Turner Construction is an international construction services company that services a diverse array of market segments. From its myriad of offices across North America and beyond, it employs more than 10,000 people and completes in excess of $15 billion worth of construction on roughly 1,500 projects each year. Wherever Turner operates, it’s known for undertaking large and complex projects, fostering innovative new technologies and making a difference for all its project stakeholders – including clients, employees and communities. Turner’s Vancouver business unit, established in 2011, is no exception. Over the past 12 years, the company has grown its business in the city to more than $350 million in annual revenue, while completing more than 5 million square feet of interior work across the Lower Mainland. According to Michael Fulop, Special Projects Division, that exponential growth has been powered by the experience, commitment and care of the local leadership team. That care, he said, has consistently translated into “detailed constructability analysis; accurate project scheduling, phasing and budgeting; and effective and efficient solutions.” In recent years, the experience and commitment of the Turner Vancouver team has also translated into industry awards. At the 2023 Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) Awards of Excellence, for example, the company won the Gold Award for “General Contractors – Tenant Improvement – Up to $10 Million.” At the same event, Turner also won a Gold Award in the “Safety: Superior Safety Record” category, and Special Project Division General Superintendent Matt Heesterman received the “Education Leadership Award” for his outstanding work in advancing education in the construction industry. “We’re extremely appreciative,” Fulop said. “It means so much to us. We’re always striving for TURNER
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the opportunity to be a part of great projects for great clients. And then when we do those projects, we love to celebrate them with the rest of the industry. That means a ton to us. We’re so grateful we were able to achieve those awards. “There are so many great companies in Vancouver, and so much exciting work being completed. Just to be recognized among so many great teams and great projects is an honour in itself.” Turner’s recent VRCA Gold Award victory was for a tenant improvement of the Trulioo office at Westbank Corp.’s M2 building on East Fourth Avenue. Trulioo is a Vancouverbased company that provides digital identity verification for people and businesses across the globe, and its office at M2 comprises about 36,000 square feet on two floors. Fulop said Trulioo chose Turner Construction for a few key reasons. First, he said, clients such as Trulioo are generally drawn to Turner Construction by the calibre of its people. He said the company takes pride in recruiting and retaining a staff of capable and experienced team members who are highly engaged by the work they do. He described the company as having an “environment that fosters creativity and collaboration,” and that environment plays an important role in the success of projects such as the Trulioo M2 Tenant Improvement. Fulop joined Turner Construction more than seven years ago as a project coordinator. In his time with the company, he’s mostly worked in the special projects division, TURNER
and he’s been involved in several high profile and award-winning tenant improvement projects – the Trulioo project being a notable example. He can attest to the fact that Turner focuses “not just on building buildings, but also building people.” “Turner really creates a culture and environment where people are able to thrive,” he said. “I feel like I’ve really benefited from that environment, and I’m doing everything I can to contribute to it. “When you’re working in that environment, people care about the work they are doing, and that care is reflected in the end result. It’s reflected in the quality they achieve. It’s reflected in the budget and the schedule. When people are enjoying what they do, a project tends to go a lot smoother and turn out a lot better.” Turner Construction also strives to ensure its culture of caring and enjoyment also includes subcontractors and trades – most of whom work with Turner on a repeat basis. Fulop said those positive trade relationships are another key point of difference: “We want to make sure we have an amicable relationship with our trades over the course of construction,” he said. “We want the people who are working on our job site to know that we truly care about them. We care about their safety. We care about what they have to say. We care about the issues they are facing. And when they have issues, we want to work collaboratively with them and find a solution. “We take a real collaborative approach with our subcontractors. We work together as a team. It’s not THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
us versus them. We know that we need them. We know that we wouldn’t have even a remote chance of success if we didn’t have the right trade partners. They’re the ones that are executing, and we’re so appreciative of them.” One more key point of difference that attracts clients such as Trulioo, Fulop said, is the value Turner Construction can provide during the preconstruction phase. “If we can get involved early on, there’s a lot we can do to help support risk mitigation. Preconstruction is the time when we can make the biggest impact and provide clients the biggest benefit.” For example, if the company can conduct a laser scan of the space before construction starts, it can establish the asbuilt conditions and evaluate how those vary from the drawings. When the contractor understands that variability ahead of time, it can help make the drawings more efficient and more in line with the client’s design intent up front, which means fewer costly and timeconsuming changes later. “We really pride ourselves on being able to create those overlays and create those laser surveys of the space,” Fulop said. “That way, we can help our clients get the most effective product down the line.” TURNER
