Source: by Cee Nga Kao | Updated September 2024

September 2024

First Place

The first-place winner of August 2024 is Kevin Seitz, a Whiting-Turner project manager.

Second Place

The second-place for August 2024 is Nicole Sandberg who is a a Project Engineer Intern at Aggie Square. This photo was taken in 200 Aggie Square and captures a small section of the intricate Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire Protection (MEPF) work throughout the project.

August 2024

First Place

The first-place winner of August 2024 is Ryan Robinett, an architect with ZGF Architects. Ryan works on-site at the Aggie Square project, primarily focused on the exterior enclosure, on-site and off-site improvements, and interior tenant improvements. This black and white photo taken from the loading dock area highlights the north façade of 300 Aggie Square, the east façade of 200 Aggie Square, and the bricks. Ryan was struck by the alignment of 200 Aggie Square’s reflection in the 300 Aggie Square façade and wanted to capture the layers of the façade, the different scales of materiality, and an interesting perspective.

Second Place

Second-place for August 2024 also goes to Ryan Robinett. This color photo was taken from the southwest corner of 300 Aggie Square and captures the clear blue sky and the reflections on the glass looking up from the ground.

July 2024

First Place

July’s first-place winner is Audrey Garvey. Audrey’s former role at Aggie Square was to support UC Davis Real Estate Services in off-site work related to the project. While walking along the open space next to the Aggie Square site, the clouds’ reflection on the building caught her eye and compelled her to take the photo to capture the beautiful visual.

Second Place

July’s second-place winner is Jordan Levin, the lead construction administration architect for ZGF Architects. The photo here was taken from the top of the Life-Long Learning Tower’s roof, looking through the mechanical screens that are meant to block direct sightlines of the rooftop mechanical equipment. Jordan thought the photo was interesting because of the positive and negative vertical lines intermixed with the horizontal lines of the perforations within the screens themselves.

June 2024

First Place

The first-place winner for June goes to Doc Parker, lead technology designer for Affiliated Engineers. The photo was taken on the roof of the Life-Long Learning building, inspired by the geometry and craftmanship of the chillers.

Second Place

The second-place winner for June is Bikramdeep Singh, project manager for UC Davis Design and Construction Management Real Estate Services. As a university representative, Bikramdeep works with various stakeholders such as UC Davis and UC Davis Health clients, developer, consultants, vendors and UC Davis and UC Davis Health campus delivery teams. The symmetry of the repetitive roof penetrations motivated Bikramdeep to share this specific shot.

May 2024

First Place

The first-place winner for May is Jordan Levin, the lead construction administration architect for ZGF Architects. As temperatures have start to sky-rocket, construction workers use beach umbrellas to stay out of the direct sunlight, especially working so close to the reflective glass. Jordan snapped a photo of the curtain wall installing team utilizing the window washing system along with the umbrellas to continue installing the exterior glazing.

Second Place

Jordan Levin also secured second-place for May with a photo of construction workers on the Aggie Square site, perfectly aligned vertically on the scaffolding of a building. Jordan points out that each worker is looking up except the worker at the very top who peers down at their co-workers.

April 2024

First Place

First-place for April goes to Scott Donaldson, an assistant project manager with Rosendin Electric. After a long rainy day, Scott walked out of his jobsite trailer and looked up to the sky where a rainbow arched over the project site. He immediately snapped a photo to share its After a long rainy day, Scott walked out of his jobsite trailer and looked up to the sky where a rainbow arched over the project site. He immediately snapped a photo of the sight to share.

Second Place

Second-place for April goes to Paul Hobson, a plumber pipefitter for Frank M. Booth.

March 2024

First Place

The first place winner for March 2024 is by Paul Hermle, a senior field engineer for Whiting-Turner. John Jackson Masonry took ZGF’s vision and brought it to life. This wall showcases the articulated brick contrasting from the flat brick to create letters that form the saying “Fiat Lux”. This wall will be a symbol of Aggie Square for years to come. It took extensive planning, patience, and craftsmanship and has turned out to be one of Paul’s favorite pieces of the project.

Second Place

March 2024’s second place winner is a photo by Jordan Levin who is the lead construction administration architect for ZGF Architects. He leads the entire design team’s efforts, including all the engineers, special consultants, and interior and architectural team, during construction. His photo depicts the layer and geometry of the curtain wall façade of the Life Science, Technology & Engineering building. The design of the glass is based on solar exposure allowing more light on the lower floors for more visibility and less light on labs located the upper floors. Jordan was excited to capture the geometric pattern of the glass without the clutter of other aspects of the building or ongoing construction to shield its beauty from sight.

