Lecor Construction

Living┬álarge┬áField construction manager Phil Gardner tells Gary Toushek some of the challenges Ledcor Construction faced in building VancouverÔÇÖs tallest tower, with its five-star luxury hotel and high-priced condos, during a major construction boom. Phil Gardner is Ledcor ConstructionÔÇÖs field construction manager for the Living Shangri-La project, a 62-story tower with a five-star hotel up to 15 stories and 47 floors of the most expensive condos in the city (the penthouses are each in the $10ÔÇô15 million range) during one of the most explosive construction booms Vancouver has ever experienced. As he coordinated with consultants and the various trades to get it built, he now candidly admits it tested his wits as well as his skills. ÔÇ£Building the tallest tower in Vancouver certainly presented some unique challenges weÔÇÖve never experienced before. Once we hit the higher elevations, we were subjected to a number of windstorms,ÔÇØ Gardner recalls. ÔÇ£If it got too windy at times, we had to tie down anything that was loose and move our people down to a lower floor until the conditions improved and we could get back to work.ÔÇØ But going back to the beginning, in March 2005, Gardner says, ÔÇ£The timeline we were working under was tight. We began excavating even though the design drawings werenÔÇÖt complete. The final hotel design wasnÔÇÖt completed until late 2007, so the design was running parallel to the budget, which required us to be very budget-conscious when it came to buying materials. The design process was ongoing while we were constructing. This meant that if we found a discrepancy in the drawings, we had to ask the consultants to revise the drawings or issue site instructions to clarify certain aspects. ÔÇ£The consultants themselves were busy on a number of projects simultaneously,ÔÇØ he continues, ÔÇ£because there was so much construction going on in the city at the time that everyone was stretched to their limits and beyond. We had to contend with a diluted workforceÔÇönot quite enough consultants or trades people to go aroundÔÇöand trying to get enough building materials exactly when we needed them. The major challenge of this project was constantly pushing people in order to get the job done.ÔÇØLocated in one of the busiest intersections of downtown Vancouver, the construction site was excavated tight against the property lines as were certain parts of the tower itself. Coordinating material deliveries and material supply to all the various trade contractors on site was extremely challenging, but it was the most important aspect of the project, Gardner says, and it had to be finely orchestrated. ÔÇ£We ran five-day cycles on everything, so it was a hectic pace with about 500 people on site at any given time. We even built our own temporary lunchroom facilities on the 30th floor to save on the movement of people at breaks and meal times.ÔÇØ During the past 20 years, LedcorÔÇÖs Building division has been extremely active working with developers in constructing some of downtown VancouverÔÇÖs most prominent projects, which have now changed the skyline forever. LedcorÔÇÖs founding principles, dating back to its inception in 1947, have been cemented by working on demanding projects, resulting in the company being comfortable with complex and challenging work including projects that forge new territory, such as building some of the tallest and most elaborate projects across Canada or working in the most remote locations. The more challenging the project, the more creative the company gets. Ledcor is also possibly one of the most diversified construction companies in North America, with many different facets to its business, from building roads, bridges, highways and pipelines, to large open-pit mines, new petrochemical plants, pulp/paper mills to large tar sands projects in Fort McMurray. It also has a communications division that provides service to major telecommunications companies such as Telus and Bell. This diversification strategy has helped the company both evolve and withstand many of the economic downturns over the past 60 years.In the early 1980s the founderÔÇÖs sons, David and Cliff Lede, stepped in to run the company as chairman/CEO and vice chairman, respectively. Their strategy has always been to hire the industryÔÇÖs very best and brightest people in each of the market sectors it serves. Today Ledcor is geographically located across North America with over 14 offices, including Hawaii. It is an employee-owned company that is extremely proud of its track record. Its corporate head offices are located in Vancouver, and in the US they are in San Diego.One of the major owners of Living Shangri-La is Ian Gillespie, CEO of Vancouver-based developer Westbank Projects Corp., who has recently announced another Shangri-La luxury hotel and condo building in downtown Toronto. That $430 million, 65-story tower will have 279 condos and 220 hotel rooms, and the residential pricing promises to set record-high levels for Toronto. The Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts brand, a public company with its roots and more than 50 properties throughout Asia, is controlled by its major shareholder, Hong Kong-based billionaire Robert Kuok (the 114th-richest man in the world on some lists) and is legendary for its ÔÇ£royalÔÇØ treatment of guests. In the 1990s, Kuok sold his residential and commercial property projects in the greater Vancouver area to Gillespie, and Shangri-La hotels have now partnered with Ben YeungÔÇÖs Vancouver-based Peterson Investment Group to bring the Shangri-La brand to Vancouver. Yeung had owned the strategically located site since 1994 and previously turned down several development proposalsÔÇöand Kuok had been waiting for the right opportunity to expand the upscale Shangri-La experience to North America and Europe.From an environmental standpoint, the Shangri-La has some interesting components built into it that make it a very sustainable project. The mechanical system is supplemented by a geothermal heating system, drilled into the earth during the excavation stage, along with numerous products designed to meet sustainability standards within the industry. Materials were chosen for their high recycled content, low VOC emissions and local availability. An IAQ management plan was implemented for construction and pre-occupancy phases of the project to sustain the comfort of the construction workers and building occupants. The building will also host one of the first public sculpture gardens in Vancouver. ÔÇô Editorial research by Greg Petzold┬á