CCIP vs. OCIP: Which Comprehensive Insurance Program is Right for You?
by Bill Sharp, Vice President, Risk Management
With the size and scope of projects becoming larger every day, program sponsors (owners and contractors) are seeking alternative ways to address insurance needs, both from a coverage standpoint and a cost standpoint.

When the Hospital Board Says, “Build it Green!”
by John Kreidich AIA, LEED AP, Manager, Healthcare Services
Building green in the healthcare environment is here to stay. Well-chosen green building investments will yield benefits with either no additional cost or with a return on investment well within a hospital’s internal rate of return over the life of the improvements.

5 Questions to Ask Your Contractor About SAFETY
An Interview with Gary Amsinger, CSP, Corporate Vice President, Safety
In addition to simply keeping workers healthy and productive, strong safety execution reduces exposure for owners. Amsinger suggests that owners should ask, at the very least, these basic five questions of their prospective contractor.

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McCarthy’s focus on partnering with organizations that benefit children made the decision to partner with Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities an easy one.   The two organizations worked to identify an opportunity that leveraged McCarthy’s building strengths to provide a special place for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House®.  The team decided on an outdoor pavilion that would provide families a place of relaxation as well as a space to hold barbeques and social gatherings.  The McCarthy team worked expeditiously, donating their time and materials to construct the new pavilion in just six days.

“We are truly grateful to the McCarthy team for donating their time, materials and expertise to creating a place that helps to makes a family’s time at the Ronald McDonald House the most comfortable experience possible,” said Linda M. Morris, Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities President and CEO.  “The kind people of McCarthy prove that the generous spirit of the Atlanta business community is alive and well.”

“Our team of people takes great pride in what we do as a construction company, and that pride grows exponentially when we’re able to come together and give something back to our community,” said Kevin Kuntz, McCarthy Southeast Division president.  “McCarthy’s involvement in philanthropies and partnerships gives us the opportunity to create change through personal involvement.”

McCarthy is in the midst of a number of benefit events, including their recent involvement in The Georgia Multiple Sclerosis 150 cross country bike ride. The McCarthy riding team, dubbed the “Hammerheads”, participates annually in the ride in honor of an employee stricken with MS. The team’s dedication to health related philanthropies also extends to their upcoming involvement in The Atlanta Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk at Centennial Olympic Park.  The three-mile walk reflects McCarthy’s commitment to helping children and raising funds for research. The team also looks forward to participating again in Community Day at Hillside Medical Center later this month, volunteering their time to help unload and sell pumpkins at the Center’s annual pumpkin patch event.
McCarthy’s “Heart Hats” community involvement program is led by employees who donate their skills and time to over 36 national and local organizations.

About Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities
Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of children by providing temporary housing and support services to families of critically ill and injured children being treated at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Scottish Rite and Egleston. ARMHC has served more than 35,000 families in its 30-year history.

Atlanta’s first Ronald McDonald House, the fourth in the world, located at 792 Houston Mill Road featured 16 bedrooms and hosted more than 24,000 families since opening in 1979. This facility closed May 1, 2008 as the new 50-bedroom Gatewood Ronald McDonald House opened on June 9, 2008 less than a mile away.  In June of 1994, the second house opened at 5420 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, which includes 11 bedrooms and has hosted more than 8,000 families.

At the Ronald McDonald House, families can enjoy many of the comforts of home, receive nutritious meals prepared and served by volunteers and obtain emotional support through contact with other families experiencing similar situations.  No family is turned away if they cannot afford the small $20 requested contribution and many of these families stay at the Ronald McDonald House for weeks, and sometimes months, while their children receive treatment at local children’s hospitals. For more information visit www.armh.com.

About McCarthy Heart Hats
Founded in 1864, McCarthy is one of the oldest privately held construction firms in the nation.  The McCarthy Heart Hats community outreach program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play.  A 100 percent employee-owned company, McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction. The company has offices in Atlanta, St. Louis, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Newport Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento.  More information is available on line at www.mccarthy.com.

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has introduced its new ‘green’ client newsletter, Insights That Build^SM.  It’s all part of the company’s goal of Leaving Green Footprints^®, a 10-year old program aimed at reducing McCarthy’s carbon footprint.  The first electronic edition includes valuable thought-leading content including:

How to get the best final cost on your next project
by Mike Bolen, Chairman and CEO
‘Conventional wisdom’ says that owners can’t have it all. In fact-by taking the right approach-you can turn an old saying into a smarter strategy: ‘Good, fast and cheap: pick all three.’

Design management – why owners get a better result
by Jim Mynott, Director of Design Management
In this economic climate, execution time from proposal to start of construction can be a deciding factor for project funding. A design management approach can help—and it maximizes other owner advantages.

Five things you should ask your contractor about quality
by Chad Dorgan, Vice President, Quality
There are few words in construction that are more used – or more misused – than the word “quality.”  To understand what it means to YOUR construction project, you and your contractor need to talk.

