The Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry recognized excellence in construction quality and safety when the winners of AWCI’s awards program were announced in March during Build23: AWCI’s Convention + Expo in Las Vegas. AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Quality Awards recognize excellence in construction quality in the face of complicated and challenging projects, and is awarded to a team of AWCI members. AWCI’s safety award gives national recognition to members who manage an effective safety program in a given year.
Through the quality awards, AWCI recognizes the member contractor as well as the member suppliers and manufacturers who also participated on the winning project. This year the following companies contributed to one or more of the winning projects: Ames Taping Tools, Armstrong Ceiling & Wall Solutions, California Expanded Metal Products (CEMCO), CertainTeed Gypsum, ClarkDietrich, Clinch-On Cornerbead Company, Colonial Materials (A GMS Company), Dryvit Systems, Inc., Excel Engineering, Inc., Foundation Building Materials, Fry Reglet, Georgia-Pacific Gypsum, Grabber Construction Products, Inc., GTS Interior Supply (A GMS Company), Hilti, Inc., Hunter Panels/Hunter XCI, Interior Supply, Inc. (AD Building Materials), L&W Supply, MarinoWARE, Master Wall, Inc., National Gypsum Company, Negwer Materials, Inc., Owens Corning, PABCO Gypsum, Radius Track Corporation, Rulon International, Specified Technologies, Inc., Spectra Precision, Tamarack Materials, Inc. (A GMS Company), Trim-Tex, Inc., United Building Materials, Inc. (A GMS Company), USG Corporation, West Coast Firestopping, Inc. and Westside Building Materials (A GMS Company).
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Universal City, CA
Guests from all over the country can now experience an immersive world where Mario, Yoshi and other beloved Nintendo characters come to life at Super Nintendo World in Universal City, California. KHS&S Contractors played a significant role in visually articulating the vision of Universal Studios and Nintendo. Creative and technical boundaries were tested as the 450,000 square-foot project touched all scopes of work performed by KHS&S. Every muscle was exercised to meet an aggressive construction timeline from when boots hit the ground in May 2019 to completion targeted for December 2022.
The work on the exterior insulation and finish system was massive. With 48 unique specialty finishes, more than 30 pre-construction mockups as large as 6-feet-by-6-feet were completed over four months. During this time, techniques were refined, and customized plaster and paint tools developed.
Large ornamental boxes with a quilted checkerboard design were originally planned to be manufactured from fiberglass, using a mold to ensure consistency. But construction was taking place throughout the pandemic, and KHS&S was faced with a constant battle to secure materials. In the end, the boxes were constructed from EIFS (“eefs”), then patched and sanded to make them all consistent.
Overlapping design and construction was required for this project, and it came with amplified challenges. Yet those very challenges became some of KHS&S’s greatest successes. The company’s rich experience in theme park design and construction shined bright, adding style and authenticity to themed buildings and infrastructure to perfectly represent the video game. KHS&S’s ability to manage the complex theming and creative elements, resolve unexpected challenges and meet the project demand in volume and labor were critical in achieving project scope, budget and timeline.
Congratulations to the team at KHS&S for the EIFS work that brings a video game into the real world.
