The overall winner in the Mid-West Steel Building Company 2011 Design Build competition is Bayou City Event Center, in Houston, Texas. The General Contractor was LoneStar Construction of Houston, the Erector and Roofing contractor was L&Y Construction and the Designer was Husmann and Associates Architects & Planners PC. The building is owned by SSS Land Development, Lori Schroeder.
Bayou City Event Center is a single slope building except for the foyer area, which is gabled. The roof is a 2:12 slope with a height of 23′-9″ on the low side and 43′-9″ on high side. It features a 24-gauge Ultra-Dek standing seam roof with Signature 300® color finish. The wall panels are 26-gauge reversed rolled PBU wall panels for stone/stucco exterior finishes.
The Center is close to 50,000 square feet and opened in April of 2011. It is located near Downtown Houston and the Texas Medical Center, and has the largest banquet capacity of any non-hotel venue in the city.
The District Manager (DM) of the Year award is presented to the DM who exemplifies the characteristics that make a great DM and can serve as a role model for other DMs. But, after much deliberation, Gerry King’s performance earned him the award for the second year in a row.
King has been with Mid-West since 1996. He has risen through the ranks, and now is a consistent contender each year for the top volume producer.
One of his biggest projects in 2011 was a huge order for Family Dollar stores – nearly 75 buildings for three different customers.
Bennett Building Systems of Burleson, Texas, has been named the 2011 recipient of Mid-West Steel’s President’s Award. This award is given each year to a builder who has been outstanding in every way – in their sales volume, standard of business, personal integrity and loyalty to Mid-West.
A consistent high-volume Mid-West builder, Bennett Building Systems Inc. , of Burleson, TX, was founded in 1988 by Ken Olsen, current head of Bennett Building Systems. Bennett has an extensive background in commercial and industrial construction.
When asked which project he was particularly proud of in the past year, Olsen immediately joked, “I’m proud of all of them that paid me!”
He went on to say he’s very proud of the work he’s done for Sabre Tuburlar Structures in Alvarado, Texas. He explained, “They are a great repeat customer for us. We just finished their executive offices that are unbelievable. We added another 100,000 square foot building to their plant. In all, we’ve done close to $20 million worth of work for them, including the largest hot dip galvanizer of its type in North America.” Olsen explained, “We do a lot of manufacturing plants – we know the manufacturing business as well as anyone around. We understand what a manufacturing facility needs. We advise clients to look at their manufacturing process before deciding on the size of their building.”