How did we get to this point? Let’s back up. Since 1998, DPR has maintained a presence in Phoenix’s Camelback corridor. When it came time to renew our office lease, we decided to find a new location that would bring us into greater alignment with our sustainability mission and goals as a company. We found and purchased a 16,533-sq.-ft., circa-1972 building, located in the Discovery Triangle at the corner of 44th Street and Van Buren. The building was vacant for several years and needed a major facelift. Luckily, it had great bones; the roof and structure were strong and intact, and the space was conducive to our open office layout. We purposely chose a building that was nearing the end of its intended lifecycle in a redeveloping area to show our commitment to the local community and to demonstrate the impact of revitalization.

While we had already achieved net-zero in a temperate climate with our San Diego office in 2010, it was also important for us to prove that this was possible in an extreme climate like Phoenix. Our Phoenix office team researched, designed, permitted, and built a highly-efficient, modern workplace in less than 10 months. 

By being both the owner and contractor, and leveraging our project experience, we were able to push the limits and go for net-zero energy, which we hope will pioneer a movement to make it the “new norm” in green construction.

According to recent research from Navigant Research, while net-zero buildings currently make up a small fraction of the overall green building market today, worldwide revenue from net-zero buildings is projected to grow rapidly over the next two decades and reach $1.3 trillion by the year 2035.

The renovated, award-winning office building is now a living lab for our community. Through creativity and ingenuity, we have achieved beauty on all fronts.

Office Photos Courtesy of Gregg Mastorakos

Here’s one of DPR’s green leaders, Whitney Dorn, accepting the Living Building Challenge certification from the International Living Future Institute at an event on Thursday, May 16.

Photo Credit: Ted van der Linden

Read more about the office in this in-depth case study and here. You can also learn more about green construction and net-zero from this series of videos.

• 1. Install monitoring software to track energy usage in real-time

Take a look and compare how much energy we used today in four of DPR’s own offices.

DPR San Diego Office, Photo Credit: Hewitt-Garrison

Installing monitoring software allows owners and employees to track their energy usage and view energy savings in real-time. A dashboard such as the Lucid Building Dashboard® system used by DPR’s offices in San Diego, Phoenix, Raleigh Durham and Newport Beach allows employees to track their use of electricity, water and natural gas. The dashboard tells users exactly how much energy is being used hour by hour in terms of total electricity as well as the amount of solar energy being produced so that users can meet--or even surpass--sustainability goals.

• 2. Use outside air to cool your building

DPR San Diego Office, Photo Credit: Hewitt-Garrison

Natural ventilation systems use outside air to keep buildings cool, reduce energy, and lower costs. Our San Diego office’s natural ventilation system (like operable windows) cools our office and it helped us achieve net-zero energy status – meaning we generate as much or more energy than we consume.

DPR Phoenix Office, Photo Credit: Gregg  Mastorakos

• 3. Install Solatubes® to reduce the need for artificial light

DPR Phoenix Office, Photo Credit: Gregg  Mastorakos

Windows and natural light reduce the need for electric lighting and the costs associated with it. The expansive windows and 82 strategically placed Solatubes® in our Phoenix office nearly eliminate the need for artificial daytime lighting all year long.

• 4. Install a photovoltaic canopy over your parking lot

DPR Phoenix Office, Photo Credit: Gregg  Mastorakos

A photovoltaic-covered parking canopy generates power from the sun that offsets a building’s energy usage and cools cars under in the canopy all at the same time. Generating even one kilowatt-hour prevents 170 pounds of coal from burning, protects 105 gallons of water from consumption, and saves 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each month. Our Phoenix office’s photovoltaic-covered parking controls the indoor environment naturally and produces energy onsite, generating 180,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year.

• 5. Install a vampire shut-off switch

Phantom energy accounts for nearly six percent of our country’s energy consumption, costing the U.S. billions of dollars in expenses and wastes unnecessary energy. Phantom energy happens when a device consumes energy even when it’s turned off (i.e., computer monitors, TVs, or cell phone chargers).

Install a vampire shut-off switch to disconnect phantom-plug loads, saving money and energy. In our Phoenix office, the switch disconnects 90 percent of plug-loads at the end of each workday. The last person exiting the building is responsible for activating this switch.

Which one of these energy-saving techniques is most interesting to you? Let us know in the comments.

An attendee is fully immersed in a virtual apartment using WorldViz technology

If you thought QR codes were just for business cards, think again. At another augmented reality demo, our Innovation team showed how builders can see through walls by simply scanning a QR code with the BIMAnywhere app.  Builders use this to visualize the intricacies behind the wall, saving time and minimizing rework.

The BIMAnywhere app allows builders to see structures behind the wall by scanning a QR code

Sometimes it’s hard for owners to know what their building will look like based off a blueprint, resulting in late stage design changes that delay completion, costing owners time and money.  That’s where augmented reality comes in. The coded letters below allow us to shift around the configuration of a building’s interior to create a 3D virtual representation. The end result? We’re able to build, test and design how a building will look before it’s built, allowing us to address issues sooner and deliver more predictable outcomes for our clients.

