ISSUE 3 JULY 2016 6767 SOUTHWEST AVENUE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63143

BSI Constructors

Nazareth Living Center NEWSLETTER

What’s Inside?Surviving the heat

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Joe Shaughnessy and the CSJs: A decades’

long friendshippage 3

Progress photospage 4

What you’ll see in coming months

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Follow the action at the Villages and ALMC live athttps://www.workzonecam.com/projects/schaeffer/nazarethproject/almemcare;https://www.workzonecam.com/projects/schaeffer/nazarethproject/villages-2.

New Villages and ALMC buildings are taking shape as renovation, repurposing of existing spaces continues The BSI team has been busy throughout the Nazareth campus since the last newsletter in April. On a tight 11-week schedule that ran from mid-April through July 1, bathrooms on floors 2, 3, and 4 in Gleason Hall were renovated. The oldest building at Nazareth, Gleason provides Assisted Living, with Sisters of St. Joseph making up a majority of the residents. Workers installed new vinyl floors, tile walls, toilets, showers,

fixtures, plumbing, paint, and finishes. Project Manager Joe Carlson and Superintendent Terry Meyer want to give a big thank you to residents and staff for their cooperation through the noise and inconvenience. “We couldn’t work around a better bunch of people,” said Terry.

McGovern Work continues at McGovern,

with completion of the renovation of another six short term rehab rooms, making for 18 of the scheduled 30 as Nazareth expands this area of service. Following up on the completion of the new rehabilitation and occupational therapy room, the former rehab room has been repurposed as an additional dining room, and the existing dining room has been remodeled. Construc-

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Live action webcam image of new Villages building on July 8

2 Nazareth Living Center July 2016

tion of a new serving station to store and distribute food in the short term rehab resident room area will be under-way shortly. An additional restorative therapy room, exam room, and work and office spaces have also been created in this area.

Just inside the main entrance, a new cheerful ice cream parlor/gift shop is open for business. Adjacent are a new conference room and office space. Freshening up of corridors throughout the building with new carpet, paint, ceiling tiles, and lighting continues. Work has also begun on the court-yard to make it into a more usable space, which will include options to extend rehab therapy to the outdoors. Among the elements planned are tex-tured surfaces and a set of steps with a little bridge, with new access from a

parlor adjacent to the therapy rooms.

The Villages Work is progressing quickly on the new Villages building, with walls up on all three stories of the north end and installation of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and sprin-klers. Rain set back the pouring of patios and porches, but the team expected to be setting trusses by mid month and was also installing the brick exterior on the bottom third of the building. Once the roof is on this section, workers will start raising walls of the next section as interior work begins in earnest on the first. Superintendent Brad Strode expects to have the entire building up and under roof in the next three months.

The ALMC So far, the BSI team has been focusing more on the 3-story Villages building because it is much larger than the new 2-story ALMC, which is still in the site work phase. Workers have poured the basement slab, set steel columns, and set storm sewer structures. By mid month, they started digging grade beams, to be followed by ground rough of MEPs (electrical, HVAC, plumbing), then slab on grade, then the construction of walls. Recent heavy and persistent rain has posed a chal-lenge. In the site work phase, one day of rain can set work back as much as four days, according to Brad. Nonetheless, he expects the first floor to be built and ready for trusses by fall.

New Villages and ALMC buildings cont.

Work has begun on the courtyard to make it into a more usable space, which will include options to extend rehab therapy to the outdoors.

Taking precautions in the summer heat Anyone who has lived through a St. Louis sum-mer or two knows how challenging the heat and humid-ity can be. And those who work outside, especially in a physically demanding field like construction, know it’s nothing to treat lightly. In fact, already there have been at least two heat-related deaths of construction workers in the St. Louis area with temperatures hitting the mid to upper 90 degree mark early in the season. BSI takes the risk for its workers seriously. “Hy-dration is everything,” says Project Superintendent Brad Strode. “Heat stroke is a terrible thing,” he says, remem-bering his own experience with it once. It took him a week to recover fully, and at that, he considers himself to be lucky. Brad and Project Manager Joe Carlson remind workers at every opportunity to drink plenty of water and to know their own limitations. They also remind workers to watch out for each other. “If someone isn’t sweating,” it’s a sign of a problem. They especially edu-cate and watch out for the younger workers who may not yet know what their limits are. Joe says BSI doesn’t want anyone to over-extend himself. “Companywide, we preach this and take it seri-ously.” Brad also routinely reminds workers as he makes his rounds of the site to watch out for themselves and each other, advising them to get out of the sun if they need to. The workday is 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but if condi-tions are really oppressive, they’ll call the day at noon. This has happened twice so far this summer. While summer heat is just a part of doing busi-ness in St. Louis, it is also a safety issue, and BSI ap-proaches it in that vein.

