DPR Delivers through Rain or Storm in Fairfax, Harborside School Tags Tower Project in San Diego

A few weeks follwing Hurricane Isabel, DPR’s Fairfax, VA office received an email from a thankful Maryland citizen. Project Engineer John Jaffe had taken home a generator from one of DPR’s project sites to ensure that it remained secure during the storm. When power in his neighborhood was knocked out, Jaffe set up the generator and offered electricity to any residents at the Seven Oaks community in Odenton, MD, who could connect to it. “There was a veritable spider web of orange, heavy duty extension cords snaking throughout our parking lot,” read the email from one of Jaffe’s neighbors, who also noted that the generator and “John’s generous spirit” saved much of the food in her refrigerator and her basement that nearly flooded. In total, the generator supplied enough electricity to run sump pumps, refrigerators and freezers for 13 different households during the 48 hours the neighborhood was without power.

“John’s example is one of many stories surrounding the hurricane,” said Mike Broughton of DPR. “Another is Superintendent Ronnie Bass, who went to a jobsite at four in the morning to remove downed trees from one of our customers’ data center so its employees could access the facility. He also delivered a generator to the facility manager’s house, so she could work from home. People really went the extra mile to help each other and the community.”

On the other side of the country in San Diego, CA, DPR commissioned some “local artists,” students from Harborside Elementary School, to complete a 90-ft.-long mural on the construction fence of the Allegro Tower project, a 28-story, 260,000-sq.-ft. apartment tower located downtown.

According to Project Superintendent Brian Thomason, he had been waiting for the kids to come back to school in the fall to paint the Ash Street fence adjacent to the project.

Donning kid-size DPR hard hats and working in shifts during their art classes, more than 90 kindergarteners through eighth-graders used 15 gallons of paint to finish up their work of art. The mural, titled “Our Fascinating World,” features the ocean and marine life, as well as land, other animals and blue sky.