G. Michael Hoover Training Center KAPBCS
phoenix
BEST PROJECT
Sent by: Sundt Construction Inc.
Owner: healthy body
Main design company: architect
General contractor: Sundt Construction Inc.
Civil Engineer: Dibble
Structural Engineer: Associates PK
MEP Engineer: Applied Engineering
Interior design: Phoenix Design One
Landscape architect: Flatmates
Home to Sundt Construction’s vocational school, which is certified by the National Center for Construction Research and Education (NCCER), the $10.5 million KAPBCS training center was built to provide a place for owner-employees who they teach skill development, guidance and continuing education. of their own
KAPBCS stands for “Kick Ass People Building Cool Shit,” which is a phrase Sundt President and CEO Mike Hoover coined early in his leadership tenure. In the years since, it has spread like wildfire throughout the company, with staff wearing the phrase on T-shirts, truck stickers and even tattoos.
Completed after just 12 months in May 2023, the facility is home to an indoor and outdoor covered vocational lab space and two hybrid classrooms for face-to-face and virtual events. The building also contains a 200-person auditorium with advanced AV/teleconferencing capability, two 6-foot by 12-foot LED video walls, a catering kitchen, and a pre-function conference space.
Photo by Kevin Moravec
Shade, ventilation, and other passive strategies created outdoor spaces that can be used year-round. Solar panels on the shade deck also provide passive energy generation.
Several large heritage trees were also retained around the site, complemented by a variety of newly planted trees and desert-resistant plants.
In the early 1960s, the site was part of a massive gravel pit on the Salt River, but more recently it was used as Sundt’s corporate yard.
Located to maximize street presence, the training center replaces the corporate headquarters building that Sundt first occupied after moving to Tempe from Tucson. The only original structure remaining on the site was renovated to become the vocational laboratory, known as the Craft Excellence Center.
Photo by Kevin Moravec
Later in development, the project’s executive sponsor retired and the new sponsor had different expectations for the facility’s aesthetic, requesting that the team bring on board an interior designer. Since the project was preparing for slab placement and structural steel was in progress, the new designer had to move on a tight schedule. The team moved quickly to monitor potential field adjustments, including the involvement of any business partners affected by the changes.
This facility is helping to address the declining number of skilled professionals in the industry by expanding high-quality training programs for the trades and making construction education more accessible. In addition to Sundt’s self-executing equipment, apprentices also contributed to the project: students from the welding classes built the welding booths that their future colleagues will use for hands-on learning.
While he notes that the average rate of recordable injuries in the construction industry has dropped, Sundt strives to eliminate fatalities, which remain all too common.
Emphasizing its Sh*t That Can Kill You (STCKY)-focused safety framework, the contractor made sure everyone on the jobsite went through STCKY training to become more aware of the deadly hazards. Full crew safety meetings were held daily to discuss and emphasize the identification and implementation of appropriate controls necessary to complete the work safely.
