Renovating Milwaukee�s city hall was a �phenomenal opportunity for us to showcase our true talents,� says Gino Carini, vice president of of business development.

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Every so often, a city’s focus shifts toward the historic icon that represents the laurels that it was founded on. In Milwaukee – a city known just as well for its culturally diverse climate as it is for breweries and bratwurst – the renovation of the 111-year-old city hall is cause enough for this focal shift.

Years of harsh Wisconsin winters and seasonal climate changes have taken their toll on the building’s architecturally detailed exterior, increasing the need for a facelift to the façade. Although many contractors demonstrated interest in the project, only one, Janesville, Wis.-based J.P. Cullen & Sons, emerged as the general contractor. “It’s a field of our expertise, it’s a Milwaukee and national landmark and it’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to showcase our true talents,” says Gino Carini, vice president of business development.

The eight-story building is one of the many recognizable structures in Milwaukee (think opening credits for “Laverne & Shirley”) and one that many feel serves as the political and national symbol for the region. “City Hall is probably the best known and most beloved of our historic buildings,” said Mayor Tom Barrett in a statement. “[It] remains the center of Milwaukee’s government today and continues as the visual symbol of the many important roles that Milwaukee played in American history.”

Strong Background
J.P. Cullen is a family owned company operating under its fourth-generation of leadership out of two offices in Milwaukee and Janesville, as well as several satellite offices. The company’s expertise includes primary and secondary education, healthcare, government, industrial and retail segments. A general contractor serving southern Wisconsin within a 100-mile radius of the state’s capital city of Madison, J.P. Cullen has been the local contractor chosen to work on other notable, long-term projects such as Milwaukee’s Miller Park, the restoration of the State Capitol and Meriter Hospital’s tower expansion project in Madison. Throughout its existence, the firm has been one of the largest contractors in the state, but has managed to maintain its collaborative, family atmosphere. Today, roughly 15 percent of the company’s total revenues are generated by historic renovations, Carini says.

“It’s a very family oriented business that is in the relationship business first and the construction business second, and our relationships last a long time,” he asserts.

Brick by Brick
Work on the $65 million, two-and-a-half-year project will include replacing and repairing several of the major material elements of the building’s façade, such as windows, copper roofing, lighting and brick and terra cotta, says Terry Watson, project manager.

A 2003 study of the structure by J.P. Cullen and a consulting firm in Northbrook, Ill., confirmed that the hall’s exterior was indeed in need of repair and would require the company to properly secure the area with netting and scaffolding to prevent harming pedestrians from falling debris while at work.

After years of harsh Wisconsin winters, the terra cotta sculptures and brick began to crack and chip, and in some parts, water had leaked into the masonry that provides the building’s support.

J.P. Cullen won the contract in June 2005 and started the renovation the following month. The project is being completed in three phases, which represent the three main sections of the building – west, north and east elevations – in addition to the bell tower.

“This is a very unique building, which was at one time the third-tallest in the nation,” Watson explains. “It was a new type of construction at the time where this was one of the first to use a lot of steel. [People] at the time didn’t have a lot of knowledge on how steel would react in embedded masonry.”

The building method is one that Watson says wouldn’t likely be used today because of the cracking that occurs when the two materials are combined.

Meeting Project Goals
Unlike traditional commercial construction projects, renovation requires more pre-planning. “When we bid this project, we created a team,” says Larry Rocole, vice president of J.P. Cullen’s Milwaukee division. “What we didn’t want to do is take a bunch of numbers on the street. Our subs were handpicked. We probably met between six and eight times before the project even bid, so we knew what the commitments were and what we needed to get out of each other. Everybody went in with their eyes wide open, knowing what they had to do to meet those goals.”

The process started before the bid was even awarded by hand-selecting a team of subcontractors who would work with J.P. Cullen on the project. Through a series of brainstorming sessions, the company decided on when, where and how the project would progress.

“The construction market in Milwaukee is strong, and we have really good contractors who are our competitors,” Watson explains.

“Since a specialty of ours is restoration, and simply because it’s a very difficult project, we’re finding that we’re continually monitoring this project.”

One of the greatest challenges the contractor faces is repairing and replacing the brick and terra cotta on the building’s façade. The original pieces were made and placed on the building in the 19th century, and today only two manufacturers sell the product. Procured from a manufacturer in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, and a second in California, roughly 13,000 pieces of terra cotta sculptures are being shipped to Milwaukee for the renovation. To ensure the elaborate sculptures were replicated exactly, the architect of record, Engberg Anderson Design Partnership, prepared extensive drawings and plaster mockups of the pieces.

Paid for mostly by taxpayers’ money, the renovation will also include replacing 1,900 windows, 200,000 pressed bricks and copper in two of the building’s spires. “Our whole goal is to get the building back to the way that it looked before,” he says.

History in the Making
The city hall was designed by architect Henry Koch and completed in 1896 for roughly $1.8 million. The building’s last renovation took place in 1974, with the cleaning and repainting of mortar joints.

