Flintco Talks

For this third installment of Flintco Forward’s look at the Texas Capitol Complex project, Ruben Martinez, President of Martinez Moore Engineers, LLC, Tom Stuhler, Vice President, Senior Project Architect, at HKS, Inc., Brian Eason, Senior Project Manager at HKS, Inc., and Jason Riley, Senior Superintendent, Flintco, LLC focused on the 1801 Congress portion of the project.

“The 1801 Congress project, also referred to as the George H.W. Bush building, is a 15-story office tower that sits on a four-story, below-grade garage,” Riley said.

A lot of effort goes into keeping a project of this magnitude on track with the various Texas Facilities Commission Agencies.

“There is a lot of coordination necessary,” Stuhler said.

With five other packages to consider, this project touches upon others. Eason mentioned hundreds of people and multiple teams, from engineers to designers, working on this project phase.

For Martinez, there’s a lot of pride on the line with his firm’s ability to tie the state's traditions to those shaping Texas’ future the way companies such as Martinez Moore and HKS have done for years.

“When you can contribute to a very important part of Texas that a lot of people will one day get to enjoy, [including] everything this complex will have to offer, it’s just something I find very fulfilling,” Martinez said.

“All of the various phases are not under one general contractor's direction or designed by one architect,” Riley said. “There are a lot of different challenges where these projects meet and come together, and there’s a lot of coordination that goes into that on Flintco’s end to make sure what we’re providing can tie into what the other contractors are providing and vice versa.”

One thing is for sure: the efforts, teamwork, and shared mission of so many will make the Texas Capitol Complex project a smashing success for Austin and something Texans can be proud of for years to come.

The Littleton, Colorado community understands the relationship between a child’s nutrition and mental health. And it is with those students, the future of the community, in mind the Littleton public school system (LPS) took on the responsibility to improve food quality, accessibility, and students' experience.

They invested in a complete renovation of the kitchens at several elementary and middle schools, sourcing Flintco to help. LPS’s Jon Widmier, Coordinator of Social, Emotional and Behavioral Services, Jessica Gould, Director of Nutrition Services, and Terry Davis, Chief Operations Officer, joined Flintco Forward to dive into the project's reasons and the benefits they’ve seen thus far.

“Having food is a basic need for students,” Gould said. “When those needs aren’t met, a student’s ability to learn in the classroom is not there.”

Ensuring students have access to healthy, nutritious food to learn and achieve their fullest potential is a primary focus for Gould.

Expanding on that thought, Widmier said, “What we know is physical health and mental health are two sides of the same coin. So, eating and drinking well can help a person lead a healthier lifestyle and sleep better. And sleep is one of those KPI’s that can really change a student’s game.”

With such importance placed on nutrition for students’ health and well-being, having a school system with state-of-the-art kitchens designed to execute nutrition is essential. To help meet these goals, LPS enlisted the help of Flintco for their kitchen renovations.

“Flintco came to the table with a creative scheduling approach we had not seen before,” Davis said. “We [had] a two-and-a-half-month construction timeline. And they came in with an approach that did not cost us above and beyond the work scope. Their ability and willingness to make changes without adjusting costs is why Flintco rose above and beyond the competition.”

Internships offer great opportunities for businesses and students. Alberici, a diversified, global construction company, has a long history of tapping into new talent and sharing real-world expertise with interns. In past years, the group of interns met at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, but COVID-19 restrictions made that impossible.

The company came up with a plan for an Intern Hackathon to enable interns to innovate together on an actual problem—construction practices in the world of COVID-19. Intern Adnan Malkoc, Alberici Global Automotive Constructors President Jose Garcia-Aranda and Flintco project manager Dan O’Hara spoke about the experience.

“We had several goals for the hackathon,” Garcia-Aranda said. “We wanted to promote innovation within teams, leverage the interns' talent and expertise and solve a real problem in the industry.”

Eight teams competed to deliver a practical and innovative way to “hack the new norm.” O’Hara and Garcia-Aranda were both inspired and in awe of all the great ideas. They and other executives and industry leaders judged the presentations.

Malkoc’s team was the winner with the TRACE contact tracking idea to monitor employee activity accurately.

“We wanted to come up with the idea that hit all points. We came up with the TRACE solution; it works with a phone app and an embedded chip sticker for hard hats,” Malkoc said. “It tracks the daily activity of workers and other data.”

“We’ve had a few employees contract COVID. Attempting to trace that person’s interactions was impossible. The TRACE system immediately tells you this. It saves time in notifying others. It’s a useful idea that can make an immediate impact,” O’Hara said.

Its impact was so great that a customer serving as a judge requested it be implemented at their largest construction site.

This second installment of Flintco Forward’s focused look at the Texas Capitol Complex project in Austin, Texas, zeroes in on phase one construction. Host Tyler Kern spoke with three of Page’s architects working on the project, Lawrence W. Speck, Senior Principal, Paul Bielamowicz, Principal Senior Project Manager, and Ryan Losch, Senior Associate, Urban Designer.

The goal of the new Texas Capitol Complex is multi-fold. It will not only celebrate the State capitol, and house state employees in state office space with more space than ever before, but it will also create well-defined civic spaces for various events and community engagement. “We want to create a district that connects to the city around it,” Losch said.

Speck noted that creating a large mall to the north of the capitol building will result in a grand, green space where the public can gather for enjoyment and events. “It will be a place where families can bring their kids,” Speck said. There are many museums in the area to visit, and a planned cultural venue will generate excitement.

“One of the project's big drivers is a practical financial benefit to the state,” Bielamowicz said. “The state has a lot of agencies that currently lease spaces, and by constructing these office buildings and having the state own and operate these buildings, they are saving a lot of dollars in the long run.”

Be sure to subscribe to Flintco Forward to access all past and future episodes on the Texas state capitol complex.