February 2024

First Place (Tied)

One of the two tied winners for February is Bikramdeep Singh, a project manager for UC Davis – Design and Construction Management – Real Estate Services. He acts as a university representative working directly with various stakeholders such as UC Davis and UC Davis Health clients, developers, consultants, vendors and campus delivery teams. The photo, as remarked by Bikramdeep, captures the essence of the ‘Fiat Lux’ rendering presented during the design development that highlighted the brick work and showcases the beauty of the display as intended.

First Place (Tied)

One of the two tied winners for February is a photo of the ‘Fiat Lux’ lettering on one of the Aggie Square buildings by Jordan Levin, an architect with ZGF architects who leads the construction administration phase for the project and works with the general contractor to ensure that the design intent is properly implemented. When the scaffolding was removed to reveal the 15-foot-tall letters, Jordan was standing directly below where the sunlight hits the bricks in just the right way for the words to pop out and took a photo to capture the moment.

January 2024

First Place 

The first place winner for January 2024 is Tommy DeArmond, an assistant project manager with Whiting-Turner. Here, a mobile crane was being disassembled after three days of work on the construction site. Tommy believes that this photo represents the beauty in construction and the mass amounts of coordination that take place on a daily basis.

Second Place

The second place winner for January 2023 is Mary Mumper, the administrative officer for Aggie Square. This shot displays a cinematic view of a long hallway of the Mixed-Use Residential building. Mary had snapped this photo while touring the space for the first time and thought it would be a beautiful scene with the lighting coming in from the left.

December 2023

First Place 

For the third month in a row, Paul Hobson earns first place, this time capturing one of the many important tasks of his job as a plumber pipefitter, leveling pipes. This shot captures the skill and precision needed for construction and Hobson’s dedication to detail.

Second Place

Second place for December’s contest goes to Doc Parker, the lead technology engineer for Affiliated Engineers, Incorporated. This shot was taken on Doc’s first time on the project site for safety training. It includes the Life Sciences and Technology East building, Lifelong Learning building, and parking structure 6 in the early dawn hours with the first sunlight reflecting softly on the windows.

November 2023

First Place 

Paul Hobson, a plumber pipefitter for Frank M. Booth, secures first place again with another one of his beautiful sunrise photos. Paul takes great pride in his work, and in this photo, he is able to capture the results of his dedication along with his personal interest of sunrises and sunsets.

Second Place

The second-place winner, titled “Shadow Story”, is by Shawn Cooper, the project executive and a vice president for Whiting-Turner. It was taken from the sixth floor of the Life-long Learning building. The shadows created from the light coming in were reminiscent of the early shadow studies done during the design phase of the project.

October 2023

First Place 

The first-place winner for October’s photo contest is Paul Hobson, a plumber pipefitter for Frank M Booth. Paul has a love for sunrises and sunsets, and when he noticed the beautiful view on the job, snapped a photo of the orange hues of the sky.

Second Place

The second-place winner is Brian Jones.

September 2023

First Place 

Claire Drummond, the executive and senior director for Wexford Science and Tech, is the first-place photo contest winner for September. In this beautiful sunrise photo, Claire was climbing the tower crane for the first time and snapped a photo, engrossed in the juxtaposition between nature and construction.

Second Place

The second-place winner photo for September is by Shawn Cooper, the project executive and a vice president for Whiting-Turner. Shawn was walking to check a part of the roof assembly when this particular view of the two towers caught his eye with striking symmetry and interesting perspective.

August 2023

First Place 

The first-place winner for August is a photo by Thomas O’Brien, a field engineer for Whiting-Turner. The black-and-white photo features piping and conduit installed on the ceiling of the mechanical level. Thomas frequently takes photos of work around the site for quality checks and progress photos, and this specific one stood out to him because of its complexity. There are many different parts and pieces that go into a building, and when it aligns so neatly, it is nice to admire the beauty of the collaboration and coordination that goes into constructing a building.

Second Place

Jaden Swanson’s photo was the runner up in August. Jaden is a field engineer for Whiting-Turner. He primarily managed work performed on the mechanical level and the roof of the Life Science and Technology and Engineering East building.  Taken in the early morning hours, his photo features concrete pads of the roof, freshly applied with traffic coating, as the sun reflects across the surface. The sunrises from the roof on Aggie Square were Jaden’s favorite part of the morning, and this scene perfectly captured the beauty of the waking sun.

