SAFEGUARDIAN OF THE QUARTER
Laborer foreman Joel Delacruz has become an asset to the Seattle safety team. Joel takes a lot of pride and responsibility in the quality of the weekly All Hands Meetings. He enjoys choosing the Tool Box Talk subject and is careful to review it with his team, positioning everyone for success. Joel has taken it upon himself to create and edit numerous documents onsite, making them easier and more effective for site specifics. Joel elevates the whole team through his commitment to trainings, quality equipment and maintaining a clean jobsite. His dedication is actively contributing to a safer work environment for everyone, making him our Safeguardian of the quarter.
Congratulations, Joel Delacruz, on a safe job well done!
WORK GROUP & COMMITTEE BULLETIN
By Berger Dodge, Chief Financial Officer
2024 Financial Update
Lewis is committed to leveraging our foundation as an expert builder to achieve paced growth and increased profitability at a sustainable rate. 2023 was another strong year, with Lewis surpassing our financial targets! Leadership established a 2023 revenue goal of $825 million with a 3.5% profit target. We ended the year with a total revenue of $991 million with a 3.7% profit. Our 2023 performance is a testament to our people and their commitment to our Purpose and Values.
Turning our sights to 2024, we are currently projecting $960 million in revenue and 3.5% profit for the current year. Thanks to your hard work, we are on track to exceed our Long-Range Plan target of $900 million in revenue and meeting our target for operating profitability.
As a general contractor, we are in a fortunate position coming into 2024 with volumes highly assured for this year and looking favorable for 2025 and beyond.
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Lewis Volunteering in Your Community
As part of Lewis’ Long-Range Plan, we are committed to community improvement. Lewis is working to activate employees and leverage partnerships to meet the needs of the communities where we live and work. As a company, we have set a goal of logging 3,180 volunteer hours in 2024! To rise to this challenge, Lewis has put together a list of volunteer events across Oregon and Washington. If you are interested in joining this effort alongside colleagues of all levels, please scan the QR code to view the event list and follow the instructions for signing up.
Want to participate?
Scan the QR code for more information on events and sign-ups!
BLUE OPS
SAFEGUARD I NA AS F EGUARDIAN
$0M $200M $400M $600M $800M $1B Oregon Washington Enterprise $300M $600M $900M $385M $575M $960M Target Forecast Target Forecast Target Forecast
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2024 Revenue Targets Bridges to
Change work
Everyone Visual Identity
Recently, Lewis introduced a new graphic (right) to tie together all our programming that supports our Everyone Commitment. You may have seen the new look on hard hat stickers and banners at your jobsite. This new look is meant to signify our commitment to recognizing and honoring all human differences. Through trust and respect, we create a safe, inclusive workplace where people can be their authentic selves and succeed as part of a high-performing team. We lead by example through cultivating a culture where unique perspectives are valued and innovation thrives.
Commitment to quality
By Greg Elbert, Senior Superintendent Building in the Snow
By Maks Goldenshteyn, Communications Manager
Answering the Call for a Longtime Client
In January, a northern cold front settled across the Puget Sound region. Temperatures plunged into the teens and 20s. According to the Seattle Fire Department, the cold snap resulted in at least 150 water leaks across the city in just the first few days.
On January 14, the Sunday of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, a frozen sprinkler line burst inside a mechanical room at Third & Leonora, a residential and office high-rise that Lewis completed in 2020. That night at 7 p.m., Lewis Project Executive Ashley Frederick got a frantic call from Jordan Selig of Martin Selig Real Estate. Water was flowing down the curtain wall and into 15 finished residential units on the floors below. Jordan said the water had already been shut off, but asked if there was anything Lewis could do to help.
One of Ashley’s first moves was to call Labor Foreman Jeremy Draper.
Within an hour, Jeremy rallied a crew including Brando Szabo, Aaron Riley, and Michael Eisen. The team arrived on site to assess the situation and began pumping water out to prevent further damage.
“No one wants to get a call like this on a Sunday night over a holiday weekend,” Ashley says. “Jeremy and his crew had the most amazing attitudes and were willing to help without hesitation.”
