Built for Good Newsletter - December 2015

December 2015

BUILT FOR GOOD

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Munger & West Quad Projects Share Space in Ann Arbor 6 Wild Weather Can’t Stop GM Flint Paint Shop Build

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Technology Key in Tampa

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BUILT FOR GOOD FROM THE BEGINNING. WE WERE FORGED IN DETROIT IN 1916 Integrity. Honesty. Character. Doing what is right. Words with great meaning that don’t seem to mean anything anymore. Well they mean something to us. They form the foundation of a company built 100 years ago by George Walbridge and Albert Aldinger. We have a history of adventure. A culture of responding to crisis and managing risks others wouldn’t touch.

WE ARE WALBRIDGE

AND WHAT WE BUILD STANDS FOR SOMETHING.

walbridge.com 2 I Built For Good

BUILT FOR GOOD SM

builtforgood.com

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This Issue

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From our leadership

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Don Greenwell and the Buildings Group

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Neighboring projects at University of Michigan

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GM Flint Paint Shop a success despite foul weather

10 Old Tampa City Hall renovation

uses high tech methods

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Photographer Sam Trotter

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Carlson Walbridge

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What we’re up to

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Awards

Cover: The ornate facade of Old Tampa City Hall, which opened in 1915.

Built For Good is a publication of the Walbridge Group, Inc. Forward any comments or questions to Mark Marymee at mmarymee@walbridge.com Š 2015 SM

Built For Good I 3

FROM OUR

LEADERSHIP

John Rakolta, Jr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Walbridge | Detroit, Michigan

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hen you have a milestone approaching, as Walbridge does with its 100th anniversary in March, there’s a desire to learn more about the leaders that came before you. I am the seventh CEO in a line of leaders that dates back to the company’s founding in 1916. I was surprised with some of the information uncovered about my predecessors, especially co-founders George Walbridge and Albert Aldinger.

George Walbridge was a legitimate college football hero and in 1896 he earned All-America honors at halfback for Lafayette College. He was not only tough, he was a considerable risk-taker. He left college in 1898 to join the Pennsylvania Volunteers and fight for the U.S. Army in the SpanishAmerican War. When he returned, he re-entered college, this time at Cornell, and finished work on an engineering degree. You’d think surviving one war would be enough. But, not for George Walbridge. In February 1918, less than two years after forming Walbridge Aldinger & Co. in Detroit, Walbridge resigned to take a commission in the U.S. Army’s Reserve Engineers Corps. Walbridge was a 43-year-old construction executive with four kids at home. At the time, he had to sell every share he owned in the company. There was no guarantee Aldinger or the rest of the board of directors would welcome him back after the war. That is, if he made it home. That’s taking a risk.

Aldinger, I learned, was the reliable, resilient partner between the two men. When Walbridge joined the fight during World War I, Aldinger stayed home to mind the store. When Walbridge was elected president of the Association of General Contractors of America in 1925, he took to the road and mounted a publicity campaign to build greater credibility for contractors. In 1931, Walbridge joined two other prominent American contractors and conducted an in-depth review of progress being made on construction of the massive Hoover Dam in southern Nevada.

Throughout the decades, Walbridge had the luxury of venturing away from Detroit because his rock-solid partner stayed behind and reinforced to clients that Walbridge Aldinger & Co. would complete their projects on time and deliver the quality promised.

One fact that spoke volumes to me about Aldinger’s resilience came with a comparison of the company’s fortunes before and during the Great Depression. Company records show Walbridge Aldinger worked on 71 projects during the years 1928 and 1929 and earned $7.3 million. Then, for the next 10 years, during the most significant period of economic hardship this nation has ever experienced, the company worked on 96 projects and made $8.1 million. That’s in total, not per year! Through diligence and hard work, Aldinger guided this company around the rocks of disparity and through withering financial headwinds to keep the ship afloat and in a position to survive for another 75 years. That’s resilience.

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Buildings Group is partner in an Internal Joint (Ad)Venture D

on Greenwell, Jr., P.E. is Executive Vice President of Walbridge Buildings Group.

