Our expertise is evidenced by the recognition we have received from our peers. Since 1992, 14 Pinkard projects have received the Associated Builders and Contractors' top national award-the Excellence in Construction Eagle award.
This competition is a nationwide program that publicly recognizes quality and innovation in construction management and execution under challenging circumstances. Its purpose is to honor all members of the team: contractor, owner, and architect/engineer. Competition for these awards comes from across the nation. Voting for the Eagle awards is by our industry peers and recognizes exceptional structures with the highest standards in quality, safety and client satisfaction.
"Winning this award a single time is a significant achievement-to win it twice, an honor, three times a habit, and four times a tradition. Winning this award 13 times is simply our way of doing business-it's who we are." Jim Pinkard, Jr.
The Leeds School of Business started as a challenging but manageable Construction Manager General Contractor (CM/GC) renovation and addition with limited funding. Pinkard's early project goals focused on developing an efficient construction phasing plan and working with University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) to implement a fundraising program.
Pinkard's phasing plan identified ways to shorten the construction schedule from 21 months to 16, which resulted in significant savings for CU. Original scope for the renovation was "paint and patch." Significant structural improvements were necessary to meet current code, including seismic and fire upgrades that included new caissons and shear walls. The 63,000 sf structural steel and sandstone veneer addition included classrooms, dining and kitchen facilities, office and board rooms, and a grand atrium with limestone tile.
Early on, Pinkard and Davis Partnership Architects were challenged with what the entire project team agreed was a woefully inadequate design schedule. Davis Partnership produced an outstanding set of drawings with the time available. Unfortunately, by their own estimations, they needed two-to-three months longer to produce drawings that they considered to be acceptable. Nevertheless Pinkard took the drawings into the field and began a daily collaboration with Davis to turn the design into reality. Daily Request for Information (RFI's) and extensive field coordination were the norm.
During this time, Pinkard conducted countless fundraising tours for the University, which resulted in a more than $6 million budget windfall for CU. This windfall allowed CU to increase scope by more than 24%. Unfortunately, this scope increase came with only six months remaining in the construction schedule. The hard-end-date schedule had no room for extension.
The owner's scope additions resulted in Pinkard completely gutting and renovating 103,000 sf-virtually every square foot-of the existing building. Scope included asbestos abatement and build-out of classrooms, teaching laboratories, team rooms/office space and a 20,000 sf library.
To absorb this massive scope increase and still make the critical August 2007 deadline, Pinkard ramped up its collaboration with subcontractors, holding planning meetings almost daily. Working in concert with key subcontractors, Pinkard scrutinized the schedule to find any way possible to make up time, including overtime if significant schedule savings could be realized. This approach produced savings for the University and maximized productivity.
During the last seven months, Pinkard dealt with over 200 RFI's-790 overall. Throughout this critical period, Pinkard met CU's "gold plated" quality standard. Pinkard also exceeded CU's goal of LEEDŽ Silver certification-achieving LEED Gold certification.
"Finishing on time was by itself a major accomplishment. I've never seen this kind of scope increase. Other contractors would have balked at accepting this much additional scope, but Pinkard moved forward despite the unknowns, even without signed authorizations. We wouldn't have gotten this done without Pinkard's approach to handling this scope. Pinkard delivered a very good project."
Bill Sweeney, Project Manager
Facilities Management
"There was no way we could have gotten this done without Pinkard's excellent performance. They succeeded despite difficult drawings, despite schedule. They found so many creative ways to make the project work. No other campus building ever had the issues this project had. Pinkard produced a spectacular building destined to become a campus icon."
Byron Koste, Executive Director
CU Real Estate Foundation