March 15, 2017
Pepperdine’s Outer Precinct Hall will have 458 on-campus beds.
Upperclassmen are getting new first-rate housing at Pepperdine University.
The Outer Precinct Residence Hall will be a 120,000-square-foot student housing facility with 458 on-campus beds, most of which will be four-bedroom suites sharing two bathrooms. The primary residents will be juniors, many of whom are returning from study-abroad programs.
“We feel privileged to have the opportunity to work for such a well-respected university,” said Vice President and Southern California Regional Director Robert Stokes.
The project is being designed to a LEED Silver equivalent and is scheduled to be finished in August 2018. Conditions in Malibu are so nice (average high of 77 in July and low of 48 in January) that air conditioning for the housing complex will only be installed in community spaces. The housing units will have windows for natural ventilation and radiant heating in the floors to take advantage of the area’s temperate climate.
Two older dorms were removed to make room for the new building. Over the past 40 years, the former dorms were homes to some people who now work in the campus construction office.
“One thing the university understands is that this is more than just student housing,” Robert said. “This is where people make lifelong relationships. The university considers this to be a pivotal project that will help grow the Pepperdine family.”
A team from Cal State University Sacramento won the concrete competition at ASC.
For the seventh consecutive year, Sundt made an investment in the future of the industry by supporting the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Student Competition in Sparks, Nevada earlier this month.
ASC is the professional association for the development and advancement of construction education, where sharing ideas and knowledge inspires, guides and promotes excellence in curricula, teaching, research and service.
“The ASC competition is a great opportunity for Sundt to get to know some of the brightest college students in the country,” said Sundt Vice President of Concrete Operations Sean Lynch. “We’re proud to play a role in educating the next generation of problem-solvers and construction leaders.”
We sponsored the concrete solutions category of the Regions 6 (Rocky Mountain) and 7 (Far West) competition. A team from California State University Sacramento won.
Our team put real-life issues before squads of college students who were tasked with developing the best approaches to solving the problems. The objective was to provoke critical thinking, display technical and presentation skills, promote teamwork and enjoy the experience.
The teams focused on the six-story, cast-in-place Sun Stone parking structure at San Diego State University, which is located next to two six-story student housing towers that were to be constructed concurrently with the garage. This problem statement focused on self-perform concrete and the teams were assigned to build the frame of the garage (e.g. slab on grade, walls, columns and decks).
The event was attended by students from dozens of colleges and universities. The conference is also a good venue for us to recruit interns who eventually could become important contributors as employee-owners.
Our concrete group was represented by Dinesh Reddy Allam, Shawn Blubaum, Kira Bruun, Michael Canter, Jesse McDonald, Tyler Menard, Gates Molitor and Carolina Silvas. Michael Morales ran our booth at the job fair. Tom Case and Dan Haag attended from our executive team.
Sundt Project Manager John Lewis.
Project Manager John Lewis has been with Sundt since 1996, filling a variety of roles: Field Engineer, Project Engineer and Superintendent.
Born in Tacoma, Washington to a military family, John moved every couple of years, setting him up for a career of going from one jobsite to another.
How did you get involved in construction?
I started in architecture at Arizona State University and quickly learned that I would rather be building and managing projects than drawing and designing them. After two short years of architecture school I changed my major to construction management. One of the best decisions I ever made!
What was it about Sundt that convinced you to work here?
My first intention, some 20 years ago, was to get an internship. I heard from several people that Sundt was a good company that specialized in several kinds of work. Once on board, I quickly learned that Sundt is a good company with a great reputation in the community. It was also nice to see that several employees had been with the company for many years, a testament that Sundt has created a good culture with good people that I wanted to be a part of. The ESOP was also a good motivator to join the Sundt team.
Which project are you working on?
I’m currently working on the Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building in downtown Phoenix. I’ve had the good fortune to be able to work on this campus for the last five years. The project is a 10-story research/administrative labs, roughly 245,000-square-foot cast-in-place concrete structure. The copper façade matches the previously completed phases. It’s a must-see project in the downtown area.
What do you like to do when you’re away from work?
The family and I enjoy travelling; we try to take a significant trip each year. We also enjoy spending time at the kids’ sporting events. My son plays competitive basketball and my daughter is in competitive cheer and volleyball. We also enjoy camping up north as well as at the sand dunes in California.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Treat people like you want to be treated. As we all know, in this business, the likelihood of dealing with the same person sometime down the road is inevitable. There are many occasions where I see someone years later and they always have something nice to say because even in cases when interactions are not positive, I’ve always treated them with respect.
Two of a kind: the Heath Sciences Education Building (left) and Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building (right) sit side-by-side in Downtown Phoenix.
After almost two years of construction, a brilliant new copper building is welcoming its first occupants in Downtown Phoenix. While the Sundt joint venture has almost a year’s worth of work remaining, the $136 million University of Arizona Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building (BSPB) is starting to fulfill its mission of finding cures and saving lives.
The 245,000-square-foot building is the latest addition to a growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus, a 15-year-old city initiative bringing bioresearch and education to downtown. This is Sundt’s fourth project on the campus, including the neighboring Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB), which sits in the BSPB’s long shadow. The 268,000-square-foot HSEB is shared by the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, as well as by Northern Arizona University’s College of Health and Human Services programs.
BSPB is bringing together scientists and researchers from across many disciplines to work collaboratively in fighting diseases. The first researchers are moving in on the fifth and sixth floors while the construction team builds out the 10th floor. That space was originally designed as shell.
The Center for Applied Nanoscience and Biomedicine will be headquartered in the building. Its researchers are making cutting-edge discoveries, such as the Rapid DNA test, which detects early-stage bacterial infections.
Our work and that of other contractors, including our joint-venture partner DPR Construction, on the campus has given Phoenix valuable international attention in the biosciences field. The many advancements made on campus will improve the human condition.
“The Phoenix Biomedical Campus has grown into the foundation for Arizona’s growing biomedical industry and helped to put the region on the national map as a cutting-edge center for research and medical collaboration,” Phoenix Vice Mayor Kate Gallego told the Phoenix Business Journal. “It’s exciting to have Phoenix at the center of some of our most promising treatments to emerge in years for chronic and deadly diseases.”
Officials break ground on a new student housing project at the University of the Pacific.
Sundt’s work on a new student housing complex for the University of the Pacific is being performed using a unique funding method that brings together the public and private sectors.
The project is being developed by Capstone Development Partners, a private developer known for partnering with colleges and universities to develop student housing. Public-private partnerships (P3) are the type of work general contractors are increasingly pursuing.
P3 is a long-term partnership between a public agency and private entity. Through the arrangement, the private entity typically finances, designs, builds, operates and/or maintains a fee-producing public project. In exchange, the private entity is repaid over an extended period of time through fees generated by the project or as otherwise permitted. This can involve the private entity’s lease or ownership of the project for an extended period during repayment.
The recent emergence and high-profile successes of P3 delivery will continue to stimulate tremendous opportunities for the design and construction industry. In a landscape of intense budget constraints and fiscal austerity, P3s offer government agencies an alternative mechanism for financing vital infrastructure projects.
Expected to be complete by early 2018, the project in Stockton, California, includes development of two four-story buildings totaling 158,000 square feet and 381 beds. The residences will provide contemporary apartment-style housing with gathering spaces and other indoor and outdoor student amenities, including a large shared kitchen, community spaces and study areas to support students’ academic needs.