July 2023

First Place 

The first-place July winner, Sumiko Hong, is the Aggie Square Community Engagement Manager, part of the UC Davis Government and Community Relations team. Sumiko strengthens relationships with the local community, shares information about Aggie Square, and coordinates with partners at the City of Sacramento and Wexford Science and Technology to uphold the many parts of the Community Benefits Partnership Agreement. One early summer morning, the general contractor for Aggie Square, Whiting-Turner, invited a small group including Sumiko to climb the 250-foot tower crane where the crane operator showed the group the view from his seat on a glass floor where they could peer down at the site below and described in great detail the coordination and teamwork that is required to safely and efficiently operate such a big machine. As the group made their way to the jib, the long extension arm of the crane, the view of the sky towards the Sierra Nevada mountains with the sun rising in the early morning hours was spectacular. With one hand on the handrail, Sumiko snapped a picture to commemorate the moment and share with others.

Second Place

Mary Mumper, the second-place winner of the July photo contest, is the project coordinator at UC Davis for Aggie Square, working on coordination across all of the project’s partners internal and external to the University. The photo features a from-the-ground shot of a tower crane that is tucked into the nook of the backside of the Aggie Square buildings, a barely visible crescent moon shyly making an appearance. That morning, as she watched the climb crew make their way up the crane after declining the offer to join, Mary snapped a few photos from her specular view that showcased the grand scale of the crane. Since taking this photo, Mary has had a second opportunity to climb the crane and made it to the top.

June 2023

First Place 

This photo by Thomas Klein, a project manager with Whiting-Turner, is the first-place June winner. The black-and-white still captures a view of an electrical room, the walls covered in mounted conduits and distribution panels. Thomas took this photo because a well-thought-out installation of conduit and pathway installations are worth appreciation, especially when it is placed in such an artful way.

Second Place

The second-place June winner is Kevin Seitz, a Whiting-Turner project manager. This is a photo of Aggie Square’s Life Long Learning and Life Science Technology and Engineering East building taken from the top deck of Parking Structure 6. With a love for construction, Kevin wanted to share the captivating progress of the buildings that the public would not otherwise see without these progress photos.

May 2023

First Place 

One of the two photo contest winners for May, Jordan Levin is the lead construction administration architect for ZGF Architects. He leads the entire design team’s efforts, including all the engineers, special consultants, and interior and architectural team, during construction. Pictured is a construction worker on a special lift that carries him close to the future elevator shaft where he removes all of the concrete overpouring, extra leakage that hardens and needs to be removed, so that the elevators that will be installed in the future will not be impacted. The worker is also removing any concrete off of the steel embed plates that will hold any additional steel for the elevator hoisting system. This scene caught Jordan’s eye with an interesting zig-zag pattern of the “Spider Lift” and the pop of contrast between the gray concrete walls and the vibrant green lift and orange safety netting.

Second Place

The second photo contest winner is Blake Coren, an architect with ZGF Architects and the project manager for their Aggie Square team. Currently residing in Portland, Blake makes a long commute from Portland to Sacramento every other week to come onto site and collaborate with the contractors and client. She takes on many tasks including managing the architects’ schedule, budget, stagging needs, and deliverables, leading the permitting process with the UC Davis Health Building Department and Fire Marshal’s office, and working with the client to ensure the project aligns with their goals and needs. Photographed are thin brick corner pieces, made by H.C. Muddox , on the exterior and interior of the Life-Long Learning Building. While visiting H.C. Muddox’s facility in May, the pattern and texture of the stacks of bricks caught Blake’s eye – craftmanship is poured into every aspect into this project, even in mundane tasks such as stacking bricks to be shipped – and this photo showcases the art and beauty of construction intertwined in Aggie Square.

April 2023

First Place 

One of April’s photo contest winners, this photo is taken by Craig Casity, a superintendent on the Aggie Square project. He oversees all aspects of construction including the Life Sciences and Technology East Building, Life Long Learning Building, and the site infrastructure. Craig was climbing stair 3 within the Life Sciences and Technology East Building on his daily walk when he reached the fifth floor and noticed his view of the illuminated “WT” sign on the tower crane of the Life Long Learning Building. It is a rare opportunity, Craig mentions, to manage a project of this size and complexity. Snapping pictures like this one that captures the beauty of their handicraft reminds Craig to appreciate their accomplishments and hard work.

Second Place

A photo by Jordan Louie, another superintendent at Aggie Square, is the second photo contest winner for April. Jordan focuses on quality management, facilitating Whiting-Turners’ quality along with Christian Girtman, an assistant superintendent. In this black-and-white still photo, a Local Union 118 ironworker works on a rebar cage for a concrete column. These columns are pre-fabricated after arrival on site and flown into place using the tower crane. Once set, the cages are prepared with fine detailing to later be formed and poured. As a former Local Union 377 ironworker for ten years, Jordan captured this photo in appreciation for all tradesman. It shows the risk that they take on daily to provide the best for clients.