San Francisco, CA (1888PressRelease)
November 07, 2009 - On October 26, The University of California at Berkeley was presented the 2008 Harry H. Mellon Award for Job Order Contracting Excellence for their restoration project of the historic landmark, Sather Gate.
Sather Gate, known for being the gathering place for political rallies through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Free Speech Movement, began to show wear and corrosion in 2007. In October 2008 the University began the $1.5 million restoration project.
The project, a process that involved removing the bronze and steel metalwork piece by piece, constructing a new stainless steel frame, reattaching the refurbished bronze pieces and drilling new support posts, was completed in an effort to restore the 1910 landmark to its original glory and to allow this campus icon to remain a portal to the center of campus for pedestrian traffic for years to come.
Thirty people attended the ceremony that recognized the project for its outstanding use of the University’s Job Order Contracting program to coordinate highly specialized trades together, centrally manage the project, and provide extra oversight and attention to detail.
JOC is a competitively bid construction-procurement system that enables facility owners to complete large numbers of repairs, maintenance and construction projects for less money and time, with complete accountability (via custom workflow software), compared to traditional job-bidding processes. JOC was invented by Harry H. Mellon while he was Chief Engineer for NATO. Upon retiring from the Army, Mellon founded the Gordian Group, Inc, now the world leader in JOC solutions, to help bring the benefits of JOC to any facility owner in need.
“Thousands go through this gate every day,” said Mellon, “and it’s a privilege for us to honor this project with the award.”
Rob Gayle, Associate Vice Chancellor said, “We could not have accomplished the restoration without JOC.”
In fact, the University was so impressed with the quality and timeliness of the restoration, they have decided to use their JOC program to commence restoration of another campus feature, Berkeley Tower.
About The Gordian Group
The Gordian Group (www.gordian-group.com) established the first commercial JOC programs in 1990 and remains the only full-service JOC consulting firm in the nation. It provides all products and services from project start to finish, including development of a customized catalog of construction tasks, general conditions and bid documents, and proprietary PROGEN® information-management and proposal-preparation software. The Mauldin, S.C.-based company is a member of the Wicks Group of Companies, L.L.C., a New York-based private-equity firm.
###
