Apple hires new general contractor to finish Campus 2 interior
Apple is signing on a new general contractor to help finish Campus 2, the company's upcoming ring-shaped headquarters being constructed in Cupertino, Calif., according to a Monday report.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal cited sources identifying the contractor as Rudolph & Sletten, a firm with a track record in Silicon Valley. The company will reportedly work on the new headquarters' interior, joining the existing major contractors on the project, DPR Construction and Skanska USA. The latter two firms are expected to stay focused on the core and shell of the building.
The Journal said it was uncertain why Rudolph & Sletten was being hired, or how the change might impact DPR and Skanska. It's also unknown whether or not Apple always intended to bring on an extra contractor for interior work.
Neither Apple nor any of the contractors have been willing to officially comment on the matter, but Rudolph & Sletten reportedly added nine new jobs to its website this week for a "high profile project" in Cupertino.
Work on the campus is scheduled to complete by the end of 2016, but it's possible that the new contractor could be a harbinger of delays. That would push the project beyond its current $5 billion price tag.
Once finished the campus should be able to handle 12,000 workers in its main building, and still more in a separate research and development facility. Apple will use entirely renewable power, much of it sourced from roof-mounted solar panels.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal cited sources identifying the contractor as Rudolph & Sletten, a firm with a track record in Silicon Valley. The company will reportedly work on the new headquarters' interior, joining the existing major contractors on the project, DPR Construction and Skanska USA. The latter two firms are expected to stay focused on the core and shell of the building.
The Journal said it was uncertain why Rudolph & Sletten was being hired, or how the change might impact DPR and Skanska. It's also unknown whether or not Apple always intended to bring on an extra contractor for interior work.
Neither Apple nor any of the contractors have been willing to officially comment on the matter, but Rudolph & Sletten reportedly added nine new jobs to its website this week for a "high profile project" in Cupertino.
Work on the campus is scheduled to complete by the end of 2016, but it's possible that the new contractor could be a harbinger of delays. That would push the project beyond its current $5 billion price tag.
Once finished the campus should be able to handle 12,000 workers in its main building, and still more in a separate research and development facility. Apple will use entirely renewable power, much of it sourced from roof-mounted solar panels.
Comments
Not necessarily a sign of problems. Oft times there are incentives in contracts for finishing before a certain date that are on a sliding scale to the deadline at which time the contractor can be charged liquidated damages (the incentives were forced by the courts after they decided that you should not be able to charge "liquidated damages" if there was not also an "incentive clause". Before that the lawyers wrote into virtually all contracts that the essence of the contract was for it to be completed on time & if not they would pay.
In lieu of a cash bonus to the Gen Contractor (which trickled down) I suppose that a project could be divided into pcs (e.g., Phase 1.A being the rings and core and their the Interior being 1.B). Meeting deadlines on time without cost overruns, etc. would bring you more of the pie. The only problem is that the more Chiefs in charge to coordinate trades, makes for an already busy construction site that could turn into chaos.
I am not familiar with these contractors so I have no idea how they are performing or how well they will work together in the future.
This is only one possible scenario - it is advantageous to get this done sooner than later. A quite site filled with happy employees and lots more on site facilities boosts efficiency and Tim Cook is well noted for that (I don't think it is necessarily with kid gloves but I'm pretty sure it leans more to than bashings or beheadings as others have done in the past - no I don't refer to Steve Jobs here).
Just my 2 cents.
Not necessarily a sign of problems. Oft times there are incentives in contracts for finishing before a certain date that are on a sliding scale to the deadline at which time the contractor can be charged liquidated damages (the incentives were forced by the courts after they decided that you should not be able to charge "liquidated damages" if there was not also an "incentive clause". Before that the lawyers wrote into virtually all contracts that the essence of the contract was for it to be completed on time & if not they would pay.
In lieu of a cash bonus to the Gen Contractor (which trickled down) I suppose that a project could be divided into pcs (e.g., Phase 1.A being the rings and core and their the Interior being 1.B). Meeting deadlines on time without cost overruns, etc. would bring you more of the pie. The only problem is that the more Chiefs in charge to coordinate trades, makes for an already busy construction site that could turn into chaos.
I am not familiar with these contractors so I have no idea how they are performing or how well they will work together in the future.
This is only one possible scenario - it is advantageous to get this done sooner than later. A quite site filled with happy employees and lots more on site facilities boosts efficiency and Tim Cook is well noted for that (I don't think it is necessarily with kid gloves but I'm pretty sure it leans more to than bashings or beheadings as others have done in the past - no I don't refer to Steve Jobs here).
