Covering the Industry’s News
P.O. Box 791290 San Antonio, Texas 78279-1290
Texas Style
PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT #1451
Change Service Requested
San Antonio H Austin Dallas/Fort Worth H Houston
San Antonio
CONSTRUCTION
™
The Industry’s Newspaper Japanese Tea Garden Photo by Leavitt2me Photography
C
H
(210) 308-5800
H
Volume 18
H
Number 11
H
NOVEMBER 2016
The Protector
Making a veteran’s day
MitchCo employees and owners give back to the community. L-R: Kyle Mitchell, Edward Mitchell and Regan Esry
USMC GySgt. Guillermo Tejada and his family received a custom smart home from the Gary Senise Foundation.
racks and flaws in a foundation can be dangerous. Luckily, for San Antonio, there is a hero who fights the problem in the daylight. MitchCo has been in business since 1997, and its logo has a striking resemblance to the infamous Batman symbol that has graced DC Comics for almost 80 years. “It’s funny because he’s become more of a fan since coming up with the logo,” Rachel Mitchell, executive manager and wife of owner Edward Mitchell, said. “He wanted to come up with an image that people would remember. They may not remember the name or his name, but when he started the company, it was to have a recognizable image.”
T
www.constructionnews.net
he Children’s Hospital of San Antonio recently put the finishing touches on a major retrofit, with Bartlett Cocke General Contractors as the GC on the project. According to Carlos Ibarra, project manager, challenges included working while the hospital was still in operation, as well as several proponents of the project imported from different countries. “One of the biggest challenges was renovating 12 floors at the same time the hospital is still trying to carry on business as usual,” Ibarra said. “The channel glass was fabricated in Germany and that required some coordination. “One of the unique things was some of products and where they came from. We also had some floor tile in the main lobby that came from Canada. There were some wall tiles for the restroom area that came out of Holland. It’s been quite a bit of different finishes across the globe that have been an interesting process, to say the least.”
The logos on the trucks, website and on business cards stick out in customer’s minds when they contact MitchCo., which is useful with lots of options for foundation repair in San Antonio. “People would say, ‘Hey, I had this company come and you can Google Batman Foundation Repair.’ We have changed the logo over the years to draw away from it looking so much like Batman,” Mitchell said. “We’ve made it look more like an ‘M’. We still have people thinking it looks like a Batman symbol. “We’re always trying to find ways for MitchCo. to stand out. Whether someone needs foundation repair or not, they may need it some day. The branding with the continued on Page 24
S
ometimes when a veteran returns home, they don’t return how they left, whether it be physically or mentally. The Gary Senise Foundation and R.I.S.E. are trying to make the transition better by building smart homes for veterans. G. Morris Custom Homes president, Brad Morris, along with the Senise Foundation and R.I.S.E. built a smart home at Canyon Lake for a wounded veteran, USMC GySgt. Guillermo Tejada. “Our mission is to serve some of the most severely wounded veterans that return from Iraq or Afghanistan,” Morris said. “Gary (Senise) has met many of these guys at the rounds at the hospital.
He may go up to Walter Reed without the cameras and everything and meet and talk to people. A lot of them he has met and outside of that, they put in applications to the program.” The 3,800-sf home was adapted for Tejada after he lost both his legs in an IED explosion. The smart home includes lowered countertops, a French door style oven, iPad accessible lighting, heating, air and security system. “We utilized wide hallways – they’re all four-foot wide – and the doors are all three-foot wide, minimum,” Morris said. “We had a roll in master showers with benches, so they can roll in, transfer from continued on Page 24
Bright lights
(Photo credit Matthew Chase, courtesy of the San Antonio Children’s Hospital.) Playful and colorful, the exterior retrofit of The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio was chosen with the hospital’s patients and families in mind.
One of the more eye-catching exterior materials used is a new Lamberts® channel glass façade by Bendheim Wall Systems Inc. The vibrant, ceramic-fritted glass units rise along the building’s 10 stories and a 2-story-tall ‘lantern’ cupola. The striking colors of the glass are visible from a distance in the day or night, while the technical design of the system makes this project truly stand out by answering a number of unique design challenges. It is the first and only installation of verticallyunitized, multi-colored ceramic-fritted channel glass in North America. The redesigned hospital exterior seeks to improve the patient experience. The translucent glass channels are visible from within the rooms, bringing children and families comfort and a sense of playfulness through color. The positive experience of the space reflects current attitudes and research into enhanced healing continued on Page 24