Gamma wins six new curtain wall projects

In a difficult new construction market, Gamma, New York,a 43-year old curtain wall, recladding and window wall industry leader with offices and facilities in Miami, New York City, Quebec and Montreal, has enjoyed a successful summer and fall, which means that the next two-three years also will be very busy, according to a Nov. 2 release.Company officials announced today the winning of six private and public sector curtain wall construction projects totaling nearly $100 million and 800,000 square feet in three different cities. Three projects are in New York City’s Manhattan and Queens boroughs, and three are in Canada, two near Ottawa and one in Montreal.

New York City projects

In a year when the New York construction market has suffered double digit declines in spending for the second consecutive 12-month period, Gamma has been awarded more than 500,000 square feet of curtain wall contracts in New York City. One is the contract for the complicated curtain wall for the New School’s new building in Manhattan. The second is for a new Police Training Academy in Queens, and the third is for the NYC Department of Sanitation Manhattan Community Parking Garage.According to Elliot Kracko, Gamma chairman and CEO, the New School project in New YorkCity is a highly complex, custom curtain wall package for Tishman Construction. The curtain wall uses imported hand finished brass panels that have been patinated to give it anold world look, he says. “This job requires the expertise of old world craftsmanship combined with the most modern engineering technologies, push button operable windows, customized slantedwalls, panels, vision areas, LEED certification - - all for owners with an unrivalled reputationfor design, style and performance, “ Kracko said in the release.“Gamma is one of very few who could provide such a product. Gamma was selected due to thecompany’s engineering performance and track record with similarly unique and complexprojects,” Kracko explained in the release. Encompassing glass, brass panels and canopies, this is a design-build contract. Gamma’s engineering and shop drawing process is underway, with project completion anticipated in about two years.The New York City Police Department is planning to construct a new Police Academy onapproximately 35 acres of city owned land in College Point, Queens. The project is the largest ofthe 46 projects of the NYC Department of Design and Construction that are currently in designor under construction.Incorporating many of the NYPD's existing training facilities located throughout New York Cityinto one consolidated campus, which ultimately total a $1.5 billion project, the Academy will consist of a modern academic and physical training complex operated by the NYPD. Involving curtain wall, metal panels and special compositions, this project uses both bomb blast- and bullet-proof technologies.Gamma was awarded the contract based on its experience as a bomb-blast design expert, leveraging its design-build bomb blast experience at the United Nations in New York, where the company worked with pre-eminent engineering experts in that specialized field, Kracko said in the release. The project is expected to be complete in three years.For the NYC Department of Sanitation Manhattan Community Parking Garage, Gamma hasbeen awarded the curtain wall contract for what will be afour- to five-story air conditioned, fully curtain-walled parking facility. It will be surrounded by an energy saving operable sun-shield finned system that will track the movements of the sun and flex its fins accordingly. The project will take about two years to complete.Also in the U.S., at the end of October, Gamma received The Excellence in Construction Award, in the category of “Exterior Contractor In Mixed Use Over $125 Million,” from the Florida East Coast Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. Given once every two years, the award is for Gamma’s work on KM/Plaza’s the Marquis in Miami, the tallest residential tower in the state of Florida at 67 stories.KM/Plaza’s president, Brad Meltzer, commented in the release that Gamma “is a premier contractor (in South Florida) for large, modern, high end projects, especially those with custom sizes and shapes. This project was completed on time and under budget, even during some of the most difficult financial times our industry has seen.”

Canadian projects

Gamma International was recently awarded two projects in Gatineau, near Ottawa, by the respected general contractor, Broccolini Construction, for high-performance curtain wall and strip window systems for new federal office buildings. Gamma International also won a third project, in Montreal West Island for general contractor EBC Inc., for a new health sciences and technologies building for John-Abbot College. These are all custom projects involving 265,000 feet of curtain wall and 134,000 feet of window wall, as well as 28,600 feet of aluminum and Corten cladding.The projects in Gatineau, one at 455 de la Carriere St., scheduled for completion at the beginning of 2012 and another at 22 Eddy St., scheduled to end in July 2012, are part of the revitalization and modernization of that neighborhood. The Eddy Street project involves the complexity of integrating and incorporating an existing smaller heritage office building with a brick wall into the new building.The John-Abbot College project, scheduled for completion first quarter of 2012, also involves custom curtain and window wall with the added detail of a special sun shade and 1000 feet of aluminum skylights.

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