Across DPR Blog

Last week, DPR Foundation folks presented a $75,000 check to the Latin American Youth Center-Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers (LAYC-MMYC). LAYC-MMYC is one of 15 organizations that the DPR Foundation is supporting this year. 

DPR Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager Jeff Vertucci and DPR Foundation "champion" Alison Lyons presented the check to Maryland Managing Director Luisa Montero and LAYC Chief Development Officer Elliott Gaskins, along with dozens of youth and AmeriCorps service members and volunteers. In addition to the award, DPR gifted a digital camera to encourage LAYC-MMYC staff to share great pictures of their work with youth. The event took place at Nicholas Orem Middle School in Hyattsville, Maryland where guests enjoyed gourmet cupcakes. 

This grant marks the fifth year in a row that the DPR Foundation has supported LAYC-MMYC programs. Over the years, the Foundation has contributed more than $250,000 to LAYC-MMYC. The organization provides first aid training, cultural enrichment, nutrition, summer programs and physical activities to middle school youth. 

The DPR Foundation formed in 2008. It is a company-wide, focused outreach to help children who fall short of their potential due to socio-economic challenges. For 2012-2013, the DPR Foundation distributed a grand total of $845,000 to support all of the organizations selected ($750,000 in grants with an additional $95,000 in discretionary funds to be disbursed regionally for the year). Since 2008, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million to 21 different organizations focused on providing community support to grade school and high school-aged children.

DPR is proud and honored to be selected as the 15th best company to work for in America. This is the fourth year that DPR has ranked on the Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" list.

Central to this achievement is DPR's purpose: “We Exist To Build Great Things,” and core values of:

• Integrity
• Enjoyment
• Uniqueness
• Ever Forward

Additionally, DPR has long been recognized for its progressive employee practices. From customized wellness programs, a Phantom Stock program, extended time off and a refreshed companywide innovation program, DPR makes the wellbeing of employees a priority.

Said Doug Woods, co-founder and president of DPR Construction, “Inspiring employees and cultivating respect are pivotal to DPR’s business. As a company, it’s our job to take care of our customers, which means consistently delivering the highest quality facilities in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest possible cost. To do so, we know we must continue to hire, inspire, develop and grow the best people in the industry and to measure our performance against some of the best companies in the world.”

In its 16th year, Fortune's annual ranking of the best workplaces in corporate America is conducted with the Great Place to Work© Institute. The survey is the most extensive employee survey in corporate America, polling employees from companies nationwide about their company culture, credibility of management, individual respect, fairness, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The employee survey results accounted for two-thirds of DPR’s score. The other third was based on responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit, which included detailed questions regarding pay and benefit programs, as well as open-ended questions about hiring, communication, training and diversity.

Check out the full Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list here. Congratulations and thank you to all of DPR for continuing to build great things, including a great place to work!

Engineering News-Record recently named the new Palomar Medical Center in Escondido the 2012 "Best of the Best Health Care Projects" nationally as well as California’s “Best Health Care Project” and “Best Overall Project.” The three awards were given to Palomar Health, CO Architects and DPR. According to ENR editors, “Best of the Best Projects” winners are “truly outstanding examples for the entire construction industry of teamwork, safety, overcoming challenges, innovation, and quality.” In February, the editors of ENR will select one project from the national “Best of the Best Projects” winners as the editor’s choice and Palomar Medical Center is eligible for this award.

Dubbed the “Hospital of the Future,” Palomar Medical Center is sited on 40 acres. The building has an 11-story patient tower—two wings intersecting at a central garden—and a two-story diagnostic and treatment wing, topped by an undulating 1.5-acre green roof planted with native flora to mimic nearby hillsides. The hospital includes 360 patient beds, 12 operating rooms and a trauma center. Read more about the award here and more about the project here.

Photos courtesy of: David Cox

In addition to Palomar Medical Center, five other DPR projects won regional ENR awards, including:

• Novelis Project Forward
• Sutter Health Eden Medical Center
• Packard Foundation Headquarters
• University of Arizona Medical Center Behavioral Health Pavilion
• DPR's Phoenix office (LEED®-NC Platinum building that recently achieved net zero)

Congratulations to all involved!

In case you missed it...DPR has completed a series of small renovations that have made a big impact to our iconic customer. Over the last several months, DPR’s Special Services Group (SSG) has worked to transform a centuries-old facility into a modern example of energy efficiency—just-in-time for the holidays. Though until recently bound by a strict confidentiality clause, DPR can now share the details of this previously “top secret” project...HAPPY HOLIDAYS! See you in 2013.

The Bay Area celebrated its crafts men and women on Friday, December 14 at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, CA. The luncheon celebrated the more than 1.6 million manhours worked in the Bay Area so far this year (4.9 million manhours total company-wide) on projects such as:

• UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay (which is being built in an integrated team approach, including UCSF, Stantec Architecture, Cambridge CM, DPR and 17 subcontractors at the Integrated Center for Design and Construction [ICDC] to deliver the ground-up, 878,000-sq.-ft. hospital complex); 
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation Corporate Headquarters; 
• Wareham Greenway; and many more.

Safety was also a highlight of the luncheon, honoring those who worked 10,000 – 40,000 manhours incident-free. Seven employees were honored with these awards. Recipients were: Carlos Alvarez Conrado, Jose Espinosa, Mark Ferreira, Miguel Poblano, Armando De Anda, Enrique Segoviano and Luis Jimenez. DPR also tipped its hardhat to retiring DPR employees: Jim Webb, Gonzalo Guzman, Duane Jones and Fred Cuen.

The season was not forgotten; employees also brought toys for the St. Francis Center Holiday Toy Drive. The luncheon drew more than 700 of DPR’s hardworking crafts persons. Most employees agree it’s one of the best events of the year.

