< Previousexpress themselves in performing arts is an incredible asset to the local community. The Lincoln Academy is another remarkable project completed by CCI. The company trans- formed a retail center area to host an independent charter school where young learners can gain exposure to a variety of careers and explore their interests as early as kindergarten. Interesting features of this new school include a glass-walled utility room where scholars can view the color-coded work- ings of the mechanical system as well as working ambulance that was hoisted into an upper classroom for the scholars to learn EMS training. Alongside renovation and construction work, CCI’s pur- pose-driven projects include initiatives to help and grow the local community. For Dobson, this is an integral part of what the company stands for. “We also do a lot with our non-prof- its in the area. It is important because we want to give something back to our community by putting in a playground or bringing a youth group in alongside us to build buddy benches for schools in the area.” This dedication to its local- ity is evidenced by the work completed on the ABC Stadium. Taking place during the pandemic, CCI spent 12 months working to finish the project successfully. The company saw this project as an opportunity to keep high school students engaged during such tumultuous times. To this end, it orga- nized for the students to visit the baseball stadium during construction and interview CCI’s crew. “Our biggest focus is really on youth, veterans, and families,” says Dobson, “and our biggest single effort is our Building the Future Community event, in partnership with CareerTek and Dare to Dream. This year we had 800 people visit between volunteers and attend- ees. It’s to give exposure to the construction industry. So, kids were learning how to be a surveyor or sitting in equipment or understanding roofing.” ABC Stadium Photo by Aerial One Imaging | 80 APRIL 2023Another important initiative organized by CCI is the asso- ciate-funded Power of Us Scholarship Program, which is completely run and funded by the company’s associates. “Our associates love it,” says Dobson, “it's just as important to them to be able to give back.” CCI’s culture of giving is also reflected in the wide variety of activities offered to its asso- ciates to promote their well-being as well as their personal and professional growth. For Dobson, ensuring the health of its team members is a cornerstone of the ethos at CCI. “We have a wellness program to help with financial wellness, mental wellness, and physical wellness. We also have a life coach on staff for our Dream Builder program to talk to our associates and their spouses and children about their life goals and what they are striving for.” With a rich history and a wealth of experience, the company remains deeply rooted in its midwestern origin and in the community in which it has been thriving for the past 40 years. However, it is no surprise to learn that CCI has one eye on the future. As Dobson explains, the development and growth of the associates at CCI is key to the continued suc- cess of the company. With plans afoot to grow even further, Dobson believes that once its staff are fulfilled the sky is truly the limit. “We've had people that have moved up in the company, people that have moved sideways in the company and people that have transferred to different departments and divisions. So, we really do try to help people find what makes them happy and find a place where they really are going to thrive at CCI.” The Lincoln Academy Photo by Peer Canvas | 81 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONWRITTEN BY CAROLINE EBBS T he Wisconsin Dells, the picturesque city found along the Wisconsin River, is most known for one thing: indoor water parks. When it comes to creating new attractions in those water parks, there is only one name that comes to mind and that is Friede. Currently known as Friede & Associates, the company has a rich and storied history. Start- ing out in the early 1900s as William A. Friede and Sons, the company operated under that title as a residential contractor and material supplier until World War Two. When the company returned to business in 1945 it became the Friede Brothers, which it would operate under until 1998. This era of Friede focused on projects within thirty minutes or so of the offices in Reedsburg, with a vast array of masons, concrete finishers, carpenters, and it operated as a true family-run business. | 82 APRIL 2023In the late nineties, Scott Truehl, current Executive Vice President of Friede, met Roger Friede, the fourth generation Friede to run the business, and together they established Friede & Associates as it is now known. According to Truehl the company transitioned at that time into more of a “pro- fessional services company,” which allowed it to offer more elements of the construction process to its clients and led to it being involved in projects early in the design process. With reference to the array of in-house skills and its ability to provide for anything the client may need, Truehl quotes an old adage that says, “carpenters see everything in wood, masons, everything made out of brick, steel erectors see every solution