Meridian Design Build

Meridian Design Build is a Rosemont, Illinois, construction firm that handles design and construction under one contract. Co-founders Paul Chuma, its president, and Howard Green, executive vice president, still lead the company. Its work spans industrial, food and beverage, office, hospitality and healthcare buildings, and its in-house project managers carry jobs from site due diligence and design coordination through construction and facility turnover. The firm is a U.S. Green Building Council member. Meridian is general contractor on Aermec North America’s 189,680-square-foot manufacturing plant and U.S. headquarters in DeKalb, Illinois, a Venture One development designed by Ware Malcomb. It’s a repeat pairing, since Meridian has delivered build-to-suit work for Venture One before. Construction is underway, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2027.

The services page is the useful document here, because it sets out exactly what a Meridian contract covers rather than describing an approach.

Preconstruction scope includes project pricing with cost guarantees, land site evaluation and due diligence, definition and documentation of project requirements and design criteria, concept site planning and building elevation studies, and preparation of written specifications for all systems and materials. Design coordination is run by Meridian’s in-house project managers but executed through a team of registered third-party professionals across each design discipline, which is worth understanding before assuming the design sits under the same roof.

Permitting covers municipality and regulatory agency interface and specifically names USDA and FDA. That is a direct consequence of the food and beverage work: those two agencies drive the layout and finish requirements on a processing facility in ways a standard industrial shell never encounters.

During construction the listed scope runs to an on-site safety programme, project scheduling and progress reporting, full-time professional on-site supervision and coordination, material testing and quality assurance, and change implementation. Closeout is explicit about deliverables: as-built drawings, operation manuals and warranties, plus building systems training at facility turnover.

Markets are industrial, food and beverage, office, hospitality and healthcare.

The firm is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council. The office is at 9550 W. Higgins Road, Suite 400, Rosemont, Illinois, on 847.374.9200, with enquiries to info@meridiandb.com.