Rising Restaurants: Crews tackle unique dining spaces needs

At a century-old building in the heart of Catonsville, construction crews are working on a project that is complex, demanding and historic.

Founded in 1886 and located at Lexington Market ever since, Faidley Seafood is preparing to set up operations in this new Frederick Road location.

Even by restaurant standards, it’s a complex project.

The basement is being outfitted to support a major component of Faidley’s business: mail order shipments of its famous crab cakes. The first floor of the former wallpaper store is being transformed into a full-service seafood restaurant, the second into a banquet hall and crews are installing multiple kitchens throughout the building to support those distinct operations.

“This is a huge investment for the Faidley family,” said Taylor Classen, Chief Operating Officer and Partner at DACG Commercial. “They have been in business for nearly 145 years. They want to preserve the family business and help it thrive into the next generation. They see this project as key to that.”

Restaurant projects can demand a lot of designers and builders. In addition to meeting construction schedules and budgets, project teams must craft and execute unique designs, install robustly functional systems, craft welcoming aesthetics, and complete some daunting transformations in order to advance a national brand, meet a chef’s dream or sustain a family legacy.

Challenging sites

With construction happening on three levels of the Frederick Road building, the Faidley’s project has challenged crews to deal with complexities.

“There is different activity happening on each level and we have multiple lifts operating, so it is requiring a lot of coordination,” Classen said.

One surprising discovery made the work even harder.

“Seven months into the project, we discovered that the beautiful limestone front façade had become structurally unsound,” he said. “Now we are removing the whole front façade, supporting the floor system and putting in a new structural support system.

Then we will rebuild the front of the building and, as close as possible, create the same charm and character it had.”

At the Center Club in downtown Baltimore, Harvey Construction navigated a different array of challenges as it worked to complete a gut renovation of a kitchen and dining area. The kitchen was located on the 15th floor of a 35-story high rise.

The building had just one freight elevator “and there were contractors working on pretty much every floor,” said Mac Ford, Project Manager at Harvey Construction.

To keep work progressing efficiently, Harvey had to coordinate with contractors leading other projects, and bring its own crews in at 5 am. It also had to push to complete the project on a tight timeline so that the club could get back to full operations and normal revenues.

“There were days when we had 30 contractors in that space, all working on top of each other,” Ford said.

For the Adams on Fourth restaurant in Annapolis, Harvey Construction had barely a year to complete ground-up construction of the building, which would also include two apartments.

High water table in the area created challenges for grading and site work.

“But probably the biggest challenge involved the kitchen hoods,” Ford said. “We had about 12 inches of joist depth in the kitchen so the big challenge was meeting fire rating and fire mitigation with the hoods.”

The project team spent months puzzling through that one element of the project until the team, a third party inspector and city officials agreed on an acceptable hood installation.

Fine dining environments

The results of challenging restaurant projects, however, can be stunning.

The remodeled Center Club featured a lot of high-end finishes in its millwork, tile work, countertops, glass and elsewhere.

“There are millwork ceilings, millwork cabinetry and millwork throughout an entire long, long corridor that’s 80 to 100 feet long,” he said.

A gut renovation of the dining and bar space at the Baltimore Yacht Club delivered similarly impressive results. Designed around a nautical theme, the project included a lot of teak and Ipe wood, v-groove shiplap walls, a very large bar made from stained white oak, and white quartz countertops.

A key element of the design, however, was a less noticeable feature.

“In a lot of the restaurants that we have worked on recently, there has been a huge emphasis on acoustical treatments,” Ford said. “Restaurant owners are very concerned about noise resonance. We have all been to restaurants where it is difficult to hear people talk even when they are sitting next to you. That can convince people not to come back to a restaurant.”

Consequently, Harvey Construction “worked hand-in-hand with the owners and the architect to find acoustical products that would work with the design and not be too costly,” he said.

Close collaborations

The ability to do value engineering, assist with design and engage in heightened collaboration is vital to many restaurant projects.

“Every single restaurant owner has their own flair, their own vision. But many times, owners either don’t have architects involved in their projects or they have architects involved to a limited degree,” Ford said. “In our restaurant projects, 20 percent to 30 percent of them are design-builds.”

Many others require significant input from the builder on how to execute and refine the design in order to match the project’s vision, budget and schedule, he said. “And every single restaurant owner that we’ve ever worked with has always asked to make some design changes in the middle of the project.”

