On Thursday, October 17, ACE Raleigh/Durham participants met at the Smoky Hollow project site in Downtown Raleigh to learn about how the design of a project transforms to the construction phase. Approximately 60 students, as well as mentors from all of our locations, were hosted by the project’s Construction Manager, Clancy & Theys.

Our host was Laura Keyser who is a registered architect and works as a BIM/VDC Coordinator for Clancy & Theys.  In addition, Laura is the Lead Mentor at ACE RDU’s Wake Tech Southern Campus Site.  Laura was assisted by several project staff personnel.  Charlie Lewis, Project Manager, explained the software the construction team uses and discussed how the 3D modeling of the building simplifies the building process.  Charlie also discussed the role of the Project Manager and his responsibilities for this particular project.

The site tour was led by Jake Turley (Assistant Project Manager), Phil Renfroe (Project Manager), and Ross Beesley (Superintendent).  These individuals provided the students an overview of their job responsibilities as well as showing the students various parts of the project.  Also assisting were Vincent Lowe (Assistant Project Manager) and Antonio Cooper (Safety EH&S Officer), who provided the group safety instructions prior to them touring the site.

The project is a multi-phase project with the first two phases currently under construction by Clancy & Theys.  The students were able to see the steel erection phase of an office building as well as the prefabricated precast parking deck that was being erected.  They walked part of the cast-in-place parking deck as well as the apartment phase of the project.  The students were able to see an almost completed apartment as well as view the courtyard area where the pool and other amenities will be located.

It was definitely a great learning opportunity for the students and all that attended would like to thank our host Clancy & Theys and especially Laura and the site personnel that discussed the project with the students.