In 1990, as Giffin & Crane was expanding into the luxury homebuilding market in Santa Barbara, Dan Formanek joined the firm’s dedicated, growing team. He’s been with the company ever since, helping it to develop and maintain its edge in an industry constantly evolving with new tools and techniques.
Throughout the decades, Formanek has drawn from a broad skill set, its foundation established while he was growing up in Minnesota. In his early teens, he was painting houses with his older brother, and by the time he got his driver’s license, he was working for a neighbor — his high school industrial arts teacher who built homes during summer break.
“When I first learned construction, it was comprehensive,” Dan says of his time with the teacher. “We did most of the work ourselves — concrete, blockwork, framing, roofing, siding, drywall, finish work. My initial foray in homebuilding was really broad-based, which has served me well in all my work since.”