What is the background on how the Walbridge Buildings Group was formed?

The Buildings Group was reorganized at the first of the year.

Its roots take you back to 1984, when Walbridge acquired a contractor by the name of Darin & Armstrong. To the same extent that Walbridge had an industrial core, Darin & Armstrong had a commercial focus.

They did the Spaceship Earth and American Adventure Pavilion at Epcot. We acquired them and with that came the commercial work.

The Buildings Group covers Florida, the Midwest and then the Commercial Group here in Detroit. We focus on: Education, whether it’s K-12 or higher education; and developer-led projects where there is funding from a developer to renovate an office building, for instance. We also pursue healthcare, retail and some religious work.

Has the strategy changed with the formation of the Buildings Group?

I think the market has basically changed. One new wrinkle is public-private partnerships, where you get involved with public projects that have private financing. Those projects are starting to get some legs.

The real advantage of the Buildings Group is the footprint.

We’re able to collect these multiple offices and teams into one entity that’s doing comparable work. My goal is to create more synergy between the offices. There always was synergy but now we have a common bond.

How will better synergy give more to the customer?

At the end of it the day it’s about adding value. We’re leaner, because we watch our overhead despite getting bigger, and we’re more efficient which translates into being a lower cost provider. We’re also able to share more skill-specific management at job sites between our offices.

Don Greenwell, left, and David Robson of Walbridge hoist the ENR Midwest Contractor of the Year Award during a ceremony in Chicago. The company also received a 2015 Best Building Renovation Award from ENR Midwest for restoration of the 100-year-old David Whitney Building in Detroit.

How does that decision-making process flow into business units?

The alignment between the mega-groups or business units within them, has never been better. The ability to form internal joint ventures and come to an agreement on how it’s structured, how it’s staffed and the strategy of execution has been really smooth. It’s at the point where we’re not counting man hours per group or breaking it down to ‘I’m doing more’ or ‘I’m doing less.’

Now, we make the call, we staff the job and we’re off to the races, which is a benefit to the client. Then the client has a unified team concentrating solely on their issue.

The $95 million renovation and addition project at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business on the University of Michigan campus is a joint effort between two of Walbridge’s mega business units — the Buildings Group and Industrial Group. The project is scheduled to be completed in summer 2016.

Built For Good I 5

Communication Key as Major Projects Unfold Right Next Door A

s Walbridge began work on the new University of Michigan Munger Graduate Residences in 2013, workers quickly had new neighbors right across Thompson Street – a separate Walbridge crew beginning renovations on U-M’s West Quad.

Munger Graduate Residences was built as a part of a $110 million gift from philanthropist and U-M alumnus Charles T. Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corp. The eight-story building houses 630 graduate and professionallevel students in apartment-styled living.

Walbridge served as the construction managerat-risk on the project.

Walbridge was chosen to serve as the construction manager at West Quad as well.

West Quad Renovation

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Originally built in 1937, West Quad houses 1,100 students and renovations cost more than $100 million.

With two $100 million-plus projects going only a stone’s throw away from each other, preplanning and teamwork were important. The two teams had to get work done efficiently and effectively without disrupting one another’s timeline. The eight-story Munger project required bringing in two cranes and heavy equipment to build the new 370,000-squarefoot structure. The renovation at West Quad meant adding dumpsters and equipment for removal of debris as new plumbing, heating/ cooling, a new roof and windows would be added later.

All of this meant plenty of collaboration to verify cranes had room to move and workers had space to safely move equipment and materials.

The two crews set up trailers in a shared parking lot for office space.

While office space was separate, that doesn’t mean the teams didn’t talk to each other. In fact, communication was crucial as superintendents for both projects met frequently to see when equipment was coming in, to talk about upcoming work and make sure the two crews were on the same page.

At Munger, precast walls were utilized. When those heavy items were delivered, crews had to be ready to install them, said Munger Project Manager Mark Corey. A total of 730 bathrooms for the building were built off-site and had to be lifted into the building.

A technological touch Because of the importance of organization and communication with projects so close to each other, the West Quad crew utilized an online delivery map which was created by the project team, allowing contractors to show times of

scheduled deliveries, sometimes months in advance.