being metal.” He explains that this empha- sizes how Friede & Associate’s wealth of combined experi- ence allows it to work with clients through every part of the design and build process. Scott Truehl Executive Vice President | 83 APEIRON CONSTRUCTION“Friede & Associates is one of the few companies that would actively seek out these kinds of challenging endeavors, which gives its team a competitive edge.” The early two-thousands were really when Friede’s full-ser- vice general contracting commitment came to fruition, not only growing in the diversity of its projects, but also from a geographical standpoint. Friede went from working on projects within thirty minutes of its office space to servicing the southern two-thirds of the state of Wisconsin. From this expansion came the influx of work in the Wisconsin Dells marketplace, an area that boasts some of the most varied and adventurous projects that a company could ever dream of. Friede & Associates’ ability to complete these projects was not about proximity however, but its ability to be there for every part of the process and become a true ‘full-service’ company. In amusement parks and themed projects, many parts of the process are totally unique and without prece- dent. With Friede & Associates working on a project, expec- tations can be exceeded. Through a combination of skill and experience, Friede & Associates commits to being a reliable full-service general contractor to its clients, regardless of how unusual or unprecedented any part of the process may be. Unsurprisingly, the quote on the company’s website, ‘We Do Weird Well,’ is as much a promise as it is a motto. The kinds of projects that epitomize this outlook can all be found in the Wisconsin Dells area. Projects such as the Chula Vista Waterpark, an enormous space that also contains a golf course, and the Kalahari Resort, an African-themed resort featuring an indoor adventure park, a bowling alley and escape rooms. All of these kinds of projects fall squarely in Friede & Associates wheelhouse. As an example of the technical innovation available to its clients, the company recently built a swim-up bar that was both indoor and outdoor. This required work being completed around the simultaneous construction of an indoor go-kart track, something which Truehl described as “building a ship in a bottle.” Friede & Associates is one of the few companies that would actively seek out these kinds of challenging endeavors, which gives its team a competitive edge. Projects in the Wisconsin Dells tourist area are guaranteed to be unique. That incentive, combined with the company’s drive to constantly innovate, fosters a wide array of niche capabilities. One of these is panelizing, also known as mod- ular or offsite wall systems. Panelizing is a technique that became necessary for Friede & Associates on account of the incredibly low temperatures in the Wisconsin winter months. This poses as much a problem for the construction of wood frames as it does for the employees themselves. When a solution was needed, the team did not fail. In the early two-thousands, the company sought out a way to work on its usual projects during the winter tourist off season while still adhering to its usual time window for projects. The strategy is incredibly effective as, as the conception and design stage it allows the team to adapt the developed set of architectural plans to be able to build walls, wall systems and any other module pieces within a climate-controlled warehouse. This protects workers and physical components of the builds from cold-weather damage. Friede’s panelizing system allows the company to save almost half the time it would take the com- pany to build the same projects on-site. Chula Vista Resort Wisconsin Dells, WI Kalahari Convention Center Wisconsin Dells, WI | 84 APRIL 2023Another area in which Friede & Associates has had to inno- vate is in the refurbishing of certain projects, something which has as much to with the weather conditions as it does the number of wooden attractions that have been built there over the years. Similarly, building waterparks indoors generates a specific type of chlorinated and humid environment where the structures decay at two or three times the speed that they normally would. With this in mind, many of Friede & Associates’ projects have come through repeat business, even on builds where the structures had not been constructed with the intention of going back in and renovating. While this can prove to be a challenge, Friede & Associates has started using plastic lumber alternatives in many of its structures to counter-act this kind of decay in future projects. This kind of innovating and problem-solving helps to ensure that the company’s customers can remain in business year-round with significantly less upkeep and is why so many attractions give Friede & Associates their business in the first place. Friede & Associates has more than just positive reviews and repeat business to its name, however. The company has also won an incredible sixty-three awards for its work since 2015. One of these was awarded to the company for using the most sub-contractors and members from the Associated Builders & Contractors, Wisconsin. While its continued relationship with