If Rick Tollakson had been calling the shots at Hubbell Realty Co. back in 1983, chances are the Kaleidoscope at the Hub and the Hub Tower wouldn’t have been built.

“It was a risky project,” Tollakson said. That’s an interesting statement from a man few would accuse of being opposed to risk.

Still, Tollakson considers it the signature project of Hubbell Realty Chairman Jim Hubbell III, who was in charge of the company when Tollakson was hired in 1983 to serve as the construction manager for the $48 million project.

For 32 years, the two men have provided an interesting contrast in styles and personalities at the helm of a company that will celebrate its 160th year in 2016.

“We come from completely different backgrounds,” Tollakson said. “Jim was always an intense, creative kind of guy, very open to suggestions. We’re both very opinionated. We clashed a lot; we were always open over our clashes. We didn’t think anything of it. It was just who we were.”

After a 10-year apprenticeship of sorts, Hubbell was president of Hubbell Realty in 1983 when a search committee was formed to find a construction manager for the Hub Tower project, which would consume two blocks of Walnut Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street, provide a connection to other key downtown buildings along the skywalk system, and rise 20 stories above the ground.

That committee contacted Iowa State University’s College of Engineering for standout graduates who could lead a complicated project. The secretary who answered the phone at ISU just happened to be related to Tollakson.

At the time, Tollakson was building ethanol plants for a small company based in Cedar Rapids. He applied for the Hubbell Realty job.

Tollakson was familiar with “pipes and metal buildings,” but he had never worked with architects and did not have any experience with office and retail buildings, Hubbell said.

He did have an engineering degree from Iowa State and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa. And, “he was a smart guy” and a quick learner, Hubbell said.

“It’s always good to hire someone who is smarter than you are,” he said.

Hubbell and Tollakson do share some similarities. They don’t lack self-confidence. Hubbell admits that the company might have lost a bid to develop Capital Square because they were “full of ourselves” after pulling off the company’s first redevelopment project in the East Village. At the same time, Hubbell Realty was pulling off the transition of industrial, warehouse and railroad land into an 800,000-square-foot office park on sprawling company holdings between what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and the Raccoon River.

Both men have a knack for pushing themselves and the people who work for them. Tollakson has become a triathlete. Hubbell also used to run in triathlons. He would search out runners in his age group and attempt to overtake them.

“If you can see that SOB who is 20 yards ahead, you’re going to to catch that guy,” Hubbell said.

Still, Hubbell is soft-spoken. Tollakson is not.

But their main conflict comes in their definitions of big.

“I’m always asking Rick how big is too big,” Hubbell said.

In Tollakson’s mind, there is no such thing as too big.

“He always worried that I was trying to do too much,” Tollakson said. “He would say we don’t have to do so many projects. I always said, ‘Jim, we never have too many projects.’ The time never comes; it never has.”

Hubbell was company president in 1983, the year Tollakson was hired. Nearly 20 years later, Tollakson was pushing Hubbell to make a decision on how much longer he would be involved in day-to-day operations. Tollakson was ready to move up.

Hubbell said Tollakson and another manager were pushing him to make a decision on retirement.

“They were starting to ask me about my plans, which was part of what made them attractive (as candidates),” Hubbell said. “If I didn’t act, I would have to stay another five years. I wanted to give somebody a running start.”

In 2003, Tollakson was named president and CEO. Hubbell remains in constant contact with Tollakson. The men talk at least once a week.

“Jim always let me do my thing,” Tollakson said. “He would always let me push the envelope as long as I communicated with him. I’m not sure a lot of other people would have done that.”

Tollakson is proud of the fact that Hubbell and the board, which focuses more on implementation and strategy than day-to-day operations, have not voted to oppose a project that he brought before them.

“I never have had a no vote or split vote,” Tollakson said. “Of course, I might have pulled the project if I thought I didn’t have the votes.”

The two men have something else in common.

“Jim’s had a great career and he continues to be very involved in the community,” Tollakson said. “He knows how important it is for Hubbell to be very active in the community. That’s something the two of us feel very strongly about.”