Augmented reality can turn a piece of paper into a 3D visual representation of a hospital room

Augmented Reality was definitely a hit on Thursday, but that’s not all we had to offer. The event also included the following demos:
• Laser Scanning
• BIM Training
• Field BIM
• ourPlan
• DPR Consulting
• Building Controls
• 4D and 5D

What demo did you enjoy the most at Thursday’s event? Tell us in the comments below. Learn more about collaborative virtual building and BIM here.

Maximizing BIM with an integrated team begins with the owner as the primary stakeholder and requires a profound shift in the way projects are delivered. Based on DPR’s more than 15 years of experience in virtual construction and as a leader in IPD, we have identified the following lessons learned as outlined in Transcending the BIM Hype: How to Make Dollars and “Sense” from Building Information Modeling:

• Determine the WHY first: Identify the reasons why you want to use BIM and set expectations accordingly.
• WHO creates the BIM is as important as WHAT you want to model: The trade or contractor responsible for the bulk of construction should create the BIM in collaboration with the design team whenever possible.
• Beware of software interoperability: Test and select applications that best fulfill the virtual modeling goals set for the project.
• Compensation and contracts should support BIM: All participants should have “skin in the game” to incentivize deep collaboration.
• Small elements have big impacts: BIM works best if every element that can potentially cause an issue in the field is included in the virtual model.
• Co-locate to Co-create: Project participants should co-create the virtual model. Assemble the group to identify metrics to track and map a collaborative decision-making process.
• Model management infrastructure is key: Determine how a virtual model(s) will be accessed, managed, shared and updated.

Photo courtesy of David Cox

Guests learned about innovative technology using Augmented Reality (AR), showing how an integrated model can merge with an actual camera view. Other interactive booths set up throughout the office included:

• Trimble technology and laser scanning as utilized in the scan of existing facilities
• How DPR’s Self-Perform Work group used Tekla software on the Alta Bates patient tower project
• How tradesmen use BIM kiosks and mobile tablet PCs in the field to access the latest drawings and models
• Our current efforts revolving around model-based costing and BIM aptitude training

Representatives from our Consulting group and ourPlan were also present. ourPlan is the visual planning program designed specifically for lean construction projects; it's a web application that manages short interval schedules and is compatible with the Last Planner System™.

See you at the next BIM Network event!

Photos courtesy of Kaushal Diwan

In the blog, Sheahan highlights DPR as a case study. He explores our purpose: "We exist to build great things" and how we base decisions off our central beliefs to respect the individual and change the world. Sheahan also touches on DPR's longstanding relationship with Jim Collins, business guru and author of "Good to Great," "Built to Last" and "Great by Choice." Said Collins, "I have met with very few companies where the desire to be great is as sincere as this company (DPR)."

Sheahan goes on to write about DPR's carefully selected five core markets and how we build complex structures for deliberate clients.

ChangeLabs has been conducting research for an upcoming book. As CEO/founder of ChangeLabs, a global consultancy delivering large-scale behavioral change projects, Sheahan has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the area of innovation and change. He is the author of six books including, "Making It Happen," "Fl!p" and "Generation Y."

Read all of Sheahan's Huffington Post blog posts to learn more about his business insights.

• The Facebook Prineville Data Center was featured in an article by Information Week called, "Facebook's Data Center: Where Likes Live." Selected by ENR as Editors' Choice & Green Project of the Year in 2011, Facebook's data center complex--according to the article--has the best energy efficiency rating of any major data center in the world. The article details how data on "likes," comments and other Facebook activity, is stored inside one of two 330,000-square-foot data halls in a complex outside Prineville, Oregon. With a massive 901 million users, this data complex was built to a whole new scale and was the first that Facebook designed, owned and operated. Facebook is unique in publishing the details of its designs and specifications. In April 2011, Facebook founded the Open Compute Project, where it makes available as open source information the designs for its servers. DPR's Andy Andres is quoted in the article, saying: "Facebook has taken the lid off the secrecy about how to bring power and cooling into a modern data center." Follow the project on Facebook. Check out DPR's Lulea, Sweden and Forest City, North Carolina data centers as well.
  
  
  Photo courtesy of Facebook


• In other news, EMC's Center of Excellence in Durham, North Carolina, achieved LEED Gold – Commercial Interiors certification for Phases 1 and 2 of its 450,000-sq.-ft. data center. Sustainability was a primary design criterion for EMC with efficiency innovations such as: a rooftop water collection system; free air cooling for much of the year; and flywheel technology that eliminates the need for battery storage in the uninterrupted power supply systems. Highlights of the sustainable features include: 34 percent in overall energy savings; ability to utilize “free cooling” 57 percent of the year; reduced potable water use of 78 percent; and reduced carbon footprint of nearly 100 million pounds of CO2. Read more about the project here.
  
  
  Photo courtesy of Mindy Gray

The six-story HSEB on the Phoenix Biomedical campus serves two end-users; the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Northern Arizona University College of Health and Human Services. By accommodating two end users—the University of Arizona College of Medicine from the south and Northern Arizona University Physical Therapy School from the north—it unites both ends of the state while addressing a growing need for educating healthcare professionals to mitigate a critical physician shortage, nationwide. In addition to two end-users, the project included: two owners, the City of Phoenix and Arizona Board of Regents; two architects, design and executive architect, CO Architects, and associate architect and master planner, Ayers Saint Gross; and DPR and Sundt Construction, Inc. in a joint venture.