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Readers can also view region-specific content by selecting from the drop down menu titled ‘Other Regional Editions’.  These include Southern California, Northern Pacific, Southwest, Nevada/Utah, Texas, Central, and Southeast editions.

Kevin Kuntz, Southeast Division President, accepts 'thank you' artwork from Hillside Hospital

In 2008, the Southeast Division team members volunteered their time on an Art Therapy Room Makeover at Hillside Hospital. Hillside is a residential psychiatric treatment center for children in the City of Atlanta.  In one week’s time, McCarthy employees, along with help from some of their generous local subcontractors, transformed a dark, congested space into a bright, open studio.

About McCarthy Heart Hats
The McCarthy “Heart Hats” community involvement program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play.  McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction.  In addition to recognizing outstanding employee volunteers and providing a company-wide paid volunteer day, McCarthy “Heart Hats” donates countless hours of in-kind services and monetary contributions to improve communities each year.

Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Topping out of the 10-story, 350,000 square foot research facility comes following one-year of construction.  The project is on target for completion in April of 2010.

The facility, named for benefactor Parker H. Petit, will house teaching and research facilities for nearly 6,000 students pursuing various science and nursing degrees.  It will include state-of-the-art dry and wet laboratories, BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs and a BSL-4 suite.  The lab is part of the new University Science Park, located on a three-acre site at Piedmont Avenue and Decatur Street in downtown Atlanta.

“It’s both exciting and gratifying to reach this point in a major construction project,” said Kevin W. Kuntz, McCarthy southeast division president.  “McCarthy’s expertise in complex research facilities has been critical to keeping construction of the Petit Science Center on target.  At the same time, it is hugely rewarding to construct a facility that will significantly impact the learning experience for thousands of students in the years to come, and contribute to Atlanta’s downtown revitalization.”

“McCarthy was able to help overcome some surprises that had real potential to take our project off schedule,” said Robin Morris, GSU’s vice president for research & regents.  “After finding some existing subterranean structures and unsuitable soil beneath what would become the building’s footprint, the team was able to undercut the area and insert new material.  Solid experience helped guide the solution and keep the facility on schedule.”

CUH2A is the architect for the project.

About McCarthy
Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately held construction firms.  The company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for healthcare, education, parking, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; and bridges and highways.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

“A lot of companies promise you the moon when they are trying to get your job…all I can say is the moon is shining bright over our new Science Center…McCarthy has delivered!”

- Robin Morris, Ph.D., vice president for research and Regents, Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University

In its quest to become one of the nation’s premier urban research universities, Georgia State is building a new University Science Center on its campus in downtown Atlanta.

Named for benefactor Parker H. Petit, this 350,000-square-foot landmark facility will augment laboratory and classroom space with state-of-the-art dry and wet laboratories, BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs and a BSL-4 suite, accommodating the expanding and changing curriculum of this urban campus. For McCarthy and its subcontractors, the project began with a schedule-threatening surprise. During site work, existing subterranean structures and unsuitable soil were discovered beneath most of the building footprint. The team undercut the entire area and replaced the soil with new material enabling foundations and underground utilities to be installed without impacting the schedule. The project has just topped out and is scheduled to complete in April 2010.  Architect: CUH2A, Inc., Atlanta.

Our partners in the Southeast recently took part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)  Fundraising Drive in Atlanta. The walk this year took place at Centennial Olympic Park.

Reports from Atlanta say it was a little chilly when our Dudes and Dudettes showed up to register, but by the time they took off on the three-mile walk the sun was shining and “Grant’s Gang” was walking stride for stride with 8,000 others trying to find a cure for Diabetes.

“Grant’s Gang” may ring a bell for many throughout the McCarthy family. Grant is the eight-year old son of Jim Eaton. Jim and his family recently moved from St. Louis to Atlanta as Jim took on the role of vice president of business development in Atlanta.

“Grant was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes when he was two-years old,” says Jim Eaton. “Type I is an insulin dependent diabetic as a result of a malfunction of their pancreas. Finding a cure for Type I Diabetes is the main focus of JDRF.”

What many people probably don’t realize is that treatment for this type of disease involves insulin shots…lots of insulin shots.

“We did the math recently,” Jim adds. “In Grant’s short life he has gotten ’stuck’ about 17,000 times! He gets four injections a day and checks his blood sugar four or five times a day.”

Jim and his wife became involved in JDRF after Grant was diagnosed. McCarthy has been a big supporter of the cause for many years.

“It always amazes me to see how generous our people are,” adds Eaton. “It is neat to see how so many of us donate and give of our own free will to causes like this. Thank you to everyone for your generosity. By the way, Grant did think the walk in Atlanta was ‘the coolest!’”

The donations from McCarthy Team totaled $6,508. This will hopefully go a long way to helping find a cure very soon. Thank you to everyone involved for helping in this worthy effort.

