Commercial Drywall, Inc.
€®mm®reIol Craftsman
Volume I, No. 9
July 1980
Four-Leaf Towers
CDD telpBog byBld city’s largest condominium pr©jeet Commercial Drywall will soon be starting its portion of the largest condominium project ever built in Houston. The Four-Leaf Towers, 40-story twin high-rises, will stand on a 9.5 acre garden-park site just west of Loop 610. The two structures, being built on the corner of San Felipe and South Post Oak Lane, will be the tallest buildings outside of the downtown area. CDI activity on the project will commence in August and will consist of drywall partitions and ceilings, painting, plus all of the wall decor in the common corridors. Unlike previous projects involving twin buildings, such as the Greenway
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Condominiums, the Four-Leaf Towers will rise simultaneously at a rate of one floor per week.
composed of multiple colors and shapes accented by the octagonal glass design of a solarium.
CDI's involvement in the project is expected to last into early 1982. Supervising the entire project for CDI will be Daryl Hammons, who now is running the 50-story Three Allen project downtown.
Only two of the 9.5 acres of the development will be used for the condominium towers with the remainder going toward landscaped garden areas, swimming pools, and tennis and health facilities. Included in the towers will be other recreational facilities including gymnasiums, exercise rooms, lounges, Jacuzzis, and saunas. A parking area will be provided for 700 cars on a single underground level.
The buildings will each stand 440 feet in height and house a total of 400 residences. They will include over one million square feet of floor space and will cost approximately $100 million to complete. Their exterior will be an architectural glass wall system
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The Four-Leaf Towers will look much like this model when completed in 1982. The twin 40-story high-rises, with ceilings and partitions by CDI, make up the largest condominium project ever built in the city of Houston.
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Residences in each of the towers will range in size from 1,000 squarefoot one bedroom units priced from $150,000 to two-level penthouse suites of 5,000 square feet and prices to $1.2 million. Sales of the condominiums will begin in the summer of 1981 with occupancy expected in the spring of 1982. Four-Leaf Towers is a project of Interfin Corporation, a Houston-based development company headed by Giorgia Borlenghi, a structural engineer responsible for several major projects in Europe. Hubor Construction Company, headed by its president Joe Hutchinson, is serving as construction manager for the project and handles design and cost control. The general contractor is the Henry C. Beck Company with Paul Lawson serving as senior project manager. The project’s architect is Cesar Pelli of New Haven, Conn., who has designed numerous buildings throughout the world from the United States Embassy in Tokyo to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Pelli is also the Dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University.
From the top
An ©pen letter to EdJ®Jo© Childs
Yes, Eddie, I’m mad too. I’m steaming mad about a lot of the same things you are—the messed-up government, horrible inflation, and faltering economy. But right now, I’m mad about something different. I’m mad because many people, perhaps even most of the people that work for the same company that I do, think so little of themselves, their wives, husbands, or kids that they chronically act in a very unsafe manner while going about their daily work. Eddie, we are a construction company and that, in itself, tells you that we work in some pretty unsafe places. We do big buildings and little buildings, and the products that we use are heavy and cumbersome. The things we do every day are potentially dangerous to our overall safe being. But you wouldn’t believe
it by being on a job and watching most of our people work. In the company and in the industry, there are programs that teach safety. We talk about it. We encourage everybody to be more responsible for themselves, but you wouldn’t believe how many of them won’t do it. We have people who use saws and cut aluminum and light gauge metal without wearing safety glasses. We have people who get up on scaffolds deliberately leave off the kick board or the side rails. We have people who work very close to the edge of the building in our stocking operation or close to the edge of a shaft when we are putting up our shaftwall, and they won’t use safety belts. That’s right, Eddie, they won’t. Exercising proper care and being thoughtful about the conditions they are working on, even then, we will have injuries, cuts, and other assorted hurts. And we can't really help them. But it’s not those people that make me mad—it’s the people who won't wear a hard hat because it’s too hot, who deliberately pull the ground wire off the extension cord because they don’t want to mess with it. It’s those people, Eddie, who really hack me off. Because it begins to look like I care more about them, their wives, husbands, or families then maybe they do.