The building’s architecture is representative of the Gilded Age Revival and is the nation’s only city hall constructed in the Flemish Renaissance style. Atop the structure, at 353 feet above street level, is the bell tower, which, when built, helped push its status to be the third-tallest structure in the nation. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and in 2005, the U.S. Secretary of Interiors designated the hall as a National Historic Landmark.

Building A Team
Working in the heart of Milwaukee’s downtown requires the company to take account of its surroundings. “With this project, it’s in a real tight space in the middle of the city, so storage was a problem,” Watson explains. As a result, J.P. Cullen rented a nearby storage facility for the subcontractors to keep tools and a limited amount of material. The next step was to display a large calendar at the site office where the team could see when material deliveries would be made and how the project would progress.

“A lot of the time the materials being delivered will go right up to the scaffolding where work is being done,” Watson explains. Five high-speed lifts hoist material to the upper levels. In addition, 1.2 million pounds of scaffolding anchored to the exterior ensures the safety of the pedestrians as well as the contractors.

Given the magnitude of the project, J.P. Cullen relied on its close working relationship with a skilled team of subcontractors. Hitting tight delivery schedules, although challenging, is made possible by emphasizing productivity. At the project’s peak, Watson estimates 15 subcontractors will be on site at one time. As the state of Wisconsin’s only ISO 9001:2000 certified contractor, it is banking on is quality methodologies to deftly manage the trade participation process, as it did for the multi-phased State Capitol restoration project.

Since the project’s inception and as a part of its quality management process, J.P. Cullen has hosted monthly partnering lunches where the craftsman, contractor and even city officials can converse about the project.

Based on the company’s proprietary methods, J.P. Cullen also taught subcontractors process improvement on the job site. To catch crews in action, J.P. Cullen video recorded subcontractors in various stages of construction between two and three hours. Management then reviewed the video with the owners of the trade companies to determine where mistakes were being made and where productivity could be improved. In many cases, boosting efficiency on the job site was a matter of getting workers the right tools. After it reviewed the video of onsite performance, productivity almost doubled for one subcontractor on the project.

“Instead of looking at how to make the schedules more productive, we look at how to make the worker more productive,” Rocole explains. If the project progresses as anticipated, the renovation will be completed in November 2008.

Diverse in So Many Ways
The Milwaukee City Hall renovation represents more than the typical renovation. Along with customized work, the project is also investing in and revitalizing a new set of contractors within the Milwaukee community.

According to the 2005 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, of the city’s population, an estimated 37.3 percent are African-American, 12 percent are Hispanic, 2.9 percent are Asian and 0.9 percent are American Indian. In many cases, minorities are underrepresented in the construction industry.

Recognizing the need to provide opportunity to the local and minority work force, Mayor Barrett along with the city’s Common Council were committed to requiring local participation from key groups of subcontractors. The City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works identified work force participation requirements for the restoration project. The general contractor must ensure that by project’s end in November 2008, the following requirements are met:

• A minimum of 18 percent of the contractual and change-order dollars paid to J.P. Cullen must be awarded to businesses certified as emerging business enterprises (EBEs) by the city’s emerging business enterprise program.
• A minimum of 25 percent of the hours worked on the renovation on site must be completed by those certified under the residence preference program (RPP).
• At least six apprenticeships, working a minimum of 10,000 hours, must be employed from trades such as bricklayers, glazers and roofers.

J.P. Cullen is proving that it, too, is committed to the project’s diversity, and has made significant strides in meeting and thus far, even exceeding the participation goals, says Larry Rocole, vice president of its Milwaukee division.

“The whole reason for the RPP/EBE program is to give individuals who have not had opportunities to gain employment [in construction] that opportunity,” Rocole says.

“If you’re going to get involved in something like this, you don’t do it to create numbers; you’re in it to create jobs and careers.”

With experience completing jobs for Milwaukee Public Schools, which had similar work force participation goals, J.P. Cullen was more than confident that it would be able to meet and exceed such goals. The firm is required to submit monthly EBE payment reports and quarterly RPP participation reports. J.P. Cullen has also agreed to collect, measure and share the restoration’s RPP performance on a monthly basis, ensuring accurate and tight control over the participation performance.

Working with BIG STEP, the Building Industry Group Skilled Trades Employment Program, J.P. Cullen was able to recruit a diverse subcontractor work force for the restoration. BIG STEP was launched in 1976 as a joint effort between the Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council and Milwaukee Public Schools to help attract more minorities and younger workers to the trades.

Many referrals are based on word-of-mouth or through community groups, church and other organizations, Rocole notes.

Prism Technical, a Milwaukee-based consulting and marketing group, is the firm responsible for tracking J.P. Cullen’s progress in meeting the participation goals. President Randy Crump says that as of April 30, 15.7 percent of payments received had gone to EBE contractors; 26.8 percent of the work done was completed by RPP contractors; 31.3 percent of the total project construction hours were completed by minorities; and minorities represented 77 percent of all apprenticeships.

J. P. Cullen sees diversity performance as something that is in everyone’s best interest. “In order for the Milwaukee metro area to be successful, we need to have a successful inner city,” Rocole asserts. “It is that kind of attitude which makes a restoration project like the Milwaukee City Hall an opportunity for personal and professional success in so many people’s lives.”