Just my 2 cents.
For all we know this was the plan all along. Surprise! Apple didn't publicly disclose their plans... I'm shocked.
The Journal said it was uncertain why Rudolph & Sletten was being hired, or how the change might impact DPR and Skanska. It's also unknown whether or not Apple always intended to bring on an extra contractor for interior work.
So basically, The Journal has zero clue but wants to spin it for the sake of web clicks?
As far as I'm concerned, a project of this magnitude has been planned since day one. *yawn*
The contractors of the firm hired to continue the interiors after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked.
The interiors have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute
In large projects, design work sometimes does not occur simultaneously. Meaning the shell was designed to meet the program of the project what ever it calculates out to be, a million square feet... Much more time is spent on interior layout as more parties are needed to be involved.. i.e. managers, department heads etc. So dividing the project into several prime contracts, especially on a project of this size is done to allow work to continuously occur. Just saying, I am an architect.
Well I didn't vote for him...
Nothing seem to be out of the ordinary here. Interior work is not the same as site preparation and schell construction. It is fairly normal to have different contractors handling different aspects of the job.
Yep... Sadly, the media (including AI) would make a change in bathroom tile colors for Apple's headquarters front-page news, making it sound like Apple hates people that like white tile...
Seems normal enough to me. General contractors all have specialties. Structural engineering firms don't often have the expertise for interior finishes and vise-versa. Apple is just hiring the GCs directly instead of the GC hiring a subcontractor. In my experience with building projects, the most important thing is coordinating the various trades. The last thing you want to have happen is the different contractors getting pissed off at each other. Everyone needs to work together. It is not like they wait for the one contractor to finish before the next one starts. There are always addendums too and often times a change to one aspect of the design impacts the work of multiple contractors. Construction project supervision is an art.
Seems normal enough to me. General contractors all have specialties. Structural engineering firms don't often have the expertise for interior finishes and vise-versa. Apple is just hiring the GCs directly instead of the GC hiring a subcontractor. In my experience with building projects, the most important thing is coordinating the various trades. The last thing you want to have happen is the different contractors getting pissed off at each other. Everyone needs to work together. It is not like they wait for the one contractor to finish before the next one starts. There are always addendums too and often times a change to one aspect of the design impacts the work of multiple contractors. Construction project supervision is an art.
A project like this is usually bid on by GC firms. They submit bids, surety and completion bonds, insurance etc. The firm that successfully negotiates the bid then is responsible for securing the actual contraction permits (plans would have already been reviewed and approved by the local jurisdiction) and then starts hiring subcontractors (that they have worked with to do site prep etc.). The GC supply a lot but almost never all the trades -- on a job this size typically a couple or more large construction firms will put in a bid together that cover the substantial part of the job. They then bring in subs to do interiors, trim outs, clean up and prep for final inspection for the CO.
Big difference between civil, structural, geotechnical, mechanical, etc. engineering firms and the General contractor (the GC and all his subcontractors). The Architects, draw the plans, the Engineers make it work in the real world and the contractors build it.
On a job this size there are most certainly a number of Engineers on site as will as at the office to coordinate between the contractors, Architectural firm and the design Engineers. The Engineers on-site generally help keep track of the timeline, coordinate with the GC (and follow it with a PERT and Critical Path) as well as maintain quality control and review any changes made during construction (so they can be approved, shown on as-builts, and distributed to all they impact). The whole thing is like an orchestra, you have to know who the players are there instruments and when certain folx play and then don't -- it doesn't work too well to bring in a third of the orchestra during the performance unless you have it rehearsed that way.
I am sure this was all part of the plan. As I mention in my earlier comment it can also be an incentive for a large firm that has a big pc of the pie but wants the cake and ice cream too, and any other desserts.
Edit: must have been typing the same time as Michael_C -- I just said a bunch where his comment was shorter and covered it. (Or mine was the book version and his is the synopsis. LOL)
Uneithical actions have shadowed them thru the years.
20 years later Justice is now being served with Rudolph & Sletten, probably the most eithical construction company in the valley.
Perhaps it might be that the APPLE INSIDER knows of the history between DPR and Rudolph & Sletten. There is alot of bad blood between them and how DPR came to be. DPR was unethically born inside Rudolph & Sletten. Multimillion Dollar lawsuit culminated the day the trial was to start.