Project brings national attention to local builder

A local contractor is garnering national attention for a project that set a new standard in Yuma for its size, complexity and innovation.

Pilkington Commercial Co. is featured in the cover story of Construction Today, a national industry publication and Web site. The article spotlights the contractor's construction of four new buildings over the last two years at Arizona Western College as part of a $74 million bond measure that Yuma and La Paz county voters approved in 2004.

The AWC expansion project attracted attention from another national publication as well. Metalmag awarded the project first place in 2008 for its innovative use of aluminum exterior siding that makes the buildings glimmer in the sun and in certain light, the decorative panels offer a mirage image of the sand dunes.

Pilkington wrapped up the AWC project totalling $62 million and spanning 193,000-square-feet in January. The work included the new agriculture and science building, the College Community Center (3C), the Dr. Kathryn Watson Child Development Learning Lab and the agriculture greenhouse and research lab.

According to the Web site, the editors of Construction Today “interview top executives of successful companies to learn and share their best practices and insights on important issues ... including engineering and technology, project funding, labor issues, liability, regulations and the environment.”

The article further states that Pilkington Commercial has been a leader in local construction, winning bids for a variety of diverse jobs. The company currently is finishing work on the new commercial San Luis Port of Entry as a subcontractor on the project. And it is in the middle of yet another project at AWC - remodeling the former science building to expand the math department.

"This was definitely the largest project in my career," said Bill Smith, director of facilities and management and planning for AWC. "What made it interesting was the state-of-the-art materials and technology. It provides a brand new front door to the college. More importantly, all the classrooms have state-of-the-art technology. And features were put in to make it easy to upgrade so it will be state-of-the-art for the next 40 or 50 years."

This will provide students and faculty of both AWC and Northern Arizona University-Yuma with "an edge in learning" that's comparable to other campuses and in some cases better, for years to come, Smith said.

The innovation extends to the functioning of the buildings as well, he said, with thermal protection, solar panels and other energy efficiency features.

"It is fun to see them working the way they were designed to be used," Smith said. "It's something the community can be proud of for many years to come."

Smith also had high praise for Pilkington Commercial.

"I had the best professional relationship with the contractor I've ever had in 27 years," Smith said. "We worked together to work out problems and come up with solutions. The contractor offered ideas to make this the best possible project."

There were a number of challenges for the building effort, noted Leo Pilkington, president of Pilkington Commercial.

One was the size of the project.

"We had multiple subcontractors as it was too large for a single contractor," he said. "So we were able to split up the scope of work among several companies, like electrical. They worked well together even though they're competitors. They even shared some equipment."

There were benefits for AWC's trades program, he said. Some of the students went to work on the project when they completed their training, while welding students worked even as they took classes.

Another challenge was minimizing the impact on the campus, said Chris Pilkington, senior superintendent for the project.

"It required major coordination to not interrupt campus activity ... to keep the campus up and running," he said. That meant some work, such as connecting the new buildings to the campus cooling and electrical systems was done after hours and on weekends.

Yet another challenge was installing the aluminum siding, he said. The panels were made in Salt Lake City. "It was like a giant puzzle to put them together. We had to make sure they all were where they were supposed to be to make the design work."

He said that originally, the plans called for copper siding, but then the cost of copper went up. In order to not have to scale back the buildings, aluminum was substituted. But in a sunrise, it can look like copper.

The Pilkington family has been in the construction business in Yuma since 1985, when Leo and Chris' brother, Jim, started the company as Pilkington Construction. Two years ago, Leo moved to Yuma and started Pilkington Commercial. He is now transitioning his brother's company into his.

Leo said his wife is from Winslow and wanted to come back to Arizona. With the couple's two children off to college and Jim wanting to get out of the business, the timing was good for the move to Yuma from Colorado.

Chris went to work for Jim when his brother landed the contract to remodel the Crescent Center 23 years ago, and has stayed on to work with Leo.

"Chris really is the backbone of the office," Leo said. "He has a good knowledge of the subs and the working components of every project."

Being in the construction business runs in the family. All the boys among the 11 children have worked in the business. "Our oldest brother, Andy, got us involved," Leo said. Ironically, Andy has abandoned the business and now works in computers.

Asked about his philosophy of business, Leo replied that he believes in working closely with the community and having a close relationship with employees and subcontractors.

"We're an isolated community," he said. "It's important to keep relationships with the subs in good standing. I know working with them helps us be able to do jobs of this size and caliber. We definitely have the talent base here to do the work."