Speed Fab-Crete Design-Builder. Architectural rendering of City of Rockwall, Texas fire station, designed by Callahan & Freeman Architects.
ROCKWALL PICKS SPEED FAB-CRETE AS FIRST DESIGN-BUILDER OF NEW FIRE STATIONS
The City of Rockwall, Texas has selected Speed Fab-Crete as design builder of two new fire stations costing $4,686,933. It is the first time in Rockwall's history that the city council has accepted a design-build contract for construction of new facilities.
Design-Build is a contractual method by which architectural, engineering and construction services are performed under a single contract with the owner. This method has become increasingly popular with governmental entities since Texas first authorized use of design-build for school projects in 1997.
Because all professional entities are on board at the beginning of the project's planning, design-build is considered to be faster and less costly. Design-build allows early involvement of subcontractors for realistic discussions about cost estimating and accuracy in the project's scheduling.
The Rockwall contract provides for using the same 11,000-square-foot floor plan for construction of both buildings. However, one station will have an additional 1,100-square-feet for living quarters, leased by a private emergency medical contractor for its ambulance attendants.
A formal groundbreaking is scheduled for 5pm, November 10 at one of the station's new locations, 2916 S. Goliad in Rockwall.
Designed by Callahan & Freeman Architects of Fort Worth, the fire stations will be located at opposite ends of the Rockwall city limits in the north and southeast areas of the expanding city. The designs will feature Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall building system. Completion is planned for summer, 2009.
Each station will have six equipment bays, male-female sleeping quarters, weight, dining and dayrooms, kitchen, a shop and equipment storage room.
Speed Fab-Crete Design-Builder. Architectural rendering of Dale Keeling Field House, Everman ISD, designed by Callahan & Freeman Architects.
SPEED FAB-CRETE PERFORMING AS DESIGN-BUILDER FOR EVERMAN ISD FIELD HOUSE
Construction is underway for the new $5,275,000 Dale Keeling Field House for Everman Independent School District as part of multiple projects being performed by Speed Fab-Crete, a design-builder.
The 24,100-square-foot complex will contain athletic facilities for the school district's 9th grade, junior varsity and varsity football teams. Completion is planned for spring of 2009.
The building is named in honor of Dale Keeling, the district's current Director of Athletics and head football coach, which he has held for 10 years. Keeling garnered two Class 3A state football championships in 2001 and 2002. Last year, Everman was champion of its Class 4A district and played in the state's semi-finals.
Callahan & Freeman Architects designed the angular shaped facility. Architect Charles Freeman said the unusual shape of the building maximizes available space on the project site, which is in an end zone of the football field. Multiple windows of spacious coaches' offices and player weight room face out onto a curved track bordering the field.
The exterior of the field house will be Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete walls, with limestone rock aggregate, and a partial veneer of two different colored bricks and a standing seam roof. The treatment will ensure campus continuity with existing school buildings, including the newly completed 9th Grade Center, also built by Speed Fab-Crete.
The field house also will include locker rooms, showers, equipment, film and laundry rooms, and offices for the athletic director and his assistants.
Existing football facilities will undergo major renovation to eventually house the district's soccer and track programs for boy and girl athletes.
This is the sixth time since 1988 that Everman ISD has selected Speed Fab-Crete and Callahan & Freeman to design and build facilities for the rapidly growing district, south of Fort Worth.
Speed Fab-Crete Owners with one of the company's new anti-polluting Mack tractor rigs. Left to right, Jim Barton, David Bloxom, Jeff Spedding, Carl Hall, and Ron Hamm.
On-site Cookout. Our 10th anniversary cookout on site brings together about 130 company office, plant and field employees, members of Callahan & Freeman Architects, customers, subcontractors, suppliers, and city and state government leaders.
Grilling Chefs were owners and staff of Frank Callahan (in the middle with wife, Patty, to his left) & Chuck Freeman Architects. They annually celebrate a design-construction relationship with the five owners of Speed Fab-Crete.
SPEED FAB-CRETE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
UNDER CURRENT OWNERSHIP
Speed Fab-Crete Design-Build General Contractors celebrated a 10-year anniversary in April under ownership consisting of five equal "hands on" partners.
Speed Fab-Crete is considered a purist among America's general contractors who specialize in using the design-build contract method for construction. The company has specialized in design-build since 1951. Currently, Speed Fab-Crete has the most number of officially "Designated Design-Build Professionals" in the southwest, awarded by the Design-Build Institute of America.
