Our crew at the Crowley ISD Bill R. Johnson Career and Technology Education Center reached a key milestone that we have all been buzzing about (no pun intended). Our CTE Team placed this brightly colored airplane in a grand double-height space above the lecture stair area. This real plane serves as a focal point and also represents the aviation technology program offered at the school. Design by our frequent collaborator, VLK Architects.

There is a lot of action happening at our Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center project. Superintendent Mauricio reports that electrical service from the existing building has been relocated. An existing power transformer has been replaced. We are prepping for concrete piers to be poured in the courtroom areas and soil is being treated for the court, housing and parking lot areas.

One thing we like to do here at Steele & Freeman is show meaningful appreciation. Recently, Senior Project Manager Glenn Nowell expressed meaningful appreciation for Superintendent Gene’s work on our Community Crossroads project where we are creating classrooms and a playground as well as expanding restrooms and a meeting area. Glenn said Gene “gives the project VIGOR!” We’d like to give some kudos to Glenn for doing a great job on the project as well and for living out out Fundamentals by showing meaningful appreciation to his teammate. #TeamTeamTeam

As an essential business, we are pressing on with our work to build several schools among other projects. One of the sayings you hear in our office is “The kids are coming,” because we know – the kids are coming and the schools must be ready. This year when schools re-open, the kids will be more excited than ever to get into their new school spaces and see their friends. We are proud to help make that happen. Special thanks to Superintendent Sam for this beautiful photo of a concrete pour for 600 SF of paving at our Argyle High School phase II project. #ThisIsWhyWeBuild

Here are some new exterior photos from The Hills Church expansion project. We are so proud of this collaboration with The Hills, a longterm client and architecture firm BOKA Powell. Photography by Chad Davis Photography.

Special thank you to Senior PM Brian and PM Miguel for sharing these fantastic photos of our concrete pour at Grapevine Animal Shelter and Adoption Center! Design by Quorum Architects Inc. Our team, including Superintendent Jim oversaw the pouring 270 yards of concrete to lay the foundation for this 13,000 SF facility.

Hats off to TX Whiskey Distillery and the folks at Pernod Ricard! They are using the Whiskey Ranch facility that we built for them a couple of years ago to make much-needed hand sanitizer! http://www.fortworthbusiness.com/news/tx-whiskey-has-a-new-mission-hand-sanitizer/article_0da9667a-746c-11ea-9127-bfcdafaf7dfd.html

BIDDING TOMORROW! Subcontractors: Our Iowa Park CISD multi-site bond project will bid tomorrow, Thursday April 2nd at 2PM! We are using www.buildingconnected.com to bid this project electronically. Plans, specs and a video of the pre-bid meeting are all available on our online plan room: http://steelefreeman.com/plan-room-2/

Meet Trenton (left) and Seri (right). Please note this photo was taken before the global virus outbreak and social distancing measures were enacted. Trenton and Seri recently received high praise from Superintendent Sam for their excellent work and dedication to safety on our $60M Argyle High School Phase II project. We wanted to give them a moment in the spotlight. Help us recognize these two hardworking team members!

Our pre-construction team is responsible for setting up each project for success with meticulous analysis and ideas for creative and strategic solutions. They are also the key contact for our subcontractor community, responsible for our extensive sub outreach. Our team makes it easy for our subs to understand project plans so they can provide comprehensive bids that we can compare – apples-to-apples.

Our complete and organized plans encourage more subcontractors to bid our projects which results in the best pricing options for our clients. This benefits our subcontractor network by making the process efficient so they have time to bid on more projects giving them an opportunity to grow their business.

Here is a wonderful testimonial we received from one of our subs: “Whoever organizes your plans deserves some recognition. 50% of the plan sets we encounter are single-volume PDFs with no page naming. 49% have the pages labeled in the file name. Then there’s the 1% (Steele & Freeman) who not only break them out, keep the file naming consistent, but you break it out into separate folders.

Because they’re so well organized, I can get to work right away without wasting a lot of valuable time renaming pages and breaking them into separate files. I’m sure your other trades really appreciate it. We certainly do!”
– Jeremy

Things are progressing well at our Ennis Public Safety Facility! Project Manager Nathan reports that exterior masonry is wrapping up now and we have begun conditioning the building. Floors are being polished and overhead doors will be installed next week. This new 38,000 SF combined fire and police facility has a budget of $10M and was designed by RBDR Architects.

Congratulations to our client, City of The Colony on the grand opening of Fire HOUSE #4, not Fire Station #4. Assistant Fire Chief Shannon Stephens who oversaw the project spoke about why the facility is truly a house and not just a station. It is fully operational and ready to serve the growing city and its citizens for generations to come!