* So we have reached the point where it is necessary to take action. That is—if they want to work unsafely, then they'll work some place else. If they won’t be safe they won’t be with Commercial Drywall. Bruce, Hoagy, and all of the supervisors who are charged with the responsibility of getting everything built on time and in a safe way have been instructed to fire every person who deliberately violates the safety policies of our company. A chronic unsafe person is a hazard to all employees of this company. All to often, this person causes injury to not only himself, but to others working around him. As bad as we need good qualified field personnel to handle the tremendous workload we have, we don’t need anybody that badly. So, Eddie, if you think you’ve got things to be mad about, you've now heard that I do too. The anger that I A ) have over our economic situation ^ and our government tumblings is one thing. But this lack of safety means that the people I care for and who are a part of our team family may lose their life or incur a disabling injury. So, in my mind, Eddie, that makes me madder than you. Very truly yours, Dick Phillips
Price Freeze
Buckie up CDI finishing foreman Charlie Duncan can buckle his pants with pride since being honored with a CDI belt buckle at a recent supervisor's meeting. Charlie, a CDI veteran of 2 'A years, is one of the company's top finishers, and one who always gives 100 percent on the job He takes a great deal of pride in his work, viewing his work as a finished product rather than an item of labor.
In the market for a new refrigerator? Considering both topand bottom-freezer models? Your best bet is the one with the freezer on top. That’s the conclusion of a major testing lab which measured energy consumption of both kinds A comparison of kilowatt usage ^ A the 15-year estimated life of
K^J7CU ft- mode's tells tne sstory. the average kwh usage of 20 460nThpP'freeZer m°dels was fading bottomTS'"model96 °' 3 28.890-8.430 kwh mo™ W3S 2
G®mm@raal Craftsman Editor: Larry Williams The Commercial Craftsman is published monthly by Commercial Drywall, Inc. for its employees and their families. Employees should send their news contributions to Larry Williams, Commercial Drywall, Inc., P.O. Box 10686, Houston, Texas 77018.
Capitol city beat
CW-Austin busy with work and play
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a Uty Park on Lake Austin for an af er-work 'bonus party.” The party following work on Friday June V’ was held in recognition of the 13, outstanding job being done by CDI personnel in that city. The party consisted of a keg of beer with lots of cheese and summer sausage plus a vigorous game of softball. According to Austin’s vice president and general manager Larry Hanvey, the party celebrated the good steady progress of the jobs then underway which included the IBM Building 045 and the E.O. Thompson Building in downtown Austin. Money to cover the costs of the party was generated from the sales of scrap aluminum saved from the job sites over the past several weeks. Everyone had a good time, some choosing to sit in the shade and sip beer while others joined in on an exhausting, but enjoyable game of softball.
Jobs active also CDI work activity in Austin continues strong although one major project, the E.O. Thompson Building, was wrapped up during the last several days. However, picking up the slack is the IBM Building 060, a three-story drywall and lay-in tile job which is just getting into full swing. The building is located just several hundred yards from the current 045 Building which stands approximately 90 percent finished with a midSeptember completion schedule. Right around the corner are a number of projects including a new Motorola manufacturing aclil^ start in September. This four-sto y building houses approximately 337,000 square feet of space. Meanwhile, other projects jn the W future previously reported in the Craftsman will be st£©'ag Hi QS year. These include IBM Buildings 062 and 063, both three-story projects, and a new Sears store.
CDI-Austin employees enjoyed an afternoon of relaxation and recreation at a special "bonus party" honoring their excellent work.