To learn more about the HSEB project, read "Two Owners, Two Architects, Two Contractors" from the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of our newsletter, DPR Review.

Sidenote: This is my fifth ground-up LEED® project (it's seeking Gold-NC certification).

Photo by Keven J. Siegert

Photo by Bill Timmerman

Photo by Bill Timmerman

The presentations were followed by an interactive conversation with a highly engaged and highly informed audience.  Our own Ted van der Linden added some valuable insights.  Here are a few of the topics that gained some audience traction:

• How will we capture the voice of the younger generation?  Environmental responsibility is an expectation for them, not a luxury.
• How can we shift attention (and budget) towards designing and building very efficient and interactive exterior skin systems…all five facades…instead of focusing on mechanical systems to counterbalance the inefficiency of the skin?
• Do automated 'red-light, green-light' systems really have an impact on occupant behavior?  Are there more intuitive, simple cues that can help shift occupant behavior?

Fascinating conversation!  This was a group with the power and passion to transform our world.  I can hardly wait for the next discussion!

Check out some of DPR’s net-zero work: DPR Phoenix office, DPR San Diego office, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters (the headquarters was designed for net-zero and we hope to know the official status by the end of the year).

Here's the team onstage receiving the award.

Later that night, DPR hosted a hospitality event at Waterbar on The Embarcadero for around 350 colleagues, customers and partners. With indoor and outdoor space and a fantastic view of the Bay Bridge, guests chatted, enjoyed refreshments and delicious food, while enjoying the music of the live band. 

A special treat especially for those visiting from out of town like myself, we had a front row seat to the Bay Bridge light show, which was a dazzling sight to behold.

The PDC Summit has a distinguished history of bringing together owners, design teams, contractors and many more industry professionals from around the country to learn from each other, make valuable connections, and lead change in the industry. In its 26th year, this year's conference continued that tradition. 

The article details how our self-perform work impacts the following:

• Safety
• Staying on schedule
• Quality
• Cost
   

About the project
The project team, which included Orcutt|Winslow as the architect and ccrd Partners as the engineer, renovated the third floor of the occupied John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. Working together for 10 months, the team designed and constructed a new 21,350-square-foot Med-Surg unit to serve the community during the busy winter season. 

Working above occupied OR (operating room) and PACU (post-anesthesia care unit) space, it was critical to minimize noise for post-surgery patients. The team created a detailed plan, including items such as noise reduction kits for patients and visitors; hourly construction breaks; and visits from design and construction team members to answer questions and address concerns. Weekly team meetings also involved hospital staff from all departments to support increased communication.

“The dedication and commitment of this project team to ‘get it done’ in a very short time frame in order to accommodate our high winter patient census was remarkable,” said Rhonda Forsyth, president and CEO of the John C. Lincoln Health Network. Completed at the end 2011, the renovation received praise from staff, patients and their families, resulting in the Board of Directors authorizing funding for remodeling the fourth floor following the same standards.

Photos courtesy of Gregg Mastorakos

About the award
The prestigious Vista awards recognize the importance of teamwork in creating an optimal healthcare physical environment. The winning teams show a unity of purpose that helps projects succeed from pre-planning to implementation.

Firestopping is a form of passive fire protection installed into a building. During a fire, firestopping keeps smoke and fire compartmentalized into designated areas so it does not spread quickly. By containing smoke and fire to designated compartments, it will protect others and buy time for help to arrive to put out the fire before it envelops the whole building.

There are currently only 25 contractors nationwide with the UL Firestop certification, and only one other in California. UL is the leader in fire safety testing, certification and research. This Qualified Firestop Contractor Program ensures that firestop systems are installed correctly to the high standards of the UL. To maintain the certification, we will continue to be audited every year.

Firestopping is important for owners to consider because it gives peace of mind over the lifetime of a building. If a fire ever does occur in a building, with firestopping, there are systems in place to make sure lives and financial investments are protected.

Healthcare buildings, which contain immobile patients who cannot easily get away from a fire, can benefit from the protection of firestopping in particular. Building owners of data centers, who invest millions in sophisticated servers, also benefit from this added security. Life sciences buildings, where vital research is conducted, also need to be protected from every angle. These are merely examples of why firestop systems are important; all owners can benefit from protecting human life and property.

On the panel, Eric also discussed DPR’s use of technology, saying: “We’ve seen a huge push for technology in the field in the past 2 years. We now have 200 tablets in the field.” 

He also spoke about ways to maximize productivity, saying: “The key word in the industry for me is automation. It reduces labor cost and increases efficiency.”

• Scott Emigh, Director of Enterprise Solution Sales for Microsoft;
• Alan Gladstone, Chairman, President, CEO & Owner of Anna’s Linens
• Steve Jones, Co-CEO/Chief Operating Officer of Universal Services of America

The panel shared their experiences with establishing their companies; trials and tribulations along the way; company culture & work environment, comparisons of the early days to today; and what's in store for the future. More than 200 people attended the event at The Westin in Costa Mesa, CA.