Design-build has become an increasingly popular contractual method by which architectural, engineering and construction services are performed under a single contract with the building's owner.
Since 1989, Callahan & Freeman Architects, led by Frank Callahan and Charles Freeman, have been the design member of Speed Fab-Crete's team. Together, these firms have accomplished a variety of design-build applications, ensuring that owners get in their buildings on time and in budget.
An employee management group, led by David Bloxom, purchased Speed Fab-Crete in 1998. While Bloxom is President of the firm, the other principals and department vice-presidents are Jim Barton, purchasing, Carl Hall, plant, Ron Hamm, sales director, and Jeff Spedding, operations. At the time of purchase of the firm, each of these individuals had been a supervisor of his department for years.
Collectively, the owners now have more than 150 years of management experience promoting and producing various facilities with the Speed Fab-Crete precast concrete wall building system. The firm also is celebrating 57 years as a construction industry leader, based in Fort Worth, and the Speed Fab-Crete plant is considered the oldest, continually operating precast concrete manufacturer in the Southwest.
The firm's 10th anniversary also marks Speed Fab-Crete's receiving a major grant to replace five aging diesel vehicles under the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP).
The $388,000 grant, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, allowed Speed Fab-Crete to acquire four 2008 Mack semi-tractor trucks and a John Deere front wheel loader.
By upgrading to newer, less polluting vehicles, Chief Fleet Mechanic Bud DeRago noted that the state agency said Speed Fab-Crete will prevent 47.4 tons of nitrogen oxides from polluting North Texas skies. The trucks will be used to deliver trailers with precast concrete walls to form a building's exterior. The loader will help to mix raw materials in the company's batch plant for pouring of the wall panels.
Speed Fab-Crete is a Green Advantage LEED Certified Builder with the U.S. Green Building Council. This "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" accreditation allows the company to offer environmentally responsible design and construction to meet and exceed "Green" expectations. Also, Speed Fab-Crete's management and project supervisors include individuals who are Green Advantage Certified Builders or Job Superintendents.
The firm promotes a whole-building approach by offering environmentally friendly facilities in these areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, durable building materials and air quality control. Also, the Speed Fab-Crete concrete wall building system is considered a sustainable product because the components include recyclable materials.
Texas Construction Magazine ranks Speed Fab-Crete 116th among its top 130 general contractors in the state for 2008. The firm holds 8th position for top Steel Erection/Fabrication Contractors in Texas. Based on annual sales, Speed Fab-Crete regularly appears in the top 20 lists of Dallas-Fort Worth general contractors by area business publications.
Speed Fab-Crete began in 1951 as the Dave Bloxom Construction Company. It evolved into Speed Fab-Crete, which built its first building in Fort Worth in 1962.
The firm moved to Kennedale in 1978 and is now one of the city's largest businesses and industrial taxpayers. Presently, the company has a work force of more than 130 team members.
Industry and community affiliations include:
- American Concrete Institute
- Associated General Contractors, Quoin Chapter, DFW
- Design-Build Institute of America
- (Speed Fab-Crete's President, David Bloxom, is a second year
President of DBIA's Southwest Chapter)
- Architectural Precast Association
- U.S. Green Building Council
- Construction Research Center, University of Texas at Arlington
- Association of Religious Builders of America, founding member
- Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce
- South Tarrant County Chamber of Commerce
SPEED FAB-CRETE SELECTED TO BUILD ANOTHER FRANK KENT MOTOR COMPANY DEALERSHIP IN FORT WORTH
FORT WORTH, Texas, April 3, 2008 - Fort Worth-based Speed Fab-Crete, a 58-year-old full-service commercial builder specializing in design-build applications, has been selected to build another Frank Kent Motor Company dealership in Fort Worth, Texas.
Speed Fab-Crete will use its precast concrete wall building system in construction of the new 15,452-square-foot Frank Kent Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealership, located at 3535 W. Loop 820 South. Completion is slated for winter 2008.
The new dealership will incorporate the latest Buick, Pontiac and GMC "national branding" by architectural design and use of the automakers' logo themes. The building will contain a spacious 3,600-square-foot showroom, a drive-thru, three-work bay service department, sales offices, and a customer lounge with children's play area. A new quick lube center is also adjacent to the three service reception lanes for customer convenience.
The facility will occupy the former site of Frank Kent's old GMC building. The new building will be adjacent to the Frank Kent Hummer showroom, which Speed Fab-Crete built in 2004.
