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CONSTRUCTION
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Remember the Fallen
The Industry’s Newspaper
May 25
www.constructionnews.net
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(210) 308-5800
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Volume 13
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Number 5
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MAY 2015
Goes by in a flash
Fire control
Paul Ramon celebrates two decades in the roofing industry.
Todd Templin’s fire to run the family business can’t be extinguished.
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t’s been 20 years since Paul Ramon, president of Ramon Roofing Inc., hung out his shingle, so to speak, and he knows the perfect way to celebrate the company’s anniversary: a raise-theroof party. “We are possibly looking at having a nice 20th anniversary party with a band at my house this summer!” Ramon says. Hosting the party where he lives seems fitting – he started Ramon Roofing out of a former residence. “I remember when I first started, it was out of my apartment. I had a little computer and it was really just me by myself,” he says, laughing. “I remember when I bought my first truck, rented my first office space and bought my build-
ing; I remember those days! It doesn’t seem like 20 years by any means. I never thought in a million years that this company would turn out to be what it is today. It’s been a wonderful ride, that’s for sure. I could not be happier! “ Reflecting on the anniversary, the happy Paul Ramon of 2015 would offer the scrappy Paul Ramon of 1995 some business advice, however. “I would probably go back and tell myself to learn one aspect of roofing and become a true expert at it,” he says. “Instead of trying to learn everything, really focus in on one thing. I wish when I first started I would have just focused on tile and slate and left everything else alone. I continued on Page 17
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odd Templin grew up working at American Automatic Sprinkler (AAS), his father Willie’s fire protection business, but for years didn’t truly understand how important fire protection really was. Then something happened that made it hit home. “One day, when I was coming to work, one of the buildings that I had designed [fire protection for] caught on fire and the sprinkler system put it out,” Templin remembers. “I went to go check on it and was told that the restoration people were there and everyone was getting ready to go back to work. I realized, “Wow, it saved the property and people’s jobs, and they were already back in business.” “That’s when I got hooked,” says
Templin, now the company president and co-owner. “That was the day I decided this may be a career for me.” Templin says with a laugh that no one really remembers his start date at the company because it was founded in 1967 – the year before he was born – and Templin has almost always been a fixture there since “before child labor laws came into effect,” he jokes. He has never held job outside of the company, but has worked in every division at AAS. He enjoys the challenge of trying to keep up with the ever-changing products, rules and regulations and still learns something new every day. “I love to get up and come to work,” continued on Page 17
A Royal commission
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hey had worked together on another master-planned “Parc” in Irving before: MYCON General Contractors and developer Jackson-Shaw had previously teamed up to bring business office project “Parc 114” to the city. This time, Jackson-Shaw had plans for a four-building master-planned industrial warehouse project called “Parc Royal” and hired MYCON to deliver that to Irving as well. MYCON project executive David Boyack, GSR Andrade Architects Inc. and civil engineer Halff Associates Inc. worked together to create and construct the 511,600-sf design-build project. The four separate buildings – measured at 217,800sf, 90,0000sf, 73,800sf and 130,000sf, respectively– sprawled over 30 acres located at 3700 W. Royal Lane. The tilt-up construction project began in March 2014 and, because of efficient teamwork, was completed in less than nine months despite the many obstacles Mother Nature threw in front of it.
“Excessive weather and additional passes required for water injection delayed the project by 47 days,” Boyack remembers. ”Fortunately, we had a great senior superintendent in Ken Hunter and a great team of subcontractors on this project. Working together as a team, we were able to work smarter, harder and faster to overcome these delays. We actually exceeded the owner’s expectations on schedule by bringing in this job early.” Another challenge is making an industrial warehouse appear unique. To solve this, the team chose a staining technique for accent panels that broke up the exterior’s painted concrete expanse and gave the surface a textured look. ”One of my favorite features on Parc Royal is the stained concrete panels; the concrete stain was applied after they were erected,” he says. “We ended up going with a dark gray color that makes the A staining technique and stone pilasters set this Parc Royal industrial warehouse project apart.
continued on Page 17