Beginning in early July, you could put an offer for a condo at 2465 Van Ness, the luxury residential building being built by Webcor.
Are you in the market for a penthouse property with sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge? Beginning in early July, you could put an offer for a condo at 2465 Van Ness, the luxury residential building being built by Webcor.
One small catch: condominiums start at $1.25 million.
Last week, the 2465 Van Ness team received their Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, a significant milestone that enables occupancy or partial occupancy of a building before the building project is completed.
Spanning 94,600 square feet in San Francisco's coveted Cow Hollow neighborhood, the building includes 41 luxurious condominiums and retail anchoring the ground-floor. Now marketed as Union House by the developer, the project exemplifies the power of One Webcor, with the team self-performing carpentry, drywall, and building specialties services.
When asked, the team had many milestones they were proud of, but one of the larger take-aways was being able to report zero lost-time due to injuries. Safety was the primary focus for coordinating all activities, and the team utilized toolbox talks to keep an open dialogue surrounding best practices with all their trades.
Conducting construction work in a congested urban space required careful coordination with numerous agencies: permitting work within the Caltrans right-of-way, coordinating work with SF Bus Rapid Transit along Van Ness, and coordinating the tower crane erection and dismantle along Union Street.
With TCO now under their belts, the team is looking forward to completing the project in July. Congratulations to the 2465 Van Ness Team on this milestone!
While the protests advocating for social justice and racial equality have been powerful and inspiring, some have coopted the movement for their own personal gain.
While the protests advocating for social justice and racial equality have been powerful and inspiring, some have coopted the movement for their own personal gain. Looters and vandals have caused millions of dollars in property damage – overwhelmingly impacting many small businesses who were already struggling due to the pandemic shut-down.
Senior Project Engineer and long-time Oakland resident Yasha Ghaffarzadeh watched in disbelief as significant damage was done to downtown Oakland area amidst the protests.
"It really upset me that all the damage was taking away from the message that the protesters were fighting for to convey," he explains. "Sadly, a lot of America is unable or unwilling to see the difference between the protesters and the rioters/looters."
Outside of his work at Webcor, Yasha serves as the head coach of the Oakland Warthogs Youth Rugby Program, where he helps inner-city kids with academic tutoring, career development, and mentorship while playing rugby.
"I thought that with whatever little influence I have within the Oakland and rugby community, I needed to do something," he recalls.
Yasha immediately got to work, calling for volunteers by posting videos and sharing messages through social media.
The response was immediate from volunteers and businesses alike – with some companies providing tools like brooms, shovels, trash-pickers, trash bags, paint removers, and gloves. Yasha took it upon himself to purchase painting supplies and reached out to a friend who owns a screen-printing shop (Brand Marinade) to provide t-shirts and face masks that volunteers could handout to homeless residents.
Over a forty-five volunteers from the rugby program & community pitched in on June 6th for the first volunteer effort in Downtown Oakland. Webcorians including Project Managers Ryan Hoyt and Megan Zahnow were among the volunteers who came for the day to help out.
The team worked for hours, cleaning graffiti, fixing damages, and collecting enough trash to fill two 5 CY dumpsters.
"For those wondering how they can help the movement, I really encourage people to get out there and do something – even if it's small!"
On May 12th, the SFO Boarding Area B team successfully completed stage 2, achieving a major milestone for the design-build project.
The SFO BAB T1 project is getting ready for takeoff.
On May 12th, the SFO Boarding Area B team successfully completed stage 2, achieving a major milestone for the design-build project.
The newest phase adds nine new gates to Terminal 1, including an operations hub for American Airlines. This adds to the first 9 gates which were added in stage one, which were allocated to Southwest and JetBlue. In total, the Austin-Webcor JV team has provided 18 new gates to Boarding Area B, with the total project spanning over 544,630 square feet.
The road to achieving this milestone was far from easy. Situated in an active airport, the jobsite presented numerous logistical challenges.
"Boarding Area B is surrounded by two active terminals, which means we are always building around active/aircraft operations and full-speed construction from neighboring projects," explains Assistant Project Manager Hugh Tan.
To help overcome these challenges, the team held multiple weekly coordination meetings with the airport, airlines, and other concerning parties. Additionally, the Austin-Webcor JV team was able to rely on subcontracting partners who had ample airport experience.
Superintendent Chris Salmon recalls one instance in which subcontractors were tasked with demolishing the entire tile of five large restrooms and replacing it with tile from Italy in just over a two-week period – with owner walks and events "smack-dab in the middle".
"Having experienced subcontractors was tremendously helpful since they already know the procedures to conduct work at an active airport," explains Chris. "They are all also used to the last-minute changes."
The joint venture team credits their success to their relentless desire to continuously improve. While there was an adjustment period in getting used to working as a JV, the team soon hit their stride.
"I believe that both companies have grown for the better," notes Superintendent Chris Salmon. "We have all had to wear many hats in order to keep our project open and have had to adapt/adjust to every new order that has come out."
Even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the team persevered to keep the jobsite safe and were permitted to keep their jobsite open throughout the stay-at-home orders.
"Secret sauce – that's what we call it," explains Hugh. "We have an extremely high performing team and we take pride on our delivery and the end product. You will naturally get influenced by the positive vibe and excel on what you do."
Next on deck? The team is now working on stage 3, which will provide a total of 24 gates, and is set to be completed in quarter two of 2021.
