Leading With Knowledge
Minority
construction firms are making a name for themselves by taking
a lead role on high-visibility
projects.
By Peter Downs
More and more,
minority construction professionals are getting the chance to
compete in St. Louis on the basis of their expertise, rather than
their bank accounts, and they are leveraging their successes here
to win leading roles in major construction projects across the
country.
Kwame
Building Group, for example, is a joint venture partner in the
construction management team for the Orlando Airport expansion.
AFRAM, founded by a former Kwame employee, is construction manager
for a United Parcel Service terminal in Davenport, Iowa, and part
of the construction management team for the expansion of the Memphis
International Airport. Both companies got their start winning
projects in St. Louis.
The
growth of construction management, rather than affirmative action,
"is creating opportunities for minority firms to be in the lead
instead of simply fulfilling a quota," says Tony Thompson, president
of Kwame. His opportunities in Orlando come on the heels of several
local projects. Kwame was the construction manager for the East
Terminal at Lambert Airport, and convinced two separate St. Louis
City committees, representing two different
Administrations, that it should be part of the project management
team for Lambert expansion. The company also is the construction
manager for the Argyle Garage
near the Chase-Park Plaza, program manager for the Pagedale City
Hall, and is a subconsultant on the Barnes-Jewish campus construction
program.
Above:
Kwame is the construction manager for the Argyle Garage
near the Chase-Park Plaza.
Construction
managers have been called "the CPAs of construction," but they
really are more than that. They don't just monitor and audit construction
programs, they often decide how to divide a job and pick the architects,
engineers and contractors. The construction manager "looks out
for the owner's best interests," says Vernon Wellington, president
of Wellington/CPM.
Wellington
says construction management provided the opportunities for his
company to survive as an independent firm in the recession of
the early 1990s. He left McCarthy Construction in 1981 to form
his own general contracting firm. He focused mainly on industrial
work, especially concrete work, for such companies as Anheuser-Busch,
McDonnell Douglas and Sigma Chemical. Wellington was the prime
contractor on the Federal Express facility on Chouteau, the renovation
and three-story expansion of the Colonial Bakery, and TWA's East
Concourse. Then came the recession "and a lot of construction
programs were cut back," he says.
"We
had to make a choice, either invest $500,000 that we didn't think
we could recover to continue to do concrete work, or compete on
knowledge," he says. "We decided we could compete on knowledge
when we couldn't on capital."
Opportunities
abounded for construction management and preconstruction planning
in the public sector, he says, not because of affirmative action,
but because public agencies needed budget numbers. Big companies
didn't want to work on the front-end
of projects because they wanted to compete for the actual construction
work, he adds.
Wellington
soon found itself in the preconstruction planning for the TWA
Dome, the $380 million St. Louis Public Schools building program,
the Hall St. jail expansion and the Compton Hill Reservoir. Since
then, Wellington has overseen work for Schnuck's Markets and Washington
University, and is an equal partner with CRB Builders in a management
team for the new $33 million biomechanical research building planned
for the Washington University Medical School campus.
Solomon
Akinduro, a Nigerian immigrant who founded AFRAM only three years
ago, says there are many good opportunities in construction management
for minority firms in St. Louis. AFRAM is a joint venture partner
with CRD on a $20 million apron reconstruction program at Lambert
Airport. With BSI Constructors, it is program manager for the
St. Louis Public Library's construction and renovation program,
and construction manager for a new $40 million Earth Science building
at Washington University. With AAIC, AFRAM is the program manager
for the St. Louis Fire Department's renovation program for 30
fire stations. Akinduro's resume includes stints at both Wellington
and Kwame, demonstrating that successful minority firms also can
act as a ladder into business for other minority entrepreneurs.
Above:
Several minority-owned firms played a role in the construction
of the TWA Dome. Wellington CPM worked on the pre-construction
planning, David Mason & Associates provided engineering
services and Kennedy Associates was the interior designer.
Of
course, certain minority-owned design firms have had leading roles
in St. Louis-area projects for years. Owners of both
Kennedy Associates and David Mason & Associates offer their
companies as testimonials to minority entrepreneurship. Both companies
outgrew disadvantaged business enterprise programs and As
architect, David Mason & Associates has the lead on the Concourse
C renovation at Lambert, the Children's Zoo and River Walk at
the Saint Louis Zoo, the gymnasium and visual and performing arts
center at Harris-Stowe State College, and cancer patient and family
housing at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Above:
Kennedy Associates is a minority-owned design firm that
has taken leading roles on St. Louis-area projects for years.
The firm is the project manager, lead architect and engineer
for many notable projects, including the University of MissouriSt.
Louis University Center pictured in this artist's rendering.
Kennedy
has partnered with HOK and Sverdrup on the winning designs for
several state prisons in Missouri. It was the interior designer
for the TWA Dome, completed in 1995, and the KETC Channel 9 headquarters
and studio, completed in 1998. It is the project manager, lead
architect and engineer for several notable local projects, including
the University of MissouriSaint Louis University Center,
the St. Louis City Justice Center, the Southwestern Bell Library
and Technology Resource Center at Harris-Stowe State College,
the new East St. Louis Public Library, and Metro High School.
Repeat clients include Schnuck's Markets, BJC Health System, McCormack
Baron, Monsanto, Mallinckrodt, and Saint Louis University.
For
all Kennedy's success, founder Michael Kennedy aims to go even
higher. He wants to make his firm into one of the first architect-based
design-build firms, a single source for everything needed to make
a building a reality, from design through construction. Even more
than that, he aims for "total project delivery," because some
clients not only need help with design and construction, they
also need help obtaining financing. "That's what we did with the
East St. Louis library," he says. "We did the design, lined up
the financing, and we're doing the construction management."
Peter
Downs is a free-lance writer and editor of Construction News &
Review
|
