AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Quality Awards honor the AWCI member contractors, manufacturers and suppliers who participate on quality construction projects. Here are this year’s winners.
Category
Historic Renovation (No Contract Size Required
Winning Project
Uptown Theater. Grand Prairie, Texas
When it first opened on March 17, 1950, the Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas, was considered state-of-the-art with its 1,110 spring-loaded seats and sloped floor. First-run movies sold for 35 cents per ticket for adults and 12 cents for children.
Over time, the theater transitioned into a second-run dollar movie house, and it was left abandoned in 1994 until the city purchased the building in 2005 for $400,000. Now, after $3.5 million in renovations, the Uptown Theater opened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.
With the help of Triangle Plastering, Ltd., the theater was restored to its early 20th century art deco style with the help of metal lath and plaster. Architectural details called for plaster radius light coves throughout the entry and theater—not something seen every day in 2008.
Triangle Plastering brought in its most experienced lather and his crew to hand-bend channel iron into exact ellipse shapes. Working from the detailed architectural drawings, lathers laid out each critical point for the radii and cove. With channel iron and metal lath in place, Triangle Plastering created a series of hand-built iron mules to guide and apply the plaster coating. Each cove took a series of three to four mules before removing the guide and applying the plaster finish. The plaster finish coat was very important due to the critical light from the various coves.
Triangle’s lathers and plasterers had to draw upon Old World skills to replicate this architectural style, and for that they were rewarded by winning the Texas Lathing and Plastering Contractors Association’s 2009 Design Awards competition, and the 2010 Excellence in Construction Quality Award for historic renovation from AWCI.
PARTICIPATING AWCI MEMBERS
Contractor
Triangle Plastering, Ltd.
Manufacturers
AMICO (Alabama Metal Industries Corp.)
USG
Category
Contractor’s Contract Is More Than $1 Million
Winning Project
San Jose Airport Terminal B Concourse, San Jose, California
As the “capitol of silicon valley,” San Jose, Calif., wanted a 21st century airport to meet the city’s needs while reflecting the innovation and vision of the area. City planners partnered with architect Gensler to create a unique and innovative redesign of Mineta San Jose International Airport’s Terminal B.
The Raymond Group was contracted by Clark Construction to provide the fireproofing, lath, plaster, metal stud framing and drywall for the Terminal B Concourse—a scope that exceeded $13 million, with a scheduled duration of only eight months.
Designed with LEED sustainability principles, the Terminal B Concourse connects two terminals and runs adjacent to an existing runway. So the building grade of the terminal must match that of the runway, which itself is sloped for water drainage.
The building slopes south to north four and a half feet. Everything in the building is therefore built on a slope of 1 1/8 inches between column lengths. With the site line of 1,470 feet long on multiple elements, keeping those straight was quite a challenge—in both design and safety.
But employees who stepped foot onto the project were immersed in safety. The Raymond Group’s team pre-planned activities and developed innovative systems with built-in quality control that were best practices for the given task. Beyond detailed safety inspections from full-time, on-site safety representatives, the Raymond Group implemented a Soft Tissue Injury Prevention Program where each jobsite foreman led his crew in daily stretching and warm-up sessions.
For delivering the ultramodern Terminal B Concourse on time and within budget, with a finished product of exceptional quality above and beyond the norm, the Raymond Group is rewarded with AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Quality Award.
PARTICIPATING AWCI MEMBERS
Contractor
The Raymond Group (Raymond–Northern California, Inc.)
Manufacturers
BASF Wall Systems
California Expanded Metal Products (CEMCO)
Georgia-Pacific Gypsum
Isolatek International
USG
Supplier
Isolatek International
Category
Less Than $1 Million
Winning Project
Cardinal Kids Cancer Center
The doctors of the David C. Pratt Cancer Center at St. John’s Hospital just outside St. Louis, Mo., wanted a relaxed environment where their young patients could have fun during their treatment. Begun in 2006, the 4,200 square foot Cardinal Kids Cancer Center holds a Cardinal Ballpark Village, with areas replicating a bullpen, lockers, theater, baseball field, box office and more.
In a two-phase project over 39 weeks, AWCI member T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc., provided interior finishes including metal framing, drywall, acoustical ceilings and 200 square feet of lath and plaster. With many feature walls finished to Level 5 standards, the inner wall partitions were constructed of 20 gauge metal framing throughout, with 5/8-inch drywall, 5/8-inch fiberboard, and 3/8-inch and 1/4-inch drywall in various layers at the radius walls.
Phase I saw the challenging crafting of radius walls for the theater, bullpen and box office areas. Still more creative are the amazing cutouts: recessed and protruding shapes that were quite a process to complete. Using a knife-traced stencil, craftsmen peeled off the drywall paper and used a router and modified zip trim to cut out the meticulous shapes and apply them with adhesive and a heat gun. Then they were taped and finished with a skim coat of mud over the entire surface.
Another incredibly difficult task was a plaster-applied dome ceiling built over framing and metal lath, which was created in a tiny space in the theater.
Above all, the contractors showed great respect in finishing such a feat in a building occupied by tenants, doctors and patients. For the skills and abilities necessary to take the vision of the architect and doctors and construct the design down to the smallest detail, AWCI bestowed its 2010 Excellence in Construction Quality Award for a contract of less than $1 million to T. J. Wies Contracting for their contribution to helping heal the young patients who will receive treatment at the Cardinal Kids Cancer Center.
PARTICIPATING AWCI MEMBERS
Contractor
T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc.
Manufacturers
Armstrong Ceiling Systems
Dietrich Metal Framing
USG
Suppliers
Ceiling Supply, Inc. (AMAROK)
Negwer Materials, Inc.