And it’s not just bespoke restaurant projects that require that close collaboration. Construction of chain restaurants have similar needs.

Petrie Construction is currently involved in several projects for Raising Cane’s and CAVA.

“Both of those companies are in the throes of nationwide initiatives to develop more sites,” said Adam Petrie, Chief Executive Officer.

Although the designs of those restaurants are more prescribed, details can change from location to location. Raising Cane’s, for example, tailors imagery in each restaurant to reflect the local community.

“You have to really understand their brand and be able to work in lockstep with their CM team, understand their requirements and understand what they are looking to accomplish with each new restaurant,” said Matt Cornelius, Senior Project Manager at Petrie.

As they move into new markets, national chains also rely on general contractors and their teams to understand and address local requirements, such as county regulations on the placement of grease traps. They also rely on GCs to assemble reliable, impressive teams of subcontractors in each new market.

“What you are seeing more in this industry is the search for relationship-oriented contractors and partners,” said Jeremy Bragg, Director of Construction Services at Petrie. “Owners are looking for a general contractor who is going to bring them value beyond any individual project. We have to become their partner, their resource and create a team that will deliver on their projects.”

Petrie Construction has utilized “The Petrie Way,” its core values, to create those relationships with national restaurant chains and to partner with subcontractors who can best execute those projects, Cornelius said.

“As we find ourselves expanding our reach across the country to build these restaurants, we are carrying some of these subcontractors into new regions,” he added.

Contractors tackle volatile supply chain

From the extensive and changing array of tariffs to declining economic indicators, improved interest rates, high lead times for select products, and a sustained, ample backlog of construction work, contractors are navigating challenging conditions as they source materials and equipment.

So how do companies manage their risk, expenses, project performance and stress levels in the midst of a turbulent supply chain?

Mitigating risk

The first signs of a tariff war prompted Cole Roofing to identify and prepare for possible challenges.

“We had constant communication with vendors to understand the impacts they were anticipating,” said Bill Cole, President. For example, “we knew one underlayment product we use comes from Canada. So, we were asking the vendor: What are you doing? Are you moving more inventory across the border early? What kind of price increase could the tariff create? What alternative products could we source within the United States?”

The second step in Cole’s communication plan was for its legal team to determine the best language to put into contracts to address the risk tariffs posed to project costs.

The third step was to start talking about tariffs to customers.

Price fluctuation became “a heightened topic so the discussion with the customer was do you want to take on that risk or do you want us to take on that risk,” Cole said. “If the customer wants to assume the risk, then let’s set an allowance aside and create criteria for using that allowance so everyone understands the potential impacts. If the customer doesn’t want to take on the risk, then I have to be responsible and say I have to charge you more because I don’t know how much this product will cost by the time you’re ready to install it.”

Those conversations with customers “were proactive and fruitful,” Cole said. “People at least appreciated the acknowledgement of the challenge we are all facing.”

Cole, who has not yet seen major price hikes, says those preparations have helped his team and his customers “keep a level head” in a turbulent market.

Volatile metals prices

“There has certainly been volatility in steel prices,” said Jerry Taylor, Vice President of Sales and Estimating for Baltimore Fabrication.

While some steel products have seen marginal increases of 3 percent, other prices have shot up 50 percent, Taylor said. “It’s not uncommon to have $150-a-ton increases weekly on certain profiles of steel.”

That has put pressure on the budgets of many projects, “especially jobs bid in late 2023 through 2024 that had a procurement period through the first quarter of this year,” he said. “No crystal ball could have projected these types of increases.”

Some jobs need to be renegotiated prior to release to address the rapid cost increases.

Fortunately, “most owners seem to be understanding,” Taylor said. “They just need you to provide proof of the cost changes and the mills are doing a great job at putting out their announcement letters weekly, letting us know what changes are forthcoming.”

Completing procurements, however, still requires heightened market tracking and communication with general contractors.

“It takes 60, 90, 120 days from final GMP to procurement and purchasing by subs. That’s really challenging for us to manage when vendors will only hold prices for 15 or 30 days,” he said.

To contain its risk, Baltimore Fabrication has adopted a more cautious bidding practice.

“The construction industry is full of risk,” Taylor said. Cost changes are “another component of the risk and being cautious about your exposure is extremely important in this environment. So, if a job doesn’t feel right, if it feels like too much exposure to risk on pricing, I tell my guys let’s not go after it.

Let’s go after jobs that make sense and feel safer.”

