Sundt Blog

We’ve begun chronicling Sundt’s 122 years of history in our new book, “The Remarkable History of Sundt Construction.” It traces the company’s earliest days as a sole proprietorship to its current position as one of the county’s largest and most respected general contractors. Along the way, Sundt overcame numerous challenges, built landmark projects, diversified into new markets, and became entirely employee-owned. 

One of the interesting details revealed in Chapter One is the fact that Sundt’s founder, Mauritz Martinsen (M.M.) Sundt, left has native Norway around 1877 at the age of 12 or 13 to join the Norwegian Merchant Marine. He apparently sailed first as a cabin boy, but he was ambitious and within a short time was appointed ship’s carpenter when the ship’s regular carpenter died. Read more here…

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John Stewart

Sundt Construction, Inc. is pleased to announce John Stewart as a preconstruction project manager at the Tempe office. With more than three decades of industry experience, John will assist in the preconstruction efforts throughout the Southwest. (Learn more here.) Since Sundt believes that our people are the core of what we do, we wanted to get to know our latest addition. We recently spent a little time talking with John, and this is what we learned.

 When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?  An astronaut!

What’s your favorite book?  “Lone Survivor”

 Who has inspired you most?  My father

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?  Listen to and learn from your elders because they have forgotten more that you know.

What is your proudest professional achievement to date?  Being named a fellow in The American Society of Professional Estimators was an incredible honor.

 What motivates you?  A good challenge; I love working hard to achieve lofty goals.

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Nearly 6,000 copper panels adorn the new Health Sciences Education Buildling at Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

A quarter million pounds of copper twinkling in the sunlight have made the new Health Sciences Education Building at Phoenix Biomedical Campus a major landmark in the Phoenix valley. The $99 million healthcare construction project, being built by DPR • Sundt, a Joint Venture, features multiple exterior finishes including approximately 250,000 pounds of copper – all of it recycled – that was turned into copper metal panels.

And it didn’t cost a mint, thanks to careful planning by the project team. They purchased the copper early in the schedule (before most other materials), when prices dipped to $3.30 per pound – saving the owner approximately $340,000.

Copper ingots used to make HSEB's exterior panels

Here are a few more fun facts about the copper used on the education and research facility’s exterior:

•         All copper was milled from raw, 15,000-pound ingots into 16-ounce, 20-ounce and 32-ounce gauged coils, weighing approximately 6,000 pounds apiece.

•         All copper is ¾ hard in tensile strength – typical of architectural copper sheet.

•         Total number of individual copper panels: 5,972

•         Total number of vertical fins: 116

•         Sunshades: 1,225 lineal feet

•         Total number of copper parts, including flashings, accessories, etc. – over 10,000

•         Number of repetitive “crinkled” panels: 26

•         Total number of “crinkled” panel types: 344

•         Number of separate machines required to process the copper coil into finished product:  8

•         All copper panel systems fabricated from start to finish in Chandler, Ariz.

The 268,000-square-foot Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB), part of the 28-acre Phoenix Biomedical Campus, will be used by the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, as well as by Northern Arizona University’s College of Health and Human Services programs.

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Artist's rendering of Socorro Independent School District K-8 Combo School Number 5, which will be complete in the summer of 2013

A $35 million elementary/middle school construction project in El Paso is Sundt’s latest endeavor in Texas, an area in which we have established a strong presence over the past few years. The Socorro Independent School District K-8 Combo School Number 5 will accommodate 2,200 students on a 36-acre campus when it is complete in the summer of 2013. It is aiming for LEED Gold certification.

The project includes:

• A 237,000-square-foot classroom and administration building constructed of tilt-up concrete walls with a structural steel roof.
• A football field with a full running track, plus fields for baseball and softball, and approximately eight basketball courts and a dozen tennis courts.
• Library, auditorium, offices, classrooms equipped with Wi-Fi and smart boards, a full commercial kitchen and state-of-the-art science labs.
• A high-efficiency HVAC system.
• Gymnasium floors made of “ply-boo,” a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional wood flooring.
• Several rainwater retention basins and a 10,000-gallon water harvesting tank – to keep most storm water from leaving the site.

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More than half of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center infrastructure project is being performed by Sundt's own crews.

When Sundt Project Manager Greg Clark said his crew will excavate a million yards of soil at a jobsite at Fort Bliss Army Post in El Paso, Texas, some people thought he was kidding. A million yards is a LOT of material, even for a major heavy civil project like this one, in which Sundt is performing all of the infrastructure and site development for the future William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

But then Greg corrected himself – it’s actually 1.3 million yards of excavated material – and it became clear that he was serious. The massive excavation effort will allow the team to safely install a new sewer line up to 48 feet deep, beneath a large layer of sandy soil.

“The top 15 feet of the site is good quality soil, but below that it’s really sandy – just like beach sand,” Greg said. “That’s a problem when you’re trying to dig down deep because the sand runs at a two-to-one slope. It constantly runs as you dig; you can’t put a trench box in it. For various reasons, the client didn’t want to install a lift station (a value engineering idea that would have reduced the excavation depth significantly), so the only safe solution is to open up the whole area with scrapers. We will end up digging out and replacing 1.3 million yards of material to build a trench for an 18-inch sewer line.”

