August 2015PIPELINEFacilities Services

Saieh HallLEED Gold

American Architecture AwardPlanning for Higher Education CBC Merit Award, Rehab Construction

CBC/COAA: Owners’ Choice Award

FS BuildingLEED Gold

Logan Center for the ArtsMerit Award, AIA New York

Earl Shapiro Hall

Best Project Awards, K-12 LEED SilverCBC Merit Award, Finalist

Education Award Showcase, Award of Distinction

William W. Caudill Citation

Child Development Center - EastEmerald Award from USGBC

BuildingAwards

2015

Summer 2015 #007

facilities.uchicago.edu

After significant planning, Facilities Ser-vices’ trade shops, landscape services crew and inventory control personnel

moved into brand-new space this year when the Fa-cility Services Building opened at 5225 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in January.

The two-story structure is located directly across from the historic Illinois National Guard 124th Ar-

tillery in Washington Park. Landscapers, carpenters, locksmiths, electricians,

painters and others share the bright and clean space after working for decades out of a former taxi barn, known as ATS, on Stony Island Avenue.

“This shows the University is investing in the fu-ture of the FS operations shops, the environment and the tools we have to support the physical envi-

ronment,” said Barry O’Quinn, manager, campus trade shops.

The FS Building earned LEED Gold status this year and features a geothermal field with multiple wells under the parking lot and a green roof. All building materials met the LEED requirements. This facility is just one of many buildings that re-ceived awards this past fiscal year.

The Facilities Services building on Cottage Grove earned LEED Gold status this year. (Photo by Ignacio Martinez)

August 2015PIPELINEFacilities Services

LaKeesha’s commitment to FS and commu-nity outreach shows a willingness and dedica-tion to go above and beyond expectations and for this and other reasons, she has been named the Keller Award winner for FY2015.

LaKeesha’s hard work and willingness to take on any task has made her an invaluable member of the finance team. She is credited with leading a complete turnaround of the accounts payable department. She has improved our ability to make payments to vendors in a timely manner, which helps keep costs down.

LaKeesha can often be found in the evening hours at her desk ensuring the timely process-ing of our accounts payable invoices. This level of service delivery is most appreciated by our Operations and Capital Project Delivery clients, who rely on LaKeesha and her team to execute accounting requests, report expenses and ana-lyze financial data. At the same time, she and her team also ensure the timely entry of ac-counting transactions to pay vendors, contrac-tors and other University stakeholders.

In addition to her dedicated work in finance, LaKeesha also organizes FS’ annual Coat Drive. This year, through LaKeesha’s efforts, FS donat-ed nearly 100 coats and a handful of scarves to The Living Room Café, located in Woodlawn, which provides restaurant-style meals to home-less or poor men, women and families in a ther-apeutic community that promotes dignity and respect. She also can be counted on to volunteer and contribute to other FS community efforts.

There is no doubt the success of FS and the accounts payable team is a direct reflection of LaKeesha’s dedication, hard work and commit-ment to excellence. Her strong work ethic and skill set is balanced by her giving heart and com-mitment to community engagement.

Bob consistently responds to the needs of the Operations team and provides support well outside the normal scope of his role. When an electrical fire broke out at the Stein Building in August 2014, Bob’s expertise became critical to overcoming the challenges associated with the fire and its aftermath. Bob coordinated with

the ComEd team and pushed them to meet our needed deadlines. He collaborated with Jim Garcia (CPD), Candace Walters (Risk Man-agement) and FM Global, as well as Myriam Weaver and her residential properties team. This project would have been significantly ham-pered if not for Bob’s significant contributions

and guidance. Bob was instru-mental in assur-ing the building was back on-line, as prom-ised, within four months.

Bob also led the effort to obtain ther-mal scans of all major electrical equipment on campus and in residential fa-

cilities to develop a baseline of current condi-tions to proactively avoid a similar incident. He methodically enacted coordinated repairs and shutdowns. This effort required coordination with two contractors, ComEd, our electric shop and engineering shops, as well as IT Services at multiple locations. The work took more than six months to coordinate due to the complicated nature of facilities, and to manage the impact on people and processes on campus. Bob takes these issues on willingly and manages them with aplomb.

Juliana’s strong work ethic, along with her ability to juggle numerous projects while maintaining a high level of customer service and tenacity to get things done, make her an invaluable member of the FS IT team. Juliana is always cognizant of the FS Core Values and Strategic Themes and the value FS IT brings to furthering those critical initiatives.

Juliana engages subject matter experts on all projects and works to keep communication open between FS’ four units. Juliana listens, strives for transparency in communications and delivers high-quality results.

One project Juliana worked on in the last fiscal year was the migration of our e-Builder application system from a University-hosted environment to an application hosted by a ven-

dor. This project engaged subject matter experts from both inside and outside the University. The project aimed to: reduce the FS oper-ating costs, improve system up-time and reduce FS IT staff workload. The project spanned nine months, with multiple changes of the project manager on the vendor side, and the migration im-pacted nearly 500 us-ers. This project was a great success, with only minimal user impact.

