CDI
Commercial Brywall, Inc.
Craftsman
Vol. 4 No. 6
April 1983
GDI’s Parnt Depairtm®int
A growing foo3©® doi Houston’s marketplace
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CDIs paint department was formed several years ago as a division of the company. Today, it has grown to handle many types of projects— office buildings, hotels, just about anything but industrial projects. The paint department has capabilities for both interior and exterior finishes as well as decorating services using wall coverings, fabrics, and wood veneers. Under the direction of manager Robin Cravey, Joe Jernigan and Winn Martin handle the estimating of projects, Barry Niemann and Scott Bauer are project managers and Percy Townsend is in charge of materials control, purchasing, inventory control and expediting. On the production side, Ben Boatright, Jerry Featherston and John Gearhart are the paint department superintendents. They all brought with them to CDI a great deal of experience in the paint business.
In recent months, the paint group completed many projects including Four Leaf, Post Oak Central 3 and the Amoco building. CDI is doing the paint in the new Transco II Tower under the supervision of Rudy Martinez. 5300 Memorial is being handled by supervisor Walter “Dub” Williams and Barney Oden, Jr. is in charge of remodelling work at the Lord and Taylor store in the Galleria mall. The company has just begun paint work on the $40 million Hyatt Regency West Houston now under construction at Katy Freeway and Eldridge. The 400-room hotel is scheduled for a late 1983 completion, it will consist of five fivestory buildings connected by a 16,000 sq. ft. atrium. General contractor is Linbeck Construction Corp. of Houston. Currently, there are about six painters on the job under the supervision of Kevin Turnbull. However, CDI may run up
Paint superintendents Jerry Featherston (left) and Ben Boatright discuss the Four Oaks project with paint department manager Robin Cravey. Painters in the background are Wendell Love and Charlie Jones.
to 30 or 40 men once the job gets going. The Hyatt is unique in that there is no elevator service so everything must be carried up the stairs. Further, CDI’s painters will be working four 10-hour days as do the other trades on the job. The company just started the paint two months portion of the project behind schedule. There are 48 colors of paint and 20 different wall coverings to be used in the new hotel. “One of the most challenging jobs now is the Warwick,” says Jerry. The Warwick condominiums are custom, luxury condominiums located on Fannin across the street from the Warwick Hotel. Jerry's group just completed the lobby ceilings of the Allied Bank Plaza. “Painting the plasterglass ceiling was like painting graphics,” adds Jerry. Each of the ceiling units had three different colors of paint. John Gearhart assists Ben and Jerry in their projects and takes care of smaller jobs all over town. He is responsible for Vanco and IBS projects. The success of the paint department is due to the fine men on the paint crews. “Walter 'Dub' Williams has lots of experience, is a skillful painter and competitive worker,” says Ben of the supervisor of the 5300 Memorial project. Barney Oden, Jr. is doing an excellent job on Lord and Taylor working while the store is in operation, according to Ben. Junior Deaton is supervising Four Oaks; Robert Farley is in charge of Westlake; and Tony Cuellar is handling the Warwick condominiums. By its impressive list of projects. CDI’s paint department has indeed established itself in Houston's marketplace and according to Robin “has plans for continued growth.'