Intern Service Day gives interns a chance to volunteer and have fun while embracing two of Webcor's core values – innovation and community.
Scavenger hunts, baseball games, and mixers. Usually, Webcor internships are packed with fun activities to encourage networking and friendship. While the COVID-19 pandemic might have thrown a wrench into the intern social calendar, one tradition remains as important as ever: Webcor's Intern Service Day.
The concept of an Intern Service Day was established by past interns during a continuous improvement presentation. The day gives interns a chance to volunteer and have fun while embracing two of Webcor's core values – innovation and community.
In Southern California, interns took a break from the jobsite to volunteer at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Spearheaded by intern leads Ken Flamer and Aaron Case, volunteers were provided with gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer and encouraged to "socially distance" as much as possible throughout the day.
Webcor interns spent the day packaging food boxes, successfully assembling over 1,456 food kits for Angelenos experiencing food insecurity.
"I was surprised at how productive we were," says Project Engineer Intern Jaime Olmedo. "This was my first-time volunteering at a food bank, and I was amazed we were able to prepare nearly 1,500 boxes in 3 hours!"
Before volunteering, participants met outside to enjoy a delicious lunch of individually wrapped burritos and get energy for the day. The volunteer event proved to be a great networking opportunity for interns, with over 20 Webcorians from different jobsites participating in the event.
"It's truly amazing to see a company like Webcor do so much to give back to the community," notes Alex Buffo. "It was a great opportunity to help out the community and represent Webcor!"
Similar to their counterparts in Southern California, Webcor interns in San Francisco stepped up to the plate to help out their community.
Intern Ambassadors Hamza Shallwani and Kristin Paulazzo organized a day of street clean-up in San Francisco's Mission District neighborhood. The group picked up trash, swept and cleaned sidewalks, touched up paint on storefronts, and helped remove graffiti from recent protests.
"I got the idea of doing this service event from fellow project engineer Yasha Ghaffarzadeh, who did something very similar in Oakland," notes Kristin.
The group partnered with Roberts Obayashi, who donated PPE for the event and graciously allowed the group to use a nearby project site as a meeting point and rest station for the day.
The team worked tirelessly from 8:30am to 3:30pm, painting four businesses and one door of an apartment complex that had been graffitied.
"Everyone had a great attitude throughout the day, and I was really proud to see the difference we made," says Kristin. "The businesses and community members that crossed our paths during the day were very appreciative of our help. It was a heartwarming day."
After four years of design and construction, UCSF Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision has received its Certificate of Occupancy
After four years of design and construction, 576,746 craft labor hours, 96,776 salaried hours, four force majeure events, and 169 days of owner delays, UCSF Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision has received its Certificate of Occupancy.
The CofO was received on June 26.
The full design-build project consisted of a 12-story, 360,000-square-foot structure that houses the UCSF Ophthalmology Department and Research Clinic on one side and an academic and administrative hub on the other. Some of the 1,500 employees from 40 UCSF departments have already started moving in. Ultimately, between 40,000 and 50,000 patients a year will be treated at the facility.
The project team did not accomplish this feat alone. We stood on the shoulders of our trade and design partners, One Webcor self-perform groups (representing 27 percent of all subcontracted cost), and support from our corporate executive and administrative teams.
This was a truly collaborative effort. The Webcor team was co-located with UCSF, inspectors of record, and design and trade partners starting with the award of the project through CofO. The culmination of this co-located team coming together as one is best summarized by a text Superintendent Omar Hosny received from the head Building Official after receiving CofO: "From the contractor's side, it has been the best-run construction of a new building that I've granted occupancy during my time at UCSF."
The team also stayed true to our core values, built safely, actively cared for the project/team/community, and had fun while doing so. While it's hard to put this all into words, the Associate Vice Chancellor of UCSF Capital Programs, Scott Muxen, might have captured the team's values best in a message congratulating Project Executive Todd Mercer on achieving the CofO: "You guys have done an excellent job and demonstrated the highest integrity of all my major project teams."
Following are the members of the project's One Webcor team that made all this possible:
Webcor Concrete
Chris Arnold
Galen Dougherty
Jose Peinado
Jose Pulido
Tom McCue
Webcor Drywall
Adam Martin
Adolfo Arellano
Aliya Karimi
John McElwain
Rachel Chagoya Stuart
Webcor Carpentry
Erik Roggeveen
Jordan Dieken
Joseph Bolous
Kerriann McDermott
Webcor Builders
Alec Gieser
Becca Lyman
Brent Griffis
Brandy Jenkins
Brittany Gilbert
Omar Hosny
Bryan Bishop
Chase Corcorran
Evan Sims
Jai Thangaraj
Jashan Singh
Mario Saenz
Megan Zahnow
Nisha Puri
Ryan Miller
Stuart Chapman-Laver
Ted Williams
Tina Wong
Todd Mercer
Zach Moore
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!
