110 www. bus- ex. com JANUARY 10 A LEED Gold Columbia is Design Builders gold Striking

Graham Design Builders Ltd. JANUARY 10 www. bus- ex. com 111 Gold hospital project in British a source of pride for Graham Builders Ltd., Gary Toushek learns gold A building contracting business begun by P. W. Graham and his sons in 1926 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was close to celebrating its 60th anniversary as a family operation when a decision was made to offer the employees an opportunity to own the company. Thus was born Graham Construction and Engineering Ltd. in 1985. Today the Graham Group of Companies is one of the largest construction firms in western Canada, offering general contracting, project management, design- build and construction services, with headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, and offices in both Canada ( Edmonton and Fort McMurray in Alberta; Vancouver and Kelowna in British Columbia; Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan; and Mississauga, Ontario) and the US ( Seattle and Spokane in Washington; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Omaha, Nebraska). The divisions of the group include commercial, industrial, infrastructure, masonry and earthworks. Revenue for 2008 exceeded $ 1.7 billion. Dave Corcoran is a project director for the major projects division in Canada- Graham Design Builders Ltd.- and has two construction managers and six project managers working with him. His current project is on the west coast, in two cities about 50 miles apart. The $ 433 million Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals project encompasses three buildings on two sites in those British Columbia cities. A new ambulatory care center in the form of a six- story tower being built as an addition to Kelowna General Hospital is scheduled for completion by August 2012 but could be done ahead of time. It will quadruple the size of the emergency department, with ground- level accessibility and an ambulance garage; it will also have a helipad on the roof. But before that, a new University of British Columbia Okanagan clinical academic campus, including a 180- seat lecture theater and parkade, will be open in early December 2009 on the same site. Then, down the highway a bit, a new nine- story diagnostic and treatment building tower is being constructed at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, including an intensive care unit, consolidated and centralized operating rooms, and a new emergency department with ambulance garage. Due to be completed by May 2011, it's ahead of schedule right now. " This is a P3 [ private- public partnership] project," says Corcoran, " and in doing it that way, we're fully in charge of the design as well as the construction as a general contractor. It's a fast- tracked design- build, where we're rapidly building in stages as the design