Fostering Relationships And Breaking Construction Norms At Truebeck’s Expanded San Francisco Office

Truebeck Construction, a local full-service general contractor, is growing its San Francisco operations and bringing on Travis Schultz as project executive. Joining the team with a portfolio of high-tech companies, financial institutions, healthcare facilities and commercial offices across the West Coast, Schultz's background meshes with the firm’s plan to revolutionize the construction process.

Commitment to quality attracted him to Truebeck.

“It’s exciting to be part of a winning business that stems from organization-wide teamwork, astute operations, innovation, smart risk-taking and emphasizing integrity on all levels,” Schultz said. “These essentials have become the staples of Truebeck, and are what attracted me to the firm.”

Schultz plans to bring more of that culture to Truebeck's San Francisco office, overseeing the general strategy of its interiors division, including local strategy, market focus areas, client and project development, talent recruitment and development, and office culture. Building relationships with both clients and staff is the cornerstone of these objectives.

“Maintaining lasting and meaningful relationships is key to what I do,” Schultz said. “Our business is built on relationships. One of Truebeck’s core values is ‘Business and life are all about people.’ We look for clients who value connections like we do, those built on trust, integrity and respect.”

It is also an opportunity to push limits and move away from boundaries of construction norms. From building new safety mechanisms in data centers to understanding the complex machinery required for state-of-the-art cardiology clinics, Truebeck acts as a partner on improvement projects from the very beginning. Rather than follow the traditional schedule of hiring an architect, putting plans out to bid and hiring a contractor, the general contractor is fully engaged from conception to completion.

“The traditional delivery method has been shown to produce very low success rates, and most clients don’t realize that there are better solutions out there,” Schultz said.

One solution is Truebeck's virtual design and construction team, which is able to build projects and schedules in 4D. This allows clients to not only view 3D models of their projects, but also see how they will be built according to the timeline. On the construction site, laser scanning and total station layout can take precise topography measurements. The survey can show clients the high and low spots in the floor, which could have an impact on everything from new finishes to doors and framing.

San Francisco, a mecca for tech firms and innovative companies, has provided Truebeck with a sandbox to test its new techniques.

“San Francisco is such a vibrant and socially diverse city that the architecture is driven by the energy and cultures that make up the city,” Schultz said. “Because of this, we’re often presented with amazing projects that we’re fortunate enough to build.”

Tech firms often collaborate with Truebeck for its willingness to push construction boundaries.

In 2014, Twitter moved its headquarters to 1355 Market St., a 1937 Art Deco building that sat vacant for 50 years in the depressed Tenderloin neighborhood. Truebeck was part of the revitalization of the 11-story Market Square building, transforming a historic building into an urban mixed-use campus. The project included seismic and structural upgrades, historic restoration, new mechanical, electric and plumbing systems and a 20K SF roof deck. Truebeck was able to shorten the time between construction and occupancy through its preconstruction, phasing and sequencing processes.

“Tech firms always seem to have bold ideas and aren’t afraid to take a risk when it comes to design and construction,” Schultz said. "That mindset matches our own.”

For Schultz, none of this would be possible without the collaborative culture and high-energy environment that Truebeck fosters.

“When you join a team who are all committed to this idea, it’s unbelievable what can be accomplished.”

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