Value Engineering in PASADENA

	Pasadena Gold Line train tunnel running through Holly Street Village Apartments.
	Gates like this were removed for access to upper stories and dramatic savings.
	Ladders accessing second through fifth floors.
	Ladders and lifts to higher reaches.

Performing quality work is what we all aspire to; but if you can do it with dramatic savings to the client, that is value engineering.

The Holly Street Village Apartments, owned and managed by Sares-Regis Group, holds a unique place in the history of early Pasadena. Part of this unique retail and residential loft structure includes the historic Hall of Justice which housed the original court, the police station, the jail and the morgue.

In addition, the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Pasadena Gold Line runs through part of the complex. General Coatings' field staff was required to take safety courses as they would be working adjacent to the tracks and the trains as they painted the exterior of the buildings.

Two sides of the first floor were dedicated to retail stores, requiring that both commercial and residential painting teams collaborate to create a unified visual effect.

Ordinarily, the upper floors of this five story structure would have been reached with booms and scissor lifts, but the presence of iron gates between the buildings precluded their use. Instead it appeared as if the only recourse was to employ a far more costly scaffolding system. Here is where the creativity of our field personnel saved the client substantial costs and awarded us the job.

Simply put, our crews cut down the iron gates, allowing access to the booms and lifts. Later, they were welded back together and touched up to look like new.

This bit of value engineering was made possible through the cooperation of Sares-Regis' Paul Austin, Holly Street's on-site manager Janice Seltzer and General Coatings' estimator Steve Hultgren, foreman Manuel Rodriguez and leadman Hugo Ornelas.

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