January 2019
The Inside Corner
CAPITAL ONE - BLOCK B
C. J. Coakley Co., Inc. was awarded the 9th through 29th Floor tenant and part of the 9th through 31st Floor base building work at the new Capital One Bank Headquarters. The thirty-one story, 1.7 million square foot building is 470 feet tall and is currently the tallest building in Northern Virginia. It is located at Tysons, right along the Beltway near Metro’s Silver Line McLean Station. Work started in November 2016 and was completed in November 2018.
Our work included building multilayer drywall partitions between offices for sound proofing; wide drywall soffits with coves along the fronts of the offices; sloped perimeter soffits; USG Mars acoustical ceiling panels in Identitee, a narrow profile grid system with double 1/8” reveals; and metal tin ceilings by American Tin Ceilings. Decoustics Claro plank ceiling panels were installed along major corridors on the 19th floor and in the alternating stair areas known as Zippers. We provided Decoustics Solo-M wood ceiling panels on the 19th Floor.
The Zipper walls located at the southeast and northwest corners of the building are the showcase of the project. These walls occur at stairs on levels 9 through 29 that connect two floors alternating between the two locations. When we were bidding this project, the specified supplier said that they could not provide the custom design that was required. Pricing the center piece of the building with no direction from the supplier was a big gamble for us. After being awarded the job we worked with the architect and general contractor to come up with a design that we could build. Instead of making the panels out of GFRG we chose to make molds and cast them in plaster. The result was a geometric design that was made of six 2 x 4 panels that were specifically placed together to create an ever-changing pattern of shapes on the two-story walls. Each wall varies in pattern from floor to floor and front to back. It is like each wall has its own unique fingerprint and makes this feature wall unique.
The original design was to have the panels installed on top of each other between steel tubes with light openings. In the end we were able to remove the steel tubes by providing metal stud framing with plywood. The panels were fastened to the plywood, screw holes were finished, and joints were caulked. The framing had to be precise. Due to vertical lighting elements we also needed to hit custom framing patterns to align panel joints and light fixtures. To make it even more difficult there were randomly placed clear openings scattered throughout the wall where it was two sided. This meant that panels on each side of the wall had to be aligned so a drywall box could be constructed between the two sides at each opening. We took a massive gamble on this center piece of the building on bid day and were able to deliver a finished product that is a one of a kind feature that the folks at Capitol One love.
Our jobsite team members deserve some praise while we recognize this job. Our head foreman for the project was Ted Woodward and our ceiling foreman was Joe Carlisle. Joe’s great crew included Wayne Betts, Jesse Carlisle and Cristian Chavarria. Dave Urban helped coordinate the work. Mike Hiles and Joaquin Villatoro oversaw the project layout. Richard Crisler managed the drywall finishing and punch list. The feature or Zipper walls were managed by Sergio Santiesteban and Jose Zalles.
EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH
Each month our Foremen recommend to our Superintendents employees they feel have made outstanding efforts that contribute to our company’s success. The Employees of the Month are recognized in this newsletter and at one tool box talk each month across the company. We appreciate the hard work each employee puts forth to make the company successful, and we are proud to honor those who are selected.
October
Henry Canales - Finisher
Henry Fuentes - Carpenter
November
Marvin Fuentes - Finisher - Kennedy Center
Zandro Villarroel - Plasterer - Kennedy Center
December
Rudy Realegeno - Carpenter - California Street
Cristian Ferrufino - Carpenter - California Street
THE CORNELIUS J. COAKLEY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
The Cornelius J. Coakley Award of Excellence was created to honor employees who share our father’s passion for excellence in construction, dedicated work ethic, and deep love for our company and its employees. This year’s award winner is Joe Carlisle. Joe is celebrating his thirty-fifth year working for C. J. Coakley Co., Inc. and has been one of our very best in all thirty five of those years.
In 1983 Joe joined our company at Georgetown Law Center where he began working with Lee Pierson and Ovila Paquet, an earlier CJC-AE recipient. Lee was not an easy person to please and could be difficult to work with, as anyone who worked for him in the past will tell you. Joe’s specialty is ceilings and he has installed some of the most complicated ceilings in the Washington DC area.
Many changes have occurred during his time as a carpenter. When he apprenticed at the Washington D.C. Mormon Temple, they used water levels to install the ceilings. Now we have lasers that can use Revit information to place our walls and bulkheads. Joe has been on the leading edge of our company as change has come to the industry. When the first lasers were introduced, they were massive devices that resembled a torpedo. Joe was one of the guys who wanted to use them right away. Having had a beeper for several years Joe was happy to trade that in for a cell phone. When iPads burst onto the scene Joe was the first employee to ask for one. Joe’s ability to adapt in a changing work environment has made him a very valuable employee.
Joe is a true picture of what a company man is. He has gone anywhere we have asked him to through the years. He has built projects for us in Baltimore, Annapolis, Charlottesville, and Norfolk. If we asked him to take on a project, he always accepted it. It has not been uncommon for him to travel over a hundred miles each way to go to work for us. When we received our contract to build a new terminal at Norfolk airport, Joe rented a house down there and managed the project for us. I still have some great pictures of him sitting on the beach wearing the sombrero his guys had given him.
When I was handed the plans to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Headquarters in Silver Spring I told our guys that this project had to be a Joe Carlisle job. It is the type of job that I reflect on when I think of Joe. The ceilings were all on a weird radius, there were wood walls and ceilings, it had acoustic wall panels all over, and miles of bulkheads on a radius. We worked together to simplify things that were complicated. We made suggestions to the architect that helped us build the project in an easier way and made the overall products look better. That is just standard operating procedure for Joe.
Joe is a pleasure to work with as a manager, and our clients enjoy having him on their sites. Many repeat customers ask for Joe to be placed on their jobs. When I asked him what his favorite memory of working here was, he said he didn’t have a favorite one. But what stands out the most to him during his time with the company is the help he received from the office and the teamwork he has experienced - from the carpenters in the field to the project managers he has worked with to the support from our management team. Joe has always been a team player and we are so glad that every day he chooses to be a member of our team!
Congratulations to Joe on 35 years and receiving the Cornelius J. Coakley Award of Excellence!
EMPLOYEE NEWS AND RECOGNITION
05 Years
Macario Arebalo Soto, Virginia Perez, Bruno Arone Apaza Lionell M. Pugh, Limber Lazarte-Castro, Manuel A. Ramirez
10 Years
Julio Cesar Artola, Roberto Ferrufino, Apolinar E. Mendez Jeffrey Putz, Julio A. Siguenza
15 Years
Russell Crean, Guilber A. Portillo, Fredy V. Viezaga
20 Years
Wayne G. Betts, Carlos M. Escobar, Gil Jesus Gutierrez, Joseph S. Seal, Sirio A. Soriano
25 Years
Sherwood Claiborne, Kenneth A. Silwick
30 Years
Thomas C. Hurlock
35 Years
Joseph L. Carlisle