Long lead times

At Rosendin Electric Co., “we have seen a lot of fluctuations in the market for copper, steel and aluminum,” said Tony Esteve, Business Development Manager for the MidAtlantic.

Imported steel and aluminum prices have risen due to 25 percent tariffs. Copper has not been subjected to a product-specific tariff. Yet even before tariffs on China and other countries were announced, the cost of copper climbed about 30 percent due to the anticipated impacts of a trade war.

“A lot of copper producers – in China and Chile, in particular – have been slowing production because they believe people will be buying less copper,” Esteve said.

Since metal purchases comprise 20 to 25 percent of an electrical contractor’s costs, Rosendin has long tracked the markets and made large purchases when prices have dropped. The company, for example, made a large copper purchase in early December when the price was $4.02 a pound, Esteve said. By the beginning of April, that price was $5.11 a pound.

Another significant and persistent supply chain challenge is the long lead times for large electrical distribution equipment, generators and liquid-filled transformers.

“The supply chain never really recovered post-Covid,” Esteve said. “A lot of big manufacturers expected a slowdown but market demands grew due to a lot of data center work and renewable projects.”

That challenge, however, has produced a benefit for the electrical industry, he said. Electrical equipment lead times which sometimes exceed the construction schedule for a building, have prompted owners to do early consultations with electrical contractors.

“That’s helped us because we’re seeing opportunities on projects earlier than we would in the traditional pipeline,” Esteve said.

That process has enabled Rosendin to build relationships with owners and arrange the timely acquisition of electrical equipment for projects.

College expands pathways to construction careers

From summer programs for grade-school students to internships with local companies and apprenticeships, certifications, and degrees, the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) supports myriad pathways to careers in the construction industry.

Yet the ongoing challenges of attracting enough workers to the industry as well as keeping abreast of the evolving skills required for tradespeople and construction professionals keep prompting CCBC to continue to update and expand its offerings.

At the end of last year, the BC&E Foundation approved a $2,000 grant to support the college’s construction industry training.

The list of construction-related training programs offered at CCBC is enormous. The college offers programs leading to associate’s degrees and credit certifications in Construction Management, Engineering, Engineering Technology, Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning, and more. It offers workforce training certificates in HVAC/Refrigeration, Building Automation, Certified Apartment Maintenance Technician, Construction Pre-Apprenticeship, and Welding.

The college has partnered with registered apprenticeship providers — both merit shops and unions — representing a wide variety of trades including electricians, carpenters and plumbers – to provide apprentices with classroom training and college credits.

It also provides grade school students with information about and training in construction fields through multiple initiatives. Its Early College Access Program (ECAP) gives high school students a head start on their college education. CCBC’s Pathways in Technology (P-TECH) program connects students from Baltimore County Public Schools with regional employers, including The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and Johnson Controls Inc. Employers offer students 10- to 12-week internships, serve as mentors and help students pursue careers in engineering and technology. To provide students with early information about career options, P-TECH includes a Summer Engineering Institute for students who are about to enter Grade Nine.

“Great partnerships with companies in the construction industry” have helped CCBC provide students and individuals with compelling information about career opportunities, said Jay Bouis, Assistant Dean, Applied Technology and Logistics at CCBC’s School of Continuing Education.

Those partnerships have facilitated connections between students and employers to place individuals in jobs.

Ongoing interaction with construction-industry companies also enables CCBC to “continually tweak our educational product” to meet current workforce needs, Bouis said. “We have been able to address workforce trends, such as the need for training in computer programs, cybersecurity and automation, including the need for shorter, trade-specific programs. Having the right program that is industry-informed helps place students on a pathway to employment.”

The college has also grown its opportunities for construction workers to expand their skills.

“As a person progresses through their career, they might want to add another certification, another skill. We have short programs and classes to support that,” Bouis said.

Meanwhile, opportunities within Maryland’s college system have made it easier for skilled tradespeople to continue their education and earn degrees.

“There are a growing number of pathways at CCBC from apprenticeships to degrees,” he said. “A person who has completed their skilled-trades apprenticeship, can apply some of that training and work experience combination as college credit. If they decide to pursue a Construction Craft Professional degree, they can enter that program with advanced standing. Apprentices that complete five-year programs are essentially halfway through earning that degree.”

Building the workforce

On April 1st, the BC&E Foundation hosted its annual Builders-In-Training (BIT) Workshop for 150 students from Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Howard County Public Schools at IEC Chesapeake.

