Mar 2009 Vol. 12 No. 3

‘All monumental’: Riding the big wave at One Hawthorne, San Francisco

Eric Thatcher, Webcor’s senior superintendent for One Hawthorne, surveys the core..

From the open ninth floor of One Hawthorne in The City’s financial district, the Webcor crew has an excellent view of a few neo-classic high rises- the "W" San Francisco hotel at 30 stories, the St. Regis at 47, the geometric roofline of Foundry Square and Millenium Tower, the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi. Not that anybody’s looking.

The crew works quickly and carefully, skinning up columns that support the concrete flyer table on this 165-unit condominium project, rigging the flyer for the crane and guiding it across the deck into place. Besides, they don’t need to gawk. Many on this team know those high rises from the inside out. They built them.

Bud Wolverton, Local 713, is the drywall foreman on the One Hawthorne project.

Enrique Ramirez, Local 217, echoes a number of crew members when he says, "As long as we’re working, everything’s great."

"I like my job- and yes, up high is fine," says Antonio Sandoval, Local 22.

"These guys are the rock climbers, the big-wave riders of the construction industry," says Eric Thatcher, Webcor Builders’ senior superintendent, of the company’s team of high-rise carpenters and concrete specialists. "When we drive our kids through the city, they say, "Dad, you built that one, and that one.’ And these buildings are all tall, all big, all monumental."

One Hawthorne, which will eventually be 25 stories, is going up at the rate of a deck every five days. "It’s 12,000 square feet and 450 yards of concrete per floor," says Gary Leifeld, senior concrete superintendent.
It’s the proprietary Pro-Deck system, says Thatcher, "that’s makes us competitive." The concrete shoring system, originally developed by Webcor, employs panels with a cam at the corners that is easily twisted to drop the panel, but leaves the re-shoring posts in place.

"Hopefully, there’s going to be a lot of work!" says Jorge Ramirez, Local 9144.

"We’re well organized and everybody works well together. That’s a good thing, because the flyers are a big responsibility- and dangerous. But we take good care at every step," says Jesus Longoria, Local 22.

Thatcher adds that a five-day cycle for each deck, speedy as it sounds to an outsider, is not even close to a record. At the 64-story One Rincon Hill project in San Francisco, the Webcor team finessed the turnaround time to three days per deck.

"We go as fast as we can- and safe," says Jose Peinado, Local 22. He has 10 years in the union.

One Hawthorne will go not only 250 feet up, but three floors down as well. It’ll be the second building in San Francisco with car stackers, a way to maximize off-street parking where every stall holds three vehicles. Millwrights will soon be on site fitting the machinery to lift the cars.

It’s steady work for union members. "This is a 100 percent union job," Thatcher says. It’s even partially funded by Amalgamated Bank, which manages the trust funds for a number of US unions.

On this chilly morning in the city, Hector Lopez, Local 9144, says he’s "ready for summer."

The approximately $90 million Hawthorne project began on February 1, 2008, with completion scheduled for April 2010. "This is Webcor’s longest running project at this point," Thatcher says. "Things are definitely slow right now, but there are a number of potential big projects on the horizon for the company, including San Francisco General Hospital, with demolition scheduled to start next month."

Mateo Carco, Local 9144, has been on the project for three weeks.

Arturo Martinez, Local 9144, commutes in from Fremont, and says he’s happy with the job.

Up on floor nine, the big-wave riders of the construction industry keep pumping it out. Working efficiently up high, working safe under dangerous and sometimes challenging conditions-especially in winter weather-and getting it right every time, they’ve got the skills to carry them through lean times.

Enrique Ramirez, Local 217, sums it up: "As long as we’re working, everything’s great."

Ron Hanneman, Local 22, is the foreman of the rigger crew for the flyer. Gaspar Morales, Local 217 (on ladder), is skinning up a column as the crew prepares to move the flyer table.

Jaime Gonzalez, Local 217, runs the elevator core crew. "As the core goes, so goes the job," he says."It’s in the center of everything, with the most detail- elevators, equipment and embeds. It’s a high-stakes, high-pressure aspect of the project where everything has to run perfectly and controlled." This is Gonzalez' third elevator core.

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