Birmingham law firm gets green office space

Birmingham’s Hudson Architecture LLC recently designed a green office space for the law firm of Balch & Bingham LLP. Hudson was selected by Balch to lead the renovation of the law firm’s offices in the historic 1925 Alabama Power Company Building.

The 18,000-sq-ft renovation is projected to achieve the LEED Gold Level certification for Commercial Interiors by the U. S. Green Building Council.

The project was initially priced with conventional construction methods by Brasfield & Gorrie General Contractors LLC of Birmingham in July 2008.

As the design progressed, Hudson, Balch and Alabama Power agreed to pursue LEED certification while maintaining the original budget. The LEED certified version of the project was priced again by Brasfield & Gorrie in February, without a significant increase to the original construction cost.

Dan McCrary, chairman of the Balch’s Energy Practice Group, said, “Hudson’s design modernized the space while respecting the historic nature of the Power Company building.”

The renovation of the law offices was completed on schedule in June.

Golden & Associates Construction is presented safety awards from Amerisure Insurance. LEFT PHOTO: From left, Geoff Golden and Rob Milton, Golden & Associates, Birmingham; Drew Sebastian, Amerisure Insurance; Greg Pyburn and Patrick Lloyd, Golden & Associates; Andrew Carretto, Amerisure Insurance; and Matt Little, McGriff, Seibels & Williams.

From left, Rob Milton, Golden & Associates; and Drew Sebastian, Amerisure Insurance.

Golden & Associates Construction receives safety award from Amerisure Insurance

Golden & Associates Construction LLC of Birmingham, Ala., was presented the Outstanding Safety Performance Award from Amerisure Insurance.

The award is for Golden’s 500,000 man-hours worked without a lost time incident from January 2006 through January 2009. This is the first time Golden has received theaward from Amerisure.

Earlier in the year, Golden & Associates received two other safety awards, the Gold Safest in the Industry Award and the Platinum Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) Award.

Both were presented by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama. Golden & Associates provides general contracting and construction management services to clients throughout the southeast.

Hoar Construction named one of 50 best employers

At a ribbon cutting ceremony July 7, La. DOTD opened the LA 1 bridge over Bayou Lafourche, the Tommy Doucet Bridge, and about 4.4 mi of elevated bridge approaches and connectors. TOP: Iris Doucet, wife of Tommy Doucet (deceased), cuts the ribbon. Above: An aerial rendering of the new bridge.

Hoar Construction of Birmingham, Ala., has been recognized as one of the top 50 best small and medium-sized companies to work for in the U. S. by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Great Place to Work Institute Inc.

Winners were announced at SHRM’s 61st Annual Conference in New Orleans, the largest gathering of HR professionals in the world.

SHRM and GPTW have selected the nation’s top 25 small and top 25 medium-sized employers for the last six years. Hoar Construction placed eighth this year on the list of medium-sized companies. The firm placed fifth on the 2008 list and 19th in 2007.

Hundreds of companies across the U. S. submitted entries in the detailed and competitive analysis conducted by GPTW.

The rankings are primarily determined from employee opinion surveys that analyze an organization’s workplace culture. Employee survey responses count for two-thirds of an organization’s score.