The design-build contract is the latest to team Speed Fab-Crete with Callahan & Freeman Architects, who designed the building. The firms have designed and built numerous dealerships together in DFW since 1992.
VETERAN FORT WORTH-DALLAS CONTRACTORS GAIN DESIGN-BUILD & GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATIONS
Two more veteran members of Speed Fab-Crete General Contractors have gained
certification as design-build professionals from the Design-Build Institute of America and as builders from the Delaware Valley Green Building Council.
Ron Hamm and Mitch Hanzik, business development executives, recently received
the Designated Design-Build Professional award. This prestigious award recognizes professionals in the construction industry who possess a high level of expertise in the design-build method for delivery of building projects.
The pair also are newly accredited Green Advantage Certified Builders, awarded by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. This means they have knowledge of the latest in environmentally efficient and friendly building technologies. Hamm, who is a co-owner of Speed Fab-Crete, has been with the company 20 years. Hanzik has represented Speed Fab-Crete for 22 years.
DBIA is a national organization founded in 1993 to promote the design-build project delivery method throughout the construction industry. The Southwest chapter, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, has 200 members.
The design-build delivery method is a system of contracting by which one entity performs architecture, engineering and construction services under a single contract with the building owner.
The president of Speed Fab-Crete, David Bloxom, who is another co-owner, got his design-build certification in 2005. He also is current president of DBIA's Southwest chapter.
SPEED FAB-CRETE'S, DAVID BLOXOM, ELECTED TO SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT OF THE DESIGN-BUILD INSTITUTE OF AMERICA'S (DBIA) SOUTHWEST REGION CHAPTER
David Bloxom, president of Speed Fab-Crete, and a veteran Fort Worth-Dallas design-builder, was re-elected to serve a second term as president of the Southwest chapter of the Design-Build Institute of America. The election recently occurred. David Bloxom also is certified as a "Designated Design-Build Professional" by DBIA.
Speed Fab-Crete is a Design-Build General Contractors in Fort Worth. The construction company began in 1951. David Bloxom has been with Speed Fab-Crete 33 years. He is a former member of the Fort Worth school board.
Christ Community Church Southwest
Selects Speed Fab-Crete For New Facility
Christ Community Church Southwest, which began in a residence in 2003, has selected Speed Fab-Crete as general contractor for a new community center to help Fort Worth, Texas neighborhoods and public schools build better citizens.
Pastor Jeff Harris said that it was four years ago that the roots of the non-denominational church began as a bible study group of only six in one couple's house. In Harris' words, "I wanted to build a church in the same area of Tarrant County I grew up. We are thankful that we are beginning to see the first fruits of this dream come true." Today, Harris said the congregation is composed of about 150 families, however, the new building will accommodate 400 members.
The 11,000-square-foot facility will contain a large multi-purpose area, kitchen, classrooms and offices at 10648 W. Cleburne Road in far southwest Fort Worth. Completion is expected in the fall of this year.
Harris said, "We plan to offer the building as a large, complimentary seminar facility for others to use to build bridges to the community." He added, "As part of a program called, 'Dare to Dream,' church representatives also will reach out to the public schools to encourage and support students, teachers and parents in the classroom." He went on to say, "Additionally this facility will host the Southwest Tarrant County Christian Counseling Center."
Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall building system will be used to form the center's exterior. Similar walls stayed intact in five Speed Fab-Crete buildings, which were in the path of the 2000 Fort Worth tornado.
Speed Fab-Crete is celebrating 56 years in the construction industry as a design-build general contractor, based in Fort Worth, Texas since 1951. The company also is one of the few Texas members of the Architectural Precast Association, a national group of accredited manufacturers of precast concrete products.
Third Generation Fort Worth, Texas Family Business Selects Speed Fab-Crete For New Beverage Outlet
A third generation family business has selected Speed Fab-Crete Design-Build General Contractors for new construction of Two Bucks Beverage Center in Fort Worth.
The late Elvin "Buck" Russell opened the Two Bucks liquor store at its current location in 1942. Today, his son, Vernon Russell, is President of the company and his son, Steven Russell, serves as General Manager.
Steven Russell said, "The precast concrete walls of a Speed Fab-Crete building will have a longer life for our investment." He added, "The size and quality of the 6-inch-thick concrete walls also convinced the family to choose Speed Fab-Crete as our contractor." Completion is expected in early fall, 2007.
The 19,000-square-foot, two-story facility will replace and double the size of the present retail outlet, which first opened 65 years ago. The new building will include a spacious products floor, wine, beer and wholesale storage, a check-cashing center and administrative offices. Custom painted murals, featuring major beverage brands, will decorate upper areas of the products floor, which will be half the size of the total building.
