NEW ORLEANS — At a construction tech company, you probably wouldn’t expect one picture of Taylor Swift on the wall. You certainly wouldn’t expect thousands of them.
“If you start something like this you can’t just back out midway through,” said Julie Leveque, the employee and lifelong “Swiftie” who started the project.
Seven years ago Leveque, who is now Senior Specialist of Culture and Communications, managed a customer support team at the New Orleans branch of Procore. The purpose of the wall was to call attention to 5-star reviews.
“It became this really fun thing where if you got the review you got to go into the book and pick out which Taylor you want, which Taylor spoke to you in that moment,” said Leveque.
At first, the collection only took up a small area of the 15-foot-tall wall. Now, it covers the entire thing, floor to ceiling, and features around 2,000 photos. It has also become part of the company’s culture.
“When we hit 1,000 reviews, 2,000 reviews, 3,000 reviews, we’d do a special celebration for each one,” said Leveque.
Then, the wall hit a snag when COVID-19 hit.
“We tried, at the beginning of COVID, to have Taylor review buddies,” said Senior Manager of Customer Support Erin Bocaletti, “So anybody who was remote, we had a running list. And then as somebody came into the office, they would just put up 10 or 15 at a time.”
They were not able to keep up, however, so in 2024 they are still catching up with the nearly 4,000 5-star reviews the company has received.
Leveque said the ultimate goal is for Taylor Swift herself to “see it in person.” Even if she doesn’t, though, “it’s been kind of a fun journey to see it grow– literally grow– into this magnificent thing.”
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