HARRIS ANNOUNCES 2023 EMPLOYEE AWARD WINNERS

(ST. PAUL, Minn.) – Harris, a leading mechanical contractor, announced its 2023 Employee Award winners. The awards cover five categories that exemplify Harris: prefabrication (project and region), safety, culture, innovation and lifetime achievement. The following winners were nominated by their peers and receive a cash award as part of this recognition.

Prefabrication Project Award – Grand America UUKL Smoke Control Retrofit

This award is given to the employee or team who provides strong prefabrication success on a project at Harris. Lead BA Account Executive Mike Skinner and his remarkable team received the Prefabrication Project Award for their work on the Grand America UUKL Smoke Control Retrofit. The project showcases the team’s expertise and innovation in replacing existing JCI the smoke evacuation and control system of the occupied Grand America Hotel, a landmark with 775 guest rooms spread across 24 floors and over 100,000 square feet of meeting space. It included the development of an extensive drawing set, featuring over 180 pages detailing system architecture and custom system wiring. Over five months, the team meticulously designed and verified the existing systems, followed by prefabrication and site prewiring to ensure seamless integration and minimal disruption to the hotel’s operations.

More highlights include:

• The retrofit utilized 138 Distech UUKL listed ECBOS and ECB controllers, along with thousands of monitor modules.
• The new system efficiently controls 21 air handlers, dozens of VAVs and exhaust fans, dampers and fire door holders.
• More than 80 retrofit back-panel assemblies were installed to replace the existing JCI control panels.
• New BACnet and fiber optic networks were installed including all UUKL listed ethernet switches.
• A BACnet interface was implemented to integrate the new smoke control system with the existing facility-wide fire alarm system.
• Additionally, a new ADI Firefighter Smoke Control Panel with Distech UUKL listed BACnet gateway was installed.

The fully preprogrammed and functionally tested system was verified in the Harris SLC office using a 4K CCTV camera for real-time remote verification of indicating lights on the ADI panel. The project also included Niagara integration with the Oracle OPERA guest management platform, streamlining operations and enhancing the guest experience. With this project, Mike and the Salt Lake team demonstrated their commitment to excellence of prefabrication, system integration and client satisfaction.

Prefabrication Region Award – National Team

On a regional basis, winners of this award demonstrate cost savings, creativity, labor reduction, customer recognition and more. In 2023, the Harris National Group deployed the Harris Hub-and-Spoke prefabrication strategy and delivered projects leveraging fabrication in Zumbrota, Las Vegas, Mid-Atlantic and from our project-specific co-fabrication facilities in Ohio and Tennessee. For the entire National Group, they had over 92,000 shop hours – and this is for a division that doesn’t have its own shop.

For a battery plant project in Tennessee, the National Team partnered with the Harris Design Studio to create the mechanical spine as structural racked and prefabricated assemblies. This approach allowed for 29,000 feet (over five miles) of pipe to be fabricated offsite and then rapidly lifted and installed along with the building’s structural steel. With 70% of field labor for the spine work being moved to the shop and an accelerated construction schedule, the Harris team helped the client achieve incredible time and cost savings. This spine prefabrication approach will assist Harris in the pursuit of similar mega-projects.

The National Group also saw prefabrication success this year with a data center project. Harris optimized the layout and re-designed the industrial water rooms from a horizontal ground-based equipment room to a vertically stacked modular fully integrated system. The modularization of the rooms shifted 9,700 hours from the field to the shop for each water room. Harris’ improvements also increased the overall maintenance access to the equipment while dramatically reducing the physical footprint required for these rooms.

For the OSU Wexner Hospital project, the field hours were estimated to be nearly 1,000,000. However, with Harris’ prefabrication approach, a third of those hours were shop and BIM hours. By eliminating thousands of onsite hours, Harris relieved schedule risk, reduced congestion issues, and increased safety. The prefabrication on this project allowed for multiple mega-riser lifts, including the nationally recognized 99-foot-tall riser containing over 1,500 linear feet of pipe and weighing in at over 26,000 lbs.

The National Group truly adopts the “prefabricate everything” mentality, embraced by project and field leadership. As a result, Harris’ passion for prefab has become both a key selling point and a delivery mindset. Prefabrication is at the heart of delivering remarkable results nationally as the nation’s leading traveling mechanical contractor.