Callahan & Freeman Architects are the project's designer. The building's exterior will feature Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall panels, finished with a wainscot and cornices in a random rectangular pattern of Austin limestone rock. Overhead coiling metal doors will add increased security for the building's contents.
Speed Fab-Crete Performing As Design-Builder For More Multiple Projects For Everman ISD
Construction is underway for a new $6,400,000 9th Grade Center for Everman Independent School District as part of multiple projects to be performed by Speed Fab-Crete, a design-builder.
Largest of five planned building projects, the 45,000-square-foot 9th Grade Center will contain 24 classrooms, including science, language and computer labs, and a spacious, indoor commons area for congregating and studying and ancillary offices. The ceilings of the commons area and the building's lobby will be vaulted.
Designed by Callahan & Freeman Architects, the walls of the school will be Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete panels and a partial veneer of two different colored bricks with a standing seam metal roof. The building will accommodate about 500 students and is scheduled for completion in winter, 2008.
Financed by a general obligation bond issue, other campus projects will be a classroom addition and play gymnasium for the district's intermediate school, and a dining service area and classroom addition for the junior high school. The five facilities will cost more than $11,000,000.
This is the fifth time since 1998 that Everman ISD has selected Speed Fab-Crete and Callahan & Freeman to design and build facilities for the rapidly growing district, south of Fort Worth.
Design-build is a contractual method by which architectural, engineering and constructions services are performed under a single contract with the owner.
City of Westworth Village Selects Speed Fab-Crete Again For A New City Hall, Justice And Community Center
Construction is underway for a new Administration, Community and Justice Center for the City of Westworth Village, Texas, near Fort Worth. The project will cost about $4-million-dollars with completion scheduled in summer, 2007.
Speed Fab-Crete will perform as Construction Manager and use its precast concrete wall building system to form the exterior and some interior walls of the complex. Callahan & Freeman Architects designed the center. The two firms have worked together on several public building projects in the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex in the last 16 years.
The 27,000-square-foot facility will include a city council chamber, a courtroom, a community room, police department, holding cells and other city offices. Speed Fab-Crete built the existing Westworth Village City Hall in 1986.
The concrete walls of the new Westworth Village complex will make it among the safest buildings in the area against turbulent weather. With similar walls, three Speed Fab-Crete buildings remained intact and quickly reopened for business after the Fort Worth tornado in 2000.
A Fort Worth building contractor for 55 years, Speed Fab-Crete produces the walls at its manufacturing plant, then ships the panels to the job site for erection by crane. While the wall sections are being fabricated and poured, the building's site preparation and foundation occur simultaneously, accelerating the construction process.
Speed Fab-Crete Selected to Build New
Classic Mazda Dealership in Denton, Texas
Speed Fab-Crete design-build general contractors has been selected to build the new Classic Mazda dealership in Denton, Texas. Completion is slated in Summer, 2006.
Classic Mazda will reflect the automaker's new "Mazda Revolution" image. The overall customer environment will be vastly different in appearance from other Mazda dealerships, from the use of bright colors to futuristic vehicle displays and an abundance of technological cues such as plasma screens, interactive stations and Sony PlayStation® 2 gaming consoles. In addition, the showroom will include a special display of a car elevated on a lift behind a four-sided glass enclosure, known as a "jewel box". The 18,000-square-foot dealership, which will be located along I-35 East, will also contain a cafe, sales office, parts department, and service-wash bays.
Classic Mazda customers also will enjoy an abundance of information available in wired showrooms and interactive terminals, and also have the luxury of checking vehicle inventory and expediting the service process. The dealership also will offer custom-designed routes for test-driving a customer's favorite car. They will feature specially-selected highways, traffic patterns and road conditions to give drivers a true sense of driving and owning a Mazda vehicle.
"Speed Fab-Crete has built several facilities for us. They are, and always have been, a pleasure to do business with, and we are confident that this new high-profile dealership will attract even more customers to our Denton dealerships," said Richard Allen, dealership co-owner of Classic Mazda. The dealership will be the latest in a 14-year association between dealership co-owner Tom Durant, prominent North Texas entrepreneur, and the design-build team of Speed Fab-Crete and Callahan & Freeman Architects. The Classic family of dealerships also includes facilities in Grapevine, Arlington, and Granbury, Texas.