If you haven’t seen this month’s issue of Fort Worth Inc. magazine, our company President, Mike Freeman is pictured on page 44. Mike likes to stay out of the spotlight, but he stepped up when Fort Worth Inc. called to schedule this shoot! The write up on Steele & Freeman is on page 41.
https://fwtx.com/magazines/magazine-digital-issue?issue=647929&i=1580502219

Thank you to Superintendent Sam for this update and photos of our Argyle High School Phase 2 project.
On the day of this work, more than 30 finishers, carpenters and MEP trades arrived early to beat the rain and place and finish approximately 15,000 SF of concrete for the new band hall area of the project. This specific area doubles as the storm shelter for the facility and meets all the newly mandated building code criteria. Rigorous structural requirements and inspections are performed to verify that this building component will last and provide peace of mind and security to this district when the weather conducts its own test.

We received a great compliment from one of our subcontractors and we are very proud to share it here:  “I wanted to take a minute to say how much we appreciate our relationship with Steele Freeman. I am going through my aging [invoices] report and low and behold Steele & Freeman is the only GC not on my list and most importantly rarely do you ever have a single invoice onto that list. That says a lot about how you guys partner with your subs.

Also, your staff from the field team and management team to your administrative team are always great to work with.  You guys run a good site, handle your business professionally and best of all take – care of your subcontractor partners.

So Thank You.” #TeamTeamTeam

Our drone spotted Chief McCaskill meeting with Project Manager Reilly Freeman on site recently to discuss the new City of Midlothian Fire Station No. 1. We are collaborating with architect, Brinkley Sargent Wiginton on the project.

We hope your 2020 is off to a great start! Superintendent Luke sent in an update on his Town of Flower Mound Library expansion. This project adds to the north and south side of the existing building. We are going to share this in two posts. Here is what’s happening on the south addition: Structural steel is complete. Roof joist installation and stud framing continue and the building envelope installation is beginning.

Superintendent Jim reported demolition is complete on the existing shelter structure and paving demo is 95% complete with asphalt removal starting today. Moisture conditioning will begin next week. This is our first project with City of Grapevine. This facility was designed by Quorum Architects! We are also working on the Grapevine Golf Course Club House project which is currently in pre-construction.

We are happy to bring you this update on our Ennis Public Safety Facility!

On the outside of the building, metal studs and roof decking are nearing completion on the main building. Roofing and exterior waterproofing will begin within the next week. Project Manager Nathan would like to thank our subs, Rice Drywall, Structural Fabrications Inc, and DMG Masonry for their work to date.

Inside the building, metal ductwork is being installed by Travis Mechanical, electrical runs are being installed by Intex Electric and metal stud walls are being started by Rice Drywall. Roof drains and copper piping are being installed by Curl’s Plumbing. This 38,000 SF facility was designed by RBDR Architects.

Our City of Midlothian Fire Station No. 1 team gathered for the commemorative beam signing. This beam will be hoisted into place soon at the front of the museum portion of the station. It will house the City’s Model T fire vehicle.

Here is a photo of the Roanoke City Hall that we recently built. This beautiful building was designed by RGA Architects. It makes a fantastic backdrop to the Christmas tree!

General Superintendent Tim spotted Carpenter Vincent walking the job site to be sure the site is safe and that work meets quality standards. Being engaged and out on the site is one way that we look out for the safety of our team and the interests of our clients. Way to be vigilant, Vincent! #SacrificeEverythingForSafety #TeamTeamTeam

Today we are at The Hills Church West Campus celebrating their grand opening! We build for people. It is a very special day when the buildings we construct open to welcome the people we built it for. This beautiful church was designed by BOKA Powell. Special thank you to our client, The Hills Church for the opportunity to work with them again and for our dedicated and skilled subcontractor team. Great work by Superintendent Mauricio and our Project Managers Glenn and Boyd and the entire field team! #ThisIsWhyWeBuild #ItsNotAboutTheBuilding #ItsAboutPeople

Our project team had a very busy week last week. They took advantage of the dry weather and poured 890 yards of concrete which was brought in on 100 trucks over the course of 13 hours! Special thank you to our sub, Miller Sierra Contractors for their work on the concrete.

Superintendent Luke shared this photo and update of his Town of Flower Mound Library Expansion. Our team is currently waterproofing in preparation for the upcoming masonry work. We are proud to work in collaboration with Komatsu Architecture on this project!

We call this photo “Library at Sunrise.” Special thank you to Superintendent Luke for this beautiful early morning pic from our Town of Flower Mound Library Expansion project. This view is of the north addition looking east. This project was designed by Komatsu Architecture.

We are excited to announce that our groundbreaking event for June W. Davis Elementary School of Crowley ISD has won an award from SMPS Fort Worth. This event was a collaborative effort with Crowley ISD, the developer and VLK Architects, Inc.!

Congratulations to The City of Midlothian on their groundbreaking for their new Fire Station No. 1. Chief McCaskill gave a very meaningful speech to the audience. We have enjoyed our pre-construction collaboration and we are eager to start construction. Design by Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects.