Mercedes Benz, Signal Hill, CA.
It was the week before Christmas. "No, we're absolutely not interested in any value-engineering. It's a Merecedes Benz Dealership, and it's strictly per plans and spec. click". Okay. Having already done the preliminary design and estimate, we sent in the proposal anyway. Hey, it was Christmas.
timmccarthy's blog
The value-engineering they absolutely did not want.
2 bucks chucked, Westwood Technology School, Anaheim, CA
"We just want to clarify....did you say $80,000.00?"
Yes. "What if our engineer doesn't accept it?" Well I am sure he will, numbers are numbers. But if he is doesn't, we could stamp and sign it ourselves. "Great. Could you come in Thursday to meet with our team, including the engineer of record?" Sure.
The Safest Installation Ever
St. Thomas Korean Catholic Church, Anaheim, CA.
The 77' long span bolted glulam trusses were an obvious crane install. The 24" o.c. 18' rafters, the 48" o.c. blocks between them, the straps from rafter to rafter, all the pieces of plywood and the myriad of hardware connectors over the stadium style sloped concrete floor was a scary boom lift install. Why not value-engineer the rafters to be continuous glulams and build the system in pre-assembled panels on the ground and crane the assembly into place? So it was done.
Where Earthquakes Dare, Warehouse and Office, Perris, CA
The proposed 45,000 s.f. warehouse building was owned by his brother who had an engineer buddy who drew up his plans.
The problem was that the ‘plans’ were missing a significant amount of important details for things like earthquakes (which are popular in California) and the Building Department wasn’t about to issue a permit for it. The second floor design was very very expensive. Having completed several successful jobs with him already, Norm asked us to help out his brother and his buddy.
Pink hard hats and productivity
Washington Food Center, Los Angeles
I don’t remember what prompted the occasion, but one day John showed up with 6 day glow pink hardhats and decided it was time for the ladies in our office to visit a job site.
He was picking up bad vibrations. Floor Vibrations....Solved!
The building is new - for crying out loud!