Relationship with the Sisters of St. Joseph spans five decades

Jim Shaughnessy, Joe and Rosemary Shaughnessy, Laura and Paul Shaughnessy, and Joe Carlson attend the Groundbreaking in April.

Photo by Angela Armstrong, Todd Studios

Anyone who knows Joe and Rosemary Shaughnessy would not have been surprised to see them at the April Groundbreaking at Nazareth. Of course, BSI Constructors – the company Joe co-founded and for which he still serves as Chairman Emeritus – is the Construction Manager for the work. But even were this not the case, he would likely be on hand, given his long-standing relationship with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and with Nazareth, in particular. Joe first came to know the Sisters in 1973 when El-len, oldest of his and Rosemary’s seven children, entered St. Joseph’s Academy. Early on he got to know Sr. Mary de Paul Berra, then principal and later president. He developed a great admiration for Sister and her leadership and volun-teered his services wherever they could be helpful. One small example is the donation of a week’s stay at the com-pany condominium at Lake of the Ozarks, which has been a feature in the annual school auction for almost 40 years. The decision to send his other three daughters to St. Joe – Anne (Class of 1978), Arzy (1981), and Mary (1996) – was a “no-brainer.” His sons went the Jesuit route. Paul and Jim, President and Executive Vice President of BSI Constructors, went to DeSmet. Younger son Dan, St. Louis University High School grad, is a diocesan priest and the current pastor of St. Joseph (of course!) Parish in Imperial. The St. Joe tradition has continued with the next generation. Second daughter Anne’s daughters – Kate (2006), Ellen (2007), and Mary (2010) – and oldest son Paul’s daughters – Caroline (2009) and Annie (2011) – have also benefitted from an outstanding CSJ education at St. Joseph’s Academy. For five decades, Joe and Rosemary have had at least one daughter or granddaughter at the school. Joe’s relationship with Nazareth began in the early 1980s, when Sr. Francis Virginia Cholet, CSJ Provincial Superior, asked him to serve on the board. Joe enjoyed the experience and says it provided him a “more broadening relationship with the Sisters.” At the time, the property was more than 40 acres with Gleason Hall the only building, and the Sisters were deciding what to do with the land. In addition to his long-standing personal relation-ship with the Sisters of St. Joseph, Joe takes great pride in the professional role his firm has had in serving them over the years. During the eighties, Bannes-Shaughnessy (the name of the firm prior to 1989) was engaged by Nazareth to renovate the Chapel and remodel Gleason. At St. Joe, the company built a 4-story addition to the original 1955 structure. Joe was actively involved in the St. Joe project, remembering it as going “very well, delivering much needed spaces.” In 2004 during Sr. Joan Lampton’s tenure as Presi-dent, BSI completed a second, larger addition and renova-tion at St. Joe that included a new gym and conversion of

the old gym into an auditorium and performance space. While Paul Shaughnessy was more directly involved in that project, Joe kept a close eye on the progress. Beyond his work at St. Joe and Nazareth, Joe got to know other Sisters as well, among them Sr. Suzanne Wesley, Chief Executive Officer of the Cardinal Ritter Institute, with whom BSI has completed many senior living projects. And Joe remembers with gratitude the care his mother-in-law received from the staff at Nazareth at the end of her life, in particular, from Srs. Rita McGovern and Kathleen O’Malley. “We all try to do good in our lives, but we all have our own role models, too,” says Joe, counting many of the Sisters of St. Joseph among his. When the Sisters of St. Joseph initiated their an-nual Generosity of Joseph Awards a few years ago, Joe was among the early recipients. Accepting the award, he stated, “The award is about the Sisters of St. Joseph… we are hon-oring YOU… for all you do in giving your lives to do the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Joe, his family, and BSI continue to support such events as the CSJ Gala, St. Joe Auction, and Nazareth Golf Tournament. When St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf moved from its Chesterfield campus and relocated its large statue of St. Joseph to the Academy, BSI offered to provide the heavy lifting. And when the Academy published a book of its history on the occasion of its 175th anniversary, the Shaugh-nessy family signed on as a sponsor. So, Joe is thrilled that BSI is engaged at Nazareth on such an important expansion of the facility, continuing the relationship of over 40 years. For him, the icing on the cake is that his grandson Joe Carlson is serving as Project Man-ager for BSI, and grandson Joe Shaughnessy III is working on site this summer as a carpenter.

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A work in progress ... 4 Nazareth Living Center July 2016

Above: McGovern’s new ice cream parlor/gift shop is open for business. Below: Gleason Hall bathrooms are renovated.

Corridors throughout McGovern are refreshed.

What you’ll see in coming months

• Villages building up and under roof in next three months as well as construction of retaining walls.

• Walls of ALMC going up with first floor built and ready for trusses by fall.

• Renovation of McGovern courtyard.• Renovation of next six short term rehab

rooms in McGovern.

Work is proceeding both inside and out at the Villages.

Workers install a window in the Villages building.

Days of heavy rain hamper site work on the ALMC.