GOLDEN 8/7/08 1:44 PM Page 108

profile g o l d e n s tat e f r a m e r s

>> Viano says he doesn’t mind seeing so

many new faces.
“I don’t mind the competition,” he
says. “Competition is fine because we
want to steal their best guys.”
Viano says Golden State offers bonus-
es such as college education funds and
more insurance than many of its com-
petitors as ways to attract and retain
skilled workers.
He says the company’s large bonding
limit gives it the strength to go out and Golden State’s goal is to
find the biggest and most challenging take on the challenging
projects to differentiate
jobs. itself in the industry.
“We try to find the hardest jobs out
there because anybody can build the
easy stuff,” Viano says. He adds that
some contractors might allow quality to
suffer if they consider a project too easy
for them, but Golden State prefers to
approach projects cautiously.
“When you look at something easy,
you don’t look quite as hard at it as you
do with something hard,” he says. “It
forces you to look at it.”

Pursuing Tough Projects

It’s this thirst for a challenge that sets
Golden State apart from the competi-
tion, Viano says, and also what has driv-
en the company to pursue projects such
as the Grand Californian expansion
project. The project will eventually add
30 percent more capacity to the hotel,
bringing it up to 1,000 rooms.
A rooftop deck and parking structure
will also be added in the expansion,
which will make the Grand Californian
the third-largest hotel in the state.
Challenging Schedule
The project is a challenge, Viano says,
because the 2.5-acre addition is being
built on an already-tight site with very
little room for staging.
“It’s just going to be a tight job, but we
have an excellent general [contractor]
out there, C.W. Driver,” Viano says.
“We’ve been working on this for several
months on how we’re going to efficient-
ly do our work as best as possible.”
The project began in late 2007, and is
scheduled to be completed in 2009.
‘Cradle-to-Grave’ Employment
Moving forward, Viano sees managing
resources as both the company’s great-
est asset and one of its significant chal-
lenges. For instance, he sees managing
the resource of Golden State’s work-
force as something the company will
have to pay attention to in the near
future. Journeymen are becoming fore-
men, but older foremen are still not
ready to leave their jobs, he says.
Viano says he would like Golden State
to provide “cradle-to-grave” employ-
ment for its work force someday.
“You can’t guarantee that, but it would
sure be nice to offer that to people who
prove that they’re worth it,” he says.
Golden State has the advantage of
working in an area of construction that
has fewer resource management prob-
lems than other fields, Viano notes.
As carpenters, Golden State has the
good fortune of working with the only
construction material that literally
grows on trees.
“Wood is construction’s only renew-
able resource, period,” he says. “Steel
studs don’t grow on trees.”
‘Sleeping Giant’
As LEED and other types of green
building continue to gain prominence
in the construction market, Viano says
wood has the benefit of being inex-
haustible when properly stewarded,
and should gain ground on other types
of construction. “Wood is not going
away,” Viano says. “It’s going to be
there and I think it’s going to be one of
these sleeping giants that’s always
going to be there.” x

108 b&c southwest fall 2008