No stranger to Walls & Ceilings readers—and the wall and ceiling community to boot—Heartland Acoustics & Interiors has been pioneering the Western U.S. frontier now for more than 15 years. Headquartered out of Englewood, Colo., this specialty subcontractor delivers the goods in suspended/wood/metal/custom ceiling systems, acoustical sound treatments, wall panels, raised access panels and more.

Two-time award winner for the magazine’s Excellence Awards, Heartland Acoustics is as progressive as they come. Heartland has ambition by continuing its journey west, the company has been functioning in its Carlsbad, Calif., office for five years now. Quite a remarkable feat opening another branch considering the Great Recession.

The company’s Vice President, Jim Gordon, primarily works out of the Carlsbad office. A U.S. Army veteran, Jim began installing acoustical ceilings in the early ’60s. The next decade, he worked as a field superintendent for a drywall contractor for Colorado Partitions and Drywall, where he managed the company’s ceiling division. In the 1980s, he relocated to San Diego, and started North County Acoustics.

“After a few ‘retired’ years I was ready to get back into ceilings again and moved to Colorado to help my son, Jason, grow Heartland Acoustics & Interiors,” Jim says. “In 2007, Jason and I started up a southern California branch of Heartland Acoustics and I moved back to the San Diego area.”

And what has kept Jim in this industry?

“Working with the architect to bring to life their designs and all the changes that needed to be made for installation of a superior product,” he says.

Flipside to that opinion, Jim says that the hardest aspect of the job for him is bidding a project as sometimes the designs have to be interpreted. “Managing the schedule with our vendors for on time deliveries and installation …” is another challenge, he says.

RECENT PROJECTS

Heartland Acoustics says it has a “fair backlog volume” for work the rest of the year.

Recently, the company worked on the El Cajon Safety Center in El Cajon, Calif. The project took two years to work on, under the supervision of Ledcor Construction, the general contractor.

The scope of the project was to install 65,000 square feet of acoustical ceilings, specialty ceilings and specialty perimeter trims.

Jim says the Conference Room and Elevator Lobbies were of a particular challenge because the knife edge and axiom trim. For the conference rooms, there was 5,000 square feet averaging 1,800 square feet per room, with five levels of floating ceilings at different elevations. 

 “A few of the floating clouds had to be removed and reinstalled as a result of the architectural design changes,” says Jim. “This was a good job and we look forward to our next opportunity to work with San Diego County and Ledcor Construction.”