Safety Champion Award – Paul Barbato, Superintendent and Daniel Sanders, Safety Professional

The Safety Champion Award goes to two employees who exemplify the highest standards of safety and dedication: Paul Barbato and Daniel Sanders. This award recognizes individuals who influence and inspire their colleagues to prioritize safety, uphold a strong work ethic and maintain a personal safety record. Paul and Daniel have been instrumental in fostering a safety-first culture, ensuring everyone works together towards the common goal of a safe and secure workplace. Their collaborative efforts have strengthened the bond with the general contractor, Walbridge.

The Harris and Walbridge teams enjoy the shared commitment to safety, and the positive working relationship makes a huge difference on the project. Communication within the team is fluid and open, thanks in large part to the efforts of Paul and Daniel. They are the driving force and the face of Harris to all of our labor hours, consistently supporting and holding each other accountable. The subcontractors on this battery plant project in Tennessee also did well when it came to their safety numbers due to the powerful example and culture set by Paul and Daniel.

“Jerry Dalton” Culture Award – Jarvis Hofhines, Vice President, Technical Solutions, Salt Lake City

Jarvis Hofhines was given the Jerry Dalton Culture Award, named after a Harris employee who passed away in 2004. Jerry was an exceptional employee during his time here and served as a champion of Harris culture. Jarvis sets the example of Harris leadership. During his career here, he has promoted a fun and welcoming work environment with successful teams, creating a reputation instrumental in attracting top talent to Harris from around the region. He is dedicated to not only helping Harris grow but to everyone growing with it too. He is always willing to go the extra mile to help someone achieve their goals, regardless of his busy schedule, and makes sure everyone feels like a valued part of the team. Jarvis’ commitment to Harris and the positive attitude he brings to his team is a testament to the impact he has on the culture across the company. He’s been a major contributor to making Harris a great place to work.

Innovation Award – Harris Design Studio Mexico City Team

The Harris Design Studio Mexico City Team won the Innovation award for contributing to Harris winning major design-assist projects this year. When given critical tasks, they never failed to produce excellent results and showcased exemplary teamwork and collaboration. The team developed HDS tools, increasing efficiency for all Design Studio members. Their development of tools for the design studio allowed them to improve workflow organization and productivity. For the NIH project, the Harris design team had the challenge of creating and setting up more than 1000 mechanical and plumbing drawings. The team in Mexico City worked together to create a ribbon tool that contains more than 15 uses to get data, create annotations and make exports quicker and simpler. Team members subsequently managed training for the Design Studio Revit users. As a leader in innovation, the Mexico City Design Studio has also been researching AI for text scanning, as well as other BIM and coding management tools, piloting more efficiency within the department.

Lifetime Achievement Robert F. Hosch Award – Dan Wilson, Vice President + General Manager, Upper Marlboro

Dan Wilson has been recognized with the Robert F. Hosch Lifetime Achievement Award, named after former CEO Robert Hosch, who passed away in 2018. Dan has exemplified extraordinary leadership by fostering collaboration and trust to build strong teams. He is known as a shrewd negotiator and is praised for his great instincts, getting to the root of problems in little time. Dan understands and demonstrates one of the most important tools of leadership which is his quality of listening. He always makes everyone on his team feel heard and valued. He has worked with Harris and our acquisition of RM Thronton since 1998. Under his direction, the Mid-Atlantic construction teams thrived over the past five years. His work ethic, guidance and oversight achieved significant growth and success for Harris. Congratulations to Dan for 36 years with Harris. He stands as an example of quality leadership and his impact and legacy of dedication, resourcefulness and respect have shaped our company.

About Harris:

Harris is a leading national mechanical contractor specializing in design and engineering, construction, building automation, service, manufacturing, conveyors and end-to-end building systems, with 14 regional offices nationwide. Pairing local experts with national strength, Harris drives innovation across a variety of project types and industries. From stadiums and arenas to hospitals, schools and concert halls, working with (and certainly at!) Harris promises an experience that can only be described as best-in-class.

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CONTACT:
Sara Warner
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651.260.5588

Angela Mork
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651.602.6538