October 14, 2004 – May 2, 2005
Chicago Architecture Foundation
Bukacek Construction: Jim Cairns, co-president; Peter Jundt, project manager.
Photographed at Bukacek Construction in Racine
Bukacek Construction
General contractor Bukacek Construction managed the process of building the Racine Art Museum. Peter Jundt served as project manager for Bucacek, scheduling and coordinating construction activities and hiring and overseeing sub-contractors such as Sign Effectz and Metzger Metals. Jundt's efforts ensured that construction occurred according to Brininstool + Lynch's specifications and within the project budget. From the outside, it was one building. From the inside, it was obviously at least three. Most of my construction experience has been ground-up kind of stuff. Doing a gut renovation, particularly a gut renovation of a multiple building complex that dates back to the 1850s, was a unique experience to say the least.
We discovered that the steel supports in the south wall, indicated in the original drawings, were not actually there. We put additional steel bracing, as we were able, on the inside and outside of the building. We secured it as fast as we could, and poured in concrete foundations. It was a very complicated, very exciting part of the process. The large, south windows wouldn't be possible without all that hidden work.
One of the things that I love about this building is that you can look inside and see the structural system. It is so transparent. I'm a construction guy, so that kind of thing excites me. You can see how the system comes together, and it is geometric and very precise, and it is just beautiful. There are so many things that you can see about how the building comes together, if you stand there and look at it.—Peter Jundt