About McCarthy Heart Hats
The McCarthy “Heart Hats” community involvement program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play.  McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction.  In addition to recognizing outstanding employee volunteers and providing a company-wide paid volunteer day, McCarthy “Heart Hats” donates countless hours of in-kind services and monetary contributions to improve communities each year.

Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Kevin Kuntz becomes president of the Southeast Division headquartered in Atlanta, overseeing McCarthy’s operations in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.  A 25-year McCarthy veteran, he has held a variety of positions in the Midwest Division prior to this appointment, including vice president, operations based out of the St. Louis office. During his time in St. Louis, he served as chairman of the board of the Associated General Contractors’ St. Louis chapter and was a founding board member of the Construction Career Center, the first charter construction high school in the country.  He was selected to open McCarthy’s Atlanta office in 2005.

Scott Wittkop becomes president of the new Central Division headquartered in St. Louis, overseeing McCarthy operations in the remaining states east of the Rockies as well as its healthcare, science & technology, and St. Louis business units. Since joining McCarthy in 1986 as a project engineer, Wittkop has spent the last 23 years moving up through the ranks of the organization. In 2006 he became vice president, operations for the Midwest Healthcare Business Unit, following his service as a project director in Denver.  Wittkop has demonstrated outstanding leadership abilities and his energy, knowledge of the construction industry, and passion for building has prepared him well to step up to this new leadership role.

 “As a community builder, this transition enhances our ability to respond quickly to growing client needs,” said Derek Glanvill, McCarthy president/chief operating officer.  “It has been in the works since Karl made known to me his intention to retire some time ago.  The contributions he made during his remarkable 21-year career at McCarthy have positioned the division well for these important changes.”

Under Kloster’s leadership, the Division experienced major growth.  He nurtured some of McCarthy’s most enduring client and partner relationships, and his commitment to the St. Louis community helped make a significant impact on numerous charitable organizations in the region.  One of those relationships, Make-a-Wish Foundation, began when he led the fundraising drive to establish a regional headquarters.  Through the years Kloster, who served a 6-year term on their Board, supported the organization’s fund raisers by providing assistance with golf tournaments and other events.  In addition to Make-a-Wish, Kloster also served on the Board of Variety – the Children’s Charity of St. Louis.

“Karl has made a tremendous impact on both our business and the St. Louis community,” Glanvill added.  “We wish him all the pleasures of a long and happy retirement.” 

About McCarthy
Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately held construction firms.  The company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for healthcare, education, parking, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; and bridges and highways.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

On a typically Hot-lanta day, the Hammerheads all took different routes on the first day. Their options were 35, 60 or 100 miles.

Kevin Kuntz, Gary McGrath, Michelle Kidd, Leslie Line and Christy Hasty all did 35 miles.

Kevin O’Keefe, Anthony Gorzelnik and Scott Metke tried for the Century but the intensity of the heat and EXTREMELY steep inclines got the best of them. However, Alex Herr was our Century Man; he did the whole 100 miles, riding from 8:30am to 6pm!

On the second day the options were 26 or 60 miles, everyone opted for the 26 except for a few that left the night before. Everyone did their best and most importantly HAD FUN!

All reports from Atlanta say their MS Ride for Ray was a Success! With four of our team members placing in the top 100 Georgia fund raisers, they raised nearly $20,000 for this cause which is near and dear to all of us at McCarthy.

About McCarthy Heart Hats
The McCarthy “Heart Hats” community involvement program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play.  McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction.  In addition to recognizing outstanding employee volunteers and providing a company-wide paid volunteer day, McCarthy “Heart Hats” donates countless hours of in-kind services and monetary contributions to improve communities each year.

Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

HEALTHCARE

“McCarthy’s performance on this project, their knowledge of Kaiser Permanente’s national building standards, and attention for quality and safety helped ensure that this facility was built on time and within budget.”

— Stephen Cox, facilities design and construction project manager, Kaiser Permanente, Atlanta

McCarthy recently completed construction of a 26,000-square-foot medical office building for Kaiser Permanente in Austell, marking the first Kaiser Permanente project for McCarthy’s Atlanta office.

The two-story facility in suburban Atlanta includes radiology, pharmacy, laboratory facilities and minor procedure rooms. The facility also has 130 parking spaces. The newly-opened building is Kaiser Permanente’s first facility in Georgia that was built using an environmentally-conscious “green” design. Among the many green features, including PVC-free carpeting and flooring, thermoplastic polyolefin roofing, and water and energy conservation measures, metal shingles made from recycled steel were also used on the rear of the medical building. If Kaiser Permanente decides to expand this building in the future, these shingles can be removed and recycled or reused for other building materials. This spring, McCarthy began construction of two more medical office buildings for Kaiser Permanente in suburban Atlanta. They will be located in Buford and Lithonia. Architect: Perkins + Will, Atlanta.