Lewis is now in the process of helping our clients at Martin Selig Real Estate find a permanent fix.
For the majority of our projects, working through the winter is commonplace. However, when your jobsite sits at an elevation of 3,600 feet and receives a yearly average of 34 inches of snow, you have to get creative to keep the project moving forward. The Jackstraw team in Bend, Oregon, relied on a handful of unique strategies, equipment and grit to stay on schedule despite the extreme weather conditions.
In anticipation of the winter weather, the team paved a perimeter road. The asphalt does a better job of holding heat, making it much easier to clear snow and maintain jobsite access through the winter. When snow was in the forecast, the Jackstraw team prepared the site by covering surfaces with their red snow blankets. This method allowed the team to protect construction areas from falling snow. These blankets are designed to be easily lifted by crane and emptied into designated snow piles out of the path of construction.
Executing concrete pours was a major challenge in low temperatures. The Lewis team utilized propane heaters to warm the construction area from below. They then placed concrete blankets on top of the decking material and used Visqueen sheeting to trap the heated air under the decks. These steps kept temperatures warm enough to place concrete at elevated deck areas and ensure the concrete would come up to stressing strength in time to meet the schedule. Additionally, maturity meters were utilized, which gave real-time data on the strength of placed concrete. This allowed our subcontractor to stress tendons as soon as they came up to strength. This was a considerable improvement from the standard practice of waiting on a third party to take concrete cylinders that would be left exposed to the elements.
These strategies and tools, taken together, allowed the team to make reliable progress through the harshest storms. Shout out to the whole Jackstraw team, who braved the elements and worked some very early mornings to uncover their jobsite from the feet of snowfall.
ISSUE #1 | 2024
Third & Leonora, Seattle
By Ben McLean, Communication Specialist
Women in Construction 2024
Each March, Lewis joins in the national celebration of Women in Construction. This year’s highlights included a Terminal 106 tour and reception with Sawhorse Revolution, a Lewis Women’s Development Group and NAWIC panel presentation, a NAWIC tour of the Lane Community College Industry and Trades Education Center project, a Hermanson panel featuring Lewis’ Coriann Presser and an International Women’s Day brunch at Oregon State University.
In addition to these events, Lewis shared the stories of some of the women at Lewis who are making a difference in the industry.
Want to read more?
Scan the QR code to read the Lewis blog features.
By Maks Goldenshteyn, Communications Manager
Preconstruction Highlight: Just Don’t Call it a Roomba Dusty, our robotic layout sidekick, has been making the rounds lately. In January, the Meta Beacon team deployed it on their corporate TI in Redmond, Washington. Dusty used a digital model to print wall layouts directly onto the project floor in one pass, with markings to guide our framing, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical trade partners during their scopes of work. Automating the layout process has created significant schedule savings while reducing the risk of errors.
Dusty has made appearances on several other jobsites in recent months, including the 222 5th Ave life science project and the DataBank SEA2 data center expansion.
By Maks Goldenshteyn, Communications Manager
Seattle Yard Update
Lewis is in the process of completing a series of upgrades to the Seattle Yard. These improvements include a sewer connection and the addition of 480V power 600 amps with provisions for electric charging stations for equipment and vehicles (initially for electric scissor lifts and wheelbarrows). This work also improves the fencing and security.
During the improvements the Yard has maintained operations and juggled parking, blocked driveways and other logistical issues inherent to having a construction project at the facility.
A big thanks to the jobs sites and Yard crews for being flexible while we finish this project. Also, a great job by Chris Kerr (Thor) and Scott Chapman who are keeping this project moving.
WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE ROBOTIC LAYOUT SIDEKICK WORKING AT META?
Scan the QR code to submit your answer for the chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!
BLUE OPS
blue ops trivia!
yard news
Terminal 106 tour
Dusty the layout robot
By Ben McLean, Communication Specialist & By Maks Goldenshteyn, Communications Manager
Lewis Outside the Jobsite
As part of Lewis’ effort to spotlight our creative and passionate people and better understand what brings them fulfillment, we caught up with carpenter Bill Crutchfield and Yard Operations Manager Chad Simon to hear about their interests and creative outlets.
