This kind of glazing has nothing to do with donuts!

At this moment (spring 1998), I am one hour short of vesting a pension in the Glaziers' and Glassworkers' Union. Under new 7 year rule for vesting, there must be one hour worked after July 1, 1997 - OR!... a worker must have been vested under the former ten-year-rule.  I plan a trip to Calif sometime this year to take care of that little detail.

I was a newcomer to construction in 1984 as a 33 yr old first-year apprentice. After seven years in the trade, the recession of 1991-93 placed me in a re-structuring of plans and goals (real estate fits in here!). Ninety-nine percent of my construction experience has been in commercial buildings. It pays better, requires more skills than residential and automotive glazing, and individual projects might last anywhere from a few days to a couple of years.

Favorite buildings

Fremont Library 1988 - (glazing contractor: Progress Glass, San Francisco, CA) - This was my first assignment as a journeyman and I was also foreman. Interesting aspects of the construction involved segmented radius window walls, one housing the reading room, one housing the employees' lunch room, and a smaller one on the second story overlooking the main entry. There was also a three-panel room divider (3 men to lift each section without the doors installed) on tracks that rolled endways into a storage closet, and also numerous skylights. Very interesting!

Daniel Burnham Towers, San Francisco 1987 - This building covers an entire city block and consists of four levels of commercial space starting at street level, an exercise complex with swimming pool and workout area on the fifth level, and fraternal-twin towers of 17 and 19 floors of condominiums above. The most challenging aspects of the work (and most enjoyable) included installing curved glass roughly 9' tall and 7' wide on the first and second levels, each lite of glass curving the wall face 45 degrees. Also fun was the layout for maintaining vertical lines that ran 24 stories straight up. The scenery on this jobsite included downtown San Francisco and the bay - fantastic!

Shen Lincoln/Mercury and Infiniti dealership, San Mateo, CA 1989 - (glazing contractor: Budiselich Corporation, Stockton, CA) - I was also a foreman on this job. This construction project created two buildings; involving construction of service areas, offices, and large showrooms. It also incorporated several segmented walls and lots of glass. The buildings were trimmed nicely with bright red and green finishes, representative of good luck to the Chinese. The owner was often seen in the work areas and was a pleasure to work with!

Human Resources Building, Stockton, CA 1990 - (glazing contractor: Budiselich Corporation) - This government building was fairly straightforward on our part, although it involved some large awkward frames that had to be hoisted into place and spanned both the third and fourth floor window areas. The crowning touch on this project was a domed skylight installed by another glazing contractor, etched with a map of the world on its multiple lites of glass. A sight to see!