Organizational changes mads at COB ©fife© Commercial Drywall has announced several changes within the organizational structure of CDI management. The changes come primarily from openings created with the move of vice president and general manager, Mike Grogan, to our new Dallas office. With Mike's departure to the new office, contract sales manager Alan Jezek takes complete responsibility of the contract sales, project management, and budgeting departments. Stan Marek, who has been involved with CDI sales and estimating, has been given complete responsibility over all of these CDI activities. Under him will be our team salesmen and estimators who bid and close the contracts on much of our work. Mike’s duties as general manager in charge of general office coordination have been assumed by Bruce Marek who now serves as GDI’s director of operations. In this capacity, Bruce will have control of the entire production department which includes construction, time keeping, warehousing, and clerical operations. Assuming Bruce’s former position as director of construction is Hoagy 3
Cannon. Hoagy will directly coordinate all field operations using CDI’s team of field superintendents. Glenn Marek has stepped into Hoagy’s previous job as personnel manager and will oversee our manpower requirements and hire new field employees. In other changes, Ben Catalon who has managed the CDI warehouse will now be responsible for all of our warehousing and inventory activities including our Vaughn Wall Warehouse. Dennis Yanowski, who has headed up the yard laborers and has overseen material orders and deliveries to the jobs, now has an assistant, Mike Perry. In addition, Dennis will work in the field as superintendent over all CDI labor operations. CDI’s tool and equipment manager, Angelo Mazzocchi, also has an assistant in Mike Huegele. Mike and Angelo will work with one another in maintaining and moving CDI’s tools and equipment among jobs, a task that has grown almost beyond comprehension in recent months. Additionally, Angelo will handle tool and equipment purchasing for all of the company.
11
EMPLOYEE NEWS
CDS sypsrasoirs enow participating So training program A group of approximately 25 CDI supervisory personnel began a series of four three-hour training sessions July 9. The program, held on the University of Houston campus, is designed to train supervisors in techniques of giving positive and negative feedback to employees on such issues as excessive tardiness, absenteeism, poor performance, and exceptional performance. The supervisory training sessions are being held on four consecutive Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. The program was initiated as a result of the recent Operation 3P survey which showed that a substantial number of CDI employees feel they are not criticized for doing a poor job or praised for a good performance. In addition, employees felt that supervisors failed to establish goals to help the workers beat budgets. In addition to developing supervisory skills in the area of performance feedback, the program will also train supervisors to develop and communicate performance goals to their crews. Such training would concentrate on: o The development of relevant performance goals. ° The communication of the goals and assignments of responsibility to the crew. © Problem solving techniques for eliminating obstacles to goal achievement. ° Recognition and evaluation of progress toward these goals. It is felt that this type of training program will help communication among the various levels of CDI and have a direct, positive impact on performance.
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estimator Ron Parker.
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K®y person active in two branch ©fffees his goals after graduation was to join Commercial Drywall has selected a small company to be able to do jts key perS0n for the month of July, and the honor has gone t0 Mark this, and he is very pleased with his work and the company. Lehman, administrative manager for According to Larry Hanvey, our CDI-Austin office. Austin’s vice president and general Mark came to CDI in October manager, Mark has become an asset 1978 as a part-time employee while in several areas of the administrative attending the University of Texas. areas of the office. “Besides being a Following graduation the next May real loyal and hard working with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, he assumed his employee, he has helped streamline managerial position full time. Since our operation to be more efficient," then, he has proven to be a very claims Larry. valuable asset for CDI operations in Being a native of Austin, Mark has both Austin and San Antonio. definite ideas about spending his His duties include a number of leisure time, and these include the responsibilities for both branch many lakes around the city where he offices. Mark handles all paper work, enjoys boating and skiing. coordinates much of the overall operations of the offices, and handles all accounts receivable. In A Sat® nn©t® addition, he serves as the liaison between the branch offices and The CDI North softball team Houston and works closely with a managed by Alan Field placed number of Houston employees in second in their league and advanced accounting and credit. to the city playoffs. However, there At least one day each week, Mark they lost in the first round of travels to San Antonio to help out competition in a very close game. with that office’s in-house work His The members of the team included knowledge and ability in organizing Roger Burns, Jim Rutledge, and coordinating such work has been Roland Dube, Joe Breaux, Henry a real plus for both offices Freeman, Robert Tunnel, James nf Sc® °k the Pleasing characteristics Cephus, Alan Field, Jesse of his job, says Mark, is the fact that Copeland, Donnie Hall, and he performs a variety of jobs. One of Michael Thomas 4