While many projects still use whiteboards with hand-written times, the online delivery map electronically detailed times and places for drop-offs. It eliminated many inevitable conflicts in schedule.

“There’s no substitute for communication, but this is an effective tool to help sub-contractors talk to us and let us talk to them,” West Quad Project Manager Josh Heavner said.

The team at West Quad went paperless – with all contractors mandated to use iPads. This allowed them to easily check on daily changes on the project rather than wait for a new drawing to be printed and then distributed.

Both projects wrapped up in summer 2015.

This followed a decade of work that left a brand new footprint at U-M as Walbridge built and renovated several residence halls throughout campus.

Munger Graduate Residence Hall

Built For Good I 7

After

Experience Shines in the Rain Weather delay doesn’t hinder progress at newest General Motors paint facility It was mid-summer turning into the fall of 2014 as Walbridge worked on the design-build for one of General Motors’ newest paint shops in Flint, but Mother Nature wasn’t cooperating.

From May 2014 until the end of that summer, roughly 36 percent of working days were lost due to rain, water pumping and associated cleanup.

Walbridge was contracted by Gallagher-Kaiser Corporation to design-build the 1.3 million square foot facility, which is expected to begin testing and operations in early 2016.

Because of the weather conditions throughout the summer and site challenges, Walbridge had to put on a full-court press to make sure the project was completed in a timely manner.

Steve Mikulich, project manager for Walbridge, credited two major factors that helped maintain progress at the Flint facility despite the foul weather: great relationships with key subcontractors and the experience Walbridge has in building paint facilities.

Aerial photos tell the story of a facility that was put together efficiently and in a timely manner, with photos from 8 I Built For Good

Sept. 24, 2014

July 24, 2014 with only some work completed on the western-edge of the facility. Fast-forward two months and photos on September 24, 2014 show immense progress with external work on the facility’s expansion. The structural steel was set in December 2014 at the facility, with roofing being fully completed in February 2015.

Mikulich said a proven relationship with subcontractor Midwest Steel allowed for ease of planning during the preconstruction phase and the ability to adapt to major changes in the construction schedule.

With a vast resume of building paint facilities for automakers, Walbridge Vice President of Operations Ron Vernet said preplanning and an understanding of the land the facility would be built on made it easier to avoid delays. Vernet himself has been involved with 20 paint shops during his time with Walbridge and said that experience allows Walbridge to anticipate problems they could run into and call on best practices to get the job done efficiently.

Given the fast pace of the building and the many challenges, Mikulich said he’s extremely proud of the project team as critical owner milestones were met and the project had zero lost time safety incidents.

Walbridge’s work on the design-build was part of the largest project in the Flint-area in more than five years. At

Before July 24, 2014

Despite accelerating the pace of work after losing 36 percent of working days during early phases, there were zero lost time incidents.

Crews utilized three cranes to work on key process areas and set penthouse air houses and process ovens during the placing of structural steel.

Watch the video:

Ron Vernet on Walbridge’s

paint shop experience peak, Midwest Steel used up to three cranes to complete steel erection. The use of three cranes accommodated construction of key process areas and allowed workers to set penthouse air handling units and ovens during the placing of structural steel. The building contains a total of 43,000 cubic yards of concrete and 13,975 total pieces of structural steel.

The facility is designed to reduce the amount of sludge taken to landfills by 90 percent and will use 20 percent less gas and 40 percent less electricity. It’s located next to GM’s Flint Assembly plant, which produces Heavy-Duty Chevrolet and GMC Sierra Crew and Regular Cab Trucks, and is capable of producing Light-Duty Chevrolet Silverado Crew and Regular Cab Trucks.

Built For Good I 9

New Technology Used to Restore Old Tampa City Hall With 100 years of history behind it, Tampa, Florida’s Old City Hall has seen its fair share of changes and played a major role in the advancement of the city.

And with the use of modern technology, the high-profile building will once again look like it did a century ago.

Walbridge is working with project partners FleischmanGarcia Architects, and local restoration experts, Restocon, to renovate the century-old building’s exterior.

