While national, regional and local New England economies faltered over the last few years, Gilbane Building Co. and its dedicated employees have worked harder than ever and have expanded the company's list of successful projects.
Gilbane, one of the nation's largest privately held construction companies, doubled the number of construction projects it oversees in Massachusetts alone in the last four years, increasing employees from 80 to 160. Four senior-level positions were added in the Bay State over the last few months.
Gilbane recently announced that it would direct its growing business in the New England region from its offices in Boston.
The New England region, with district offices in Providence, R.I.; Glastonbury, Conn.; and Bedford, N.H, is now being overseen by Ryan Hutchins, who was named senior vice president and regional manager for Gilbane's New England region.
The shift of operations to Gilbane's offices at 155 Federal St. in downtown Boston reflected the significant increase in business in Massachusetts and the region, despite a historic period of slow development and inactive projects nationwide since 2008.
"There is tremendous history and tradition in our company, and I've watched it grow and develop very strong market positions around the country," said William Gilbane, Jr., president and chief operating officer of Gilbane, and a fourth-generation member of the company's founding family. "To see Boston - the center of New England - now become the center of the region is really a huge milestone for the company."

A 137-year-old
Family Company
Gilbane was founded in 1873 by William Gilbane and his brother Thomas as a carpentry and contracting firm in Providence. It remains a strong family-operated company, now run by members of the fourth and fifth generations.
Gilbane has 29 offices in nine regions nationally and has annual revenues of more than $4 billion. The company has more than 2,000 employees nationwide. It has completed or is working on 200 projects that have LEED certification or are seeking certification with the U.S. Green Building Council, and has 500 LEED-accredited staff.
The company is well known nationally for landmark projects, including the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Vietnam War Memorial, National World War II Memorial, and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, the largest addition in the U.S. Capitol's history. Gilbane also constructed the Winter Olympics facilities in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Today, Gilbane operates in a broad range of markets, including corporate, federal and public, health care and life sciences, transportation and water treatment, K-12 and higher education, and criminal justice. The company's national headquarters are in Providence.
Gilbane's clients include Pfizer, Fidelity, Bank of America, Citizens and Verizon. Gilbane has worked with the Massachusetts Port Authority, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Division of Capital Asset Management, and University of Massachusetts Building Authority.

Sophisticated Range of Tools
Gilbane offers a range of cutting-edge techniques to get projects done on time and within budget, including VC Integration, which complements Gilbane's traditional management services with a series of Virtual Design and Construction steps. VC Integration takes Building Information Modeling to a higher level to ensure superior results for clients.
The company's National Centers of Excellence gather market-specific knowledge, the experience of Gilbane's professionals, and valuable client input to understand current trends, compare and hold down costs, and incorporate sustainable design.
CostAdvisor is Gilbane's proprietary, interactive tool for conceptual modeling the cost of proposed facilities and programs. Based on real recent experience, it is used by owners, architects, and the company's preconstruction team to develop accurate total construction costs.
Gilbane has been a leader in using technology for the benefit of clients and for superior results. The company was named No. 1 business-technology innovator in the nation and top technology innovator in the construction and engineering industry by Information Week magazine four times in the last decade. Gilbane's unique iBuild program is a Web-based comprehensive construction management solution in one single application. Built in partnership with a tech-industry leader, iBuild is a lean construction tool that ensures that owners, architects, trades, and engineers all work with peak efficiency and collaboration from the same real-time information source.
Sustainability is part of all of Gilbane's operations, reflecting the company's long commitment to environmental responsibility. In 2005, Thomas Gilbane, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, set out a series of initiatives that ensure all projects are governed by sustainable practices. Those include waste recycling, green construction practices, and the continuing education and accreditation of the company's professionals.
Important above all is safety, and Gilbane Cares is a program that not only emphasizes best practices and training initiatives to achieve a zero-injury result, but also ensures that the idea of employee safety is embedded in everyday values, attitudes, and behavior.

Major Projects in the Region
Recent projects in the New England region included providing construction management or related professional services for:
* Two complex facilities for Genzyme in Framingham: A 57,000 s/f cell-culture manufacturing facility expansion, constructed in an operational building and built to meet cGMP clean-room standards. And a 186,000 s/f office and laboratory building targeting LEED Gold, where Gilbane's BIM services include the advanced virtual coordination of the MEP trades and fabrication of system elements, using detailed visualizations to explore the implications of changes to design.
* The $100.9 million, 330,000 s/f new Quincy High School, to be completed this year. The project required careful phasing, as the partial demolition and new construction took site on the site of the existing school.
* The new $248 million, 425,000 s/f Department of Mental Health Psychiatric Hospital in Worcester, now in construction and targeting LEED Gold. This is the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management's largest public construction management at risk project and is a model of design for future psychiatric hospitals.
* Worcester Polytechnic Institute's 140,000 s/f Sports and Recreation Center. Construction began in May 2010 on this $45 million, four-story facility, which will include a 37.5-meter competition swimming and diving pool, indoor rowing tank, four-court gymnasium, and a multi-level atrium.

Growing in a
Stagnant Economy
Hutchins has helped increase Gilbane's presence in Massachusetts with improvement projects for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park; constructing complex facilities for companies like Genzyme; working with educational institutions like Harvard University and Tufts University; and building schools in communities including Salem, Woburn, Worcester, Malden, Longmeadow, and Quincy. The company's health care work has grown to include clients such as South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., Southcoast Hospitals Group in New Bedford, Mass., and Lowell General Hospital.
"Over the past five years, we have seen a great growth in our business in the Commonwealth and done so with an incredible core group of employees along with some great talent acquisitions," said Hutchins. "We have built a team that will allow us to continue to be a market leader for years to come."

Recent Honors for Gilbane
Recent awards for Gilbane's Massachusetts projects include:
* UMass Amherst Integrated Sciences Building -- 2010 CMAA New England Project Achievement Award
* 225 Franklin St. Relocation Project, Boston -- 2010 CMAA New England Award
* Retail Convergence at Channel Center -- 2010 CoreNet New England Award and 2010 IMFA Boston Award
* Worcester Trial Court Complex -- 2007 National CMAA Public Project of the Year Award.