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41
Supervisor of the month
Cliff O'Baraion earns top award f CDI's award for its top June " supervisor has gone to Cliff O’Banion, who has been with the company for the past four years. Cliff heads up some of CDI's smaller core and tenant jobs usually ranging from one to four stories. His most recent involvement has been with Corporate Plaza II, the Exxon Building for Vanco Construction, and the Surgical Training Center. He prefers these small jobs because of the fewer men they normally employ. With these smaller crews, Cliff feels that he can maintain a better production rate, one thing which he constantly strives for on a job. In fact, Cliff has never missed making budget on any project he has headed up. One of the main reasons for his success is his insistance on an honest day’s work from himself and his crew. Cliff, too, straps on his tools on virtually every job and works right along with everyone else. And, often his crew consists of only him a and his partner—who happens to be ™ his wife, Virginia. "The days always seem to go a lot faster when I’m working too,” he claims. One of Cliff’s greatest assets is his ability to run the job and at the same
time be productive himself. But, he says that this would not be possible on jobs with 10 or more men because the responsibility of supervising other men would prevent him from being active in the actual work. A recent success for Cliff has been the Corporate Plaza II, a threestory core and tenant project that has won two budget beater lunches and has ranked consistently high in the contests throughout its span. His most recent project is the Surgical Training Center near St. Josephs Hospital, just south of downtown. The one-story building is a project for Lowry Construction and through Cliff's efforts has gone well. Cliff’s wife, Virginia, is an apprentice carpenter for CDI and has worked as his partner since she joined the company two years ago. The O’Banions have three children—two teenage girls and a boy who is nine. The Craftsman extends its congratulations to Cliff for the deserving award and wishes him continued success as a valuable CDI supervisor.
of their recent wins and have won three consecutive contests.
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Cliff O'Banion catches his breath between sheets of drywall on the Surgical Training Center job, his most recent project.
GDI’s budget beaters CDI’s Budget Beaters contests over the last several weeks have gone to only one project in each of the two job categories. In Group One, the Atascocita School project, headed by Randy Morgan, won two contests while in Group Two, the winner has been Texas Commerce Tower. The Atascocita School, located north of the city near Lake Houston, is a project of Baxter Construction and was completed earlier this month. The two recent wins at the school gave it a total of four wins during its construction. Assisting Randy on the project was Mark McKinney, while office support came from salesman, Mike Holland, and project manager, Joe Gilligan. Meanwhile, in downtown Houston, the new 75-story Texas Commerce Tower chalked up three consecutive budget beater wins. Under the supervision of Jay Richards, Texas Commerce has gotten off to a fast start with a crew of approximately a dozen carpenters and laborers. Assisting Jay on the 75-story project are carpenter foreman Paul Herring and labor foreman James Chambers.
1
COMPANY NEWS
S.A. activity going strong CDI-San Antonio reports work activity on the upswing as the San Antonio Savings building is adding men while the Holiday Inn North remains a busy project. On the SASA project, CDI is well into the core of the nine-story building With about eight CDI workers bringing the job along real well. Continuing to head up the work on the project is foreman Delton Sturgis who is doing an excellent job keeping things moving at a smooth, steady pace. The Holiday Inn North is also progressing well with about 85 percent of the project completed. The spray insulation used on the hotel has been finished with most of the drywall in the rooms and corridors completed. Grady Atnip, CDI’s field superintendent in San Antonio reports that the ceiling work there is just getting started with foremen Paul Buck and Wayne Schultze doing a fine job keeping all phases of the operation going on schedule. Grady also states that CDI is receiving lots of cooperation from the other subs on the job as well as the general contractor, Jordan & Nobels, and its project superintendent, Jim Kennedy, and project engineer, John Penny. In other activity, the Alameda Properties job is nearing completion with just a portion of the ceilings remaining. The job is headed by Tony Bauman. CDI-San Antonio also reports that they have received contract on a new Foley’s in North Star Mall. The work there will encompass 184,000 square feet of ceilings in addition to the drywall work. The project should start sometime in September. The office’s chief estimator, Dave Demel, says that a number of bids have gone out in recent weeks.
