Big-D Signature has summited mountain peaks and treacherous terrain, building luxury residences and stellar resorts across the West over the last 25 years.

By Taylor Larsen

Early Days 

“Early on, we broke all the rules about design-build, creating a formal partnership to market our two firms as one entity,” said Livingood. The rules were unwritten ones—meeting the nail of high-end residential construction with the hammer of a commercial construction firm was as rare an occurrence as it was successful. 

But Signature earned numerous awards and rave reviews from its Jackson Hole clientele for building with craftsmanship of unbreakable zeal in the most demanding of locales.

Shandon Brinkerhoff has been part of that legacy for over a decade, starting as a Project Engineer before becoming Vice President overseeing the firm’s Jackson office in 2021. Work in the residential sphere has been a welcome challenge that has forced him and others there to stretch. 

“Each home seems to have a new unique design element that we have to figure out and along the way the challenges make us more qualified for the next opportunity,” said Brinkerhoff.

The firm has always prioritized people first, where employees are encouraged and supported to prioritize family and personal life. Brinkerhoff said Signature’s honesty, transparency, and commitment to values set it apart within the industry. 

“We are never asked to do anything that would go against our core values and our morals,” he said. “We are only asked to do the right thing.”

Jackson had the wealth, but the area’s growth opportunities were limited by the amount of protected land and a limited trade partner base. The right thing for the business meant moving Signature’s headquarters to Park City to better cover the massive amount of work ongoing in the Wasatch Back.

Kerby Joins as Headquarters Moves to Park City

The right man for the job to lead the new office in 2015 was Mike Kerby—he just wasn’t looking for a job at the time. 

When Cory Moore, Big-D’s then-Vice President, made the initial pitch for Kerby to come and lead the Signature group, the answer was ‘No’—Kerby had already enjoyed a full career taking a construction company and then a development company to successful exits.

“I wanted to take a break,” Kerby laughed. “But the more we kept talking, I kept thinking, ‘That would be a fun challenge.’”

Kerby took it head on. 

“The core of what Signature is—the people—they were fantastic and always have been,” he said. What the team lacked was a growth model and the leadership to implement Jack Livingood’s original ideal.

Relocating Signature’s headquarters closer to Big-D Companies’ corporate headquarters in Salt Lake came with major benefits.

“We had Big-D’s reputation,” said Kerby. Stellar leadership over the course of nearly 50 years —“Big Dee” Livingood, Jack Livingood, and Rob Moore—was foundational for Signature and helped tap into existing trade partner relationships.

But the reputation came with a caveat: Big-D Construction was a commercial builder known for quality, speed, and production. Even in close proximity, the two groups had to honor their respective strengths. “We didn’t want to lose the Signature brand,” said Kerby. 

Kerby became Signature’s President, and his extensive relationships with the area’s ski resorts and developers, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for the National Ability Center in Park City, began opening doors for the new office. The first major project followed: Victory Ranch—a combination of residential and resort projects all in one development in Kamas.

The Lodge at Blue Sky was another transformation project. Sitting just outside Park City, the 5-star hotel was one of the most challenging projects the firm had undertaken due to its aggressive construction timeline.

“We had people, including myself, working ’til two or three in the morning,” said Kerby. “We had people in the Park City office coming to the site with food for the crew or to help sweep—every single person in our office touched that project.”

Kerby saw the Signature team was different. 

“It went beyond what we could build,” Kerby said, “It was how the team reacted to the pressure. It wasn’t ‘Can we do this?’ but ‘We’re going to do this. And we’re going to support one another.’”

Signature Projects; Signature Growth

Ryan Bulloch was one of those famed team members on The Lodge at Blue Sky.

“That was my first project,” he said. “And I felt like I was in the Wild West.”

Going from a specialized role in construction management at his previous firm to learning every scope on such a high-end build was transformative for the Project Manager.

Bulloch, now Vice President overseeing the Park City office, has been one of many who helped the firm expand and master resort projects. Tough logistics, mountain operations, tying in resort operations, food and beverage—“however high-end you want to go, we’ll go with you,” he said.

“Running a ski resort is a whole other ecosystem,” said Bulloch, “and we know what it takes to run it.”

