“It’s pretty rare to have the opportunity to build a national memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C. That in itself is pretty amazing..." – Lisa Anders, McKissack & Mckissack MTTG continued from Page 10 completion, their team has defined excellence. “And when you come to the sight, you will see the spirit, and teamwork of the companies that came together to do the project. And I think you will leave with a sense of the personal excellence, from the spirit of Dr. King’s life … that carried over to the work that this team did in the design work and the quality of construction.” “The joint venture team in charge of designing and building is two majority firms, Turner and Tompkins, and two minority firms, McKissack and Gilford,” said Anders, senior project manager for the project for the MTTG Joint Venture. “It has gone well, we’ve been able to work great as a team along with [the foundation] to have a successful project.” Tompkins Builders project manager Andrew Craig agreed and said, “At this point the memorial is basically done … we’ll be doing work on sidewalks and roadways over the next few weeks and some other things like that but that’s it.” One part of the project that was important to all participants was minority and women business participation. “Yes, the foundation set some requirements in the contract, to subcontract with minority businesses or women owned businesses or small disadvantaged businesses,” said Craig. He said the goal was to award up to 36 percent of the trades work (such as plumbing, electrical, concrete work, drywall, mechanical jobs) to those groups. “And we had a goal for 51 percent. But at this point we are in the 80 percent range so we blew away those goals.” Henry Gilford, CEO of Gilford Corp. of Beltsville, said, “It has been a great working relationship. I have worked on a number of joint ventures and I can say this one was a great one. Even though there were three firms working on this, we all did the work as one firm collectively. “And it’s very special for me because I’ve been pursuing this www.washingtoninformer.com
project since I first heard about in 2001, and ultimately I wanted to be a part of this project, so I was thoroughly happy to be selected to be a part of it.” “We are extremely humbled by MTTG Joint Venture’s million dollar gift, which moves us one step closer to our $120 million fundraising goal. MTTG has been a wonderful partner for the duration of this project, and I am honored to work by their side to create the first memorial on the National Mall celebrating a man of hope, a man of peace, and a man of color,” said Harry E. Johnson, Sr., president and CEO of the MLK Memorial Foundation. “I applaud the MTTG DREAM Design Build Scholarship program and strongly encourage students interested in pursuing higher education in fields related to construction, engineering, and design across the Washington metropolitan region to apply.” MLK Memorial Foundation press release, March 3, 2011
Getting it done On June 5, 2007 the foundation announced the selection of the McKissack & McKissack, Turner Construction, Tompkins Builders, Gilford Corp. team to design and build the memorial. McKissack & McKissack, led by Deryl McKissack, is a woman-owned architecture and program/construction management firm with offices in Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Miami. With 140 employees, its roots go back to Deryl McKissack’s family starting a building firm in Nashville, Tenn., more than 100 years ago. McKissack & McKissack was charged with providing overall project management, with work including architectural; landscaping; geotechnical; storm water management and sediment control; surveying; permits; presentations to Commission of Fine Arts, National Capital Planning Commission and National Park Service; subsurface investigation; and hazardous materials testing Turner Construction of New York is a worldwide general contractor with its Mid-Atlantic
office in Arlington, Va., and has a long record in utilizing small firms and minority/womenowned businesses. Gilford Corp. of Beltsville, founded by Henry Gilford in 1984, is a well-known African-American owned, construction company. Tompkins Builders, a long time Washington, D.C., builder, became a subsidiary of Turner Construction in 2003. Craig said of the work on the memorial, “All major issues have been resolved now, some being resolved within the last week.” He added that early on there was an issue regarding wheelchair accessibility. “It involved the configuration of the benches that were planned,” he said. “We needed to incorporate accessibility, because the rules are different with this being a park setting as compared to an inside space. Finally even though we were butting heads, we came up with a solution that met park service needs and pleased the [foundation] owner all at the same time.” According to foundation information, the memorial plans included 340 structural piles, a 2,350-cubic-foot granite wall weighing 194 tons, 47,000 square feet of granite paving, granite sculptures and the installation of 185 Yoshino cherry trees, 32 American elm trees and 16,835 pieces of Big Blue Liriope plantings. Construction milestones included mobilization, involving erecting secure fencing, setting up tree protection zones, demolishing existing landscape, selecting trees to be planted on the memorial and selecting stone to be used for the memorial plaza, sculptures and inscription wall; infrastructure, including utility construction, site grading and foundation preparation. “The site of the MLK Memorial is composed of soil that is very soft and damp and will not sufficiently support the weight of the completed memorial,” said foundation information. “Therefore, columns made of reinforced concrete or steel H-beams - called “piles” are driven 50 to 60 feet into the earth until they encounter solid bedrock. A concrete slab sits on
top of the piles and the entire memorial is built on top of this slab. This type of construction will prevent the memorial from sinking onto the soil.” Creating the art work, including the completion of the sculpting of Dr. King’s image out of stone by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin and his team, and landscaping were the final stages. “Our substantial completion date is Aug. 17 and we’re on schedule,” said Tompkins Builders’ David Tweedie, general superintendent for the construction on the project, and a veteran of many large-scale construction projects, including work on the World War II Memorial on the Mall, which opened in 2004. Craig said the actual King sculpture is completed and would be covered in the days leading to the dedication, with the main task to check it every now and then to make sure it stays clean. On the issue of the sculptor controversy, with some complaints about a Chinese sculptor being selected to do such a major African-American hero, Grant would only say that for the companies doing the work, “that was not part of our scope. The foundation made the decision and hired the sculptor through an international design competition.” “It’s a significant milestone in American history, and ironically its completion and dedication coincided under the tenure of President Obama being in office,. But probably more important is the magnitude of the project … it’s not just a small monument, but something I believe will be one of the most spectacular monuments in Washington DC.” Darien Grant, Turner Construction Company.
Personal meanings The meaning of the project to those in the companies that worked on it has proved to be very significant in view of its scope, and who the memorial is for, several of the company officials said. “I think for anybody that is in this career,” said Anders of McKissack & Mckissack, who has 18 years of construction
project management experience and received her undergraduate civil engineering degree from Howard University. “It’s pretty rare to have the opportunity to build a national memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C. That in itself is pretty amazing … and for me personally to build one in honor of Dr. King, brings home all the principles he strived for as far as civil rights, and having minorities being involved in this project exemplifies some of the struggles he fought for in civil rights. And for me it was way more than civil rights, it was all of his teachings regarding human rights and world peace.” Tweedie of Tompkins, 52, and only in elementary school when King was assassinated in 1968, said one thrill for him was meeting and shaking hands with Andrew Young and Martin Luther King III during one group’s recent tour of the project. “I thought that was awesome. I think [working on the project] has enlarged me … I feel I have learned, being exposed to this experience …and I feel better for it.” Grant said, “I grew up in my early years in the Bronx, then my family moved to Richmond. I’m a fanatic about keeping stuff, and [regarding remembrances of Dr. King] I can probably go back to something I wrote in first grade [about him], and every year I would choose Dr. King to write about … he has a high degree of personal significance for me.” “Remember, I grew up in the South,” said Gilford. “I grew up in Alabama, about 75 miles south of Montgomery, and the civil rights movement actually started in the 1950s,” said Gilford. “And I was at Alabama A&M in the 1960s when the civil rights movement was at its height. So that’s some of the reason why I put so much effort in being a part of this project. It’s hard to describe in words how big this is, to have an African American honored in such a way and to have it on the mall.”
Celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - The Washington Informer Special Issue / august 2011
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