Clearing the hurdles The design intention behind the Trulioo M2 Tenant Improvement, Fulop said, was to “achieve a space that would draw people back in postCOVID.” The goal was to create a space that would be “fun, appealing and thoughtful,” while at the same time “achieving the functionality” that a company such as Trulioo needs from its office space. “It was a really cool project and a really innovative design,” Fulop said. “It’s really great how the space is able to facilitate many different types of work styles. There are phone booths. There are open work spaces. There are a number of meeting rooms. That really helps the client cater to what works best for their employees and how they are best able to function.” In terms of the scope, the project involved an interconnected stairway, acoustic walls and ceilings, many custom millwork features, a custom metal ribbon that’s “consistent throughout THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
the space and really ties everything together,” custom lighting and an operable partition that hides a pub space. “It was a really amazing project to be part of,” Fulop said. He said he and his team were particularly proud of the highquality result and project timeline. Despite facing a series of challenges, he said Turner handed the project over Jan. 26, 2023, only two days after the original deadline. Achieving that timeline was not simple. Fulop said it required “clearing some hurdles” and doing some “major schedule resequencing.” He said that without resequencing, the project likely would have taken until March. Fulop said Turner completed the project under budget with a “significant amount of overall construction contingency that we were able to basically hand back to the client after the project.” “So we were really happy with what we were able to accomplish. And we were particularly happy with the collaboration with our trades, which was what allowed us to get there.” The most complicated part of the project, Fulop said, was the interconnected steel stairway, which had to be craned in. It had to be manufactured in Alberta, and just getting it to the site in time was a challenge. In the lead-up to the anticipated delivery, the city of Vancouver was about to do roadwork on the street where Turner intended to pick up the stairway. “So we were at that pretty TURNER
intense moment where we knew we had a small window to get the delivery in,” Fulop said. “Thankfully, we were prescheduled and it was already en route, and we were able to have that delivery occur moments before they started ripping out the road in that area. We really threaded the needle there.” Another interesting part of installing the stairs was dealing with the floor opening. The as-built drawings suggested the opening was north of the sprinkler main in the space, but that turned out to be incorrect. Fortunately, Turner Construction conducted laser surveying upon award of the project and identified the discrepancy right away. “At that time, we were able to build a two-dimensional plan that basically had a grayscale to determine overall elevations of the infrastructure that existed in the space,” Fulop said. “We found that the sprinkler main, where it actually exists, was in the location of the floor opening. We were really fortunate we were able to establish that well in advance of actually going through the tender process because that allowed for our sprinkler consultant to update their drawings to reflect the jog in the main so it was able to avoid that floor opening.” Doing that work in advance meant avoiding a lot of problems down the line, according to Fulop. “We would have had a big issue that we needed to address with no time to address it.” In respect to the floor opening, Turner Construction used a wall saw instead of a floor saw, a decision that saved time and THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
cost. “We were able to get some extremely straight lines,” Fulop said. “We saw only very minor variability in terms of the line, which I think anyone who works with concrete knows that the less grinding you have to do the better and the more optimally that’s going to help with the steel and avoiding all the unnecessary shimming and what have you. That was a really great innovation that our demo trade took care of.” “We were able to achieve all that while we had a large platform over the opening so we didn’t have to worry about accessing it after the steel stair was installed,” Fulop said. “Because once the steel stair was installed, we would have needed two-story scaffolding. We would have been working around finished surfaces. It would have been a lot more complicated and timeconsuming. “We felt that we really thought through the overall execution plan. We were able to keep the space completely safe for those working around it. We completely removed any sort of fall hazard associated with the floor opening. We created the conditions we needed to be able to productively do the install. “That stair could have had such a trickle-down effect in terms of potential implications. But we felt like we did a really good job in terms of addressing those potential implications every step of the way.” Fulop credited that successful approach to the cohesiveness of Turner’s team as well as the rest of the project team, including the architect, the TURNER
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third-party project manager, and the subcontractors and tradespeople. “It was just an incredible team and an incredibly fun time,” Fulop said. “We’re so appreciative of our trades for the way they executed and made things happen, and we’re so appreciative of the design team for their support as well. When issues came up, we all came together. We kept the lines of communication open. We worked as a collective to make the project a success.” The project, Fulop said, was wellreceived by industry peers and the client. “The Trulioo team was incredible to work with, and I think they really love the space,” he said. “I’d love to work with more clients like them on more projects like that one. It was a lot of fun, and I think everyone’s really proud of how it turned out.” TURNER
For more on Turner Construction, their caring approach, their service offering, and the latest news on their activities across North America – and for more on the company’s Vancouver business unit specifically, including more on the Trulioo M2 Tenant Improvement and other notable projects in the city – visit https://www.turnerconstruction.com/ THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA
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