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How Prioritizing Inclusion Contributes to Successful Outcomes

January 25, 2022
Shaik Sihabuddin
Prioritizing inclusion helps support a construction project’s success. Inclusionary practices such as community engagement, soliciting stakeholder input, and partner collaboration, help contribute to a project’s realization while also simultaneously supporting a project owner’s mission and values. At Gilbane, we are committed to Building More Than Buildings® – we are building communities that focus on inclusion.

Our Northern California team recently built the new Student Union building at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). When designing the project, the goal was to capture the university’s mission of providing an inclusive and open academic environment for students of all backgrounds. Because of this, the space was designed to become the cornerstone of the campus quad, where a diverse student body would feel welcomed for years to come. The new building serves as a gateway into the campus, where natural lighting infiltrates the glass walls and tall ceilings, lending to the sense of openness. The hybrid indoor/outdoor event space will serve to host many future campus events.

Student Engagement & Inclusivity

The project was funded through student fees and benefited from significant student input throughout the design process. An on-campus Information Campaign Team was formed to solicit student engagement, as well as to monitor the progress of the project. Inclusivity was the number one driver among students for the new facility, as CSUMB attracts a wide and diverse student body.

“The student representatives were instrumental in making sure that the design of the new student union would reflect students’ desires and address their needs,” said Selene Lenox, Vice President, Gilbane Building Company. In 2021, the project won Best Projects Award of Merit, Higher Education/Research, Engineering News-Record for citing that the team overcame potential delays ranging from steel fabrication and permits to wildfires thanks to “close coordination with trades, advanced project management software and lean construction approaches enabled the project team to rearrange and various project elements, keeping the project moving through the unexpected obstacles while minimizing costs.”

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A Commitment to Collaboration

At Gilbane, our culture ensures that inclusion and diversity are at the forefront of everything we do. We work to create an inclusive work environment which in turn delivers greater value for our employees, clients, and the communities where we work. To ensure we are doing the most we can to achieve this goal, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) seek to make our employees feel more involved, appreciated, and heard. Each ERG has a specific mission, as well as a targeted demographic, but any employee can join any group as an ally. Gilbane’s ERGs include groups for women, veterans, young professionals, LGBTQIA employees, Black/African American employees, Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander employees, and Hispanic employees, that all provide an open platform to bring different voices to the table.

 I’m proud to work for a company that provides opportunities for our people to come together like this and provide a pathway for representation across the company and our communities. – Shaik Sihabuddin



About Authors
With over 19 years in the construction industry, Shaik Sihabuddin has extensive experience managing new ground-up construction higher education buildings throughout California. He also serves as the Chair for Gilbane’s APIC (Asian Professionals in Construction) ERG. The mission of the ERG is to champion actions of inclusivity that link the heritage, connections, and experiences of our Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander and allies to build a sense of belonging within Gilbane.
Read more posts by Shaik Sihabuddin