Frammg a door at the SASA project are foreman Delton Sturgis, (left), and David Garcia. Jr.
Tony Denbeigh, (standing), and Roger Rust are shown setting up the spray insulation machine on the Holiday Inn project.
Project ©f the fflOflth 1
A combined effort by all CDI crafts has once again earned the distinction as the month’s outstanding project. The Exxon Building, a three-story project for Vanco Construction, utilized CDI carpenters, finishers, and painters to complete its three floors of lease work under an extremely compressed deadline. The project was begun during the last week of May and was completed July 15, a seven-week schedule which would normally take about three months to complete, But, a host of CDI veterans under foreman Ben Oyler together with other CDI craftsmen joined in on the work which included layout, framing, lay-in ceilings, doors, door frames, and hardware. Meanwhile, an excellent finishing operation was headed by Billy Wright and backed by a team of finishers doing quality work both hand taping and with Ames tools. Closing out the CDI crafts was the paint and wall covering group led by foreman Robert Farley. Working under the tight deadline required special effort from all of those on the job. Quality had to be at its peak to keep all crafts going at top speed and to minimize punch Out. 6
Critical also was the cooperation and coordination among the various subs on the job so that they stayed in sequence and out of one another’s way as best as possible. Help here was provided by Vanco's Pat Hughes and the project superintendent, Bob (See CDI, page 8)
Carpenters J. O. Gibbons (front) and H. J. Medlin hang door frames at the Exxon Vanco lease, this month's project of the month.
Like fine wine
GDI craftsmen getting better with age 0 CDI is a company that prides itself w on a unique mixture of old and new. Our philosophy is one of innovation and change to stay ahead of the market, yet we constantly strive to maintain a traditional family approach in dealing with our employees and our clients.
Besides being a veteran with CDI in!/8,?rV6d in the U'S- ArmV during ’ ww II, earning four battle stars for his action on the European front. Chester Locks is yet another of As with this philosophy, the this 60+ workforce for CDI Chester makeup of CDI employees is a who turned 61 last April, is a laborer’ mixture of the old and the new. And on the Greenway remodeling while the young bring new ideas and complex. And, he has no problem new vigor, our older employees help keeping up with the younger men us to maintain our traditional with whom he works. character and wisdom. Chester began his career in the Currently, CDI has seven construction industry as a brick employees 60 years of age or over. layer, a job which he held for 26 These seven men represent 52 years years. He came to CDI five years of CDI service and a lot of hours of ago at the Houston Center, then hard work and sheetrock on the wall. moved to the yard before coming to Greenway. Louis Klovenski, who soon turns Chester hails from Louisiana, but 61, is one of these men. For the past moved to Houston in 1936. Being seven years, and his entire career during the Depression, times were with sheetrock, he has spent with rough, says Chester. In fact, his first CDI. Currently working at the Houston Center, Louis has been on a job in Houston was waiting tables at a boarding house which earned him A lot of jobs for CDI and is respected a weekly salary of $7. ▼ as a man who has always given his On the same project with Chester best. is soon-to-be 64 years old, Joel Louis began his construction Niederhofer. Joel works in career long ago, and prior to joining Greenway's cabinet shop and has CDI, he worked in welding and been with CDI for 10 years. erecting. He has a distinguished Joel is a carpenter by trade since military past, serving in the U.S. 1939. His first job for CDI found him Army during WW II where his hanging doors. And, he’s hung quite exploits took him from fighting a few in his career. Rommel in the African desert Joel, still active, took part in CDI’s through Europe to the German front. recent bass tournament—a hot, all As a member of a field artillery unit day affair on Lake Conroe. And, he firing 180 Hausers (about 8" and his fishing partner, his son-incannons), he earned five battle stars law, took sixth place in the plus a Purple Heart. He says he is competition. looking forward to retirement in order Joel’s family life includes a wife, to get back in touch with some of his two married daughters, and seven military buddies who reunite each grandchildren. year. Another of CDI’s fine “elder statesmen” is painter/finisher Joe Woodruff. Joe, in his 11th year with (Editor's note: Due to space CDI, has seen a lot of changes limitations, the Craftsman will during his tenure with the company. continue this story on our older His 34 years in the trade has taught workers in next month's issue when him a great deal about his work, and he’s done just about everything. we will take a look at Bill Slayton, Andrew Johnson and Tommy According to Joe, who will turn 61 Maddox. Each of these men join the in August, he’s done core, lease, and ones discussed in this issue as remodel work; and when it comes to equally dedicated CDI craftsmen.) finishing, he’s used Ames tools and
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The “elder statesmen ” (top to bottom) Louis Klovenski. Joe Woodruff. Chester Locks, and Joel Niederhofer.—still some of CDI's top people.