The panel (Dave is the third from the left)

About BOMA
Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) members are building owners, managers, developers, leasing professionals, medical office building managers, corporate facility managers, asset managers, and the providers of the products and services needed to operate commercial properties.

Collectively, BOMA members own or manage more than nine billion square feet of office space, which represents more than 80 percent of the prime office space in North America! More than 80 percent of individual members have annual operating budgets exceeding $1 million, while more than 75 percent of individual members are responsible for multiple buildings.

Girls Inc. CEO Lucy Santana-Ornelas said, “DPR’s gift is literally transformational in the sense that it allows us to impact the lives of more Orange County girls who need our help.” DPR began working with Girls Inc. of Orange County in 2012 when the non-profit was chosen to receive a complete makeover as part of DPR's Rebuild America Day. As a result, the organization received new classrooms and expansive repairs to their Youth and Family Center based in Costa Mesa, with materials alone totaling over $100,000. 

At the check presentation event, DPR was cordially invited to join Girls Inc.'s Green Club (Girls Restoring Emerging Environmental Needs), inspired by our GenR3 project this summer. DPR's plans for this year's involvement include hands-on volunteer opportunities with the elementary-aged girls that will focus on the importance of sustainability, protecting the environment, and making a difference in their community.

The girls made an incredible and sustainable gift for us to take back and hang in the office: a framed D, P, and R made out of recycled materials. Thank you, girls! 

Here's to a great year together!

About Girls Inc.
Girls Inc.® of Orange County positively changes the lives of 4,000 girls, ages 4 1/2 to 18, each year, by providing year-round holistic, compensatory, and intentional programming focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math). Girls Inc. of Orange County has been a respected member of the non-profit community for almost 60 years. The mission of Girls Inc. is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. We put our mission into practice through the Girls Inc. experience that equips girls to navigate gender, economic, and social barriers and grow into healthy, educated and independent adults. Health, education and independence are the three main areas that surround our program curricula.

About the DPR Foundation
The DPR Foundation 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 15 organizations selected, nationwide. Since 2008, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million to 21 different organizations.

When asked about receiving the Leadership in Safety Award, Rodney said, "Our goal is an Injury Free Environment. This isn’t achieved simply by adhering to OSHA and industry regulations; it’s the product of the culture of safety we’ve built at DPR, a culture that believes that zero incidents is an achievable goal.” 

Helping safety professionals and safety coordinators become leaders and influencers is important to Rodney. He has trained, mentored and influenced many safety professionals who have gone on to have significant impacts on the safety world both inside and outside of DPR Construction. Rodney has worked tirelessly in the mission to create an injury-free environment (IFE) for DPR and the entire construction industry. Since becoming DPR’s safety director in 1993, Rodney’s leadership and passion for safety has led DPR to be one of the safest contractors in the nation--having one of the lowest incident rates and Experience Modifier Rates (EMRs) year after year. Rodney’s vision has been realized throughout the company and has influenced DPR’s culture, which values safety as a priority that is promoted by each employee.

From the smallest SSG projects to large data centers, Rodney meets with operations groups, owners and customers to help plan for safety and promote the DPR safety culture across all 17 DPR locations. He helps assemble the right safety professionals for the team and then brings the whole group together to find the best ways to succeed in getting everyone home safely. The goal is to create an injury-free environment through planning and adherence to the principles of:

• Supportive Leadership
• Personal Commitment
• Free and Open Lines of Communication
• Accountability

DPR's Safety Group with both awards -- Rodney (third from left) with his Leadership in Safety Award and DPR's President’s Award for Safety (third from right)

Here's Rodney talking safety:

About CEA
The Construction Employers’ Association is the premier association in Northern California representing union commercial building contractors in collective bargaining, labor relations and legislative advocacy. It is the only organization whose sole purpose is to protect and promote the interests of the unionized commercial building contraction industry in Northern California.

Read more about the check presentation event here.

In addition to our grant announcement, we are proud to have been chosen as the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta (BGCMA)'s “Club Corporate Partner of the Year." According to BGCMA representatives, the DPR Foundation was chosen because: "DPR gives more financial support & volunteer hours to one specific club (Brookhaven) than any other corporate partner across our 10-county region; it is one of the healthiest partnerships BGCMA enjoys, and it has grown steadily every year as DPR continues to expand their investment; and, DPR staff who volunteer have been consistent over a long period of time, which has fostered a family-like atmosphere between the company & the Club."

Thank you to BGCMA for this honor and to all who made this award possible. Here's to a great year of helping our communities!

The DPR Foundation 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. Since 2008, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million to 21 different organizations.

Check out the DPR's story here. "Likes,” comments and shares on DPR's Innovation story are welcome and will help with the judging process. Just create an account, which is quick and easy, and you can impact the outcome of this challenge. Winners of the challenge will be announced the week of February 11th. Stay tuned!