Sundt’s ability to dig through problems and focus on solutions is just one reason our clients choose us.

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Wayne Einbinder at the ACE conference

How do you measure the success of a project? One of the most obvious, and important ways is to compare the final cost with the original budget. Most owners would agree; projects that finish under budget – without compromising quality – are the very definition of success. The key to that success is almost always a collaborative approach – like Integrated Project Delivery (IDP) – in which every member of the project team is able to contribute his or her talent and experience toward the common goal of best value.

Sundt’s recently completed research facility project at Arizona State University (ASU) is a great case in point, as Wayne Einbinder, Sundt’s Director of Special Projects, explained yesterday in a presentation to ASU’s Alliance for Construction Excellence (ACE).

ASU’s Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (ISTB 4) is a state-of-the-art facility equipped with sophisticated systems to support cutting edge research and education. By all standards, it is one of the university’s and Sundt’s most successful projects for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the team was able to shave millions off of the project budget without reducing quality – an achievement that was directly attributable to the Integrated Project Delivery process.

“A program was developed by ASU independent of budget; it was estimated at $160 million and 310,000 gross square feet,” Wayne explained. “The project budget was later established at $134 million at 284,000 gross square feet, which was disappointing to the users who wanted their original scope. Through the IPD approach, the team was able to add back almost all of the scope in both building area and systems, and yet still meet the mandated budget. Then the economy fell off the cliff in 2008, and the client put the project on hold. A year later, we were able to utilize the same team, with the owner receiving an additional 20 percent off the original proposal, proving that design-bid-build is not necessary to receive the savings that result from market correction.”

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The recently completed Warrior in Transition project at Fort Polk

When U.S. Army soldiers return home wounded from combat overseas, they often need specialized services to help them heal and return to military or civilian life. They may stay for days, weeks or even months in specialized Warrior in Transition (WT) complexes that are specially designed to treat their unique medical, psychological and social needs.

With five WT projects either complete or under construction, Sundt has become a recognized expert in this unique kind of federal construction project. Our most recently completed WT facility is at Fort Polk, near Leesville, La. The $17.2 million project included site work and the construction of a 67,000-square-foot barracks building to house 112 soldiers in apartment-style units.  

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Ted Aadland

Sundt Construction, Inc. is pleased to announce Ted Aadland as an area manager in the Northwest. Based out of Portland, Ted will help grow the company while overseeing existing projects and procuring new work in Oregon, Washington and the surrounding region. (Learn more here). Since Sundt believes that our people are the core of what we do, we wanted to get to know our latest addition. We recently spent a little time talking with Ted, and this is what we learned.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

It changed many times over the years. My dad made me clean up his construction projects on weekends, so the last thing I wanted to do was go into construction. I remember that I had a yearning to go to sea – I wanted to be a captain of a ship someday. But alas, I went to work for my father in the construction business after high school and soon realized it was what I was meant to do.

What is your favorite book?

Either “The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cooking” or “The Devil in the White City.”

When you are not at work, how do you spend your time?

With my family! I was blessed to marry the love of my life – she wears many hats: wife, mother, lover, nurse, business partner, cook, and best friend. We have two daughters and two grandsons. We ski, both snow and water, and we love to travel together.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

I have received great advice from a number of very smart people about life, family and religion. The best advice I have received about the construction business was that we are in the people business, and managing and motivating people is our primary job. We then use their talents to build.

What is your proudest professional achievement to date?

Serving as the national president of the Associated General Contractors of America was a great honor and a privilege.

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Sundt employees worked alongside other volunteers to help build townhomes for Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona.

Through a volunteer event supported by the Sundt Foundation, several Sundt employees recently donated their time and building expertise to Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona (HFHCAZ), a nonprofit organization that helps low-income families fulfill the dream of home ownership. The volunteers painted, installed shelving and trim, and performed a variety of other tasks to help complete five, two-story townhomes in Surprise, Ariz.

Each Habitat family invests at least 400 hours of “sweat equity” in the construction of its new home and the homes of others. Sundt believes that helping others is one of the most important things we can do, as a company, to fulfill our commitment of giving back to the communities where we live and work.

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The newly expanded Cal Poly Recreation Center is used by more than 5,000 people per day.

There’s no excuse for being a couch potato at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, now that Sundt has completed a $51 million project that updated and expanded its student recreation center. Students and university employees now have a number of new fitness features to enjoy, including six racquet ball courts, two basketball courts, a multipurpose athletic court, 19,000-square-foot leisure pool, 1/8-mile indoor track, three sand volleyball courts, lobby and workout rooms.

They can also feel good about the rec center’s sustainable features. The project is pending LEED Silver certification thanks in large part to an innovative HVAC system that makes use of both evaporative cooling and chilled/heated water to regulate indoor air temperatures. The system will save a considerable amount of energy over the lifetime of the building.

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