LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Police Department has hired commercial builder Bernards to construct the department's $22.5 million Northeast-area police station. The project has already broke ground with completion estimated in March 2016. 

“This was a competitively bid project that required interested firms to pre-qualify based on the City's qualifications criteria and bidder's ability to meet that criteria, as defined in the city's Request For Qualifications,” says Steve Pellegren, Bernards EVP, who adds that the criteria to qualify included experience in public project and building information modeling.

The 56,000-square-foot development is adjacent to the existing police station, and will include holding cells and a blast-proof exterior. To build the project, Bernards is implementing virtual design and construction and building information modeling. “The city is using this project to develop BIM standards for future city projects,” says Rudy Delgadillo, Bernards project manager. According to Delgadillo, Bernards was one of the first builders to adopt the technologies, a detail that helped the company secure this job.

This isn't the first project Bernards has worked on for the city. It constructed the Metro Detention Center and the 20^th Area Police Station, a LEED-Silver certified building. “We were selected based on the city's previous positive experience with Bernards and our ability to meet the sustainability and advanced technological requisites for the project,” says Pellegren.

Due to this recent growth, Bernards has expanded its executive team, promoting four VPs to the position of SVP. The promoted group includes Ron Bernards, promoted to SVP of field operations, scheduling, safety and quality assurance; Andy Buerk, promoted to SVP of estimating; Dave Cavecche, promoted to compliance, LEAN and management of the company's Irvine office; and Jeff M. Bernards, promoted to SVP of building information modeling and project administration.