0820_AUG Comstock's Magazine 0820 August | Page 68

Construction & development
CENTENNIAL
CELEBRATION
Associated General Contractors of California
has been changing the state’s landscape
for 100 years
BY EVA ROETHLER
In 1920, when the Associated General
Contractors of California was just forming,
construction on the Golden Gate Bridge
wouldn’t begin for another 13 years. “It’s
just such an iconic part of California now
that we all take it for granted,” says Peter
Tateishi, CEO of AGC of California.
AGC of California has been advocating
for infrastructure construction — including
the Golden Gate Bridge — through
policy and advocacy over the past 100
years. It has helped shape the landscape
of the California we know today. This year
is the organization’s centennial celebration.
AGC of California headquarters are
in Sacramento, and the association has
more than 1,000 members divided among
11 districts throughout the state. Tateishi,
a born-and-raised Sacramentan, acknowledges
the region’s growth.
“It’s very cool to see the Sacramento
region continue to grow and reach a
potential that is beyond just a state capital
and beyond just a state-worker town,” he
says. “We have so much that can amplify
and define us differently and support
the diversity and unique secret sauce of
Sacramento.”
AGC of California has tackled many
issues, including crumbling bridges and
unmaintained infrastructure. “Decay
drives future opportunities away from
California,” says Tateishi. This is why AGC
of California advocated for Senate Bill 1,
the Road Repair and Accountability Act of
2017, which is estimated to allocate $52.4
billion over 10 years toward infrastructure
maintenance through a gas tax.
In September 2019, after the construction
industry’s workforce continued
to decrease, AGC of California launched
Build California, a workforce-development
initiative. Build California works to engage
with young people through platforms
like Instagram and, eventually, TikTok to
distance the industry from its perception
as a career of last resort.
“We have lost our narrative as an
industry. We’ve allowed stereotypes
and other people to define what we are,”
Tateishi says, like “the idea of a lazy construction
worker who was sitting around
on a job site not doing anything or the old
plumber’s butt-crack dynamic.”
Instead, what is guiding the industry
is innovation. Locally, that can be seen
in new eco-minded buildings. Christine
Mahon, the associate vice president of
strategic communications at AGC of
California, points to Sundt Construction,
a Sacramento member that worked on the
(Ernest E. Tschannen Science Complex)
at Sacramento State as an example. The
complex is designed to have low environmental
impact and has earned a LEED
Gold Certification from the U.S. Green
Building Council, which assigns points for
various green building strategies.
“Construction is a champion of green
building and environmental sustainability,”
says Mahon.
In January, AGC of California held a
gala to kick off what it anticipated would
be a yearlong celebration of its 100 years.
Clearly, circumstances have changed
because of the pandemic and the organization
has been focused on advocacy for
construction as an essential business. “It’s
not the celebration we thought it would
be, in truth,” says Tateishi. “If anything,
our centennial year became less about a
celebration of the past and more about a
celebration of action.”
Eva Roethler is special sections editor of Comstock’s.
Find her online at EvaRoethler.com.
68 comstocksmag.com | August 2020