About Lisa
Lisa joined DPR 10 years ago and has quickly grown within the company ever since. With a passion for nurturing the talent around her, Lisa is a strategic thinker who can manage many details and projects while simultaneously looking at the big picture. For the last year and a half, Lisa has been a project executive as well as the manager of the DPR Richmond, VA office. As the leader of the Richmond office, Lisa is in charge of: creating and managing the DPR Richmond business plan; pursuing work; overseeing operations of current projects; hiring and mentoring people; and risk management. In addition to these responsibilities, Lisa has also recently taken on substantial management responsibilities for DPR's Washington, DC office. Lisa is involved with causes such as: Camp Comfort Zone, a bereavement camp that supports children who have lost a loved one; Rebuilding Together; ACE mentoring program; Youth League of America; Charlottesville Literacy Volunteers; and the American Heart Association's "Go Red" campaign. She is also involved with professional organizations such as: American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE)'s Central Virginia chapter; 7x 24's Richmond chapter; and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

About Christopher
With 14 years of experience in preconstruction, estimating, business development and project management, Christopher has developed a deep understanding of the design and construction industry from multiple perspectives. From his first day at DPR, over nine years ago, Christopher knew that to help grow the company, he needed to broaden his knowledge base, and embrace his goal of experiencing the many sides of the design and construction industry. Since that time, Christopher has exemplified the core values of the company and embraced the culture, becoming an integral member of the preconstruction team, and, as of two years ago, the Regional Leadership Group. It is through these two pivotal roles that he has been an active participant in mentoring and growing the next generation of leaders within the company. He also provides support for DPR’s national sustainability program with a focus on the East Coast. Christopher is involved with professional organizations such as: USGBC; Virginia Sustainable Building Network; Associated General Contractors; American Institute of Architects; and causes such as: Maryland Multicultural Youth Center (MMYC) and Rebuilding Together.

Look out for a special Mid-Atlantic edition of ENR on March 25, 2013, which will feature profiles of the winners. Congratulations to all who made the list!

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.

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!

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!

• 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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

The bowling FUNd-raiser started at the Seven Tepees headquarters with mingling, munchies and refreshments. DPR attendees included: Peter Nosler (the "P" of DPR), Mike Humphrey, Kevin Shea, Jim Washburn and Rocky Moss.

The festivities then moved across the street to Mission Bowling Club for a night of great food, drinks and bowling at the unique, city bowling alley/hip, delicious restaurant. 

Special thanks to all of the staff at Seven Tepees who worked so hard to create and support this event (including the incredible, saintly Deb Glazer and Dave McMonigle, a board member who provided the lion’s share of support for this event)! We hope to continue this event next year with even more teams competing and supporting Seven Tepees. It is an event that is not to be missed!

Read more about our latest Seven Teepees activity, including Gratitude Day and how the DPR Foundation presented the organization with a $70,000 check as this year's grant.

The world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, Greenbuild features three days of inspiring speakers, invaluable networking opportunities, industry showcases, LEED workshops and tours of the host city's green buildings. (This year's tours included DPR's Sacred Heart Schools, Packard Foundation Headquarters and Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business.)

I also had a chance to compete against a fellow "greenie" and friend in an energy-producing bike race during Greenbuild:

The race was for Project Haiti, the USGBC's current philanthropy project. Environmental Building Strategies (EBS) and Integral Group shared booth space and donated $10,000 to Project Haiti as a result of some donations. Learn more about it here. 

Would love to hear about your Greenbuild experiences or what you thought of the DPR event.

DPR kicked-off the conference by hosting a golf tournament, appropriately named Kilowatt Klassic, on Sunday, November 11th. After the golf tournament, DPR hosted a hospitality event, which included approximately 75 customers, architects, and subcontractors, with live music, cocktails and light fare. 

The bi-annual conference is targeted towards those concerned with uninterrupted access to critical information. With nine attendees from across the country, DPR was a silver sponsor.

Presentations included DPR customers, Digital Realty Trust and Facebook. Facebook presented the Open Compute Project and their revolutionary greenfield data centers in Prineville, OR, Forest City, NC and Lulea, Sweden, all currently under phased construction by DPR.

With 762 attendees, the conference had the second highest attendance in the event's 20-year history. Live coverage was provided on Twitter via DPR's Advanced Technology core market group @DPRAdvancedTech.

The fun and intimate event included live music, refreshments and a delicious buffet in the ballpark's club level. 

Guests at the event caught up with one other and had the ballpark, home of the World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, all to themselves.

Attendees of ISPE's Annual Meeting include executives from pharmaceutical companies and key government regulators. The meeting includes education sessions on the latest information in technology innovation, application and best practices in the pharmaceutical world. Additionally, there are sessions that engage regulatory agencies in discussions with the industry, building consensus around guidance, quality issues and technology application. This year's theme is "Global GMP Solutions through Innovation and Transformation." 

Come visit DPR's booth (table #241) at ISPE in the exhibit hall. If tweeting about ISPE, use #ISPEAM12.

Andrea Walker and I worked with a few designers at Gensler to teach a 5th grade class at Ulloa Elementary School about what it takes to build an idea. We spent three Fridays in the classroom explaining how the big day would work and helping the students brainstorm ideas, then model them with clay. This year’s theme was “Leap Year 2012: Things That Jump” and we created a sand castle of Jaws-like proportions. We had a shark jumping out of the water, breaking a boat in half, with people swimming away to save their lives.

Here’s a model of what we wanted to achieve:

And here’s the final product:

Pretty similar, right?