Students participated in engaging presentations and hands-on activities in construction and skilled trades, led by BC&E Members Baltimore Fabrication, J.F. Fischer, Whiting-Turner, and our generous host, IEC Chesapeake.

BIT Workshop is a unique opportunity to introduce high school students to the construction industry early, sparking their interest in potential career paths. This year, we also welcomed juniors and seniors who were eager to connect with industry professionals as they explored their post-high school options beyond the classroom.

By connecting students with skilled trades professionals, BIT Workshop transforms classroom learning into real-world career exploration, reinforcing the BC&E Foundation’s mission to build the construction industry’s future workforce through education and programs that support the growth of the Greater Baltimore construction industry.

BC&E welcomes four new members

Enterprise Fleet Management provides clients with an efficient way of managing their vehicles. Enterprise’s transportation solutions improve cash flow, free up credit lines, save time, and allow companies to focus on their core business. www.efleets.com

F.A. Taylor and Son Inc. is a full service, fully credentialed, commercial roofing and sheet metal contractor. With proven expertise in multiple trades and services, F.A. Taylor and Son provides cost-effective solutions for almost every commercial roofing type. www.fataylorson.com

Fallston Supply is an AWI-QCP certified architectural millwork manufacturer. Licensed in Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland and Delaware, Fallston Supply is bonded and self-performs installations. www.fallstonsupply.com

Fisher, Collins & Carter, Inc. is a full-stack site development firm in the civil engineering and land surveying fields for commercial and residential projects as well as large-scale developments.

www.fcc-eng.com

Building retrofits boost energy efficiency and sustainability

Whether it’s driven by sustainability goals, regulatory requirements or a simple need to reduce energy costs, a growing number of property owners are looking to improve the energy performance of their buildings.

While financing those projects is a perennial challenge, new approaches to building management and renovation, emerging technologies within the MEP world, and shifting thought leadership about sustainability are providing avenues to meet clients’ needs.

Retro-commissioning

Inefficient and even erratic operations within buildings that were designed to be highly efficient is not a new thing.

When Bala Consulting Engineers assess building performance at a client’s property, they regularly uncover “hand-o-matic” issues with MEP systems, said John Robinson, Director of Commissioning. “A tenant in the building may have complained about the temperature so the facilities staff did an override and that piece of equipment has been running at higher speed for however long, wasting money instead of going back to its automated programming.”

Retro-commissioning can ferret out and correct those misalignments and accomplish much more. It can identify delayed or neglected maintenance that is impacting the performance or efficiency of building systems and shortening the lifespan of equipment. And it can go beyond resetting a building to original performance and efficiency levels to improve on those levels.

“We now have the tools, the data and the analytics to accomplish greater efficiency,” said Michael Westerlund of Johnson Controls Inc. “Analytics are creating feedback loops of data that are timely and continuous so you can be constantly monitoring and adjusting building operations.”

In newer building systems, those analytics can finetune operating sequences to match real-time occupancy levels, flexible work schedules and changing uses. The analytics can also flag minor equipment issues that can diminish efficiency and shorten equipment lifespan.

“This not only helps owners maintain energy and system efficiency, it also helps service technicians very quickly identify root causes of problems. This generates significant operational savings,” Westerlund said.

The addition of AI to the analytics systems, he added, can further increase the benefits. For example, AI-enabled systems can identify and even anticipate maintenance issues and propose scenarios for addressing them. Through continuous learning and adaptation, the AI model can refine its predictions based on real-world outcomes, continuously improving its accuracy and effectiveness over time. This continuous learning loop ensures that the predictive maintenance system remains highly effective even as building conditions and equipment evolve.

More clients are opting to contract companies to do ongoing or continuous commissioning of buildings.

At the same time, retro- and continuous commissioning, with the power of data and analytics, is teac

“Sometimes, the complexity of control systems can become a problem,” said James Gardler, Director of MEP Operations at Bala Consulting Engineers.

Facilities staff may have insufficient knowledge to make needed and effective changes to the systems, and to reverse overrides.

Consequently, engineering companies are both improving their systems for initial and ongoing training of facilities staff and adding functions to systems to make them more operator-friendly, such as a built-in process to automatically restore normal operations.

Portfolio-wide retrofits

To achieve major energy efficiency improvements or sustainability goals, especially in older buildings, some owners are opting for deep energy retrofits and not just on a one-off basis, said Julia Gisewite, Chief Sustainability Officer at Turner Construction Company.