other contractors and clients clearly takes time and effort, just as much consideration goes into valuing its employees. Truehl tells me that ‘We Do Weird Well’ serves to ‘make all the employees smile’ as they implement it, and Friede & Associates still endeavors to maintain the family-run business mindset that it was built on. The result of this is that its employees feel like family with many of its staff having worked for the company for decades. Truehl points to a general superintendent who worked his way up from laborer, to superintendent, to general superintendent, before retiring after forty-six years while a pair of brothers have worked for Friede & Associates for forty and thirty-seven respectively. Friede & Associates is growing still. In 2021, it opened an office in Madison which allowed it to break into new market- places and the company has added seventeen staff mem- bers to its team in the last year alone. The plan for Friede & Associates is to continue this trend of growth while bringing new talented professionals into an office culture that is as unconventional as its field projects. This is evident in its decision to close its offices on Friday afternoons in order to give staff the opportunity to make weekday appointments or simply have that time to themselves. As Truehl himself says, “My business partner and I have both raised our own families while we’ve been in leadership positions, so we’ve tried to be very accommodating to our staff in terms of realizing that they also need to be with their families.” In terms of continued future growth, Friede & Associates is having “a great deal of success in the Madison marketplace.” While this welcomed expansion will continue to develop and strengthen the Friede & Associates name, there is clearly no slowing down in the Wisconsin Dells area. And the chal- lenging projects continue with Friede & Associates currently working on the development of a Dungeons and Dragons style theme-park with a fantasy concept that will even have a formal event space on-site to satisfy the massive demand for themed weddings. As ever, for a company that has built a reputation on doing weird well, Friede & Associates is happy to deliver both the weird, and the wonderful. | 85 APEIRON CONSTRUCTION| 86 APRIL 2023WRITTEN BY EMMA KILCAWLEY HEMANI T he British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) is a provincial association, serving the industrial, com- mercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential sectors in British Columbia (BC). The association has four regional partners across the province (North, Southern Interior, Van- couver Island, and Vancouver/Lower Mainland), delivering value to its members, who, through an integrated model, are also members of BCCA. Chris Atchison, President of BCCA explains that the asso- ciation works “very closely with that network of regional associations in BC to represent the priorities of the mem- bership and the construction industry.” According to Atchison, the relationship is beneficial for all stakeholders. “Through the partnership, the aim is to make it a better place for contractors to do work for owners, both public and private, to succeed in their infrastructure and development projects and also to be a steward for the taxpayer dollars that are being invested into public infrastructure.” BCCA’s strategic plan is built on three pillars – building the workforce, supporting construction delivery, and reinforcing communities. These core tenets drive BCCA in all the legisla- tive and advocacy work that it does. Currently at the top of the list of priorities for the association is working with stakeholder groups and the provincial government to bring forward prompt payment legislation. For Atchison, this move would be of huge benefit to the industry. “This would provide certainty for work that has been completed on proj- ects in BC.” The legislation exists in other parts of Canada, and BCCA is hopeful that it will soon be brought into BC. | 87 APEIRON CONSTRUCTION“BCCA’s strategic plan is built on three pillars – building the workforce, supporting construction delivery, and reinforcing communities.” Atchison explains, “what we’ve been saying to the province is that our construction community, both the contractors that are building and delivering on services and the owners who are tendering those projects could all benefit from having not just fair, open and transparent procurement processes, but certainty around payment on jobs and work that has been completed.” Continuing, he says: “we really believe this is a fundamental issue of fairness that can be delivered quite easily to the construction community.” The association has been working hard to make this a reality for workers in the construction industry in BC, with Atchison explaining that the association wants to ensure there is the political will to bring this legisla- tion forward and make sure people in the industry are “being treated fairly on the projects that they’re working so hard on.” He anticipates a “positive momentum” on the prompt pay- ment front in 2023. Another important aspect of the association’s work is cen- tered around workforce development. Workplace shortages have impacted industries around the world and