Brighton Resort saw Signature work together with Austria-based Doppelmayr Group to perform the earthwork and concrete work for Doppelmayr’s new D-Line chairlift at Crest 6; Alta’s 600-SF Ski Patrol hut at Sugarloaf Peak received the Signature touch at 10,600 feet; Deer Valley’s ongoing East Village development received Signature’s services, with the firm performing the civil and concrete work at the gondola, new ski lift, and midway station that collectively take riders 9,100 feet to the resort’s Park Peak Lodge. Beyond ongoing work at the lodge, Signature also built a 27-foot-tall basement to keep the gondola protected from the summer sun while being serviced in the offseason.

Signature and their trade partners get the unique privilege of riding the gondola or snowcat up to work on many of these projects, but Bulloch said the firm’s “bread and butter” is working out the intense coordination efforts to ensure that quality construction doesn’t interfere in resort operations. Material deliveries are a major component, but ensuring worker well-being—meals, bathrooms, and especially safety and first-aid that comes from coordinating with ski patrol—is handled with aplomb.

“It’s just different from a construction job where you have access to all of those things,” Bulloch smiled. “We’re just doing it at 9,000 feet.”

Just don’t think for a second that residential operations waned to compensate for the expanded resort construction.

“Every single detail matters on the homes we build,” Bulloch said. “And we’ll get down to each one of them with the architect and owner.”

The firm’s “white glove/work glove approach” is ready to meet any residential client need—white glove for the client who wants perfection without a worry; work glove for the client who just as fanatical about craftsmanship as the Signature team. The results—satisfied clients and enough mentions in high-end design publications to fill up a phone book—speak for themselves.

Signature has sought to differentiate itself—not a pick-up-off-the-shelf commodity, but a highly specialized group; a partner dedicated to the client experience.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re a hospitality company that does construction on the side,” Bulloch smiled. “We’re taking care of people—and that’s how it should be.”

A Legacy of Giving Back

Hitting 25 years of success is celebratory, “but we want 25 more, 50 more,” said Bulloch. “It’s not a competition to build everything, but creating a legacy with our people and their families that they can take with them for years to come.”

Another key in Signature’s prominence—its founding ethos, according to Kerby—has been the propensity to give back in the form of community projects.

“Mike Kerby inspired us,” Bulloch said, and the new generation of leaders is looking to build up every community that Signature teammates call home.

The Jackson office is completing construction of Pet Pulse ER, the first after-hours emergency veterinary clinic in Jackson Hole; ongoing work with the National Ability Center in Park City; teaming up with Youth Sports Alliance to support their efforts; Bulloch laughed that recent work with Summit County Clubhouse had many Signature teammates “in full-scale logistics mode” repairing siding and painting the building exterior.

As Bulloch completes his second year heading the Park City office and continues Signature’s give back ethos, one ongoing community project is particularly meaningful to him as an avid skier. Signature is working with the Town of Alta, the US Forest Service, and trade partners to build at one of the busiest entrances to a National Forest in Utah, where backcountry skiers, hikers, and explorers start their respective journeys.

What are they building? “Three bathrooms with heat, electricity, and running water at the Grizzy Gulch trailhead,” said Bulloch. The project opens later this year.

How the West Was Won

Beyond Park City and Jackson offices led by Bulloch and Brinkerhoff, the firm has an office in Bozeman, Montana, under the Dovetail Construction brand—“Signature in Bozeman,” according to Kerby, who continues on Big-D Companies’ Board of Directors. 

Dovetail Construction, founded by Tim Rote and Kevin Sullivan, has followed a similar trajectory to Signature—building and giving back in Bozeman—since 2005. Big-D acquired the firm in 2018, and the ongoing partnership has been seamless—white glove, work glove, and even fly-fishing rod continue the brand’s penchant for longstanding, high-quality relationships wherever they build.

The firm’s Sun Valley office is the newest addition, but is growing to meet the demand’s of Idaho’s popular resort community. Signature has even traveled to down to the remote Southern Utah desert to construct a desert-chic residence at the famed Amangiri resort and hotel. 

“Some companies get these type of projects once on their resume,” said Bulloch. “These once-in a lifetime jobs are our jobs.”

Wherever Signature goes, the thread is fanatical craftsmanship.

“If you studied what Signature is about and who we are, you would find that at we are true-at-heart builders,” Bulloch said. “We’re builders of people. […] We’re obsessed with everything; we’re obsessed with doing it right.”