KBE Wins Six Awards - Including CT ABC's Most Prestigious - at 2014 Annual Dinner
Online, February 17, 2014 (Newswire.com) - (Farmington, CT)
KBE Building Corporation received six awards, including the Merit Cup Award, from Associated Builders and Contractors of Connecticut, Inc. (CT ABC) at the 2014 Annual Dinner & Excellence in Construction Awards.
The Merit Cup Award, CT ABC's most prestigious, honors the company with the greatest commitment to the merit shop philosophy, in which sub-contractors are hired on a merit basis regardless of their union or non-union status.
"At KBE, we take our merit status very seriously, so it's an absolute honor to receive the Merit Cup Award," stated KBE President and CEO Michael Kolakowski. "It's great to be recognized for the priority we place on quality and budget when awarding contracts."
The criteria for winning the Merit Cup Award included not only the company's merit-shop status, but also its commitment to its employees and its involvement with CT ABC.
KBE has been a member of CT ABC since 1983 and received the 30 Year Award for its three decades of involvement with the organization. KBE also won the EIC Spirit Award for employing the highest percentage of CT ABC member company sub-contractors for its 2013 projects.
In keeping with the company's commitment to quality, KBE Safety Director Adam Peters received CT ABC's Safety Award based on KBE's low number of recordable incident rates and lost time incident rates for 2013.
It wasn't the first time KBE and its staff have been honored for safety. In 2012, Peters was named Construction Safety Professional of the Year by Associated General Contractors of Connecticut (AGC-CT). Also, each year since 2002, KBE has earned Safety Training & Evaluation Process Achievement Platinum Level status from the national Associated Builders and Contractors.
At this year's awards ceremony, KBE won 2013 Excellence in Construction first prize awards for two different construction projects in two different categories: Carrington Elementary School (Institutional Category) and the Learning Lab at Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (Other Category).
KBE served as Construction Manager at Risk for the construction of Carrington Elementary School in Waterbury, Connecticut. The $28 million, 82,000 s/f project includes a media center, a "cafetorium," a 138-bleacher seat gymnasium with a divider and locker rooms, technology labs, academic classrooms, special education classrooms, and administrative offices. The project was designed by Friar Associates.
The 2013 Excellence in Construction Institutional category award honors achievement in projects owned by schools, churches, and local governments (excluding healthcare facilities).
"We were thrilled to receive first prize for Carrington Elementary, especially because youth education is one of the causes we champion," stated Kolakowski. "KBE has completed nearly a dozen K-12 schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and we hope to continue our tradition of building stellar educational facilities."
Further demonstrating the company's commitment to youth education in the Northeast, KBE won first place for its work on the Learning Lab at the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network. The CPN Learning Lab is a $3.5 million, 20,000 s/f teaching facility including classrooms, a cafetorium, production studios, editing suites, a screening room, state-of-the-art audio and mixing studios, and a media gallery. Friar Associates was also the architect for this project.
The 2013 Excellence in Construction Other category award honors achievement in projects falling outside the parameters of categories such as Commercial, Industrial, and Residential.
"The goal of this project was for students to learn about broadcast journalism firsthand by interacting directly with CPBN professionals," said Kolakowski. "The Learning Lab will also provide workforce development programs for adults, including US veterans - a group that we focused on last year during our 50 Ways of Making a Difference philanthropic campaign."
Kolakowski and the KBE team received all six awards on January 30 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantville, Connecticut.
The 2014 event was not KBE's first time in the limelight; the company has won past awards for Project Achievement and Excellence in Construction from organizations such as the Construction Management Association of America and Associated Builders and Contractors - Connecticut, Baltimore and DC Metro Chapters.
High-resolution photos suitable for print may be found at:
http://www.impactmarketingandpr.com/press/Carrington-Elementary-School.jpg
http://www.impactmarketingandpr.com/press/CPBN-Learning-Lab.jpg
About KBE Building Corporation
Regionally located in Farmington, Conn., and Columbia, Md., KBE Building Corporation is a full-service, single-source commercial construction company strategically positioned to serve the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. Founded in 1959 and incorporated in 1966, the firm provides preconstruction, construction management, design-build, and general contracting services to clients in the educational, senior living, federal, corporate, hospitality, health care, institutional, and retail markets. KBE has managed more than $2.5 billion in construction volume over the last decade and is ranked among Engineering News-Record magazine's top 400 construction companies nationally. Learn more at www.kbebuilding.com.
