Porter Drive Medical Building
- Palo Alto, CA
Bigham Taylor’s work at 3172 Porter Drive in Palo Alto was much more than a demo and restoration project since our team collaborated with GCI General Contractors, the building’s owners Wheatley Properties, and a series of subcontractors.
The two-story property in Stanford Research Park was being converted from an office building to a dual-use medical office and laboratory setup. GCI handled the massive interior renovation, including adding a variety of units to the building’s roof.
Bigham Taylor handled the demo of portions of the roof, added insulation where needed, and mechanically attached a Carlisle 60 mil TPO Single Ply Roof system to the deck.
| Location | Palo Alto, CA |
| Client | Wheatley Properties |
| Scope | Replacement |
| Completed | 2023 |
| Size | 27,000 sq ft |
“GCI had the care and custody of the building,” reports Superintendent Rod Frietas. “The owner contracted us directly. We have years of experience working with big contractors like GCI, so that part was not new. But, you know, it’s always better if we’re the prime contractor on a job so we can manage the phasing of the work to be efficient.”
CGI had taken care of much of the demo as they were installing equipment in front of our crew. BT added insulation to in-fill low spots and help with drainage, although this was not a complete taper system. A fire-rated cover board and the Carlisle system were then mechanically attached to the wood deck.
The amount and diversity of equipment on the roof — three evaporator towers, single-pass air ductwork, two boilers, HVAC units, and the accompanying ducts — compounded the challenge.
“We’d get two feet of roofing down and then hit another piece of equipment,” Hemseth reports, “and it got trickier as we went and time-consuming.”
Wheatley Properties Property Manager Yvette Yamagata says, “This roofing project was quite complicated because Bigham Taylor came in after all the equipment was on the roof,” she says. “But they were great about it, and it was impressive that they could pull it together.”
The key, Yamagata adds, was the level of communication between her team and Bigham Taylor. “They let us know what was happening at every stage and are very direct.”
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