SCHOOLS REMODELING DURING TECHNOLOGY BUILDING SLUMP
January 2nd, 2003

SAN JOSE -- At a time when R&D buildings sit empty and few developers are planning new offices, spending on education is playing an important role in Silicon Valley construction. Nearly every public school district in Santa Clara County has undertaken a capital improvement program, and many private schools have also initiated extensive expansion or remodeling.

Toeniskoetter & Breeding, Inc. (TBI) Construction, for example, has reached the halfway mark on an academically ambitious program to equip every school in the Santa Clara Unified School District with modern technology and bring every structure to contemporary standards.

TBI Construction has also been building a Technology and Media Center at St. Francis High School in Mountain View and an Events Center and Mathematics and Science Center at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, and it is now building a Performing Arts Center at Archbishop Mitty. The company is also building the new Horace Mann elementary school in downtown San Jose, and it has started work nearby on a new Empire Gardens elementary school.

The Santa Clara project alone has involved up to 250 people in almost every construction trade working in a decentralized workforce equal in size to that employed on a high-rise office building. These school projects, like numerous other non-technology building projects, are helping maintain the construction business despite the slump in Silicon Valley.

Every School Improved
“We’ve done work of some kind on every campus, and in many cases reconstructed buildings,” observed Larry Adams, director of school bond projects for the Santa Clara District. “In the elementary schools, we’ve replaced electrical systems, heating and air-conditioning, all communications, alarms, phone systems, roofs, wall finishes and floor coverings, and added seismic strengthening. In the schools that we have completed to date, most of which are more than 40 years old, there’s not much that we haven’t replaced or renovated.”
TBI Project Manager C.R. Hodgson provides some of the statistics from the elementary school work:

• 37,000 feet of trenches
• 1.2 million feet of conduit
• Handicapped accessibility upgrades in 70 restrooms
• 190 classrooms remodeled

At St. Francis High School, TBI Construction built a two-story, 17,000-square-foot Technology and Media Center that includes 14 classrooms and five computer laboratories. TBI Construction also has completed the first phase of an aggressive building program to upgrade student facilities at Archbishop Mitty High School. The company has completed a two-story multiuse Events Center and has started renovation of an existing cafeteria and construction of both a Performing Arts Center with a theater and a faculty office building with a Tutorial Center.

Multiple Prime Construction Management
TBI Construction is also managing construction of the new Horace Mann Elementary School for the San Jose Unified School District under a program for public agencies called “Multiple Prime.” In this position, TBI takes an active role at the time a design team is selected, and it works with the school district, its architect and the state architect to produce reliable budgets and schedules, a practical design and exceptionally clear plans and bid packages. Contractors work directly for the public agency rather than for the construction manager or a general contractor.

The Santa Clara projects are spanning several years. In the summer of 1999, underground utilities were replaced at eight elementary schools, Briarwood, Bracher, Bowers, Haman, Mayne, Millikin, Pomeroy and Westwood. In the summer of 2000, each of these school buildings was renovated during what is probably the most intense period of commercial construction in the history of the Santa Clara Valley. Electrical workers had to be brought in from around the country, Canada and Mexico. More than $25 million in construction work was completed in 10 weeks, at a time when other school district had to pass on getting any work done at all.

In the summer of 2001, underground utilities were replaced at Scott Lane and Washington Open elementary schools, and construction began early this year on new classroom wings at each school. In the summer of 2002, underground utilities were replaced at Sutter, and offices and multipurpose rooms were completely modernized at Briarwood, Millikin, Westwood, Haman, Bowers, Pomeroy, Mayne and Bracher. At Scott Lane elementary school, TBI was able to modernize classroom wings over an eight-week period during the school year while classes continued in other parts of the school.

Underground improvements for 2003 are to begin at Montague, Ponderosa, Laurelwood and Hughes schools. At Sutter elementary, classrooms and multipurpose rooms and office rooms are also to be modernized.

Even before the completion of the last elementary schools, work will be under way for renovation of the district’s three middle schools, Buchser, Cabrillo and Peterson, and work will follow at Wilcox and Santa Clara High Schools.

Schools Kept Open
“Keeping the school program on schedule during this period was a monumental achievement,” said Chuck Toeniskoetter, CEO of TBI Construction. “We could not have done it without the Multiple Prime program that we have developed over the last decade. We have used this program at more than 40 public projects, and all of them have been on budget and on schedule.”

In 1997, Santa Clara voters approved a $145 million school bond measure, but the district soon ran into a construction inflation rate of 10% to 40%, depending upon the building trade. Remarkably, the program is still on track, due to built-in contingencies, scheduling efficiencies that offset higher wages, and now a slowdown in construction that is moderating costs.

Landmark Renovations
Developed by TBI, the Multiple Prime Construction Management program was previously used in remodeling historical Hoover Middle School in San Jose, the James Boccardo Business Education Center at San Jose State University and the old Santa Clara County Courthouse in San Jose.

In addition to the current school projects, TBI Construction has recently completed projects at St. Albert the Great School in Palo Alto, St. Martin’s School in Sunnyvale and St. Simon’s School in Los Altos.

About TBI
Founded in 1983, San Jose-based Toeniskoetter & Breeding, Inc. Construction has completed more than $700 million in projects throughout the Bay Area. In addition to Multiple Prime Construction Management for public agencies, the company specializes in high-quality interior improvements and corporate headquarters, historical restoration and renovation, religious institutions, and new buildings for TBI's own portfolio and for others.