Despite a very cold and foggy start, the competition was a huge success. The kids did the majority of the building and had a lot of fun, even when they had to recreate the shark after it partially collapsed.

At the award ceremony, we won “Best Teamwork,” which was a huge accomplishment based on how well the group worked leading up to the competition and at the day of the event.

We look forward to seeing what terrifyingly amazing sandcastle we build next year.

As builders, we're used to coming in and asking the owner questions. This time, we were the ones pushing the direction, which we was a new, eye-opening experience. We had the outlandish goal of creating a Net Zero building in one of the most severe climates in the country and learned that an engaged owner is really what makes the difference. It's almost been a year since we moved into our renovated office and it's been a great learning experience. Among other things, we learned that being an owner is no easy task.

Targeting Net Zero energy consumption, last year, we created an open-office environment that we call a living lab. While Net Zero was the focus, we knew that as a result of this effort, we would achieve LEED certification; we actually achieved LEED Platinum in July. A key part of making this happen was staying engaged. Our key players were engaged from the beginning and stayed engaged. Lessons learned included identifying adequate resources and staying focus all the way through. While the design stage is fun and creative, following through with the execution of the project is necessary. 

We learned to:

• Stay engaged
• Have a full resource plan
• Follow through

10 months later since we began this process, we moved in to our new space last October 10th. Our Phoenix office has been called The Workplace of the Future. We definitely think it is. Our office is a living building. When it's cold out, the office heats itself. When it's hot out, it cools itself. You can hear it. Before we moved, we had a company meeting to let employees know things would be different in this type of environment. Move-in was smooth, easy and seamless. People got settled in and had fun acclimating to the new space. Then, we had to work out the bugs. We adjusted and tweaked some things to find a middle ground of comfort. Everyone's different--some people run hot, some run cold, byt people adjusted their expectations and the space works. There was some trial and error, for example, in winter time, when everyone was in hats and gloves in the offices, we realized that the window was too broad so we tightened that up and adjusted accordingly. We've worked out most of the major issues by now.

A year after move-in, we have made substantial progress and are adjusting the minor details as opposed to the major details that we adjusted during the first year. This space really inspires collaboration, creativity and enjoyment, which we are just thrilled about.

Our Model Slicer plug-in was created after our employees found themselves spending too much time slicing BIM models received from design partners into models that would accurately reflect construction needs. On a high-profile hospital project in the Bay Area, Chidambaram Somu, a DPR BIM Engineer, used the Model Slicer to help him quickly divide the single slab object into 16 separate components, reflecting the precise control joints required by the construction team. “I was able to create all 16 slab sections in the time that it used to take me to produce one.” The plug-in also allows fast exporting of precisely the views and content users want, so the model becomes compatible with a variety of software platforms. According to Chidambaram, “The process becomes really simple, breaking redundancy and automating the process.”

The new version 3 release of the Model Slicer brings with it some powerful improvements. Along with the previously available ability to section according to gridlines and levels, users can now also use a selection box to specify the boundaries. Another improvement, suggested by the large contingent of users, was the ability to quickly strip a Revit file of all existing Views and Sheets. On some projects, this has led to a file size savings of up to 50%. Our Model Slicer supports all flavors of Revit, from versions 2011-2013, along with Revit Suite, Architecture, MEP, and Structure.

Collaboration was vital to the success of this project. In a unique demonstration of partnership, HSEB’s end users are both the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix campus (expanded from Tucson, AZ) and the Northern Arizona University physical therapy program (located in Flagstaff, AZ). For the grand opening, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart, Northern Arizona University President John Haeger and Arizona Board of Regents Chair Rick Myers will be on hand to formally unveil the new building, which now houses more than 300 health science students from the two state universities. Demonstrations and tours of the building also will be conducted. Representatives from DPR and the project team will attend.

The building was a united effort of two owners, two universities, two architects and two general contractors. This innovative model for an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to health sciences education and research merged programs from two universities with distinct cultures onto one campus. An interactive planning process, which involved educators from the cross-section of health sciences disciplines, worked to create an educational vision of a team-based continuity of care model.

Check out the virtual tour of HSEB.

The concert, benefitting UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, drew thousands to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. It raised $4.3 million to support completion of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital at Mission Bay.

The children’s hospital is part of the larger UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay project that 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.

"We're on time and on budget," said UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret to SFGate about the 289-bed, state-of-the-art complex for children, women and cancer patients. "And we're just down to raising $195 million for our February 2015 opening."

The UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay includes the 183-bed UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital at Mission Bay with an urgent care/emergency department, pediatric primary care, and specialty outpatient care; a Women's Specialty Hospital with 36 beds, cancer care, specialty surgery, and birth center; UCSF Cancer Hospital at Mission Bay, part of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center that will house 70 beds and offer inpatient and outpatient surgery for cancer specialties; and a 207,400-sq.-ft. outpatient building and a 36,000-sq.-ft. energy center with helipad, parking and support services. This project aims at LEED® Gold certification and will feature 16 individual gardens, creating green space totaling 4.3 acres. Over an acre of the space will be rooftop gardens, which will help to reduce storm water runoff. The complex will deliver 100 percent outdoor (rather than re-circulated) air to every space.

