F&S, and the crafts and trades nation-wide, are always looking for the next generation of skilled, passionate professionals who maintain critical utilities systems. Buildings have required heating and electricity for decades, and will continue to for the foreseeable future – it might be the folks from a recent tour to do just that. Parkland College, […]
Author: Travis Tate
President’s House and Grounds Upkeep: “Exceptional”
The President of the University of Illinois System appreciates and values F&S work done at the President’s House, even without considering transformation of beech tree to valued milled artifacts. As one would expect with a home of such symbolic and real world value, the President’s House, completed in 1931, is as marvelous as dozens of […]
Killeen: F&S a ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of U. of I.
The story of the beech tree at the President’s House was driven mostly by the love the Killeen family had for it – from a toddler grandson to President Tim Killeen and his wife Roberta Johnson Killeen. Johnson Killeen has been an avid gardener in her time at the President’s House, and she valued the […]
Shop Spotlight: Brickmasons Part of History
Over 100 years ago, the Main Library opened with a secret kept behind brick. Now 100 years later, it’s been revealed to the modern public: a time capsule! And the only way in was through ‘caveman stuff’ as brickmason foreperson Eric Quinley said. F&S brickmasons wreck, tear, beat and saw their way through walls like […]
$51M IBRL Grant Thanks to F&S
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is no novice at securing federal research grants. The campus regularly receives among the most federal money between all research universities from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and other federal agencies. And nearly every dollar is for administrating the project or team to accelerate innovation […]
Cleaning Campus Buildings, as simple as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The world is complicated, but thanks to numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 campus facility managers can know exactly what level of cleanliness to expect of building service workers (BSWs) in their public spaces. BSWs clean across all three shifts, day and night, in 223 campus buildings. Pete Varney, director of Transportation & Building […]
Visit to ‘Appreciative’ Partner: IGB
Sometimes, you gotta check in on your friends. F&S executive team members accepted an invitation from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) in part just to visit the facility and understand the importance of their relationship. Specifically, IGB director Gene Robinson and director of operations and facilities Jesse Southern, welcomed F&S representatives […]
Shop Spotlight: Refrigerant Leftovers Save Money
On campus, if you have an air conditioner or anything with refrigerant in it, F&S refrigeration mechanics recover it by separating it, weighing it, and testing it for purity. And as of recently, they sell it. Kody Egolf, refrigeration mechanic foreperson, attended an ASHRAE convention–the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers–and learned about […]
Shop Spotlight: Roofers’ Safety in the Sun
When you’re serious about safety, you’ll find solutions for everything. Including the sun. Roofers spend their working hours in the open, on top of a building rather than in it. So, when the F&S roofers shop was tasked with tearing off the old and laying the new, foreperson Shane Carr knew he’d have to address […]
For the Kids: Pipefitters Aid Childcare
The last thing anyone wants, particular childcare professionals, is a hot room full of anxious kids. Thanks to F&S pipefitters, a summer day with malfunctioning air conditioning didn’t become anything more than a short-term problem. Per rules set by the Illinois Department of Child & Family Services (DCFS), a room cannot go past 85 degrees, […]