Challenges Bring Their Own Rewards 800 Gateway Boulevard

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1 INSIDE STORY Challenges Bring Their Own Rewards 800 Gateway Boulevard Gold Award - Acoustic Solutions - West Region - Submitted by: Performance Contracting, Inc. Architect: DGA Architects Other CISCA Members Involved With the Project: Armstrong World Industries Editor s note: To a careful reader this feature may strike an air of familiarity. That is because the text of the article was errantly published with the wrong project photos in the Spring 2012 issue. Here is the correct story and photos for your review. We apologize for any confusion that may have resulted from this mixup. 6 Spring 2012 INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION

2 By Meta L. Levin 800 Gateway Boulevard, San Francisco, CA, represented a challenging project, encompassing 102,000 square feet of space and several different kinds of custom acoustic ceilings in areas devoted to research, offices, a cafeteria and a two story main entrance and lobby. It took a lot of pre-planning, a lot of work on the front end to make it possible, says Chad Davis, Performance Contracting, Inc. (PCI) estimator on the job, who was involved from beginning to end. We were able to combat the tight time line with extensive shop drawings, pre-approvals and working closely with the general contractor and the other trades. We knew what everyone was doing. The work and attention to detail paid off, not only with a beautiful end result, but when CISCA awarded Performance Contracting, Inc. its 2010 gold award for ceilings, west region. This was not your typical job, says Sean McAdams, Performance Contracting s superintendent on the job. Most of the ceiling components were custom made, in other words, one of a kind. That included the wood ceilings in the lobby, aluminum radius trims with soffits in the cafeteria, varying ceiling heights in open office areas and metal ceilings in the laboratories. The work had to be done on a tight schedule, made even more challenging, because often multiple trades were working at the same time in the same space. For instance, in the laboratories, not only did the contractor have to work around already installed laboratory equipment and coordinate with other trades, but, instead of a normal four weeks to complete that part of the project, McAdams estimates that there were only two-and-ahalf weeks allotted to finish it. We had to coordinate with a lot of different trades who were working in the same area at the same time, says McAdams. That was the biggest thing. In the lobby, tradesmen were installing bamboo flooring around the scaffolding while Performance Contracting was up on the dance floor handling the complex and delicate task of installing custom, leaf shaped wood acoustic panels on the ceiling. In the laboratories, other tradesmen were busy with ductwork, pipes, wires and assorted infrastructure that ran above the ceilings as Performance Contracting came behind them to install the custom metal acoustic panels. Everything will run smoother if you have the right foreman, says McAdams. We had a good foreman, a good crew and good coordination. The biggest challenge, however, was the wood ceiling in the lobby. The panels were arched and the perimeter radius had to be a constant eight inch (continued on page 8) INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION Spring

3 INSIDE STORY (continued from page 7) gap between the leading edge and the dry wall soffit, says Davis. Since there was a long time line - two to three months between the time the custom panels were ordered and CISCA member Armstrong World Industries manufactured and shipped them to the site - Performance Contracting found itself taking field measurements off the drywall contractor s layout lines on the ground before anything was built. We video conferenced with Armstrong and the general contractor, all of us looking at the same sets of plans to try to work out all of the challenges, says Davis. Still, they ended up changing some perimeter panels in the middle of the work. Due to the non-rectangular shape of the space and the fact the WoodWorks Access clouds were curved, a lot of engineering and 3D work was required to create the geometry, says Jim Kelley, architectural specialties project manager for Armstrong Commercial Ceilings. The ceiling system is designed to allow the panels to be fully accessible while creating the unique leaf shapes that the architect designed. That s good for both the contractor during installation and the facility owner for future maintenance. Everyone on the job built in redundancies to their pre-planning to insure that everything was ready to go when construction finally began. We double and triple checked to make sure we had it right, says Chris Conrad, Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, the general contractor. We did one set of production drawings, then went out and rechecked. We knew we had to be extremely accurate. The leaf shaped panels were curved like a football, then vertically tilted, says Melinda Lau, design principal at DGA Architects in San Francisco. Each piece had to be field measured and custom manufactured, then further adjusted in the field. We were lucky to have very (continued on page 10) 8 Spring 2012 INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION

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6 (continued from page 9) good subcontractors who were able to envision what we required and planned for the space, she says. We had a lot of back and forth and they were receptive to our comments. During meetings they asked, how can we make this work, she says. Lights were placed in between the wood pieces. We wanted the ceiling to have the feel that it was floating, Lau says. We wanted each to be a consistent distance and PCI helped with the spacing. The wood was curved up, down and sideways, but when you look at it from the ground, it looks good, says McAdams. Conrad gives Armstrong credit for going the extra mile when manufacturing the wood ceiling components. We have a good relationship with Armstrong, which did extraordinary services to get the leaf structure up, says Conrad. Similar challenges faced them in the open office areas, where radius perimeter trims had to be adjusted for two different elevations, stretching across the entire floor. Not only that, but there were two different manufacturers for the elements, says Davis. We had to make sure that both manufacturers did the same things, he says. Lights were installed on top of the lower ceiling panels and the trim blocked the sight lines. The 8,000 square feet of laboratories were equally as complex. Lau designed the metal ceilings to be canted and angled in sort of a saw tooth effect, she says. I like to design labs to have high ceilings to make it feel more open. Having highs and lows gives the ceiling more interest, but also allows for space for the ductwork, she says. She chose metal with acoustical backing, because it is more easily cleaned and acoustic tiles, because with all of the air coursing through there for adequate ventilation, she wanted to keep the noise level down, she says. The short time line meant that much of the equipment and laboratory furniture already was installed when PCI began on the ceilings. The laboratories were one of the hardest things for the general contractor to coordinate, says Conrad. Workers were constantly aware of the expensive equipment below them, taking extra care to make sure that there was no damage. PCI earned kudos from all involved for its work on the project. I ve already hired them again to do the next job, says Conrad. Due to the unique shape and design, this project required many rounds of field dimensioning and precise manufacturing to make sure the panels fit perfectly on site, says Armstrong s Kelley. Good communication between PCI and Armstrong was essential to the project s success. In the end more than one of those involved stepped back and admired the work. It s a very nice space, says Davis, who admits to standing with the McAdams and the job foreman, looking at the finished ceilings. It was the result of hours of planning, shop drawings and attention to detail. As for Lau, the best part was seeing it in use. The last day I saw people using it and happy and working in the space, she says. Someone said, this is the nicest building I ve ever worked in. I design space for people, for users; as long as they are happy, I m happy. INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION Spring