Sometimes at Giroux Glass we are asked to take on some pretty big glass installation challenges. For this project, timing was the challenge. A huge challenge. Timing was short, there was no room for error, and it had to be right from the moment the deadline hit. It was such a challenge, that my own (usually more optimistic) co-workers laughed at me when I told them about it….
On December 12th, I got an email from exhibit company, Czarnowski, asking us to build a glass tradeshow exhibit booth for their customer, LG, in time for the recent Consumer Electronic Show (CES), with installation starting on January 2nd and complete by January 5th. This gave us a total of just fourteen working days, over the period including the holidays for both Christmas and New Year’s.
Our customer, Spencer Cone, Account Manager at Czarnowski, was recommended us by a coworker, who had worked with us previously while at another company. He told me that they typically work with longer timelines, but in this case, timing was complicated by 1) having multiple business groups in the loop, and 2) the design of the booth coming from overseas. They were already behind schedule by the time he finally received the approved booth design. “We were asking Giroux Glass to basically build us a mini-mall in just three days, with square footage to match — 22,000 square feet — over a many-paneled footprint of 110′ by 200′.”
Our scope of work included over 1,700 square feet of ½” low-iron structural glass wall with ¾” fins; three pairs and one single all glass door; an assortment of miscellaneous oversized ½” low-iron glass, fabricated to support large-sized, super-thin new television screens. We also installed an interior all-glass storefront and one manual sliding glass door.
We could not have done any of this without our trusted suppliers, who each managed to deliver all of the materials we needed to pull this off: Trulite provided all the glass, with over 75 pieces on this rush order, and achieving an impressive tally of just one error. Their shop foreman worked over his holiday weekend to ensure the glass was fabricated correctly. All hardware was supplied by C.R.Laurence who got us everything on time and right. I’d also like to give a shout out to American Metals: we were missing some hardware for a corner fin condition and had to custom fabricate a solution – and they opened their closed shop, over the holiday weekend, to fabricate. Thanks also to P.K.Delp who provided us engineering over a holiday weekend to help us meet the deadline for the project.
Nothing makes it more worthwhile than to know we’ve made the customer happy with our hard work, and this was the case at CES. Spencer tells us, “The Giroux guys were fantastic to work with, everyone did a great job. We could not have done it without you, it was like magic to watch the booth appear before our eyes.”
I’ve personally never seen anything like it, myself. As we were completing installation of each section, exhibit workers were following right behind our crew, wiping down each piece of glass and making it product-ready. There were over 300 workers/Teamsters/LG employees/display builders — you name it! — all working at the same time, 24 hours a day, during this installation.
Spencer tells us he was originally told this booth was meant to be used just one time, but they’re storing it in Las Vegas and he’s hoping it has a second act. He adds, “I will certainly use Giroux Glass again, and I have recommended the company to all my Czarnowski colleagues.” Thank you for that, Spencer! We appreciate it and look forward to working with you again!
I’m so grateful to our Giroux field team who went above and beyond to make this happen, working tirelessly over the New Year’s holiday. Thank you to our lead foreman, Blane Midkiff, and field foreman, Art Mortensen, whose crew included Keith Olson, Robert Walker, and Johnny Johnson. And much gratitude to our in-house CAD technician, Jose Paez, who was extremely instrumental in getting this done. Jose committed to drafting this project for us and spent a few of his “holiday” days in the office getting this done. If this had not been drafted properly and accurately, this booth magic would not have happened.
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