Elgin’s Lamp Inc. manages major ECC building project
By Paul Sullivan For The Courier-News May 23, 2011 2:54PM
A construction worker walks by large atrium windows that are part of the $55 million Health and Life Science Center being built at Elgin Community College. May 18, 2011 | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media
Lamp, Inc.
460 N. Grove Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
Ph. 847-741-7220
Website: www.lampinc.net
Article Extras
Updated: September 29, 2011 12:43AM
Constructing the 140,000-
square-foot Health and Life Science Center at Elgin Community College requires fitting millions of pieces together correctly, all in sequence, to make the puzzle come out right.
Ian Lamp, vice president of marketing and sales for Lamp Inc., the construction manager on the job, said, “A truck driver stops in Texas to see his girlfriend, and we don’t get the terrazzo we need when we need it. We want the semi pulling up here the day we need it. Otherwise, where do we put it? If it’s drywall, for example, it can’t get wet.”
Building material gets touched an average of 17 times before it’s installed, Lamp said. “And you have to pay somebody to move it. This is a union job. Carpenters get $40.77 an hour. And that’s in their paycheck. With benefits, a carpenter costs $72 an hour; labor, $62. About 35 percent of the people on this job are carpenters. Drywall, wood framing, vinyl, acoustics, metal studs — they’re all carpenters.”
Lamp, whose grandfather Clifford Lamp started the construction company in 1932, said about 60 percent of the material that comes onto a job site leaves as waste. “In Grandpa’s day, he just dumped it in the Dumpster, and it went into the landfill. Our goal now is to recycle 75 percent” of the waste.
Lamp Inc. has three divisions: design/build, general contracting, and construction management. Lamp is also the construction manager on Batavia High School’s 150,000-square-foot addition. “We make a little less (as construction managers), but we have less risk,” he said.
Problem solvers
“There are 35 to 40 companies in this bid package — the mason guy, steel guy, glass, etc. We serve as the owner’s advocate” — in this case, ECC. “We watch over the project. This is a thinking man’s job. That’s why I love it. The trade contractors are all working from shop drawings and staging their work for their own benefit. With improper staging, a ventilation contractor might show up to find he has only 6 inches of space for a 12-inch duct. Now you got problems. We have to identify the problem, how to fix it, and then fix it.”
“We coordinate who goes first, second, third to make it all work efficiently. That’s the benefit of using a construction manager and why this building will be done three months early.”
Lamp said that when he was younger and skinnier, he dug ditches, pulled up concrete forms and did a variety of construction work. Now his primary job function is finding business for the company. “I get it, Craig builds it, and Steven counts it,” Lamp said.
Craig Lamp, Ian’s cousin, is president of Lamp. Ian’s brother Steven is the CFO. Lamp Inc. has 50 employees; 16 are staff — project managers, accountants, estimators, owners — and the balance are carpenters and laborers, several of whom are father-and-son teams.
Says Ian Lamp: “I still run into people who remember my grandfather. Now more often, it’s my father (Gene) or my uncle (Earl). We’ve built a reputation. We want to maintain it.”
To get the business, Lamp said he needs to have a wide circle of influence. He attends many dinners and luncheons in the course of his business. “I’ve eaten chicken a hundred different ways,” he said with a laugh. “We need to get to know the people who make the decisions. Referrals work the best. We can’t wait for bids from architects to come in. It’s too late.”
The two-story glass-walled atrium of the completed and furnished $55 million Health and Life Science Center will serve as the main gateway to the ECC campus.
When completed in January 2012, the H&LS building will have 29 classrooms and labs designed for teaching medical and dental support staff. The building is part of ECC’s $178 million Facilities Master Plan that calls for the construction of a mix of new buildings and renovations of others.
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