Stevens Construction says communication and detailed pre-planning help it finish many projects before scheduled completion dates.

One of Stevens Construction Corp.'s greatest accomplishments, according to Geoffrey Vine, vice president of operations, is the growth of its people and their capabilities. “We have an increasing number of people growing on their own career paths,” Vine says. “This growth has fueled the growth of the company.”

Stevens Construction, founded in 1952, builds for the multifamily, commercial, retail, industrial, elderly housing and nursing home, parking structure, water park, resort and hospitality markets.

“Having more than five decades of construction know-how enables us to accomplish many great things for our clients,” Stevens says. “From consistently meeting client goals to achieving what was seemingly impossible to some, such as building a 12-story apartment tower in the heart of downtown Madison, Wis., in record time, on time and [within] budget.

“That is one reason why we offer such a wide range of services during the pre-design, design and construction phases of a project,” the company adds.

The company says it gets involved in projects as early as possible to “produce the best building solution for [customers'] budgets; create interaction between costing and design in the preliminary design phase, helping to eliminate any possible cost/design issues before construction; and provides a team review during planning and specification stages, helping to better manage goals and budget.”

Stevens Construction is working on several projects, which include:
• Wilderness 224, a four-story, 400,000-square-foot, wood-frame condo/hotel in the Wisconsin Dells
• Annamark Drive, a one-story, steel frame, slab-on-grade commercial building in Madison
• A one-story, steel frame, 10,775-square-foot addition to Herzing College in Madison
• Marina Condos, a 14-story, 191,091-square-foot, 58-unit condo building
• A seven-story, 82,260-square-foot, 51-unit student apartment building in Madison, and renovations to 16,760 square feet of the Pres House, the existing student building
• An interior buildout of the Johnson Bank's 7,355-square-foot first floor and 939-square-foot mezzanine level in downtown Madison
• Glacier Canyon Lodge/Wilderness Timeshare, a 102-unit, four-story, wood-frame timeshare in the Wisconsin Dells

Vine says two of Stevens onstruction's projects, Glacier Canyon Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, and Equinox in Madison, Wis., are good examples of its growing capabilities. These two big projects required top-notch management and leadership skills.

Ken Fenne, supervisor of the $36 million residential/hotel project Glacier Canyon Lodge project, says Stevens Construction divided the work into eight separate projects to better manage the entire job. “The condo hotel was an extraordinary structure, a 400,000-square-foot, wood-framed building,” he says. “We had 130 carpenters working on it. To be able to manage the size of the building and the employees, not to mention other tradesmen, was a key challenge.”

That was the same challenge faced by Steve Vogt, the supervisor on the $17 million, 115-unit student housing building Equinox. “This is a 12-story, 170,000-square-foot building with multiple levels of underground parking in downtown Madison,” he says. “It was a tight site.”

Extensive pre-planning was the solution to this challenge, Vogt says. “We got everything together and prefabricated a lot of materials so we were ready to go,” he explains. “Our field employees could then do whatever it took to get the job done.”

Both Fenne and Vogt demonstrated strong leadership skills in order to manage the large number of workers. Equinox had 150 workers involved. “Supervisors manage and provide leadership every day in the field,” Vogt says.

“Having leaders in the field is our No. 1 strength.” Vine adds. “You need to hire people with the right attitude and give them what they need to do their job, then turn them loose. They will surprise you with what they are capable of.”

Glacier Canyon Lodge
Stevens Construction broke ground on the Glacier Canyon Lodge, a 224-unit condo/hotel in October 2005, when the site was still a golf course.

The project has two phases, and a 12-month time frame for each phase. The company completed the first 112 units of phase one in eight months. Fenne says with a start date in October, planning for weather challenges was essential.

“You have to deal with what the weather brings, so planning ahead for that will hopefully get things done,” he says. “We were ready for colder weather, but we had a good winter, so we got lucky.

“Wisconsin Dells is a tourist attraction, and July 4th weekend is huge [for vacations],” he continues. “Our employees and subcontractors know what we're up against. We have to have things open or [the Glacier Canyon Lodge] will miss a big window of revenue.”

During excavation and concrete work, Stevens Construction prefabricated interior walls a mile from the site and delivered them by truck. “This was a huge timesaver,” Fenne adds.

Saving time where it could was necessary because of challenges with material shipments; some, such as granite, came from China. In addition, Fenne says, crews worked long hours to make up for extended delivery times. “We had a good-sized group of guys and a rotating Saturday shift, which helped out a lot,” he says. “When workers knew they had an upcoming Saturday off, their attitudes stayed positive.”

