News

Today, November 30, is Giving Tuesday in the United States. This commemorative day happens every year on the Tuesday directly after Thanksgiving. As a company, United Construction proudly supports a local nonprofit with a mission to keep children safe and families together: The Children’s Cabinet. We have signed on to be social media ambassadors for The Children’s Cabinet, supporting their Giving Tuesday goals on our company Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. In addition, our very own CEO Michael Russell has served on the Board of Directors of the organization for more than a decade.

Even the smallest donation can help a family in need, and 95 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to programs! We encourage you to donate today at: https://www.childrenscabinet.org/donate/

It’s the holiday season, and we would like to take this opportunity recognize all of the hard work our crews and partners are doing at Swope Middle School.

“As we pass Thanksgiving and continue into the December holidays, we are thankful for our employees as well as our subcontractors and Washoe County School District partners for all they have done for the students and staff,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “All of the incredible milestones we have hit thus far are a testament to the talent and dedication of the entire team.”

The two-story classroom building will go vertical this month with masonry and structural steel. This means that the shell of the building will start to become visible by the Swope community. When finished, the building will house a new resource center, math and science classrooms, a technology lab, a new teachers’ lounge and workspace, social science and language classrooms, a group room for various activities, a new library and a hub space.

In regards to the existing classrooms, mechanical, plumbing and electrical upgrades are under way. This work will continue from now through the summer of 2022.

Early morning concrete slab pours plan to be wrapped up this week. Site crews commenced pours in the morning to reduce the amount of disruptions for staff and students during school hours, as well as prevent traffic jams at peak driving times and preserve the quality of the project.

The Ambassador Program is gearing up to start soon. As a part of the program, students can expect visits from industry professionals who will speak to them about several aspects of the construction industry, including contracting, architecture, design, engineering and more.

“A development plan that started out with five modest-sized speculative industrial buildings turned into one of the single largest industrial buildings in Northern Nevada.”

These words, as stated by the Northern Nevada Business Weekly (NNBW), describe one of our major industrial projects, Park at McCarran – specifically the project’s significant anchor building. Northern Nevada is playing a vital part in the growing industrial industry, and Park at McCarran has made a notable impact within that industry locally.

According to John Ramous of Dermody Properties, “It’s the largest single infill development I can recall in the last decade. There just aren’t too many buildings like this.”

United Construction plans to complete the project by May 2022.

The NNBW published a feature story about the project, highlighting the involvement and hard work of both United Construction and Dermody Properties. Read the story here.

Jami Fornelli, Sarah Schmidt and Alana Ridge – a few of our United Construction ladies – had a great time mixing and mingling with other women in the construction industry at the Nevada Chapter AGC’s Women in Construction (WIC) End-of-Year mixer. United was a proud sponsor of the networking event.

The event, which was held at GuiDenby Inc. office, was attended by commercial contractors, homebuilders, masonry firms, landscaping companies and much more.

More AGC and WIC events are coming soon – stay tuned to the AGC’s announcements.

Cheers to women in construction!

United Construction is honored to celebrate the service and sacrifice of our very own veterans on our staff as well as those in our community and country. These individuals have dedicated themselves to protecting our freedoms, and for that, we are forever grateful.

Above, from left to right, are our United veterans:

Kevin Abernethy, Senior Project Manager: Army
Casey Gunther, Operations Manager: Marine Corps
Mike Whittaker, President: Marine Corps
Harlee Annis, Project Engineer: Navy

To all across the USA who have served and continue to serve our country, we thank you immensely. Happy Veterans Day from your supporters at United.

Preconstruction Project Manager Greg Park was honored as the Associated Builders and Contractors’ 2021 Distinguished Member of the Year at today’s first-ever ABC Reno Recognition Awards luncheon at Wild River Grille. He has been involved on the ABC Board of Directors for about 15 years and continually goes above and beyond for the organization. Greg is incredibly talented in his work at United, holding more than 40 years of experience in the construction industry and 25 years with UCC. He excels in all things preconstruction and has successfully estimated several high-profile public and private projects. He is clearly well-deserving of this recognition.

Additionally, United Construction was given the 30-Year Milestone Award at the luncheon for being members of the Reno ABC chapter for 30 years.

Please join us in congratulating Greg for this wonderful achievement!

Thanks to the support of our employees, partners, supporters and social media followers, United Construction has been voted as a Top 10 Construction Firm in Northern Nevada! This recognition comes from the Northern Nevada Business Weekly’s 2021 Best in Business awards. This annual awards program recognizes the companies and local business leaders that have had a vital impact in the regional business community. As such, we are among an impressive list of businesses, due to all of you rallying behind us. Thank you for being our champion!

Our Top 10 recognition, along with the many other great companies who achieved this award, can be found via this hyperlink.

Site crews are making swift milestones at Swope Middle School, as students and staff begin to experience school life in the brand new facilities.

“We are excited to see the student body taking advantage of the new buildings,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “From the sports games inside the gym to the concrete walls rising in the kitchen, our work is taking shape quickly, and it’s evident in all of the expansions and renovations thus far.”

Workers continue to make progress at the site of the two-story classroom building, digging out and replacing soil and completing the installation of the underground utilities. Concrete slab pours have begun and will commence in the early morning, and footings will soon be installed; both will continue throughout the season. This building will also hold the new-and-improved school library. In the interim, students are making use of a temporary library that is set up in the activity room of the new gymnasium.

Also within the gym, the new court hosted its first event towards the beginning of the month – a student basketball game. The players enjoyed the modernized basketball hoops and revamped scoreboard, while the audience cheered from the new bleacher seats.

Swope neighbors and families will be pleased to know that students will continue to learn without interruption; crews will continue using sound blankets when needed to block out major construction noise.

Coming up, students at the school will be able to learn about the construction going on right around them. As a part of a newly-created Ambassador Program, industry professionals will visit the students and speak to them all about contracting, architecture, design, engineering and more.

If you’re an educator who is hoping to bring someone from a specific trade to your classroom but don’t know where to start, the State of Nevada now has a tool to meet this growing need. United Construction has signed up with Nepris, an online platform that directly connects schools with industry professionals that can share their unique expertise with middle and high school students.

As a leading design-build contracting firm employing a diverse array of experts in construction, architecture, project management, estimation, field operations and more, we are thrilled to have more opportunities for schools to explore our industry. We look forward to teaching students more about the exciting ins-and-outs of construction.

We encourage all of our partners in education to learn more at https://nevada.nepris.com/home/v4.


Featured photos: Doral Academy of Northern Nevada (United Construction was the General Contractor for the construction of the new campus)

How do we employ Value Engineering?

At United Construction, we work directly with our clients and the design team (both internal and external) from the very start of the project to maximize the construction budget. Our philosophy is simple: we focus on adding value to the project at all stages by maintaining or reducing project costs while not sacrificing on quality and program.

A great example of us taking full advantage of Value Engineering can be seen within our work on the Prim Library at Sierra Nevada University (formerly Sierra Nevada College), pictured above. We worked closely with the school and our architecture partners Lake|Flato Architects to perform constructability reviews and value engineer components of the design to find ways to reduce costs without compromising the quality of the project. This collaborative effort continued throughout the duration of the project, resulting in a stunning library that maintained its original design intent while coming in under budget.

Value Engineering is a key part of The United Process, from preconstruction to closeout.