The work will include repairing brickwork, granite and ornate terracotta balustrades and cornices. With an impressive “layer cake” look, the building has a historical feeling. Current technology will bring a new era to the building.

“What we’re utilizing is 3-D scanning, drone video flying, and still photography to capture the building the way it is and then translate that into a set of documents so the owner can see what exists,” said Mary Layton, Walbridge’s project manager. “Then we’ll be in a position to decide exactly what to fix.”

With an estimated completion date of spring 2017, the process is currently in predesign. The building’s location in busy downtown Tampa poses multiple challenges.

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Thinking of pedestrians, employees, and vehicles, Walbridge’s continued commitment to safety on all worksites comes into play during planning and construction phase. John Sullivan, in charge of safety for the Walbridge Florida group, said preplanning is of the utmost importance as they will continue to allow safe access to the building and keep city government operating with no interruptions during construction.

“We’re going to utilize pretask planning and daily task analysis to really look at the unique hazards of each job activity and plan to address and mitigate those hazards,” Sullivan said.

When the building was first created in 1915, it had a price tag of $235,000. It’s “layercake” design was created by renowned local architect M. Leo Elliott.

Coincidentally, Principal Architect Sol J. Fleischman met Elliott as a boy.

Considering it Elliott’s finest design, Fleischman calls it a privilege to restore Elliott’s work.

Once completed, the building will be restored to its 1915 glory and will be compatible with the history that radiates from the building. The building is listed as a National Historic Building on the Register for Historic Places.

3D Modeling Thanks to advancements in technology, the architect and Walbridge team working on the Old Tampa City Hall restoration have the benefit of utilizing the latest threedimensional (3D) modeling to assess how to tackle this difficult renovation.

he explained. “But you lose detail higher up because of the higher angle of incidence. That’s why we crossed the street and shot from a parking lot. That way we reduced the angle of incidence and got better readings at the top of the building.”

In August, Nick Bobbitt and Drew Crabb of Walbridge Technologies worked their 3D magic around the perimeter of the building on a hot, muggy Saturday morning. They positioned tripods topped with white plastic globes, measuring 150 mm in circumference, around the sides of the building. Then, Nick aimed a Faro X330 laser scanner at them and fired away. A laser bounced off a rotating mirror inside the scanner, then struck each globe, which reflected the light back at the scanner.

Each of those “points” is marked as an individual coordinate in space. This can be done up to a million times per second, which yields a massive number of measurements.

An SD card inside the scanner stores the data in the field.

Multiple cards are required on a project like Old Tampa City Hall. The data is later transferred to a laptop computer and

once it’s back in the Detroit office,

individual scan locations are

“stitched” together to form a

single 3D representation of the

building. At this stage, the

information is called a “point cloud.”

Technologists then utilize

Autodesk’s Revit software to

reconstruct the building into a 3D

model.

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“The laser is all ‘line of sight’,” Bobbitt said. “That means you have to position it in multiple locations in order to observe all sides of the building. The distance from the laser to the globes doesn’t have to be the same. But, the laser’s position in proximity to the building can yield different results.

x

“If you’re close, you’ll get great detail lower on the building,”

Since there were no original architectural drawings available in

this case, the 3D Revit model has

provided an

accurate starting point for the architect to begin designing renovations to the building.

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“These 3D models visually express to the client what the project is going to entail,” said Mary Layton, Walbridge’s project manager for Old Tampa City Hall. “That’s brought so much to our ability to pursue these types of projects. The client is able to get involved and understand what we can do.”

Built For Good I 11

Sam Trotter, Photographer W

albridge has participated with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles during the past two years in sponsoring summer interns from Cass Technical High School in Detroit.

For Walbridge’s Corporate Communications department, the choice for a Summer 2015 intern was easy: photographer Sam Trotter. Sam, who graduated from Cass in 2015, was already making a name for himself as an editorial and fashion photographer. He completed a photo shoot with Detroit rapper Big Sean for the release of Adidas Originals’ ZX Flux shoe shortly before reporting to Walbridge.