Once complete, the innovative hospital will set a new world-class standard for patient- and family-centered health care, safety, sustainability, and medicine.  To view footage from the event, click here or for more information about UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, click here. 

• Socially Responsible by Design: The Legacy and Leadership of Green Building at Mills College featuring the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business
• 2030 Today: Three Institutions Leading the Way featuring Sacred Heart Schools and Packard Foundation Headquarters

The good news is that anyone can attend a Greenbuild tour, even if not attending the full Greenbuild conference. Just register for Greenbuild and select the tour on the registration package page. Here's more information on the featured tours (see the full list of tours here):

HD13: Socially Responsible by Design: The Legacy and Leadership of Green Building at Mills College
Explore a legacy of green campus development and environmental stewardship at the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College in Oakland. Attendees will tour three buildings nestled in the historic campus designed by local design firms. The LEED Platinum Betty Irene Moore Natural Sciences Building, an early pioneer in sustainable design, incorporates rainwater harvesting, interactive energy metric displays and photovoltaic panels. The Jeannik Mequet Littlefield Concert Hall employs an underfloor air distribution system in the context of a challenging historic renovation. Finally, the first LEED Gold business school in California, the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business, integrates cutting edge with effective green strategies, including a living green roof, rainwater harvesting, natural ventilation, and radiant heating.

FD12: 2030 today: Three Institutions Leading the Way
This full-day tour highlights four recent projects at three sites on the San Francisco peninsula that aim beyond high-performance buildings toward broader views of sustainable institutions: the Packard Foundation’s effort to reduce their organizational carbon footprint; Portola Valley Town Center’s accounting for embodied CO2 emissions in the materials and construction; and finally, Sacred Heart School’s effort to create healthy learning environments where students can conceive of a more sustainable future. The projects showcase a range of certifications and goals, including the first LEED Platinum for Schools project, a AIA Top Ten award winner, a Living Building Challenge contestant, and Net Zero Energy performance.

See you at Greenbuild!

CBE's Livable Buildings Award recognizes projects that meet the highest standards for providing healthy, productive indoor environments and represent best sustainability practices. Now in its sixth year, it is given to buildings that demonstrate exceptional performance in terms of resource efficiency, overall design and occupant satisfaction (using CBE's Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality Survey). CBE's survey is used to study occupant satisfaction with the quality of the indoor environment and has been used in over 575 buildings around the world.

Photo Credits: Drew Kelly

The competition recognizes 38 of the region’s best achievements in construction and design. Winners will be featured in the December 2012 issue of ENR California. On December 6th, winners will also be honored at the annual Best Projects breakfast at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel. Congratulations to all!

The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters (Photo Credit: Ted van der Linden):

Palomar Medical Center (Photo Credit: David Cox):

Want to read about how chilled beams result in cost savings? Interested in the Hospital of the Future and the Future of Healthcare? The Packard Foundation's Net-Zero targeted new headquarters? 

Did you know that Florida is now home to world-renowned, German-based Max Planck Society’s first research institute in the U.S.? Curious to learn what 60 AEC professionals said needs to change about current scheduling practices?

Read about these topics, how owners can reduce costs, what's happening across the industry and much more in the new edition of the DPR Review.

The project team used a collaborative, hybrid integrated project delivery model with numberous lean processes to build the new hospital. Designed by CO Architects, the state-of-the-art, 11-story, 740,000-square-foot, 288-bed facility is one of the most technologically-advanced hospitals in the nation. Eventually, it will be built out to 650 beds. This world-class healing environment is also one of the largest new hospitals built in California and is designed to meet both current and future needs of the community. The hospital provides inpatient care as well as surgical, rehabilitation, and emergency and trauma services. Innovative features include: all private patient rooms with flexibility; secure wireless network; expanded trauma and emergency services; a 1.5-acre green wavy roof, natural lighting and sustainable materials. About 1,700 employees will work at the new hospital and staffing could eventually grow to more than 2,000.

Says Palomar Health President and CEO Michael H. Covert, “Our goal was to create a uniquely flexible, future-oriented facility that would combine all of the principles that have been studied for many years to enhance the care and safety and well-being of patients and their families on one site, something that has not been effectively achieved on this scale anywhere in the country or the world.”

Chief Administrative Officer of the new Palomar Medical Center, Gerald Bracht says, “Palomar Health had a vision to forever change the way health care is provided, and the people we serve placed their trust in us to make it happen. We are delivering on that promise by unveiling a world-class facility designed to transform the patient-care experience. The building is an architectural and technological masterpiece, but our outstanding staff will bring it to life and ultimately fulfill the vision.”

Palomar Medical Center was featured in DPR's Future of Healthcare study. Read about the Future of Healthcare here.

(Photo Credit: David Cox)

The new med/surge tower portion of the project, which DPR currently has under construction, will initially have three occupied stories with potential to expand to seven, a new ICU, new operating rooms and recovery rooms. Additionally, DPR is performing a six-phase remodel on the existing, adjacent building, which will become the new Women’s Center. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

With more than $2.5 billion in healthcare projects, DPR has a unique perspective on the entire healthcare ecosystem, as our work impacts how hospitals are designed, built and how they will eventually function. DPR conducted the study to bring new insights to the industry and help healthcare leaders navigate the increasingly complex environment that will impact patient care and bottom lines. More than 40 CEOs, owners, designers and management consultants were interviewed for the Future of Healthcare study. The perspectives of these executives reinforced what we’ve been hearing: Providers are seeking to deliver the best care while striving to be cost effective.

