“Over the years I’ve seen this city grow so much it’s unbelievable – the area we’re currently in right now, they’ve cleaned it all up and now you see modern buildings all around,” said John O’Connor, a lifelong resident of the Washington DC area and Business Manager for International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 10, which represents the vertical transportation industry’s best-trained and most highly-skilled elevator mechanics and apprentices in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
In the last ten years, the southwest area of Washington DC has experienced rapid growth and development. Once a blighted industrial area and site of a decommissioned power plant, today the Anacostia Waterfront Development Zone is experiencing a construction boom. Among the buildings under construction is the award-winning1 Stacks building – described by developers as “an energetic multi-use development in DC set in the heart of the iconic Buzzard Point district2” – which comprises three condo towers equipped with 18 elevators. All of these conveyance systems are installed by and will be serviced by elevator constructors from one of the IUEC’s most well-established and respected affiliated companies, TK Elevator.
“This is a start of a very big project,” John continued. “A lot of these streets in the Stacks job are going to be themed streets – like on one street it’ll be like walking down a street in Italy, on another, walking down through a street in Germany… it’s a lot of retail space, office space, childcare – you name it, it’s here.”
When the ElevatorInfo Media Team visited the site last spring, we had the opportunity to speak with Marty Walker Jr., a Construction Manager for TK Elevator, who supervises operations on the job. Another longtime resident of the area, he described the rapid growth of the up-and-coming southwest waterfront district.
“There’s a lot of development. This is a condominium complex – around us you’ve got Audi Field, the soccer stadium, behind us – you’ve got the DC Wharf, which is a couple of blocks down on the waterfront – so really, this whole Buzzard Point southwest is being redeveloped,” he said. “(There are) a lot of condominiums, a little bit of office, really the whole southwest waterfront of DC is being revamped. There’s lot of construction going on, a lot of work opportunity… probably the biggest development area in the District of Columbia over the last five to ten years.”
Marty took us through the site and showed us the state-of-the art equipment his team was installing. “This is a machine room-less traction elevator – so the machine is in the overhead as opposed to in a machine room at the top above the elevator shaft itself, and then the control system is in a room that’s up on the rooftop landings.”
In cities like Washington DC space is at a premium, so installing new, modern equipment was an excellent choice for the building’s developers – and TK Elevator had just the equipment they needed. In addition to maximizing the building’s available space, the belt-driven traction elevators being installed will provide a smooth, quiet ride for the people who will live in, work in, and visit the building once it’s complete.
As with every IUEC jobsite we’ve visited, mechanics and supervisors alike were vocal about safety being a priority for the skilled elevator technicians installing vertical transportation equipment.
“When I come in, the first thing we do is come and check that all the barricades are up,” said Tom Sorzano, Construction Foreman on the project. “If (hoistway) netting is not up, we have to put that up, and then when our guys get here, we’ve got to make sure that every day they have all the material they’re gonna need … all their safety supplies and PPE (personal protective equipment) – gloves, glasses, hard hats – (and that) all of our lifelines are installed, making sure everybody’s safe.”
Tom stressed that safety isn’t just about communicating with his team of elevator constructors, it’s also about communicating with the people from other trades such as carpenters, steelworkers, and electricians who work alongside them.
“Communication in general is huge,” he said. “Keeping everybody on the same page, focused, making sure we have power, making sure the building is getting drywall around the frames, and (people are) not working above us – it’s constant communication with not only my people, but other trades, too.”
To ensure the job is done well and done safely, projects as big as this one require all of the elevator mechanics and apprentices on-site to hold the appropriate certifications necessary to do their work. Because TK Elevator is an IUEC signatory company, making sure elevator constructors are up to date with the certifications they need is as easy as making a phone call to the Business Manager, who will set up their training courses.
“A lot of these projects require certifications,” Marty said. “I can count many times where I’ve reached out to Local 10 and John (O’Connor) about welding, sig rig, forklift, certifications – and they’ve conducted the classes at Local 10. That basically removes the barrier from us from having any issues with providing manpower to these projects, because a lot of these projects do have strict requirements for certifications.”
As IUEC members, all Local 10 elevator constructors have access to the industry’s most comprehensive training through the National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP). There are classrooms and a welding lab on-site at the hall in Lanham, Maryland, just outside the city, as well as satellite classrooms for students who live further out in the Local’s jurisdiction. All have access to NEIEP’s online courses as well.
The ANSI-accredited Certified Signal Person and Rigger Levels 1 and 2 (CSPR-1/2) certification course, along with OSHA 10, Arc Flash Safety, SAIA Scaffolding, and American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED, are all part of NEIEP’s required apprenticeship curriculum. Welding, Forklift, and Aerial Lift certifications are available to mechanics as continuing education offerings. All can be earned by apprentices and mechanics with no additional out-of-pocket costs, as they are covered by the IUEC’s education benefits.
As John O’Connor said, learning this craft isn’t easy – but as the IUEC recruits the best and brightest elevator apprentices and mechanics in the industry, he has confidence in the new members coming in who will be the future of the skilled elevator trade. “I learned it, just like these guys all learned it, our members are learning it, and these probationaries are going to come up the same way.”
Marty, who worked together with Local 10 as part of the interview and onboarding process for new apprentice elevator constructors, spoke of his excitement about opportunities for growth within the trade and growth in construction in the southwest DC area. “Driving up South Capitol Street in the last three, four, five years, there’s been a lot of redevelopment. Just the amount of peripheral impact, these types of projects and types of development have created have brought a lot of employment opportunity – without a doubt…you can see how jobs like this and jobs in the nearby areas are creating that opportunity.”
1 https://thestacks.com/files/NAIOP_DC_MD_Awards_Release_Final.pdf
2 https://thestacks.com/