Speed Fab-Crete Completes New
Mike Brown Dealership in Granbury, Texas
Speed Fab-Crete has completed a new 26,500-square-foot Mike Brown Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealership in Granbury, Texas. The dealership sits adjacent to the existing Mike Brown Ford dealership, also built by Speed Fab-Crete less than two years ago.
The latest dealership contains a four-vehicle showroom with 15 sales offices, a retail parts department and accessories store, 14 service bays and drive-through lanes, which connect the showroom with the service department.
Brown said, "Our decision to work with Speed Fab-Crete is due to the company's strong focus on state-of-the-art auto dealerships and the success of our Ford dealership, which the company completed in 2003." He added, "The company has a team of unprecedented talent and construction expertise, as proven by its building numerous auto dealerships that have produced outstanding results. We are confident that the new Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge will be no different."
"Fighting Machinists" Join Forces With
Speed Fab-Crete
To Build New Union Hall
Speed Fab-Crete design-build general contractors have been picked for a new headquarters complex for IAM District Lodge 776 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Known as the "Fighting Machinists," the district lodge of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers AFL-CIO will vacate a building with a concrete basement. The unusual structure dates to the 1950s when the Cold War saw buildings with basements identified as suitable use for a bomb shelter.
The new Union Hall will consist of two buildings totaling almost 19,000-square-feet. An office building will contain 18 offices, meeting and conference rooms, a large room for keeping union membership records and several other storage areas. The spacious meeting hall will include a kitchen and serving counter. The buildings will be connected by a covered pedestrian passage.
Callahan & Freeman Architects is the project designer. The facilities will be built with Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall panels. The walls will be finished in a combination of rock aggregate and a wainscot of cut stone. A sloped, standing seam metal roof will top the structures. Completion is slated for spring, 2006.
Frank Kent Hummer Dealership Celebrates Grand Opening
Frank Kent Hummer dealership opened in Fort Worth, Texas in Spring 2005. It is the second Hummer dealership in Texas designed and built by the Speed Fab-Crete and Callahan and Freeman Architects team.
Speed Fab-Crete Gets New Mission
For Another Hummer Dealership
Speed Fab-Crete design-build general contractors have been awarded a contract for the new Frank Kent Hummer dealership on West Loop 820 near highway 80-West in Fort Worth, Texas.
The building's appearance will bear similarities to other stand-alone Hummer dealerships in the country per the design criteria of General Motors for its national "branding" of the rugged off-road vehicle.
The 10,400-square-foot building will include the showroom, an accessories store, customer waiting room, sales offices and a drive-thru service entrance. The building's exterior will be Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall sections finished with rock aggregate and painted band.
The latest project will team Callahan & Freeman Architects with Speed Fab-Crete, who together have designed and built numerous dealerships in the DFW Metroplex.
Al Lamb Honda Powerhouse
Breaks Ground For Metroplex First!
Construction is underway in Dallas, Texas for the new Al Lamb Honda Powerhouse motorcycle store where the manufacturer's new retail look will make its first appearance in the DFW Metroplex.
Speed Fab-Crete is design-builder for the project. Callahan & Freeman Architects are the project's designer. Both firms are based in Fort Worth.
The building's exterior appearance and its interior design will sport Honda's new national image branding of its products. The 32,000-square-foot store will be one of only 24 in the United States to market Honda motorcycles' new look so far.
Critical adherence to Honda's design criteria and specifications will elevate Lamb's new store to the manufacturer's highest-class category for its dealers. This will result in special product inventory options for Lamb customers.
Speed Fab-Crete's precast concrete wall building system will form the exterior of the building, making it one of the safest against turbulent weather in the area.
The latest motorcycle outlet will be built near Lamb's current Dallas Honda store. When the new building opens in early 2005, the existing store will be converted into a full service facility for motorcycles.
Everman, Texas School Trustees Select
Speed Fab-Crete As Design-Builder
Speed Fab-Crete Corporation, a 53-year-old Texas design-build general contractor, has been selected as design-builder for a new Intermediate School for Everman Independent School District in the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex.
The $5,500,000 facility will include 36 classrooms in a unique, three-prong configuration projecting from a central commons area. It will open in summer, 2005.
The 59,300-square-foot facility also will contain a 325-seat cafetorium, a play gymnasium with sports carpet floor, library, computer room and administrative offices. Special parking areas will be designated for accessibility by school buses, parents and service vendors.
Design-build, approved by the Texas Legislature in 1997, is a system of contracting by which one entity performs architecture, engineering and construction services under a single contract with the owner.