“We have clients who will ask us to look at their entire portfolio of buildings and develop a plan to decarbonize the portfolio rather than looking at one building at a time,” Gisewite said. “That enables everyone to think strategically about procurement, to look across their entire pro forma and how they are spending money, identify priorities, and create a phased plan for decarbonization over multiple years.”

That approach enables companies to achieve some economies of scale in equipment and service purchases. It also helps clients to time retrofits to meet requirements of new Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) which are being adopted in many regions.

At James Posey Associates, engineers have recently worked on multi-building energy performance and retrofit analyses on properties ranging from laboratory and manufacturing spaces for life sciences companies to academic campuses.

Those broad studies have helped clients get a sharper understanding of what will be required to meet their own energy efficiency/sustainability goals or upcoming government regulations, said Sean Soboloski, an engineer specializing in energy and sustainability at James Posey.

Analysis of a selection of buildings on one university campus, for example, provided insights on what the client would need to do in the short term and longer term to meet BEPS requirements.

“One of the biggest takeaways from the study is that sub-metering is going to be critically important in dealing with BEPS,” Soboloski said.

Certain uses, such as commercial kitchens, are exempt from BEPS restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions on site. Consequently, installing sub-metering in an academic building that also includes a food hall would be key to lowering and meeting that building’s BEPS requirements, he said.

Other recommended short-term actions, he said, included retro-commissioning campus buildings to better monitor occupancy and adjust HVAC operations accordingly and completing a building envelope commissioning to lower energy loss.

However, Soboloski noted that longer term improvements for that university, like many institutional clients, include replacing HVAC, electrical and back-up power systems, many of which have already exceeded their expected lifespan.

New concepts in efficiency

For clients who are wrestling with the high cost of improving their energy systems, thought leaders in sustainable building are offering some new options.

One is a “partial electrification” solution.

“Partial electrification could be huge and I hope it gets more attention in the engineering practice,” said Colin Schless, Director of Client Decarbonization Strategy at Turner Construction Company.

Schless points to a study by the Berkely Center for the Built Environment which concluded that building MEP systems run at 20 percent of capacity for 80 to 90 percent of the year and only run at higher capacities during high-demand periods.

“So, if you electrify 20 percent of that plant, that’s going to cover 80 to 90 percent of emissions,” Schless said.

Partial electrification would deliver major decarbonization gains while dramatically cutting the cost of installing new equipment, Schless said. Also, “by just electrifying 20 percent, you’re not likely to impact your electrical load so you don’t need to do electrical service upgrades to the building, which are costly.”

Another emerging option is high-lift heat pumps.

The obstacle to installing heat pumps in an existing building is “most buildings have a boiler that uses pretty hot water – 170 to 180 degrees,” Schless said.

Heat pumps typically deliver 120-degree water. Accommodating that temperature water in an existing building “would mean ripping out radiators, ripping coils out of your air handling units and making some architectural improvements. It’s a really intensive project,” he said.

The high-lift heat pump leverages technology typically used in the food and beverage and oil and gas industries to create a solution for buildings. The two-stage heat pump brings water to 120 degrees in the first stage and raises it to 180 to 200 degrees in the second stage, making it compatible with equipment installed in many buildings.

Builders embrace new ways to support mental wellbeing

The mental health challenges facing construction workers and construction companies are enormous and known. Construction has the highest suicide rate of any industry in America, one of the highest rates of opioid misuse and overdose, and ample cases of stress, burnout, anxiety and other mental wellness challenges.

So what can companies do on a day-in, day-out basis to support their employees mental wellbeing?

Clark Construction Group has embarked on an array of mental health initiatives.
A supporter of the National Construction Suicide Prevention Week, Clark is “training leaders in Forefront Suicide Prevention L.E.A.R.N. technique, a five-step process to recognize, engage and support individuals in crisis,” said Greg Colevas, Corporate Safety Director. “We recently introduced Mental Health First Aid training to deepen employees understanding of mental illness and suicide prevention.”

More construction companies “are training their employees on how to be that first line of support by noticing when their co-workers are struggling,” said Jennifer Dewees, President of the Maryland Center for Construction Education & Innovation (MCCEI).

Training programs offered by the Center for Prevention of Construction Suicide and other organizations help individuals recognize the warning signs that a co-worker is struggling.

