5 Ways Truebeck Has Disrupted The Interiors Market

From office tenant improvements to new lab space, interior construction projects offer an opportunity to build an environment that best defines a company’s brand, mission and values. While an exciting process, it can also come with challenges. Unexpected costs and delayed construction timelines can make the build-out process unpleasant and inefficient. 

Bay Area-based Truebeck Construction has built a reputation around being a builder that can balance speed, quality and costs. Clients want projects delivered quickly, but they also expect quality work. Rather than sacrifice one goal for the other, Truebeck has developed strategies to meet its clients' needs.  

From its speed of project delivery to how it uses technology to save clients time and money, here are five ways Truebeck has worked with clients to disrupt the interiors market.

1. Leverages Its Size  

Expertise across Truebeck is broad, ranging from preconstruction techniques to construction technology and innovation. As a large general contractor with a reputation in both ground-up construction and interiors, Truebeck is able to leverage world-class resources and a diverse team of people who can offer insights on every step of the build-out process. All of Truebeck’s various departments, from preconstruction to technology, in addition to its large pool of subcontractors, can mobilize resources to solve client problems.   

“Almost no other interiors firm has the robust ability we have with our precon department,” Truebeck Project Executive Travis Schultz said. “There are so much data and people that are at our disposal to help create this system that other general contractors don’t have.” 

Truebeck is able to take advantage of cross-department collaboration and its emphasis on technology to better serve clients and improve the project experience. This includes using its in-house mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers and experts to provide clients with in-depth construction insight. 

2. Speed To Market

Every interiors project is different, and the building, the geographic location and the building function will all impact how a schedule and budget are assembled. Some clients might want to move into the new space in a matter of months. To keep the build-out process as efficient as possible, Truebeck works with architects to make sure the design is buildable and ensures construction materials get to the job site faster.  

“There are so many tools and processes we have that move away from traditional delivery methods to speed up delivery time,” Shultz said. "We commit to an aesthetic and construction plan early on and collaborate with both designers and engineers to find construction solutions that make the process more efficient.” 

For a San Francisco-based tech client, Truebeck was asked to help the client accelerate the schedule of a 5K SF mezzanine within an existing commercial office space. Truebeck's preconstruction, project management and design teams found solutions to use readily available materials to create the mezzanine. Through creative engineering and construction solutions, Truebeck and its partners were able to expedite design, fabrication, delivery and installation within the 12-week delivery deadline. 

3. Delivers Best Value

Truebeck emphasizes quality construction and the best final cost. This ranges from extensive preconstruction analysis to hiring the most qualified subcontractor. Truebeck seeks out high-quality bids rather than working with favorite subcontractors. This means clients end up with not the best first cost, but the best final cost. 

For a North Bay financial client, Truebeck partnered in a design-build capacity to provide a new commercial tenant improvement space of nearly 42K SF. During the initial MEP analysis, Truebeck sought bids from multiple MEP contractors.   

As it collected proposals from its subcontractors, Truebeck began to see a pattern emerge with low-bidding contractors. Truebeck was able to carefully dissect the data provided within the proprietary bid forms, which showed the client that in all cases, the apparent low bidder was not the best value or lowest cost.   

Because Truebeck is able to collect data in a manner that provides a high level of detail about project specifics associated with labor and material costs, it was able to provide the client with the best value on their project, saving them significant money, Schultz said.  

4. Brand-Oriented Construction

Commercial interiors can be personal. Each client wants to create an environment that physically reflects the values and culture it has curated. As unemployment continues to decline and companies continue to compete to score the best talent, amenitized, well-designed office space has become a way to draw in prospective recruits. 

Truebeck works with each client to make sure their brand vision is realized. 

Truebeck partnered with a Silicon Valley tech client that is very conscientious about how its brand is represented in its space. This client not only had high expectations when it came to branding images and colors but also the level of detail in which it built its campus. 

Truebeck partnered with local craftsmen to ensure that they held tolerances as close as 1/32-inch within various details. To achieve this level of detail, Truebeck's team created a series of quality control checks and balances starting from the submittal process and continuing through delivery and fabrication. Because Truebeck was able to deliver within the high requirements the client expected, the firm was awarded multiple new projects and set the client's protocol for quality control for all future projects. 

5. Technology

Truebeck has made a name for itself in the ground-up construction space by using building information modeling and its in-house Construction, Technology & Innovation team to improve the efficiency of projects. The company applies those methods in the interior build-out space as well. 

Laser scanning, which creates a 3D image of walls and interior infrastructure like steel beams and HVAC, gives construction team members an accurate picture of what they will be working with and how they must adapt their plans accordingly.

Truebeck partnered with an Emeryville-based developer for a project in downtown Oakland that required significant seismic and historical renovations. Truebeck was brought in early during the design of the project. Because the project took place in a building that was over 100 years old, the as-built drawings, which set the direction for the initial design, were not suitable for the final design and calculations.   

Truebeck’s CTI team was able to laser scan each to show exact locations of all columns, beams, overhead ducting and conduits within 1/32-inch. This process revealed that the seismic solution called for custom-made structural members that had a lead time of over 26 weeks. 

Truebeck was able to field measure and confirm with an exact level of precision,  providing the client confidence that the measurements were accurate. Truebeck didn't need to reorder materials, saving the client time and money. 

This feature was produced in collaboration between Bisnow Branded Content and Truebeck Construction. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.