Short Takes

Jan/Feb 2010

Barn Raising

AGC of Utah members work together to build a state-of-the-art association headquarters in a year

By Brad Fullmer

(Photo: Dana Sohm, Sohm Photografx)

Despite difficult economic times, members of the Utah chapter of the Associated General Contractors united to construct a new association headquarters in Salt Lake City, a project that is being hailed as a “good old-fashioned barn-raising.”

The 9,000-sq-ft, $3.7-million facility was built by more than 270 AGC member firms that donated their time, crews, materials and money. The new headquarters was built in the West Valley section of Salt Lake City, several miles west of downtown. It opened in mid-November.

Rich Thorn, president/CEO of AGC of Utah, says more than $2.2 million of the total project cost was donated by AGC members. The rest of the building was funded with the sale of the old headquarters in downtown Salt Lake, along with equity that was built up over time.

“This project is a testament to our members and their commitment to our association,” Thorn says. “Despite tough economic times, we’ve had firms collaborate and donate money and resources to this project.”

Lonnie Bullard, CEO of Salt Lake-based Jacobsen Construction and the 2008 AGC of Utah chairman of the board, says, “It’s gratifying to see this project come to fruition after many years of trying to make it happen.”

Many AGC members say it was Bullard who finally got the project off the ground.

“Lonnie deserves a lot of credit for his role in bringing together the right people to get this project going,” says Al Schellenberg, president of Geneva Rock Products, Orem, Utah, and 2009 AGC of Utah chairman of the board.

(Photo: Dana Sohm, Sohm Photografx)

Bullard says he met with executives of seven prominent Utah construction firms early in his tenure as 2008 AGC chair and got them to buy into the concept of working together to build the new headquarters. “I felt if we could get those people to commit for a significant amount [of money], we could create momentum that would pull everyone else in,” Bullard says. “We presented a plan to them at that time that the building should be done like a good old-fashioned barn-raising.”

Joey Gilbert, AGC of Utah vice president, says: “One of the concepts we decided on was that everyone would wear the same hard hat. They all took off their competitive hats and put on an AGC hard hat. It wasn’t ‘us versus them;’ it was everyone working as a team.”

David Layton, president/CEO of Layton Construction Co., Sandy, Utah, adds: “You could say that’s borderline craziness to even attempt a ‘barn raising’ in today’s economy, with a complicated structure, and with firms who typically compete against each other.”

Timeless Design

The project broke ground in late 2008 and took a little more than a year to complete. Firms such as Jacobsen Construction and Salt Lake City-based Big-D Construction Corp. provided estimating services, while Layton Construction committed a full-time project superintendent, Brad Van Fleet, whose tasks included having to juggle contractors on a daily basis.

Clockwise from top left: View of the lobby space, which features unique lighting fixtures, steel beams, panelized steel walls and ceilings and a glass wall curtain system; Office of AGC of Utah President/CEO Rich Thorn; Training/special events room; Exterior view of front of the building. (Photo: Dana Sohm, Sohm Photografx)

“It had its outside challenges, its days of frustration, but if you step back and look at what we accomplished here, it’s amazing that we could come together and do something like this,” Van Fleet says.

Executive board room, which features the largest granite top table ever installed in the state. (Photo: Dana Sohm, Sohm Photografx)

The building was designed by architect Ralph Stanislaw, principal of Salt Lake City-based Archiplex Group.

“It was a unique learning process,” Stanislaw says. “Just dealing with so many different people required a lot of changes and adjustments, but it’s turned out to be a beautiful, timeless facility and something our firm is proud of designing.”

Stanislaw says one of the goals of the design team was to reflect the purpose and broad membership of the AGC throughout the building, with visible examples of the wide spectrum of specialties within the construction industry.

The architecture reflects the work of civil contractors in the use of deep-cut trenches, boulder-lined detention ponds, pervious concrete paving, concrete pedestrian bridges, tall, concrete sign panels and rusted corrugated steel sheeting. Vertical building contractor skills are on display in the building’s soaring roofs, glass-lined lobby, exposed ceilings and building volumes that flow freely from the exterior to the interior.