As the makers of the popular Norton software, Symantec is already familiar with protecting computers from viruses and other malicious forces. With the construction of its new headquarters in Culver City, Calif., the company will be helping protect something entirely different: the environment. Webcor Builders is currently finishing the project, which encompasses 10 acres, two 250,000-square-foot buildings, a five-story concrete parking structure and will be the largest LEED-certified project in Southern California.

Joshua Portner, project manager for the Symantec headquarters, says Webcor is proud to be involved in the construction of the project. Webcor has been a leader in promoting green building, he says, and the Symantec project is an example of the company pushing forward with both technology and green principles. “The challenge is to set the bar ever higher and higher,” he says.

Throughout construction, Portner says Webcor’s technological edge and skilled work force have been able to succeed even with a shrinking schedule and Symantec’s demanding requirements. “We have come through this project as the contractor, and everyone from Webcor, our subcontractors, the architect, the owner, consultants – any party that played a role in this facility – worked as a team and gave their heart and soul to this project and are all coming out the other side of this project in great shape,” Portner says.

‘Webcor’s Colors Are Green’
Located on 10 acres in the Fox Hills area of Culver City, the new Symantec headquarters will house up to 900 employees. The two office buildings feature a number of sustainable features that make it eligible for LEED certification, and Portner says that made Webcor the right choice to build it.

“Webcor’s colors are green; we’ve always been green,” he says. The company has more than 90 LEED APs on staff, giving it one of the highest ratios in the country. The company has taken on numerous LEED-certified projects in California, including the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, which is expected to receive the highest LEED certification level, platinum. Webcor has sent many representatives to green building conferences, and its employees have become trusted authorities on the subject.

“We have pushed forward LEED and green building to the point where San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom requested that members of the Webcor team serve on a task force to further push green building in [the city],” Portner says. “After the initial meeting, Webcor’s representative was selected as chairman of the task force.”

With this experience behind it, Webcor came into the Symantec project committed to making it one of the greenest buildings in the state. “On Symantec alone, there are eight LEED APs on the Webcor construction team,” Portner says. The application of green ideals didn’t stay at the top of the operation, however.

“We migrated the ideas all the way down to journeyman levels in the field,” Portner says. “Because these guys understood that this is a special project, I would actually see journeyman guys sorting through their trash for recyclable and non-recyclable [items].”

Architect HOK is another leading voice in the region for sustainable building, and Chairman of the Board Bill Valentine served as project designer on the Symantec headquarters. He says HOK and Webcor have teamed up to create a project that could achieve one of the highest LEED certifications.

“We believe it’s going to be gold,” Valentine says. “You can never tell until it’s certified, but we believe it’s going to be gold.”

The main contributor to the building’s energy efficiency is its HVAC system, Valentine says. The system is contained in a raised floor, meaning the air comes from the floor rather than vents in the ceiling. Valentine says this system cools the air where people are, not where they aren’t. “In a typical building, since the cooling comes from the top, you’re actually cooling those upper layers,” he says. Each workspace inside the building also has its own air-control system, so that each employee can set the flow of air to his or her own preferences.

The building’s horizontal design is another example of sustainable construction, Valentine says. Only four stories tall, the Symantec building doesn’t require as many elevators and encourages walking. “A big thing of ours which you don’t get a LEED point for but is good environmentally is to use less steel and concrete and so on,” Valentine says.

The building also features wood products made without urea-formaldehyde resins that could cause respiratory problems in some people. Solar-powered light fixtures were installed around the building, and drought-resistant landscaping will reduce runoff and lower water usage. Half-gallon urinals also contribute to lowering the building’s water usage 30 percent.

Climate control is a huge consumer of energy in any building, and Webcor worked to reduce that consumption in the Symantec project. More-efficient HVAC systems are one piece of the puzzle, but there are simpler ways to keep the building cool.

“One of the major components is a cool roof,” Portner says. A white PVC roof was installed on the building, which reflects more sunlight and keeps the building from trapping heat.

Thanks in part to additions such as these, the Symantec project is 24 percent more energy-efficient than is required under California’s already-strict Title 24 requirements. “To set the bar that high, it’s pretty darn good,” Portner says.

The project also required Webcor to be nimble and adjust quickly to changing conditions.

“We started off with a schedule that was in the 22-month range, and through diligent scheduling and quick buyout … we were able to bring that in with an 18.5-month schedule with minimal cost extra to the owner,” Portner says.

“In addition to that overall schedule acceleration, the demands of the project [were challenging] since Symantec is a software corporation [and] they needed lab turnover two months earlier than [the rest of the project],” Portner continues. He says creativity was the key to achieving that; this meant playing with the schedule and seeing where construction activities in the laboratories could be placed ahead of the rest of the project. Temporary plastic walls were installed around laboratories to keep out dust and debris from the rest of the job site.

Technological Edge
Green building has definitely become the wave of the future, and Webcor is no stranger to being on the leading edge. “I think Webcor is probably one of the most innovative companies in our field,” Portner says. “We’ve pushed the current technology and new and upcoming technology as we go through our projects and our day-to-day existence as a company.”

Webcor leads the way in using the latest technology both in the construction office and in the field, which Portner says gives it a huge advantage in a construction market that is getting faster by the minute. “We are huge in the [building information modeling] process,” he says. “We use 3-D modeling extensively in the coordination of our structures. We also get into the 5-D modeling, which incorporates the scheduling and cost into our 3-D, which allows us to see any conflicts with schedule, cost, materials and locations of materials.”

Valentine says the use of modeling software also helps a project become greener, as it cuts down on the amount of materials that are wasted during construction. “On a typical construction site, you’d be stunned at how much waste there is,” he says. Systems such as BIM eliminate waste and increase efficiency because it allows builders to see where conflicts arise before crews have to tear down and rebuild.

“If you make it more efficient, you not only make it more green, you also make it less expensive,” Valentine says.

Webcor also leads the way in communication technology, with PDAs, cell phones and wireless Internet used extensively on job sites. “For instance, I’m sitting on a job site right now and talking on a VOIP phone,” Portner says. On the Symantec project, collaboration was improved between project managers and superintendents during the earth-moving process by having them connected in real time.

“Our supers were actually situated in the field with wireless cards,” Portner says. “It gave them the opportunity to stay in the field where they were needed but communicate back to the office, using both the wireless cards and the cell phones.”

The company’s innovative spirit applies to more than the tools it uses in the field, however. “One of our company mantras is ‘innovation through design,’ and we like to, as a company, come onboard early with projects and help assist owners and architects in understanding the construction methodology of how a project is built,” Portner says.

To help Webcor keep a fresh, young perspective on projects, the company looks to hire the best from the next generation of management. “We really like to get the cream of the crop coming out of the top-ranked universities in civil engineering and construction management,” Portner says. The company recruits from schools such as University of California-Davis, California Polytechnic University-SLO, Purdue, USC, California State University-Chico and Long Beach, and UC-San Diego.

Portner says Webcor’s considerable clout makes it very attractive to these young recruits. “Our brand name and product are so well-known in the state, we get a lot of interested college grads who are coming from construction management backgrounds,” he says.