the construc- tion industry in BC is no different, experiencing both skilled worker shortages and worker shortages in general. In order to address this, the association is partnering with other stakeholders and the provincial government to “try to deliver on things that are going to attract and retain more people to our industry.” For Atchison, this will allow for potential work- ers to “take advantage of the high opportunity occupations that exist here in BC in the construction industry.” On this note, BCCA has started many initiatives to focus on attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. One of these is the Construction and Skilled Trades Month in April, with 2023 being the sixth time it has taken place. The aim is to “bring a positive awareness to the opportunities that exist within the construction industry from a workforce perspective and also just to shine a positive light on the projects and the legacies that are being built every day.” The initiative came about as the members of the associ- ation thought that it should proudly share the successes of the industry on a wider scale. “We thought, let's go and create a month-long campaign of awareness about our industry and how much it gives to every community that we work in across the province.” Focusing on topics such as safety, leadership, and apprenticeship, the month also spot- lights the different programs and services that BCCA offers. “BCCA is very proud to be able to have initiated that but also continue to perpetuate it. We need to be the champions of our own industry.” Another initiative the association amplified over the pandemic was The Lunchbox Challenge – encouraging construction job sites that were still working to patronize a local establish- ment during construction month, buy lunch for the crew from one of the local restaurants offering takeout service and then challenge another job site to do the same in their locality. This not only gave back to the workers but also gave business to the restaurant and hospitality sector that suffered due to closures during the pandemic. Roughly 95 per cent of the construction industry is male, with Atchison explaining that over time there have been some “nat- ural barriers in place that are preventing diversity from flour- ishing on job sites.” Through research, the association found that there is a lot of attention paid towards attracting people into the workforce, such as good pay, opportunities for mobil- ity and growth - but not as much on retention. He explains “so many people coming into the industry were deciding to leave after a short-term involvement.” The association started to look at flipping the question, with Atchison explaining, “it's not just about attracting people, it's about what do we need to do to keep people in the industry.” What BCCA found was that a change in culture on worksites in large part was the way to go. He said, “some of the cultures were fantastic – they had great policies in place, they had good leadership and mentor- ship programs.” However, overall, the industry is made up of small to medium-sized employers “without a large number of them having any human resources department.” Chris Atchison President | 88 APRIL 2023BCCA determined that these companies may need some help in changing this and developed a suite of tools with the Builder's Code that “put a lens on safety and productivity of worksites.” In the industry, Atchison explains that there is both a “universal respect for safety” and a “drive for produc- tivity.” When the Builders Code is considered, with a message of safe worksites being considerate to every person on it, the conversation developed further. This started discussions about respect on worksites “and embracing the principles of diversity and equity and inclusion without naming it and really bringing in the emphasis on safety and the importance of third-party safety in conversations and a zero tolerance for bullying, hazing and harassment.” This is just a small selection of the work that BCCA has done and is doing for the construction industry in BC, with more information to be found on the association's website includ- ing its mentorship program Building Builders the Integrating Newcomer Program and the Employees Benefit Trust. Atchison states that the outlook for the industry going into 2023 is “very busy,” despite the issues surrounding prompt payment, workforce shortages and supply chain issues – all of which remain of paramount importance to BCCA and most of the members. He explains that “we’ve done an economic analysis in recent months, and it doesn’t paint that rosy a picture for the construction industry.” Anticipating a slowdown at some point in 2023, Atchison is encouraging all contractors to be “hypervigilant” about what level of risk they accept on projects. He says the association is “trying to remind owners and contractors and sub-contrac- tors to continue having open and realistic dialogues in the face of rising costs such as inflation, interest rates, supply chain disruptions and workforce shortages. All of these things are still present and they’re putting pressure on the industry both for projects coming and those underway.” | 89 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONNext >