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Ask James J. Roberts about Kenbridge Construction's best project ever, and he probably won't be able to narrow it down to one, two or even three.

That's because Kenbridge, now in its sixth decade, has built countless facilities in three states, ranging from a recently finished prototype high school in Charlottesville to the bicentennial building constructed at Yorktown in 1976. "When you've done work as long as we've done work, it's hard to choose," Roberts says.

But whether it's a factory or a shopping center, Roberts says the projects Kenbridge Construction tackles are guaranteed to be built with precision and pride. "We try to treat our customers the way we would want to be treated," says Roberts, who co-owns the company with Jerry Callis. "We try to make sure the work is right the first time. We want to go back and work for the customer again."

George Clark and Roland Walker founded the firm in 1948 to build homes in the small town of Kenbridge. Within a few years, the company was also making its mark in Richmond, Farmville and Lynchburg. In the late 1950s, Kenbridge moved into the commercial end of the business by building tobacco warehouses along routes 58 and 460, as well as the first factory in Kenbridge. The commercial projects became even more lucrative when Roberts and Callis came onboard in 1965, and Kenbridge soon gave up residential projects. "We were in a smaller, rural area," Roberts explains. "There wasn't much house building going on."

But the company's rural location hasn't stopped it from expanding throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Shopping centers, office buildings, courthouses, factories, schools and university facilities are just some of the Kenbridge projects across the commonwealth. In addition, the company has built a factory and a shopping center in Maryland, and it is preparing to build a nursing home there. Kenbridge has built a parking deck for Duke University in Durham, N.C., and an agronomics laboratory at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Back in Virginia, the company recently finished Monticello High School, a prototype facility in Charlottesville. This $25 million school uses numerous skylights for natural light and special paints and materials that are environmentally friendly.

"Technology is continuing to impact firms," Roberts notes. "All of the buildings we do now have to have computer capabilities. Our customers want to get more modern technology into them as fast as they can."

With 120 employees, the firm manages about 25 projects at any given time, and it depends on a cache of subcontractors to keep its jobs on schedule. "We treat our subcontractors right because they're the ones who help us get our projects," says Roberts. "We look at our subcontractors as partners and treat them fairly."

But finding skilled subcontractors and employees is becoming increasingly difficult, Roberts says, as more and more workers angle for high-tech jobs. "It's always a problem to find good carpenters to do the type of work where you have a lot of trim as in Colonial designs," he says. "A lot of people are steered away from working in construction."

The labor shortage makes it difficult to keep projects on schedule, but Kenbridge is known for getting jobs done on time. The company is currently on track to finish Virginia Commonwealth University's $13 million fine arts center in August. The project is actually a little ahead of schedule, says Phil Gahm, assistant director of construction management for VCU.

Projects like VCU's fine arts center keep Kenbridge busy, but Roberts notes that business is currently a bit soft. "Work is more competitive in and around Richmond," he says, "and we're seeing a slowdown, especially on larger projects."

Despite its success, Kenbridge is not planning any major expansions in the near future, Roberts says. "We just want to continue to grow a little bit each year."