“Sam has a great eye for the key elements required to create good images,” Mark Marymee, Walbridge Corporate Communication manager, said. “He puts people at ease and whether they are the subject of his photo or Sam needs their help to get access to a location, people go out of their way to help Sam.” One of Sam’s biggest assignments for Walbridge was picking 10 projects constructed in Detroit by the construction firm over its 100 year history and then photographing them. Sam chose the following projects (by date of completion): • • • • • • • • • •

The Book Building (1917) and Book Tower (1926); Orchestra Hall (1919); The Bedell Building (1923); The Women’s City Club Building (1923); The Metropolitan Building (1925); The Bankers Trust Company Building (1926); The United Artists Building (1928); The Detroit Naval Armory (1930); Detroit People Mover (1987); and One Detroit Center (1991).

Over the course of two months, Sam confirmed the location of each building and visited each site. He shot photographs of their current condition, then edited the photos for our use.

“Shooting with Walbridge was different solely because of the subject matter,” Sam said. “I have a love for hip hop and fashion photography, but after working here I have a certain appreciation for architectural photography. The skills I’ve learned have helped me in my other work, in building and composing better imagery.”

To see examples of Sam’s work for Walbridge, visit the Walbridge Group photostream on flickr.

For more of Sam’s photographic work, go to www. samueltrotter.com

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Carlson Walbridge Unit Focuses on Technology Driven Facilities Carlson and Walbridge have formed a new venture, Carlson Walbridge, a Walbridge Group company. It will focus on the design, construction and design-build of technology driven facilities.

Carlson, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., has been successfully designing and building major technology and mission critical facilities for clients for more than 30 of its 68 years in business.

Founded in 1916, Detroit-based Walbridge is a global construction services firm with expertise in multiple industries, including automotive, higher education, and industrial manufacturing, The creation of Carlson Walbridge will leverage resources between the two firms. For long-standing Walbridge clients with data center needs, Carlson has a tremendous track record in that market. Many of Carlson’s clients are looking for the size and financial strength exemplified by Walbridge.

The new venture will be based in Dallas and will operate from

a combined 20 locations around the world.

“This increases the value we can offer clients, by combining the strengths of Carlson and Walbridge and bringing together our considerable expertise and resources,” said William B. Fraser, P.E., President and CEO of Carlson Walbridge.

“When it comes to designing and constructing large, sophisticated facilities, no other firm can match our joint skill set.”

Randy Abdallah, Executive Vice President – Get Work of Walbridge, said, “This combination of capability and knowledge provides a total solution for tech-intensive facilities, from early collaboration, into integration of design, and then through the construction phase.”

The new entity will concentrate on providing design, construction and design-build services to meet the technology driven facility needs of enterprise clients in the following industries: technology, telecommunications, automotive, financial services, food & beverage, healthcare and higher education.

Below: A facility designed by Carlson in Durham, N.C.

Contact us

Connect with us:

SALES | Randy Abdallah, Executive Vice President 866.331.6585 | rabdallah@walbridge.com

Built For Good I 13

What we’re up to RECENTLY AWARDED

GETTING STARTED

UNDERWAY

WRAPPING UP

TOX Pressotechnik L.L.C. Warrenville, Illinois

The Griswold Detroit

1855 Place Michigan State University

Subaru Paintshop Lafayette, Indiana

Walbridge’s Industrial Process business unit was awarded a building expansion project by TOX Pressotechnik L.L.C..

This 29,000-square-foot industrial and office expansion will significantly increase production space for TOX, a market leader in press driver systems and joining techniques, hydraulic press machines, pneumo-hydraulic cylinders, metal fastening systems, and press systems.

Work has begun on The Griswold, an 80-unit apartment complex, for the Roxbury Group in Detroit.

Walbridge will serve as construction manager, building the complex atop an existing 10-story parking and retail structure it built for Roxbury Group in 2008.

The project is located on Michigan Avenue next to the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel.

Serving as construction manager, Walbridge is working to build 1855 Place on the campus of Michigan State University. It will serve as a gateway to the campus, sitting across from MSU’s Breslin Student Events Center.

In total, 10 buildings will house students, students with families, and will provide space for retail shops.

