You could say that Green Bay Road in Lake Forest led Hans Hirsch into the hardscape business, but it was a very long and winding road.  After serving two tours in Viet Nam, Hirsch was stationed in Germany for 3 ½ years.  When he retired in 1982, he was stationed at Fort Sheridan.  Driving past the beautiful homes on Green Bay Road “every morning and every evening”, he had the nagging feeling that something was missing.  It was at this time his future after retirement began to become clear to him.  He realized the difference between the Lake Forest estates and the German mansions was the driveway paving.  “They all had unattractive blacktop driveways, versus in Europe, where there would be beautiful brick, cobblestone or even concrete paver driveways.”

Upon his retirement from the army, Hirsch decided to do something about those asphalt driveways.  He founded Krugel Cobbles in March of 1982 with a pick-up truck, a borrowed trailer and an idea.  The idea was to give his clients an excellent finished product while at the same time providing tremendous personal attention and service.  Hirsch started out installing concrete pavers saying, “I taught myself the process, as there were no other contractors installing concrete pavers at the time.”  Hirsch took that idea and ran with it, creating a company that now employees over 50 people during the peak of the year and installs over 200 total hardscape projects annually.

Although Krugel Cobbles started out as primarily a concrete paver installation company, about 12 years ago they gradually began to install more natural stone products such as bluestone, limestone, and granite, both dry- and mortar-set as demand from their existing clients increased.  Today they have a masonry division that installs stone flat work including terraces and stoops, and stone vertical work such as walls & columns.  While the great majority of their business is residential, they will install an occasional high profile commercial project such as the engraved paver project and masonry pillar on the football field at Ryan Field of Northwestern University.

The company is family owned by Hans & Jeri Hirsch and they continue to perform active roles in the running of the business.  Their son Jon has been with the company for ten years and originally started in sales, but is now moving into the role of running the day to day operations of the business.   To the Hirsches, creating a family atmosphere for all of their employees is very important.  “We have great people.  They are our greatest asset”, Hirsch says.  “Our belief is to create an environment where great people want to work for us and can grow and develop here for the long term.”  Some of the front line employees are sales staff, Nina Haddad, as well as the production team leader, Mark Audrain.  Together these three bring over 65 years of experience serving clients’ needs in the exterior environment industry. 

Hirsch’s motivation has always been to do the best that he can, a trait reinforced by his long service in the military.  “When I started out, there was no competition, but I had no market.  I needed referrals…happy clients to spread the word, the best form of advertising.”  This lead to the company motto which every employee at Krugel Cobbles is well aware of: “We pride ourselves on being a hardscape company guided by honesty, integrity and respect for our customers.  This is your assurance of a quality installation.  We’re not so interested in bigger and faster, but we pay a lot of attention to better.”  Krugel’s employees are a perfect reflection of this philosophy and the result is consistent award-winning work.

Having captured the Illinois Landscape Contractor Association’s singular feature category’s Gold, Silver and Merit awards in 2004, Krugel Cobbles, Inc. is very proud to have repeated the feat in 2005 with the Gold and two Silver Awards.  It is this extraordinary level of consistent, uncompromising quality that separates Krugel from its competition.

Plans for the future include continuing improvement of Krugel’s unmatched management systems, a steady rate of growth through expanding their large residential client base, and building more relationships with developers, landscaper contractors and architects.

We encourage you to review the numerous testimonials that our wonderful clients have sent to us.  There you will also see many examples of our work, learn more about the products we use as well as the process of construction, and have the opportunity to get more familiar with our team.