Safety with some bite to it (Editor's note: Not tong ago, filmmakers would have had us believe that the biggest water peril was the great white shark. This year the shark is back but the single greatest threat to swimmers remains: lack of water safety knowledge. Reasoning that the second biggest water hazard could provide insights on water safety for everyone, an interview with the star of Jaws was obtained. Following are excerpts of that talk.)
CDS excels om lease (From page 6) Meyerson, who were responsible for the excellent coordination among the trades. To keep everything on schedule, CDI utilized some of its top men from the smaller jobs. Such seasoned carpenters as Eugene Foster, Cliff O’Banion, Bill Sadler, Francis Martin, and Red Davis, to name a few, helped lead the way with their special, talents. Finishers under Billy Wright included Charlie Duncan, Mike Woodruff, Chris Kempinski, Richard Lopez, Ftumberto Vargas, Violet Morgan, and the Robins family. The painters led by Robert Farley included Ed Carsten and Flumberto Galvan plus several others. All worked hard to come through with a great looking job.
Commercial Craftsman Commercial Drywall, Inc. 3705 Piney Woods P.O. Box 10686 Houston, Texas 77018
Q. Besides yourself, what’s really dangerous about the ocean? Jaws: There’s no danger in the water that can’t be avoided by knowing what to look for. Many people approach ocean swimming as they would a backyard pool, and even a starfish could tell you they're not the same. For one thing, the ocean has currents that can trap an unwary person. Q. What’s a current? Jaws: Basically, a current is a flowing body of water that is continuously moving swiftly and forcefully in a certain direction. Q. What do you do if you find yourself in a current? Jaws: I, of course, love currents. But a human swimmer should realize that you can’t beat a current by trying to swim against it. The idea is to swim parallel to it until you’re out of its grip, then swim back to shore.
Q. Is it possible to tell when the ocean may be dangerous? Jaws: Yes, and it doesn’t take an oceanographer with a back pocket full of bad intentions toward sharks to do it. For instance, look for an object in the water. If it's bobbing up and down rapidly, or moving quickly out to sea, it could mean trouble. If the water’s choppy, or has a bunch of jumbled up little waves, if it’s dirty or dark, or the waves have definite gaps between them it may be fine for surfers but not for swimmers. Q. Do you have any tips for safe swimming? Jaws: Sure. The main one is to always swim where there’s a lifeguard on duty. Don’t wade in unfamiliar waters. Avoid swimming near piers where currents could push you into a piling; they often have razor sharp barnacles on them. Q. Any flips for children? Jaws: A few. Make sure they play in sand above the watermarks caused by the biggest wave. If they can’t swim, don’t let them float on rafts, inner tubes or what-have-you. And make sure that someone is always watching. Q. Do we have to worry about
you? Jaws: Not me personally because I’m a vegetarian. But generally if there are sharks in the water, people should be out of it.
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