The Tower at Carnegie Abbey.
View from the Tower.
A couple of weeks ago I had my first site visit as the new Marketing Specialist at Arden Building Companies at the Tower at Carnegie Abbey – one of the most luxurious waterfront residential buildings in New England.
The Tower stands high at 22 stories housing 79 luxury condo units. The spacious and beautiful residences have been crafted with care and attention to detail and include designer furnishings, a marble bath, and whirlpool tub, and closet organizing systems to mention just a few perks. Many other amenities are also included but perhaps the best features are the patios and floor-to-ceiling windows which provide breathtaking views of Narragansett Bay.
The day of the site visit as you can see was rather cold and snowy, but it did not take away from the outstanding view. This picture was actually taken from the boiler room where the work I was viewing took place – not too shabby!
Four hot water boiler units.
Hot water pumps.
Hydronic domestic hot water units.
My hosts for the morning were Al Archetto (pictured left in green shirt) and Kevin Goyette (right), both employed with Arden Engineering Constructors – an Arden Building Company. They were replacing a burner in one of the boiler units, there are four boiler units in total. The burner supplies the required amount of fuel and air to produce a flame in the boiler. In addition, they were checking the combustion on another boiler unit – measuring the air-to-fuel ratio of the burner and calculating the efficiency. In addition to the four boiler units, the rooftop boiler room also contains hot water pumps and hydronic domestic hot water units pictured below.
As Al and Kevin worked to complete their tasks, I asked them many questions and found some interesting background information I couldn’t resist to share.
Al Archetto (left) is a Journeyman for the Service Division of Arden Engineering Constructors and has been with Arden for over 14 years. He started in the trades profession as a Tool Maker and Hub and Die Cutter in the jewelry and electronics industries. Al joined the Local 51 Union for Plumbers, Pipefitters and HVAC and worked to obtain his Apprenticeship continuing on to become a Journeyman. Al also teaches 3rd-year boiler classes two evenings a week.
Kevin Goyette is an Apprentice for the Service Division of Arden Engineering Constructors and started with Arden this past August. He attends school three evenings a week in addition working towards the required hours needed to become a Journeyman. Kevin is a reserve in the National Guard and served two 6-year terms as well being deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. Kevin started his career through Helmets to Hardhats, a national, nonprofit program that connects National Guard, Reserve, retired and transitioning active-duty military service members with skilled training and quality career opportunities in the construction industry.
An Apprenticeship consists of 2,000 hours of on-the-job-training and 248 hours of classroom instruction per year for five years. You matriculate to a Journeyperson after 10,000 hours of on-the-job-training and 1,240 classroom hours as well as successfully passing the state licensing exam.
