NEWS FROM THE PRESIDIO
Interview with Laura Surma
Project Manager for Plant Construction Company on the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio
Q: Please describe your involvement in the Presidio project.
Q: Tell us about your background.
Q: In your studies, had you ever come across museum projects?
Q: What's been your experience in witnessing that process?
Q: Can you tell us about some of the challenges?
Q: How is that interaction working?
Q: Please describe your involvement in the Presidio project.
Laura:
I started out by attending pre-construction meetings with Jeff Gherardini, our Construction Manager, and then over the course of time, became more responsible for Building 104, particularly the schedule and budget for that building. I've been managing out in the field, hiring subcontractors, and helping them understand what their scope is and responsibility is out on-site.
Q: Tell us about your background.
Laura:
I actually started at Stanford. I majored in Urban Studies with a focus in architecture and urban design. I thought I was going to be an architect but instead I decided to just work with them. I was actually working at a consulting firm across the street from one of Plant's projects downtown and I became enamored with it. I thought it was incredible and beautiful. And when I was looking for another job, I sort of stumbled upon construction. I had taken a class in project management in college and was particularly inspired by it. As a result, I decided to take an interview. When I found out about this project, in particular, I was really interested and went ahead and took the job.
Q: In your studies, had you ever come across museum projects?
Laura:
I was interested in the Cantor Center. At Stanford, we have a great collection there, particularly Rodin sculptures. And it was an interesting building because it was built at the turn of the century, originally right when Stanford developed the campus. It sustained significant damage in the 1989 earthquake and therefore, was completely reinvented as a result of that quake. It opened probably about 1996 or 1997. It was one of my favorite structures on campus so I was excited to work on something that might be a little similar to that. Basically reinventing an existing building.
Q: What's been your experience in witnessing that process?
Laura:
It's been a challenging process. It's certainly makes it a much more difficult puzzle for us but it also makes it a lot more exciting. If you're just building from the ground up, coming from my background, I wouldn't have been interested in the project because I never thought that construction was specifically where I wanted to go. But I love historic buildings specifically, and so trying to marry a new story to an existing building makes it infinitely more interesting. That's what I like about working on the project the most.
Q: Can you tell us about some of the challenges?
Laura:
Well, one of the aspects of the seismic upgrade is the out-of-plane anchors. These are big steel straps that connect the floor diaphram to the walls. And what happens is that we have something like 170 of these just in Building 104 and they may be up to six feet long including their blocking. They take up a lot of space in the ceiling so what it means is that when you want to place a sprinkler or a vent exactly in a location where the exhibit wants it to be, you're limited by the out-of-plane anchors which get in the way of essentially everything. So that's kind of an ongoing design challenge. As much as we try to take them into account, it's impossible to know exactly where they're going to be or have had planned for every single one. So occasionally you run into an area where "Oh, we wanted to go there but there's an out-of-plane anchor in the way. Let's re-strategize."
Q: How is that interaction working?
Laura:
It's been surprisingly smooth. And Rockwell has been very helpful. They…you know we understand they want to hang on to their concepts but they realize that this is an existing building and that we're working within certain limitations. Coming from the background that I come from, and from Plant as a company, when we work on these types of projects all the time, we kind of identify with the architects and we do our best to accommodate their design in every way that we can. We tend to send a lot of photographs back and forth. You know we run into something in the field and Blackberrys have been helpful with that. We click a picture and we say "Hey, can you look at this? What do you think if we just move this a little bit that way? Can you accommodate us here?" And in many cases they can and when they can't, we come up with innovative solutions to make what they need to happen really take place.
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Next month, Laura is going to take us on a never-before seen tour of the special life-size mock-up of the gallery ramp.
