What's more, the project has made use of environmentally friendly practices to minimize the impact of the construction process on the environment. The project requires W&M Construction to restructure 124,000 square feet on the fourth and fifth floors of the six-story building, which is located at One Elmcroft Road in Stamford. The project is a complete tenant fit-out that began last August and will be finished this May. "This is the functioning world headquarters of a major corporation; you can imagine how important it is to them and us to do things effectively and allow them to do their work while we do ours," says Frank Lovello, an estimator at W&M Construction, who worked on the Pitney Bowes project. "The architect designed the space for more efficient utilization, without making it over-crowded. We retrofitted and restacked the floors and implemented the architect's plans to ease the flow of traffic in the building, including adding a three-floor staircase and two bridges." A communicating staircase goes from the third floor to the sixth floor, while the bridges connect areas of the building that are far from each other, allowing for more than one route from point "a" to point "b." These structures will help alleviate congestion throughout the building. Performing this massive overhaul while employees continued to work there has required W&M Construction to plan ahead carefully to rotate people in and out of spaces under construction. Most notable of the environmentally friendly construction techniques implemented by W&M Construction to satisfy Pitney Bowe's objectives are the 193 tons of recycled material saved from going to landfills. On top of this feat, the project also used 100 percent recyclable drywall; wheatboard, which is made of fast growing wheat (instead of plywood, which is made from trees); and paints and glues with low or no VOC, which means little or no emission of harmful chemicals. "We're thrilled to work with a company like Pitney Bowes on its space needs, as well as to fulfill its mandate to use a more eco-friendly process to develop a better working environment," says W&M Construction president Timothy Yahn. Based in Stamford, W&M Construction is a full-service general contractor and construction manager, specializing in commercial ground-up construction, interiors and building rehabilitation. Since its founding in 1987, the firm has completed over 2,000 projects throughout Fairfield and Westchester County and surrounding areas, including corporate offices, medical/ hospital, retail, industrial, private and public work. W&M Construction is the construction arm of the Malkin family, and is an affiliate of W&M Properties.
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