Ernie Negrete has been a member of the Electric Shop team for more than five years and is a key contributor to the performance of the shop. He always makes himself available to anyone who may need help or has questions. Ernie openly shares his knowledge with team members and coaches staff to expand their knowledge and expertise. The quality of Ernie’s work is always top notch, regardless of the cir-cumstance, he takes the time to do things right the first time so that rework is not required. He double-checks everything and never leaves a job until all loose ends are addressed and resolved. Ernie promotes a positive attitude and dedica-tion to superior customer service. Employees like Ernie are the reason the electric shop regu-larly draws the highest possible customer service ratings on quality of work and professionalism of staff.

2015 Keller Award winner LaKeesha Carter. (Photo by Tiffany Grant)

Bob Bandura, chief electri-cal engineer, at Harper Court. (Photo by Matt Marton)

For the 14th consecutive year, Facilities Services leadership honors employees who contribute significantly to the Univer-sity of Chicago community with the awarding of the Keller Award, named for Janet Keller, a former project manager. In the last months of her life, Janet led a project team to create the USITE Computing Cluster in the Crerar Science Library. Throughout the project, clients and team members alike repeatedly cited Janet for upholding the highest values of team-work and cooperation and providing superior customer service and satisfaction through the duration of the project. This award, in her honor, recognizes employees who thrive on collaboration and demonstrate the highest professional and ethical standards. A permanent plaque honoring Keller Award winners hangs in the 10th floor break room at Harper Court.

Below are the nominators’ comments for this year’s award winners.

Ernesto Negrete, journeyman electrician, after racking a breaker wearing an Arc Flash Suit. (Photo by Matt Marton)

Juliana Jovanoski is known for her strong work ethic on the FS IT team.

Honorable MentionsBob Bandura, chief electrical engi-neer, Operations

Juliana Jovanoski, manager business applications data, Strategic Resources

Ernesto Negrete, journeyman elec-trician, Operations

Keller Award Winner: LaKeesha Carter

LaKeesha Carter, supervisor, accounts payable, Strategic Resources

August 2015PIPELINEFacilities Services

Josh Garza’s dedication and leadership to im-prove the culture of safety in FS has led the Op-erations leadership to honor him with the second annual FS Safety Spirit Award.

This award honors individuals or teams whose demonstrated commitment to safety inspires co-workers and promotes a safe work environment both within FS and throughout our campus com-munity.

Garza, who joined FS in 2012, exemplifies the characteristics of an employee who is truly en-gaged with safety, both by chairing the FS Safety Committee and through actively speaking up at meetings and sharing ideas about creating a safe work environment openly with his team and oth-ers. As part of the Ergonomics Sub-Committee, Garza helped implement the first stretching initia-tive that encourages employees to stretch to avoid workplace injuries.

“Josh brought great enthusiasm and openly of-fered ideas on how to launch the stretching pro-gram across Facilities,” said Brandon Rux, man-ager of Landscape Services.

Garza has also participated on Employee En-gagement, Near Miss, and Analytics sub-commit-tees. Kevin Austin, director of campus services, commends Garza on his efforts to raising aware-ness and tracking progress.

“Serving as the chair of the safety committee this past year solidifies his role in leading by exam-ple. And he takes every opportunity to talk safety with his coworkers and leadership,” Austin said.

What is a Spot Award?

Spot Awards are a $15 gift card issued “on-the-spot” to FS employees who have demon-strated superior performance, extraordinary achievement or engaged in exemplary cross-unit collaboration. To honor an employee with a Spot Award, supervisors and staff may re-quest a card by contacting FS HR.

Building & Maintaining Excellence

Kevin AhnMatthew BeachJames CookRalph DietzMike KekelikZlatko LoncarJose LopezIgnacio MartinezJeffrey MosleyKevin RodgersScott WhitingJames Woolf

A pilot project to actively curtail energy use on campus during peak summer hours has earned three em-ployees the Keller Team Award. (Photo by Robert Kozloff)

A collaborative effort to reduce energy use during peak summer hours by Matthew Beach, utilities manager, Kevin Rodgers, commissioning engineer, Marcus Patterson, manager, building automation systems shop, have earned them the FY2015 Keller Team Award.

In July 2014, Operations implemented an en-ergy curtailment program to reduce the electrical load during peak demand hours. The effort, led by the individuals listed above and their teams, was implemented over the summer of 2014 as a pi-lot to gain insight into how an energy curtailment program might bring value to the University.

After multiple live tests, the initiative grew to a point where the team sought buy-in and en-gagement with various member of the campus community. Those successful partnerships led to

several load-shed efforts that resulted in two- to four-Megawatt reductions in campus electrical de-mand during those peak summer events.

This effort allowed FS to better understand our ability to reduce the overall campus electrical load. This positioned us to successfully implement an enhanced approach this summer, which may re-sult in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings going forward each year. This initiative may free up operating funds for use in other critical areas. An additional benefit is that this project allowed us to engage in discussion on electrical use from a sustainability perspective. The team anticipates and proactively communicates with clients to manage impacts and client expectations during these relatively short, but potentially impactful, events.

Keller Team Award Winner

Safety Spirit Award WinnerJoshua Garza, fixture cleaner electrician

Josh Garza, fixture cleaner electrician, replaces light fixtures in the basement archives of the Oriental Institute. (Photo by Matt Marton)

Dean Boyer is a Chicago native and University of Chicago alumni. He has served as Dean of the College since 1992, the longest tenure of anyone in that position. This year, Dean Boyer joined FS as the featured speaker at our All Staff meeting.

Dean John W. Boyer

Matt Beach, Kevin Rodgers & Marcus Patterson, Operations