“They may start showing up late to work or missing time or making mistakes that they normally wouldn’t make,” Dewees said. Trainees are taught that “when you see those kinds of behaviors in an employee, don’t automatically penalize them. Figure out why this is happening because there is always a reason why.”

Some companies, she added, have trained people to help individuals find a therapist and access mental health services that are affordable and convenient. The challenges that people often face in accessing those services can be enough to convince a person suffering from addiction, depression or other issues to cease seeking any help.

Through years of efforts to build awareness of mental health issues and create a supportive environment for anyone who is struggling, Clark has learning that the best thing a company can do is simply “talk about it,” Colevas said. “Remove the natural tendency for this topic to be taboo and approach from a place of openness, caring and respect. Creating opportunities for open, two-way conversations with our people, especially our craft workers on our projects, has been incredibly impactful. We’ve been continually surprised that given the opportunity to talk about their mental health, people will want to tell their stories and what has impacted them.”

“Mental health isn’t just about your mental state but caring for your overall health. That is where our wellness program comes in,” said Corinne Burrows, Assistant Director of Human Resources at Gray & Son.

That program encourages employees to complete an annual physical with their primary care physician “which includes time to address mental health concerns,” Burrows said.

Company benefits include an employee assistance program (EAP) that provides mental health and counselling services as well as assistance with family caregiving, legal services and financial services; a telehealth service that makes mental health services more available at convenient times; and a consulting service for managers who are seeking advice on how to handle situations affecting their employees.

Wohlsen Construction provides confidential and free counselling services through its EAP, wellness and physical activity programs through its health insurance, an executive coach service to help team members develop better management strategies in a demanding business, and training sessions on Emotional Intelligence “which helps team members learn how to navigate the stress on the job and manage emotions under pressure,” said Lisa Murray, Director of Learning and Development.

The company encourages employees “to use their paid time off days when they need a mental break and, in most recent years, increased the total number of paid time off days per year,” Murray said.

Wohlsen also changed its EAP provider “to add new features, like an app, so team members can get texting support and a 24/7 hotline for any mental health crisis,” she said.

In addition to providing a supportive environment and an array of mental health services, companies need to coach employees on how to “take personal ownership of your own mental health,” said Matt Verderamo, Group Director at Well Built Construction Consulting. “It starts with helping people recognize that they have a say in how they function and they have an opportunity to prioritize their own mental health.”

Embracing that mindset can be very challenging in a high-pressure, deadline-driven, construction environment. But Verderamo insists it is possible and essential to the health of the individual and the company.

“Our brains are really good at finding evidence to support the things we believe,” he said. “So, if we believe there is no opportunity in the day to take a mental health break – to take a 15-minute walk and not look at our e-mail – then we will make sure that’s true. But if we believe that we have the opportunity to take care of ourselves every day, it’s amazing how you’ll find the moments to tend to your own wellness.”

In fact, Verderamo advises construction companies and workers that they can achieve bigger wellness benefits by “working those small moments into your day rather than trying to overhaul your work life.”

Project Profile: Perkins Square

Redeveloping an entire neighborhood was bound to be an exceptionally complex undertaking.

For companies involved in the Perkins Square project those complexities have included demolishing the 12-block site of the 1940s Perkins Homes development and executing a masterplan that includes 1,346 affordable apartments and townhomes, 500 market-rate residential units, small-scale retail, a large public park and a new public school.

The plan also requires builders to deliver a high-quality product: apartment buildings and townhouse clusters that each have distinctive designs and attractive streets with heightened visibility so that Perkins Square could blend well with the adjacent neighborhood of Harbor East.

Harkins Builders embraced those challenges for two portions of the multi-phased projects.

For Phase 2, Harkins constructed four blocks of townhouses containing a total of 28 homes; a four-story, slab-on-grade apartment building containing 61 units; and another 67-unit, podium-style apartment building that includes parking beneath the building and in a covered garage. All the residential units were affordable housing, tailored to several different income levels.

The apartments and townhomes included “a lot of brick façade, solid-surface countertops and some nice finishes that are more reminiscent of market-rate homes than what you might expect in affordable housing,” said Greg Pearson, who served as Senior Project Manager for Harkins on the Perkins project.

The buildings were also highly efficient and Energy Star rated.

For the Developers Agreement work (i.e. the city infrastructure improvements that developers agreed to make in the course of the project), Harkins completed some site prep and utility work, and installed curb and gutter, bus lanes, tree planters and pavers along two streets.