DPR’s Future of Healthcare study revealed 10 areas of industry change--in addition to healthcare reform--that include: accountable care organizations; pay-for-performance; aging population (both patients and staff); electronic medical records; healthcare worker shortage; sophisticated diagnostic and treatment equipment; handheld computers and portable diagnostic equipment; medical homes; holistic, patient-centered environment; and evidence-based medicine.

Three key areas that will become increasingly important to the industry over the next 10 years are: health economics, healthcare delivery and buildings of the future. 2012 is heading into an unprecedented era in managing health economics due to uncertainty and the need for healthcare providers to deliver the care they need, while being cost effective. Both the increasing population of aging people--as people live and work longer--and the additional 32 million insured U.S. citizens--the result of healthcare reform becoming fully implemented--will cause demand to skyrocket. Healthcare delivery is becoming more patient-centric, and at the same time, centralized and vertically integrated, with IT playing an important role.

Buildings of the future will accommodate trends in health economics and delivery, with emphasis around design and system integration. As health technologies become more sophisticated and simultaneously require less physical space, the need for server and data center support will increase. For example, dubbed the “Hospital of the Future,” DPR’s Palomar Medical Center just opened to the public on August 19th. As a building of the future, the hospital is a complete departure from the old way of doing things: It is adaptable, both in terms of patient needs and technology. The new hospital was designed and built with technological advancements in mind to facilitate better patient care. It is built to adapt: It can eventually house more than 600 patients, which is more than double its current size, and is wired with 57 miles of Ethernet cable to facilitate current and ever-changing technological systems.

The Future of Healthcare study consensus is that healthcare systems have already started to make the changes that will make them more competitive, regardless of the impact of government-mandated reform. As practiced today, healthcare is not fiscally sustainable. There must be, and there certainly will be, transformative changes over the next 10 years.

To tweet about this study, please use: #futureofhc

Going back to last Saturday, here’s my experience of volunteering at the Bike Repair Clinic…I knew it was going to be a good day when I showed up to the office at 9 in the morning--a full hour before the event--to find a family of three already patiently waiting. I quickly showered (after a nice commute by bike) and got with the other volunteers from DPR, Turning Wheels for Kids and the Bike Doctorz who were starting to arrive, and we began setting everything up--tables, large shelters, parts, bike stands and, of course, the barbeque! As the clock struck 10, we were ready for the public. Some bike repairs were easy, just some flat tires, which new tubes quickly fixed. Others required much more. One bike started out with “just the tires need air.” Once I began going through the bike, the repair list started to grow: old tubes--fixed, broken pedal--replaced, loose crank--tightened, ripped bar grips--new ones installed, and lastly, a broken brake handle that was also replaced. The boy patiently waited while I fixed everything and showed him what I was doing. He was very shy and barely spoke a word. When I was done and handed him his bike back, he surprised me by exclaiming very loudly, “THANK YOU!”  Then, he rode his bike around our parking lot for an hour with a huge smile glued to his face. This kind of instant feedback is what makes these repair clinics so rewarding. 

There are many other similar stories that arose from the 95 bikes that were repaired that day. From the excited kids who have not been on their bikes in years to the super appreciative parents who do not have the means or knowledge to do the repairs themselves, a good time was had by all. 

Many thanks to all who came out to lend a hand (and their bike tools)!

For some local kids, bikes are the only way they can get around to go to school or a friend's house. More than just a toy, bikes give these kids independence, confidence, a fun way to exercise and a sense of adventure. Social workers in the area indicate that bikes are the number one requested gift by children. 

Supported by DPR’s San Jose office, Turning Wheels for Kids provides new bicycles to underprivileged children in the local community. DPR's Scott Greubel and Phil Bartkowski are on the organization's board. Last year, Turning Wheels for Kids provided 2,500 bikes to children. Don't forget to like Turning Wheels for Kids on Facebook.

Hope to see you Saturday!

This new data center is an expandable facility, capable of meeting HCA’s immediate needs and accommodating future growth. The initial phase is the construction of a 100,000-sq.-ft. structure with a 30,000-sq.-ft. raised floor with 12 MW systems and related utilities, 10,000-sq.-ft. office area, and warm shell space for future expansion.

DPR and PageSouthlerlandPage have a long history of collaboration on mission critical projects. They recently joined forces as design-build partners for the University of Texas Data Center Consolidation and also worked with Hewlett-Packard on their two Austin data centers.

HCA has been a valued DPR client nationwide for more than 15 years. Their new Nashville-area facility is scheduled to be completed in June, 2013.

Read more here.

Some interesting stats: Over 30% of the companies on the list are in construction or real estate. The average age of a company on this list is 29.8 years old. Founded in 1990, DPR recently celebrated its 22nd birthday.

Kudos to all the companies included on the list.

Click here to read more about the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.