A Carpenter and His Boat
If you are in the Oregon South Valley, you may have had the privilege of working alongside Lewis carpenter William Crutchfield (Wild Bill). Bill works on the Lane County Community College Industry and Trades Education Center jobsite in Eugene.
During the 80s, Bill traveled to Juneau, Alaska, to work on a residential development. There, a stranger offered to let Bill take his sailboat out in Auke Bay. “I asked him how he got into sailing, and he said, ‘the same way you will’ and handed me the rudder.” When Bill returned to Eugene, he bought his first boat, a used wooden 17-foot Dragonfly and joined the Eugene Yacht Club and the Triton Yacht Club. Bill soon became interested in racing and captaining a crew, which included his partner of 42 years, Mari. Each year, Bill participates in numerous regattas and sailing events across the Pacific Northwest, using his knowledge to read the water and trim the sails with the best of them.
Lewis Coach Takes Team to World Series Regionals
When asked about the seemingly disparate worlds of construction and yacht clubs, Bill dispelled stereotypes and drew connections between the two cultures. “The sailing community is a welcoming and generous place made up of individuals from all levels of society,” Bill explained. He has found a surprising amount of overlap regarding values and priorities within these two worlds. A competitive boat has a crew that knows their individual roles and strengths but can work together as a team toward a shared goal. A boat relies on sound leadership with clear and precise communication to keep the team on course. Finally, the crew relies on well-maintained tools and a clean and organized space to finish a race safely. Each of these examples can be easily applied to construction and the experience of a project team coming together to deliver a project. “Having a sense of community in both sailing and construction is very fulfilling and keeps me driven,” he said.
Interested in sailing in Eugene? Reach out to Bill at layline2@aol.com; he may just hand you a rudder.
Growing up in Bothell, Washington, Yard Operations Manager Chad Simon was a yearround athlete. He played soccer, basketball, baseball, hockey, and tennis. During those years, he learned a lot from his coaches, and appreciated how they managed to balance fun while still holding players to a high standard. Those lessons would pay dividends many years later.
In 2014, Chad’s seven-year-old daughter Mackenzie started playing T-ball. Her team was coached by Allen Wirtala, who’d spent 20 years with the Seattle Mariners as their bullpen catcher. Chad and Allen hit it off and would spend the next four years getting to know the ins and outs of Little League softball while leading Mackenzie’s South Hill Little League teams in the Puyallup area.
In 2017, Chad and Allen were both chosen to coach South Hill Little League’s all-star team, which Mackenzie had also made. After some mixed results, Chad decided in 2019 to do everything he could to help South Hill Little League players win a state title. He then formed the Crusaders, a travel softball organization comprised of top players from South Hill Little League across several age groups. Together with two other coaches, Chad led the players to a variety of tournament wins.
In 2023, Chad was named manager for the Little League Majors all-star team. Many of his Crusader players, including his daughter Finley, made the team’s roster. Last July, the team advanced to the Little League Softball World Series Northwest regional tournament in San Bernadino, California. Teams from six states were all vying for a trip to the Little League World Series in Greenville, North Carolina. “It was hot, we were playing in a stadium, and the field was cut nicer than any putting green I’ve ever seen,” Chad says.
Despite falling short of their ultimate goal, for Chad and Finley, “the memories, experience, failures, and journey will be forever cherished,” Chad says. “There were many things that were thrown our way that we couldn’t have predicted, but it was an amazing ride,” Chad recalls. “If you would have told me I’d be managing a game televised on ESPN when I was younger, I would have laughed. If you would have told me I’d enjoy a one-week, all-expenses-paid vacation to So-Cal in July, I would have smiled.”
Chad’s daughters Mackenzie, Anniston, Finley and Elsie continue to play the game, and Chad has coached Annison and Finley’s teams to state championships.
ISSUE #1 | 2024
Chad and the team at Little League Softball World Series Regional Tournament
Bill on his Santana 23/R Terra Nova
Bill and crew racing his Santana 23/R Voodoo