For Harkins which has a long history in building high-quality affordable housing, meeting the design and quality requirements of the project was not a challenge, Mark Kelehan, Vice President in charge of affordable housing projects.

The complexity of the Perkins Square project, however, did present some challenges. Complex phasing meant Harkins had to frequently coordinate work with project teams from other phases to avoid any obstacles to everyone’s progress and to ensure that different phases of buildings which butt up against each other in some cases, were perfectly aligned.

The developments’ large stakeholder group – which includes the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, the City of Baltimore, Beatty Development and Missouri-based McCormack Barron Salzaar – also made coordination with stakeholders more complicated and required contractors to master new processes of billing work.

But Kelehan, who has worked construction projects for Harkins for 37 years, said the result is proving to be remarkable.

“There was a lot of thought and detail put into the plan for this property,” he said. “It has been a tough section of town, called the donut hole, that’s surrounded by major things, like Johns Hopkins, Little Italy and Harbor East. So, they really wanted to make sure this development would stand out and stand the test of time.”

BC&E welcomes three new members

Cap Ex Advisory Group provides comprehensive support to owners of capital projects, ranging in size, type, and complexity. It supplies project leadership, financial guidance and strategic thinking. www.capexadvisory.com

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Carpet Fair Inc. dba Next Day Floors delivers flooring solutions to a multitude to private sector and government clients throughout Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
www.carpetfairflooring.com

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Fidelity Mechanical Services provides HVAC/mechanical design, installation and service in the Mid-Atlantic region. Fidelity Mechanical serves some of the nation’s leading developers, property managers, mission-critical facilities and Fortune 500 companies.
www.fidelitymechanicalservices.com

Rec center projects deliver broader amenities, more beautiful buildings

Gone are the days when a community recreation center was a basic building, a gym and a ballfield.

Today’s rec center projects involve a mix of high-quality athletic facilities with space for creative activities, high-tech activities, public meetings, performances, food preparation and support services. They feature artful facades, welcoming interiors, high-performance systems and custom designs. Yet they are still delivered with limited budgets, broad stakeholder groups and often on distressed sites.

They are projects that require a high level of ingenuity but deliver big benefits to the communities they serve.

Last fall, AIA Maryland named the Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center as the 2024 Public Building of the Year while AIA Baltimore named the center as winner of its Social Equity Award. The project team included BC&E members Alliance Exterior Construction, GWWO Architects, Hatzel & Buehler, Ironshore Contracting, MK Consulting Engineers and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.

Located on a former brownfield site, the center was designed to serve the distinct needs of the Cherry Hill neighborhood. The light-filled building includes a gymnasium, natatorium, indoor splash pad, fitness area, multipurpose studio, maker space, classroom and rooms for support services. Outside, the grounds include a turf field for football, lacrosse and soccer as well as an event lawn and a connection to the 15-mile Gwynns Falls Trail.

To maximize the center’s facilities and usefulness, GWWO Architects designed the building to minimize non-program space and support multiple and changing uses in different areas.

For Middle Branch and a previous project (Cahill Fitness and Wellness Center in Baltimore), “we basically worked to eliminate circulation space,” said John Gregg, Principal at GWWO. “There aren’t corridors. The workout facilities are incorporated into the lobby and into the circulation. The multi-purpose spaces are made as multi-use and flexible as possible.”

The Cahill project team included BC&E members Cole Roofing, GWWO Architects and MK Consulting Engineers.

However, the success of those projects “is really not only about the design,” Gregg said. “It’s about engaging the community.”

Extensive community sessions educated the project team about residents’ distinct needs and desires for a recreation center. They also convinced some understandably skeptical residents of underserved communities that their voices would be heard and acted on.

Ultimately, that produced changes and unique additions to the designs. At Cahill, designers added a large auditorium/performance space.

At Middle Branch, “a bright red, indoor walking track became an integral part of the design,” Gregg said. “It’s something that facility has that other recreation centers in the city don’t. But residents said they needed a walking track and they wanted it to be indoors. We were able to address that community need without a significant increase in cost.”

Other recreation center projects present different needs and desires.

In West Baltimore, a proposal to renovate the aging and underutilized Hilton Recreation Center mushroomed into a major, multi-sponsor redevelopment plan.

It started nearly six years ago when former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith and his wife, Chanel, began looking for a site to provide youth programming through their LEVEL82 organization. Since then, the initiative has attracted support from city and state governments as well as a roster of local philanthropists.

