
“We are building the highest performing window frames in North America, the highest performing sliding doors in North America, and the highest performing entry doors in North America.”
That’s not just his opinion. It is certified by the Passive House Institute.
These are remarkable accomplishments for a business in a rural community such as Levant, population 68 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, see www.advantagewoodwork.com.
How exciting to see a 4-H woodworking project turn into an internationally recognized energy conservation business. We salute Bob and Shawna Holloway and all those involved with Advantage Architectural Woodwork for making a difference with craftsmanship that conserves.
And there’s more. In addition to the passive house products in western Kansas, there’s a passive house in eastern Kansas. We’ll learn about that next week.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
