Kennesaw, Georgia, USA, Sept. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BrandSafway was named the 2018 winner of the Innovation Award from the Scaffold and Access Industry Association (SAIA), the premier professional organization in the industry. BrandSafway received the award during the 2018 SAIA Annual Convention and Exposition for a uniquely engineered solution, which was designed for the Reimagine 900 revitalization project at 900 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
“The SAIA Innovation Award for the Reimagine 900 project recognizes our engineering team’s ability to push the envelope and design creative solutions to meet the unique needs of our clients,” said Bill Hayes, president and CEO. “I am extremely proud of our engineering expertise. We’re always looking at how to increase productivity, while also improving safety.”
The retail space at 900 North Michigan Avenue is anchored by Bloomingdale’s and houses 60 other retailers including Gucci, MaxMara, J.Crew and Michael Kors. The renovation project included transforming an existing atrium ceiling into a digital art installation with images and videos projected on a 184-foot LED display—all without interrupting visitors’ experiences.
The access solution designed for the project centered around BrandSafway’s Spider® suspended swing stages and the HAKI® aluminum truss system. BrandSafway is the primary distributor of HAKI products in North America.
“Once we walked the jobsite with Pepper Construction Company, we saw that the scope of the project rested on the ability to span the atrium, a distance of about 30 feet,” said Doug Knapp, a regional product manager at BrandSafway. “We realized the HAKI truss system would be the best solution.”
BrandSafway worked with building engineers to determine safe load limits and to develop a solution that could be put together quickly—completing assembly a week and a half faster than expected and helping Pepper Construction Company finish the project on time.
“Altogether, the project required some 460 trusses, which if they were connected end-to-end would stretch for more than a mile,” said Scott Metz, project manager at Safway Atlantic, a BrandSafway company. “If you look at all the components that went into creating the work platform, I think most people would consider it quite an engineering accomplishment.”
Founded in 1972, the SAIA is a nonprofit membership association for the scaffold and access industry that provides safety education to thousands of contractors through its seminars and training courses. Each year, the SAIA’s Innovation Award is presented to the member company that demonstrates a new or innovative way to utilize an existing product on a project, or delivers a new product to the field.
About BrandSafway
With a commitment to safety as its foremost value, BrandSafway provides the broadest range of services, products and solutions, with the greatest depth of expertise, to the industrial, commercial and infrastructure markets. A portfolio company of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, BrandSafway offers access, industrial services and forming and shoring solutions to more than 32,000 customers through a workforce of approximately 35,000 employees, who support our network of 350 strategic locations across 30 countries. With its global footprint, rigorous operating processes and extensive service offerings — a full range of work access, insulation, coatings, specialty industrial services and forming and shoring solutions — BrandSafway supports customers’ maintenance and refurbishment needs as well as new construction and expansion plans. Today’s BrandSafway — large enough to leverage economies of scale to increase safety and productivity, while also remaining nimble and responsive — delivers unmatched service with local labor and management.
About SAIA
The Scaffold & Access Industry Association (SAIA) is a non-profit trade 501(c)(6) association committed to raising the standards of professionalism within the scaffold and access industry. The SAIA represents all facets of the scaffold and access industry through various councils that include, aerial work platform, construction hoist, fall protection equipment, international, industrial, mast climbing, plank and platform, shoring, supported scaffold and suspended scaffold. Through its various programs, the SAIA promotes safety, training and a highly professional, responsible image of the scaffold and access professional. The SAIA delivers thousands of safety training programs a year at various locations throughout the world. These programs cover all aspects of scaffold and access safety and equipment use. The SAIA is also the secretariat for the American National Standard, SAIA ASC A92 and A11 standards. For more information, call 816.595.4860 or visit us at www.saiaonline.org.
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