Photos courtesy of Everett Rosette

The DPR Foundation is proud to announce the expansion of its 2012-2013 grant awards program to 15 total organizations (with three new grantees joining the 12 returning). The Foundation distributed a total of $845,000 to support these organizations ($750,000 in grants with an additional $95,000 in discretionary funds that will be disbursed regionally for the coming year).

Established in 2008, the DPR Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged children reach their full potential through regional organization support. Over the past five years, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million to 21 different organizations focused on providing community support to grade school and high school-aged children.

The new DPR Foundation grantees for 2012-2013 are:

• LifeWorks (Austin)
• Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito (San Diego)
• Girls, Inc. of Orange County (Costa Mesa, Calif.)

The 12 returning grantees include:

• Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta - Brookhaven Club (Atlanta)
• Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers (Riverdale, Md.)
• New Hope for Kids (Orlando)
• Future for KIDS (Phoenix)
• Improving Chandler Area Neighborhoods (ICAN) (Phoenix)
• Peninsula Bridge (Palo Alto, Calif.)
• Roberts Family Development Center (Sacramento, Calif.)
• StandUp for Kids (San Diego)
• TurningWheels for Kids (San Jose, Calif.)
• Seven Tepees Youth Program (San Francisco)
• The Milagro Center (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
• John Avery Boys & Girls Club (Durham, N.C.)

Looking forward to a great, productive year!

Representatives from DPR’s Building Great Things golf tournament presented a check for $30,000 to McLane Children’s Hospital in Temple, TX on Dec. 14. The tournament was co-sponsored by Walker Engineering, Dynamic Systems, Prism Electric and Schmidt Electric. The tournament, which sells out quickly every year, is hosted by DPR’s Austin, TX office. In the past 12 years, the tournament has raised more than $250,000 for Central Texas organizations that support underserved youth.

DPR's Mike Martin and Chase Navarro presented the check. McLane Children’s Dr. John Boyd, CEO and CMO, and Ellen Hansen, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, were on hand to accept the check.

Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center plans to break ground in January on a $62.6 million project that will nearly double the size of its existing outpatient center in Gilbert, Arizona. HKS Inc. has designed a 110,000-sq.-ft. structure that DPR will build as an expansion of the existing 130,000-sq.-ft. building. DPR also worked on the existing building that opened in 2011, which was phase one of the extensive master plan for the campus. Utilizing the multi-disciplinary care approach pioneered at MD Anderson, services of the existing facility include: medical, radiation and surgical oncology; pathology; laboratory; diagnostic imaging as well as supportive clinical services. Read more about the original facility here.

The additional space will offering a new service and additional equipment and treatment areas to meet the needs of its rapidly growing patient population. It will open by spring 2014 and will add the following features:

• three linear accelerators for radiation treatments;
• 30 clinic exam rooms;
• 13 infusion bays; 
• an expansion of the laboratory intake center and welcome center;
• The Cox Center for Integrative Oncology and Cancer Prevention, which will incorporate traditional cancer treatments with evidence-based integrative therapies, such as relaxation techniques;
• space for the Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy program;
• and additional shell space for future expansion needs.

As a leading provider of healthcare, Banner Health is deeply committed to the mission: “To make a difference in people’s lives through excellent patient care.” The Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center on the Banner Gateway Campus delivers an unprecedented level of cancer care to patients in Arizona through the collaboration of Banner Health and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the internationally renowned cancer treatment and research institution.

Kids don't choose their parents, or where they live, or how food gets on the table. Most of us rarely actually see, much less interact with kids who have had a very disadvantageous life thrust upon them. But when you do, the realization that something needs to be done is often overpowering. Sue Runsvold, a nurse, was compelled some eight years ago to take action. Her idea was that poor kids in Santa Clara County would be helped in a big way if only they had a bike of their own. Now, 20,000 new bikes later, that brave idea--TurningWheels for Kids (TWFK)--is truly helping to change lives. And DPR's San Jose office is now in their fourth year of providing significant financial help through DPR Foundation financial grants as well as an impressive number of hours volunteered for both building new bikes and working directly with the kids, teaching them how to keep this simple yet empowering machine in good running order.

Last weekend, I visited the annual Bike Build effort next to the San Jose Convention Center and was truly blow away. The DPR team of a dozen folks was one of many teams totaling 1,000 dedicated folks assembling 2,600 bicycles of all sizes. And a bunch of the kids who were representative of those who will receive the bikes were there as well. 

As I left the Build, Mike Humphrey was completing his seventh bike assembly and it was only 11:30am! In addition to the Bike Build and the clinics, our Scott Greubel and Phil Bartkowski serve on the TWFK board and play a much needed role in helping the effort grow while maintaining the focus of impact on kids' lives (not just the bike gift alone).

DPR is justly very proud.

-Peter

At the John Avery Boys & Girls Club of Durham (JABGC) Olympic Gala in Honor of Dr. LeRoy Walker on Nov. 18, DPR's Raleigh-Durham office was recognized for its outstanding contributions and dedication to the organization. The 2012 JABGC Outstanding Corporate Sponsor Award was presented to DPR at the gala, which consisted of a dinner, silent auction and award ceremony. 

JABGC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and protecting children while preserving the beauty of childhood. It serves approximately 500 children through after-school and summer camps and aims to make a fundamental difference in the lives of all youth, especially those who need guidance the most by providing a safe alternative.

JABGC is one of the DPR Foundation's supported organizations. Formed in 2008 to help disadvantaged kids, the DPR Foundation is a company-wide, focused outreach to help children who fall short of their potential due to socio-economic challenges. The collective goal of the DPR Foundation is to help kids become happy, productive members of society. Along with financial contributions, DPR employees become deeply involved with their chosen organizations, volunteering their time and efforts.

Read more about the event here.