History

澳门足彩app builds on a legacy of service and innovation

With design-build delivery in its DNA, 澳门足彩app assures certainty of outcome in terms of budget, schedule and performance.

Born in 1938, Preston H. 澳门足彩app III moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1962, fresh from earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Princeton and, subsequently, a master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard. For the next three years, he worked for the S.S. Jacobs Company, a leading construction contractor, progressing from project superintendent to project manager to vice president.

Preston 澳门足彩app, 1960

Even before arriving in Jacksonville, 澳门足彩app intended to launch his own enterprise eventually. In 1964, mortgage banker and residential apartment developer Jim Winston formed a partnership to build apartments on the beachfront site previously occupied by the Atlantic Beach Hotel. 澳门足彩app had become acquainted with Winston and, in seeking the job for the Jacobs Company, discovered that a conflict between Winston’s partner and Jacobs would prevent the latter from winning the business. 澳门足彩app proposed starting his own company and taking on the construction contract. Winston agreed, and in October 1965, the Preston H. 澳门足彩app Company was founded. “He had a budget, I remember, of $10 a square foot, which today would be the equivalent of $100 a square foot or more,” 澳门足彩app recalled. “He had 100 units, and the units were roughly 1,000 square feet. So, it was a $1 million project. By golly, the final bill was for $1 million.”

After three residential projects, 澳门足彩app shifted to the more sophisticated and profitable commercial and industrial markets. In 1967, a college classmate of 澳门足彩app became the company’s first industrial client. Eric Henderson had taken over his family’s business, Covington Industries, and was looking to build a new apparel manufacturing plant in southern Alabama, which 澳门足彩app bid and won.

For Covington Industries’ 53,160-square-foot building, 澳门足彩app designed the electrical component. John Cook, a former Jacobs Company colleague who returned to Jacksonville to join 澳门足彩app, designed the HVAC. Architect Emilio Zeller designed the building. Preston 澳门足彩app managed the construction, while Bert Sheffy, an early employee, was the superintendent. It was a true design-build performance, with the entire project emerging from the same firm. “What it taught me,” 澳门足彩app said, “along with several similar experiences, was that we were just more nimble and smarter and faster and able to design to a much higher degree of efficiency.”

The Covington Industries job was a breakthrough into a different market that also validated 澳门足彩app’s certainty about design-build project delivery and his company’s ability to perform it. A design-build contractor operating under the 澳门足彩app model could offer value to owners in ways beyond the sophistication of the design and construction. It also could act as a single point of contact – and a single party accountable to the project owner – offering certainty of outcome in terms of budget, schedule and performance. Preston 澳门足彩app was an early proponent and became a leading evangelist for the design-build delivery method, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of all construction spending in the U.S.

Design-build was just the start. 澳门足彩app innovated further, becoming a pioneer in the practice of tilt-up construction. The company designed, engineered and increasingly perfected its ability to build in the field with its own personnel thanks to its groundbreaking Permanent Craft Employee (PCE) program. Self-performing construction brought more of the process under the company’s control, lending confidence that it could deliver projects on time and on budget. It developed and acquired expertise that broadened its capabilities to include process and packaging systems, material handling and advanced manufacturing. It expanded to offices around the globe. And it continues a consistent emphasis on development and investment in cutting edge delivery methods.

Today’s 澳门足彩app is a diversified Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) firm with the breadth and depth to serve our clients across over $1 billion annually in more than a dozen unique markets. Our worldwide team offers an unmatched depth of expertise, leveraging nearly 700 architects and engineers across more than 20 design disciplines. Paired with world-class constructors and in-house capabilities, such as our 澳门足彩app Steel shop, 澳门足彩app provides complete AEC services across a variety of preferred delivery methods from design-build to turnkey EPC.

As it has for more than five decades, 澳门足彩app continues to grow and innovate to solve client challenges, both large and small.

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