BUILDING contractor Angelo Perryman's summer project
gives new meaning to the term "fast-track construction."
That's because his company, Perryman Building and
Construction Services Inc., was given fewer than six weeks to turn the entire
Wells Fargo Center and its parking lots into what will amount to a pop-up city
for 50,000, including the 6,000 delegates and 15,000 journalists, at the
Democratic National Convention starting July 25.
As part of the $1 million-plus contract that he manages,
Perryman, 56, is overseeing construction operations before, during, and after
the convention, hiring subcontractors to handle everything from power and cable
access to scaffolding towers and other foundation needs under the direction of
Hargrove Inc., the event's general contractor.
Perryman grew up in the small town of Evergreen, Ala.,
where he learned the construction business from his father. He came to
Philadelphia to grow his own company when the Pennsylvania Convention Center
was the big new project in town. He spoke recently with staff writer Jane M.
Von Bergen.
Q You just got into the Wells Fargo Center in
late May, and you have to be out by Aug. 19. Very tight.
Anytime you are striving to perform a great job for the
client, there is stress. We planned our work and are working our plan.
Q If it works out, it will be an impressive credential.
Probably the biggest thing that comes from the opportunity
is that , as a construction manager, will get new vendors coming to portfolio
to evaluate and add into the normal cycle.
Q The project itself attracts new subcontractors?
Yes. When you knock on the door in different communities,
a lot of those communities want to know that you're utilizing people that are
from those communities. So for us, it's a positive direction in our
presentation to clients all over the city.
Q There's always been talk about the lack of
diversity in construction among unions and contractors. Why is that?
My experience from all the different places that I
worked, there's always been a market that is small, medium, and large. You
couldn't work for a large firm saying, "I just did my mom's
bathroom."
Philadelphia's talent development doesn't seem to have a middle. Only a bottom
and a top, and it's a tip-top.
Q Is your point that there's a lack of a middle
range of contracts for small minority-owned firms to attain as they move up?
Yes, otherwise the market will say, "Large firm,
drop down and do some of those jobs." And that doesn't allow the full
economy to be appreciated by everybody.
Q How do you feel about getting jobs through
minority set-asides?
I don't think we get them that way.
We take a lot of pride that Perryman Building represents
a firm that knows how to grab first-of-a-kind projects: Utilize talent that may
not have done that kind of work before, but the things they learned in other
spaces and weaving that together to come up with new ideas.
If I look at my dad's administration of the business, we
were only known as having skilled, talented people that know how to do the
work. Nobody started the conversation with minority anything.
For us, there's nothing on any document that we do, or
that we put out, or on the awards we've won, that even brings the subject up.
Q Especially with a name like Angelo.
They're usually shocked when I come in. They're usually
surprised at what the Angelo looks like.
Q You ask job applicants to tell you their favorite
movie. Why is that revealing?
You see what they dream about. For me, my favorite movie
was The Wizard of Oz.
At the end of the movie, when they finally pull the curtain back, the Wizard is
now starting to talk to each individual - Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow - and he
tells them how to get over their problems. Whenever I am my most confused, I
will replay that scene.
Q In your mind?
I've got it off of YouTube. So I watch it.
Q Which of those characters do you relate to the
most?
Dorothy. What she really just wanted was people that care
about you.
Q And to go home to where she was cared about?
Yeah.
Q How is that you?
Oh, man. Let me think. Well, let's see. Growing up in a
small town, you're surrounded by people that didn't have anything, and you were
the smart one. They weren't going to hold you back. So whatever I do, I think
about that.
Those are folks that didn't really have anything, but
they knew there was more out there for me to do then there was for me where I
was from. They still track what I do now, and that's why I never not say where
I'm from.
Source: Philly.com
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