Based on the nature and needs of the community, the plan expanded into a major renovation that will create a multi-purpose athletic field (which will also serve the adjacent Green Street Academy), a teen lounge, gymnasium, art room, technology room, tutoring spaces, indoor-outdoor community gathering spaces, and a kitchen that will intersect with Green Street Academy’s urban agriculture program and support food insecurity efforts in the area.

When the project team finishes construction later this year, the new facility will be known as the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club at Hilton Recreation Center. That team includes The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, MK Consulting Engineers, Ariosa & Company, Windsor Electric and Design Collective.

“A unique feature of this recreation center is it will not only serve the community, but also support the adjacent high school,” said Scott Vieth, Principal at Design Collective.

And despite the major involvement of the Ravens, “it can’t be all about sports,” said Matt Herbert, Principal at Design Collective. “It has to support the kids and the community in many other activities.”

Consequently, the design went through many iterations to meet that broad range of activities and to ensure the space can adapt to changing uses in future, Herbert said.

Built-in technology and tech spaces, for example, are designed to support the TikTok generation and adapt to whatever comes next.

“There are rooms that are specially treated for sound and lighting for content generation for social media,” Herbert said. “People from the Boys & Girls Club and Green Street Academy recognized that this is another way for kids to find what they want to do and there are entrepreneurial aspects to it, and you can’t be closed minded about those activities.”

In the midst of the litany of program requirements, current recreation center projects are also delivering superb aesthetics.

The new Hilton center will include “a lot of color and branding and really cool graphics,” Vieth said. “But it is probably the gymnasium that is going to wow people the most. They are going to walk into this brand new, giant gymnasium that is flooded with daylight. There are windows up high but there are also big, lower windows that look out onto the field.”

In East Baltimore, a project team that includes BC&E members CAM Construction, Coastal Exteriors, GWWO Architects and MK Consulting Engineers is currently working on the renovation and expansion of the Chick Webb Memorial Recreation Center. Dedicated to legendary jazz drummer and bandleader, William Henry “Chick” Webb, the original 1947 facility was the first rec center and pool built for African Americans in the city.

The two-story addition plus renovated space will create a modern gymnasium, natatorium, fitness/wellness spaces, a makerspace, teen lounge, walking/running track, historical displays about Webb’s career and a “Founder’s Recording Studio.” It will also add a gorgeous building to the neighborhood.

To honor both the history of the building and Webb’s legacy, the new façade will feature modern limestone panels and fenestration that reflect the style of the original, mid-century building. The design of the entryway will evoke both the pattern of a musical scale and the palette of Webb’s colorful drum kits.

At Middle Branch, design decisions created beauty inside and out. The elevated, indoor, walking track was aligned with the building’s glazing to provide walkers with broad views of the neighborhood and the waterfront beyond.

Outside, the façade featured “a checkerboard pattern of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) in shades of gray and beige that are bordered with red ACM panels to accentuate different architectural features,” said Skutch Montgomery, Director of Sales and Estimating at Alliance Exterior Construction.

Alliance, he added, has seen the rise in aesthetic standards for recreation centers.

“About 25 years ago, we built the original Essex Community College pool and we’re still really proud of that original project,” Montgomery said.

But a few years ago, Alliance Exterior Construction was part of the project team that transformed the building into the CCBC Wellness Center. That renovation and addition included UHPC rainscreen panels on the exterior.

“For the original Essex Community College Pool, we did a custom tapered seam with TPO roofing membrane to make it look like a standing seam roof and that was the extent of any flashiness,” he said. “For the new addition, we installed an angular roof and a canopy that juts out from the building and creates a very welcoming entry. And we installed a textured UHPC skin on the building that blends into the original brick. It’s gorgeous.”

Amid the drive to deliver more amenities and better aesthetics on limited budgets and pressing timelines, some recreation center projects are also embracing less than conventional building processes and materials, Plano-Coudon Construction is preparing to break ground in February on a 14,000-square-foot addition to the Bocek Recreation Center in Baltimore. The $11.1 million project will create a new indoor fitness area and gymnasium, add an outdoor basketball court and fitness area, and outfit the building with sustainable features, including rooftop solar.

“One of the most impressive aspects of this project is the design, fabrication and installation of the pre-engineered metal building (PEMB),” said Darryl Richardson, Project Executive with Plano Coudon. “PEMBs allow for a faster ground-up installation compared to traditional steel structures, making them an efficient solution for recreation center development.”