3E

Wells Fargo Project Finishes Months Ahead of Schedule 
by John Temple

Baker Electric is nearing completion of the new West Des Moines home of Wells Fargo’s Home Mortgage division.  The 160 acre site and 1 million square feet facility, which includes 750,000 square feet of office space and a 1700 car parking garage, began in August of 2004.  The project was aggressively scheduled to take 2-1/2 years to complete.  However SVPA Architect’s Dan Willrich proudly reported that the final portions of the project were to be turned over to the owner in June of 2006, approximately 6 months ahead of schedule.

The facility will eventually house an estimated 4500 employees, easily making Wells Fargo West Des Moines’ largest and fastest growing employer.  With its 160 acres of ground the West Des Moines campus may in time become home to considerably more than the current 4500 employees.   

The size, aggressive schedule, and design build nature of the project required a great deal of cooperation and coordination between all parties.  The general contracting and overall project management were provided jointly by Kevin Butts, The Wietz Company and Kyle McQuiston, JE Dunn Construction.   

KJWW Engineering’s Andy Thielen described the mechanical and electrical portion of the project as a “collaborative design build”.  In order to meet the owner’s goals it would require the knowledge and teamwork of KJWW, Baker Electric, and The Baker Group.  Norm Scholton, Project Forman for Baker Electric, spent weeks going through the drawings with The Baker Group, coordinating their respective designs and making certain there were no conflicts, all in an effort to avoid costly delays or changes.  One example of the success of the process is the early recognition that space in the mechanical tunnels that connect the various buildings would be a challenge.  Baker Electric used 15kV and 5kV armored cables and cable tray in lieu of cable in conduit to help reduce congestion in this application.  

3E provided most of the light fixtures for the project which included almost 10 miles of Ledalite indirect lighting and over 8000 fixtures from a variety of manufacturers such as Dual-Lite, Elliptipar, Hadco, Hubbell, Kim and Lightolier just to name a few.  “The lighting went very smoothly” said Baker Electric Project Manager, Bruce Ballinger.  “Especially when you consider the number of fixtures and manufacturers involved.”  Ballinger went on to single out 3E Salesman Chris Johnson and Lou Mayfield of Mayfield Lighting as being particularly helpful, “Chris Johnson and Lou Mayfield made a good team on the lighting”.  In an effort to reduce delays and to insure that Wells Fargo got the performance and look they desired, Chris and Lou provided samples of several fixtures, which Baker Electric used to create mock-ups of the application.   

3E also provided much of the miscellaneous material for the project.  Some of the big ticket items were shipped direct including the approximately 20 truck loads of conduit.  Yet much of the miscellaneous material was shipped right from 3E’s stock to the project’s “warehouse on wheels”.  Baker at one time had twelve job trailers on site just to house the material for the project.  “Having 3E deliver the material as needed really made it easy”, said Ballinger.  “It meant that we could order material as needed rather than having to predict what was needed and bring it in all at once.  It reduced the storage space requirement and our investment in material”. 

Thanks to Baker Electric for having the confidence to select 3E as a team member and to all of our quality manufacturers for helping make the project a success.   

Congratulations to everyone involved with the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Campus!

Last Updated ( Friday, 18 August 2006 )