Working as the general contractor, Walbridge constructed a new paint shop addition to Subaru’s Lafayette, Ind. campus which will bolster its ability to produces Outback, Legacy and Impreza vehicles. Located southeast of the main plant, the new paint facility will allow the production of an additional 100,000 vehicles annually.

activity SNAPSHOT Walbridge’s 1855 Place team poses with MSU mascot Sparty at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 11. They are (l-r) Sherry Hewett, Sarah Blohm, Kirk Frownfelter, Adre Reinert, Sparty, Don Greenwell, Jr., Terry Clemens, Matt Hunter, Lee Garrity and John Heikka.

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Awards W

albridge recently received awards in recognition of its construction expertise and corporate programs.

On Sept. 10, Engineering News-Record honored Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ new Goiana Jeep Assembly Plant in Brazil as its Global Best Manufacturing Project of the Year at the ENR Global Construction Summit in New York.

Representatives of the Consortium Construcap Walbridge joint venture, which served as design-builder of the new complex, were in attendance.

Construction Engineering News-Record Midwest honored Walbridge with a 2015 Best Project Award in the Restoration/ Renovation Category for its work on The David Whitney Building in Detroit. The 100-year-old building was renovated over an 18-month period and now houses a 136-room Aloft Hotel and 105 apartment units. Walbridge teamed with project owner The Roxbury Group and architect Kraemer Design Group.

The Whitney project also received a 2015 Impact Award in the Adaptive Use/Renovation Category from Construction Real Estate Women (CREW) Detroit. CREW’s Impact Awards recognize outstanding southeast Michigan commercial property development projects that “significantly impact their surrounding communities.”

CREW also recognized Walbridge’s work on the complete overhaul of the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Outdoor Adventure Center (OAC) in Detroit with an Impact Award in the Special Impact Category. Walbridge teamed with project owner The Roxbury Group and architect Hobbs + Black on the project.

Members of the Consortium Construcap Walbridge team attending the event were (l-r) Walbridge’s John Linenberg, Mike Haller and John Rakolta, Jr., followed by Construcap’s Roberto Capobianco, Marco Aurelio Guimaraes and Hideraldo Cordeiro de Souza, Walbridge’s Mark McClelland, and Construcap’s Fernando Damin Filho.

(Credit: ENR/Steve Hill)

The OAC project also won an Honor Award in the Building Category from the American Institute of Architects’ Huron Valley Chapter.

Health & Wellness

Safety

Walbridge received several awards for its human resources and wellness programs.

The Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration (MIOSHA) granted Walbridge continued status as a STAR participant in its Michigan Voluntary Protection Program/ Construction (MVPPC) for the company’s work renovating the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Walbridge was commended for demonstrating “a company culture that promotes management commitment, employee involvement and a desire to excel in safety.”

The Corporate Health & Wellness Association named Walbridge one of the 2015 Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America. Judges noted the company’s “exceptional achievement and leadership” in building a healthy, productive workplace. Walbridge was the only construction company winner.

The Michigan Business and Professional Association (MBPA) recognized Walbridge as a Michigan 2015 Best & Brightest Sustainable Company. It was the third-straight year Walbridge received the award.

The MBPA also honored Walbridge as one of its 2015 Metro Detroit’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. It was the 13th consecutive year Walbridge has been so honored by the MBPA. Walbridge’s wellness program was recognized with a Michigan Best & Brightest in Wellness Company award from the MBPA. It was the fourth-straight year Walbridge won the award.

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Aurora, Illinois | Charlotte, North Carolina | Chicago, Illinois Columbia, South Carolina | Dallas, Texas | Detroit, Michigan | Greenville, South Carolina Houston, Texas | Irvine, California | Kalamazoo, Michigan | Kokomo, Indiana | LeClaire, Iowa Mexico City, Mexico | Oak Ridge, Tennessee | Oakland, California(JV) | Orlando, Florida Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | S達o Paulo, Brazil(JV) | St. Louis, Missouri | Tampa, Florida 777 Woodward Ave, Suite 300, Detroit, Michigan 48226 www.walbridge.com