Daily Archives: February 21, 2016

RSA Plaza Color Rendering — The State Building Commission approved our preliminary scheme on January 26, 1989. Our relationship with that agency had gone surprisingly smooth considering the Building Commission’s prior relationship with the RSA. Two months earlier, acting on instructions from Bronner, I had called on newly appointed “BC” Director Bob Crumpton (whom I […]

RSA Plaza – The Building Commission

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged building / commission / peril and intrigue / plaza / rsa

Even before the Plaza work began, there was this feeling that Dr. Bronner and Mayor Emory Folmar did not get along very well. They were like two boy dogs in the same yard. Bronner continuously complained in print and in speeches that the city downtown appeared dirty, rundown and overgrown […]

RSA Plaza – Struggle With The City

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged city / peril and intrigue / plaza / rsa / struggle

RSA Plaza Drain Below — As noted previously, the Plaza design included an elaborate landscaped roof deck opening from the glass enclosed restaurant on the 6th floor. It offered a splendid view of the State Capitol and the remainder of the Capitol Complex. We designed the roof patio area with 2-foot square granite pavers […]

RSA Plaza – Roof Drains Below

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged below / drains / peril and intrigue / plaza / roof / rsa

RSA Plaza Deck — The Plaza parking deck was a 2WR project, but it did impact the PH&J Plaza work. Besides the terrible complexity of the junctures of the floor levels on every floor, there was the matter of the green roof. We had cautioned 2WR to spec a custom green color for their […]

RSA Plaza – Parking Deck

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged deck / parking / peril and intrigue / plaza / rsa

RSA Parking Deck — Planning proceeded with all haste. The Plaza parking deck (a 415 car deck, the one that started all this) would bid first, and the other three structures were to be bid slightly later in a single $50 million package. Ever the financial wizard, Bronner demanded that all this work be […]

RSA Plaza – Chronology

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged chronology / peril and intrigue / plaza / rsa

RSA Plaza

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged peril and intrigue / plaza / rsa

Elevator Clip Art — As the prospect of $100 Million in office building construction pervaded the elevator industry, all the major manufacturers began to scramble to be sure their product would be considered. Certainly the RSA Union and Tower together would be the most significant elevator work in Alabama for 1993. I had been […]

RSA Union – The Elevator Ride

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged elevator / ride / rsa / union

RSA Union – The Contractor Stands Tall

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged brice / contractor / rsa / union

RSA Union and Deck — By almost any standard, the RSA Union was a huge building. It was to be nine stories high (plus basement), with floor plates of 40,000 square feet. That produces a building of 400,000 square feet of floor area. It was 25-percent larger than the ACC, which previously was the largest […]

RSA Union – The Concept

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged concept / rsa / union

Steve Timms — As noted in the outset of this section, 1992-93 was a depression era in the construction industry, and bids on The RSA Union office building and parking deck were taken on January 21, 1993, slap-dab in the middle of the economic recession that Bronner had predicted. We received nine proposals, […]

RSA Union – Remarkable Bids

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged bids / remarkable / rsa / union

Union Clipping — By 1991 the success and acceptance of Dr. Bronner’s initial round of buildings, the RSA Plaza and the Alabama Center for Commerce, had completely changed the political chemistry of the city. Governor Guy Hunt, who had previously fought with Bronner, now offered him the full support of the State. Mayor […]

RSA Union – Political Deals

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged deals / political / rsa / union

WSJ Clipping — Folsom and White David Bronner secured the support and commitment of Governor Hunt before he ever embarked on the RSA Monroe Street development. Early on, every arrangement with the State ran smoothly. The land for The Union Office Building was made available, and desirable state agencies were lined up as […]

RSA Union – Opposition Politics

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged opposition / political / rsa / union

Union Street Washers — Right up front I admit that our dealings with the City on this round ran much smoother than before, especially with our supposed champion and liaison, Roy Boudreaux, in the equation. However, that does not say that things ran perfectly. Because the Union project was in the initial thrust of […]

RSA Union – Encounters With The City

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged city / rsa / union

PSC Commissioners — The array of state agency tenants in the Union was much more impressive than those in the RSA Plaza. With the green light from the Governor’s Office, Bronner had little difficulty in lining up a stellar group. Among the anticipated occupants were the State Purchasing Department, the State Comptroller, the […]

RSA Union – Impressive Tenants

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged rsa / tenants / union

Union Sign — Once David Bronner had made up his mind on something, he allowed nothing to get in the way. He drove us relentlessly. PH&J was never known for speed–care and thoroughness was our forte. And this time we were facing $100 Million in the construction of two office buildings, both of […]

RSA Union – Beating The Schedule

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged bidding / rsa / schedule / union

Union Framed — With over $100 Million in construction in the offing for the Union and Tower, and with the Tower twice as high as anything ever built in Montgomery, Ron Blount and I decided that we needed to devise and implement a qualification procedure for general contractors, and it was necessarily going […]

RSA Union – A Prequalification Procedure

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged prequalification / rsa / union

RSA Tower – What Goes Around Comes Around

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged peril and intrigue / rsa / tower / water works

RSA Tower – Wayne Griffin Electric

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged contractor / electrical / peril and intrigue / rsa / tower

ALDPH — The major tenant in the Tower was to be the Alabama Department of Public Health, a humongous State agency that was to occupy one-half of the available tenant space in the entire building. Their space was reduced from 12 floors to 10 floors, but as a result of the business-like […]

RSA Tower – Vital Statistics at Risk

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged peril and intrigue / public health / rsa / statistics / tower

Tower Signed Beam — There are lots of traditions in the construction trades and probably most of them come from the romance of the iron workers. These high-wire daredevils, who assemble the steel skeletons of high-rise construction, consider themselves the top of the social order of the building trades. Everyone is familiar with the […]

RSA Tower – Topping Out

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged beam / peril and intrigue / rsa / top / tower

One of the frustrating dictums/rules which Ron Blount, RSA’s Owner Representative, brought to our project was a minority participation program. He held job fairs and stirred the issue across two states. After bids were taken on the RSA Union, he coerced Brice Construction Company to release the competent masonry sub […]

RSA Tower – The Unhappy Mason

February 21, 2016 in RSA tagged brick / mason / peril and intrigue / rsa / tower

The prequalification procedure that Ron Blount and I employed to screen the bidders on the RSA Tower was an absolute disaster. Yet, the need to restrict the work to experienced contractors was obvious. Very few Alabama contractors had ever built a 12-story building, much less a 24-story structure. And few […]

Exploring Montgomery

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