Brothers leading family business to new heights.

The large capital M is omnipresent.

The block letter, which could be considered burgundy but skews closer to garnet in Columbia color palettes, that is Mashburn Construction's simple but instantly recognizable logo marks a plethora of construction sites in the Midlands and throughout South Carolina. The Columbia-headquartered company, with divisions in Charleston, Greenville and Myrtle Beach, is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year and showing no signs of slowing down.

Founded in 1976 by CEO Harry Mashburn, the company underwent a leadership transition in May 2017. Following Harry Mashburn's retirement, son Paul, 55, took over as CEO after serving as president and COO, and son Lee, 52, became president of the firm where he'd been executive vice president of preconstruction.

"We definitely have different roles, and we feed off each other's strengths," Paul Mashburn told the Columbia Regional Business Report.

If you've seen that beer commercial with the two partners where one of them says if you can sell it, I can make it I make the beer and he sells the beer.

There was never any real question that progression would eventually take place, the brothers said.

"When you grow up around something, when you drive around and see job signs and you have an equipment yard and your grandfather worked at the equipment yard it was just always right there," Paul said. "We worked summers. It's just what we did growing up, so unless we wanted to go out and be a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant or something different, then it was just an opportunity that made a lot of sense."

The firm has been behind some of the most well-known projects throughout the state and in downtown Columbia, where its expertise in historic renovation is on full display. Mashburn has been the contractor on high-profile historic renovations including Hotel Trundle, The Grand, Mast General Store, Nickelodeon Theatre, and the Sheraton Conference Center.

"My passion would be all those historic buildings," said Lee Mashburn, who traces that love to his father's longtime involvement with downtown economic development group City Center Partnership, an organization on whose board both men have served.

Seeing all these buildings you don't even know what they look like behind the facades that have been put on them. It's great to walk into an old building and see what it used to be and look at pictures from 100 or 80 years ago and say, 'Well gosh, this is the way this building should...