Dennis Cuku, Author at PRIMED Mosaic Centre in south Edmonton, Alberta

Mosaic Centre Grand Opening Speech

February 19, 2015
Dennis Cuku
Inspiration

How is it that the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce is nearing completion and is 25% ahead of schedule, 5% under budget and has zero change orders in an industry that is plagued with missed deliveries, cost-overruns and litigation?

Suspicion on Site

I may be new to this business of delivering a deep green building, but I was given a slice of reassurance pie relating to the current state of the project today courtesy of an unexpected comment from Vedran, the building architect.

As the Dust Settles

January 28, 2015
Dennis Cuku
Construction

It turns out the recent drama on site surrounding my unexpected smashing of the polished floor has been quite a “hit”. This comes as no surprise as we have, to date, not reported on any major commotions on site.

Hammer Time!

January 16, 2015
Dennis Cuku
Challenges, Construction

Today was one of the darkest days for the project. At three o'clock this afternoon, I found myself smashing holes in the concrete floor on the fourth floor with a carpenters hammer.

Timelapse: August – October

Our latest timelapse of The Mosaic Centre build is up! The worksite is looking great and this video is a true demonstration of all the hard work that's happened over the past few months. We're getting close to completion!

It’s Official: We’re Way Ahead of the Curve

October 20, 2014
Dennis Cuku
Challenges, Construction

Last month at the Mosaic Centre, our deliberate efforts at building a site culture and implementing lean thinking came to fruition: sub-trade foremen were united for a morning of planning scheduling with the end goal of determining when this masterpiece will be complete.

Celebrating with Great Canadian Solar

September 19, 2014
Dennis Cuku
Inspiration

Another great milestone occurred last Saturday as we celebrated with Clifton Lofthaug of Great Canadian Solar, during their “Megawatt Party”! In celebration of 1 MW of solar installation, the Mosaic Centre was the project that put him over the 1MW mark.

The Stronger the Wind, The Stronger the Tree

We are nearing the 4-month mark of the Mosaic Centre project and are knee-deep in details now. Last week I wrote about potholes that were showing up in the process by way of unforeseen discrepancies. What has transpired over the last week has renewed my steadfast, although slightly shaken, certainty in the IPD process.

Potholes in the Process

When we started this journey 12 months ago, the entire core team made a promise to each other. We promised that, no matter how ugly it may be or how hard we might fall, we would tell the full story of the Mosaic Centre build (or failure to build). With this post I believe I am the first to record one of the potholes in the process.

The Project Financing Rollercoaster

April 21, 2014
Dennis Cuku
Educate Me, Inspiration, Planning, Process, The Team

Christy and I are fairly practical when it comes to undertaking large engineering projects, as this is what we do in our day jobs. We also understand commercial financing strategies because we have owned and leased-out properties of the like for quite some time. Admittedly, we were rookies in commercial building construction. So, when Christy and I set out to actualize our dream of building the perfect workplace for our family, we naturally expected there to be some challenges in obtaining financing for our first-of-its-kind project...