Although the size of crews posed a communication challenge, Fenne says the workers stepped up to the plate. “We had to delegate things here and there, and they [took direction] well and did their jobs,” he says.

The company held weekly meetings to determine responsibilities and the project's progress.

On Schedule
The first half of Glacier Canyon opened July 1, and the company is working on constructing the second half.

Fenne says the challenge with this is construction needs to be quiet so residents living in completed units are not annoyed. But because Stevens Construction was ahead of schedule with work in the second phase, crews don't have to work overtime to get the project's second half done by Dec. 15, the project's delivery date. The Equinox Project
Equinox was built in downtown Madison, right on the busiest street in the city, Gorham Street, according to Vogt. The traffic was one of the biggest challenges on this project, he says.

“Delivered materials had to get here on that busy main road. We had to coordinate with the city to make sure our deliveries could get through on time and we knew to expect them.”

On the job, Vogt says, crews dug underground two-and-a-half stories worth of earthwork for a parking lot and poured elevated concrete slabs in the middle of winter in its tight excavation site. While excavating underground, the work crossed property lines. Stevens Construction had to set up property agreements with certain surrounding properties to avoid any issues.

Because of its tight excavation space, Stevens Construction had to use equipment that would fit on-site. “Our tower crane on-site helped tremendously, since we didn't have room to use a crawler crane,” Vogt says.

“Every year, we get more experienced at winter concrete slabs,” he adds. “We [don't] have to retrain anyone. They all knew how much winter affects concrete [negatively] and how to take care with the concrete.”

Project Challenges
Vogt says the biggest challenge, however, was working and communicating with each other on 12 stories. Subcontractors worked on every floor at the same time, not one floor at a time.

Subcontractors working on different phases of work on each story made it difficult to keep up with delegated tasks.

“One floor might be setting structural steel, one might be drywalling, one might be doing plumbing or heating, [and] one might be pre-rocking and steel studs,” he says.

“All the subcontractors needed to be in line and know the program to keep moving up the building efficiently.

“[Also,] if our subcontractors had a lack of manpower, it affected the next floor, and the ball would keep rolling,” Vogt continues. “If one floor falls behind, that affects all the other, lower floors.”

However, subcontractors knew the schedule was tight and communicated with the project managers and superintendents constantly, Vogt adds. By working together, Stevens Construction finished Equinox in 14 months.

“We had a great support team delegating responsibilities to foremen, who, in turn, delegated responsibilities to carpenters,” Vogt says. “Everyone knew the process would need a big push [to finish the project]. [Because of that,] we made up for time during the winter and were able to focus on the quality control of the project.

“We are proud of the way it looks and had [all the units inspected and approved] one week before its [scheduled] finishing date,” he adds. Equinox received an ABC Project of Distinction award in 2006. “The quality of the project is one of Steven's best,” Vine says.

Escalating Material Costs
Stevens Construction has had instances where some materials that were budgeted before breaking ground on a project increased in cost. To overcome this challenge, the company started discussing the budget with owners and including it in contracts. “Having material prices escalate during the last couple of years, we have been budgeting conservatively,” Vine says.

This proved to be beneficial to owners, as well as the company. “Many times [when we finished projects], we came in under the allotted budget, and the owner received the cost savings,” he says.

Exceeding Expectations
Vine says that exceeding scheduled deadlines sets Stevens Construction apart from its competitors. “We achieve extraordinary schedules that other contractors probably wouldn't take on,” he says. “We're able to make the commitment to do it in less time.

“We have the supervisors able to foster the teamwork necessary to make it happen faster. Our field force makes it all possible.” He adds that the market has begun to slow down, so the company is not doing as much work and not relying heavily on subcontractors.

Vine says this is not a bad thing. “We are OK with getting back to a more balanced workload,” he says. “We have some time to move forward with improvements in the company.” The company grows about 10 percent every year, Vine says, and has plans for more than $100 million worth of work for next year.

Large Backlog
Stevens Construction would like to have a substantial backlog going into 2007 and continue to build on its steady growth, according to Vine. Vine says he would like to see Stevens Construction take on bigger and more complicated projects, “to provide new challenges for our people,” he says.

“We are doing things we weren't capable of doing 10 years ago. In the future, we'd like to go far beyond what we're capable of right now,” he adds.