West Side Hammer Electric president looks to next generation of industry

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Andrew Lawler has a particularly interesting distinction. 

Not only did he serve his country as a pilot in the U.S. Navy for nine years and has developed a successful career in the electrical contracting and infrastructure industry, but he is also the first person to serve as president of Bethlehem‘s West Side Hammer Electric who isn’t named Luke Cunningham. 

West Side began in 1935 when it was founded by a 24-year-old Luke T. Cunningham. He was succeeded by his son Luke and grandson Luke, who still serves as the CEO of the company, but is no longer involved in day-to-day operations. 

After befriending the youngest Luke Cunningham through shared industry associations, Lawler joined the West Side team in January of 2017 and eventually became president of the electrical contracting company in 2019. 

He said he understands that it is a significant legacy he is following and strives to keep the company’s same spirit alive under his leadership. 

“There’s still a strong family dynamic,” Lawler said. “I worked with Luke, and I tried to absorb everything he had to teach and be a sponge to him. It’s humbling, especially when everyone in the Lehigh Valley knows Luke, but it’s also super exciting at the same time.” 

While he still sees West Side Hammer as a small, West Bethlehem family business, the company is actually a thriving and growing regional business, which is evolving to meet an ever-changing industry. 

Today, the multi-million-dollar company has more than 140 employees working throughout Eastern Pennsylvania. 

He said today the company is as busy as ever working regularly on projects for the two major local health networks, Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s University Health Network and on projects like OraSure, the FL Smidth Building and the Lehigh Valley Charter Academy. 

Projects that West Side Hammer has worked on over the years can be found across the Lehigh Valley and the region. It’s part of what he loves most about the job. 

“That’s been one of the fun things, to drive around and be able to point and tell your children ‘We’re working on that,’” he said. 

But as a leader, Lawler’s looking to the future as he appreciates the company’s past. 

West Side has been adapting its practices and modernizing procedures to work more efficiently and better serve its clients. 

Traditionally, there has been a great deal of waste in new construction and construction sites can become littered with boxes, spools and cables that have been discarded or set aside during work. 

Not only does that waste money, but it creates safety concerns over tripping hazards and other issues. 

Thanks to changes West Side has implemented, it is able to do more work offsite. By assembling projects off site and delivering them to clients as prefab units to be installed onsite, they are saving time, money and increasing safety. 

Lawler said that such procedures are particularly useful in health care settings because the site is kept cleaner and there is less disruption for health care providers and their patients. 

By doing the initial work in what he described as more of a manufacturing environment in the company’s workshop, they are able to save materials and safely store them, when they might have been thrown away at a construction site because they were in the way. 

Lawler said that a particular job may only need a certain amount of wire cable and not finish the entire spool that was ordered. 

With the workshop space, the electricians can save the leftover material and use it on their next project. 

Assembling projects prior to installation on site also helps with planning, by collaborating with the other trades professionals they can virtually model a construction site before they can build it in the real world. 

“This allows us to eliminate obstacles before going into the field and makes work more efficient because no one wants to have to stop work because something doesn’t match up,” Lawler said. “It’s about time management and teamwork.” 

He called it a mission-driven mentality which gets everyone on the same page, “where do we want to go and how do we get there.” 

West Side Hammer is also embracing the latest in technology and software to help it automate many of its more time-consuming processes. 

The company is using technology to help with administration, financing and sales. It can help with estimating, business development, fleet tracking and inventory management. 

“We drive more efficiencies into the work this way,” Lawler said. “We’re not a company that says, ‘that’s the way it’s always been done.’”