"Main Street" Valencia, a 210 unit Newhall Land and Farming Company apartment community, is one of the nation's best examples of "new urbanism," a cutting edge design and planning philosophy which scales down the urban environment to create a small town atmosphere with an intimate human scale. Located just an hours drive northeast from Los Angeles the project is in Newhall's Town Center in Valencia. Newhall Land and Farming was founded in 1875 by Henry Mayo Newhall who acquired Rancho San Francisco, the site of the current City of Valencia. Today Newhall Land and Farming owns 91,000 acres of prime real estate, which includes the Valencia Town Center.

With half of Montecito's units facing Valencia Country Club Golf Course and the other half facing "Main Street" on Town Center Drive, tenants will be able to walk to tine restaurants, a sports club, a major hotel, an IMAX Cinema theater, shops and a regional mall. Emerging from a building recession two years ago was a demand for new apartment communities. After reviewing the new thinking in apartment design and merchandising in the Texas and California market, Newhall chose the architectural firm of Kaufman Meeks, headquartered in Houston, Texas as their designer to create this unique project and work with their construction manager American Constructors. The architecture of Montecito, like the other projects on "Main Street", works together with carefully orchestrated colors, materials, and landscaping and architectural elements to form the fabric of the center of this upscaled new town.

Together with their construction manager and architect, Newhall has incorporated the latest design and merchandising concepts into a unique premier apartment project. American Constructors was instrumental during the design phase in identifying the opportunities to decrease cost and increase quality, while evaluating alternate approaches, construction methods, materials, equipment and finishes. Summing it up, Greg Parker, American Constructors California, Inc.'s president says "It's been a rare opportunity and a pleasure for us to work as a primary team member helping to give form and bring value to this unique, one-of-a-kind apartment project located on the most magnificent site in Northern Los Angeles County." Completion of construction is scheduled for early summer.

Over the last fifty years, hard bidding has dominated the construction industry. Seeing a need for an alternative approach, both private and public owners, in increasing numbers, are now using other project delivery methods. The three most widely used delivery methods are Bid-Build "BB" (hard bid), Construction Management "CM" (as Agent or At-Risk as the CM), and Design-Build. When owners are asked why they would consider contracting methods other than Bid-Build, they overwhelmingly respond with three reasons:

• Cost savings and early knowledge of firm costs.
• Overall time savings.
• Improved risk management.

When the pros and cons of these delivery methods are discussed, the focus is often on the process and not WHO the people are. The people doing the work will have the biggest affect on the success of the project. A Bid-Build contractor that is experienced at only estimating finished plans, may not be the right choice in a CM or Design-Build role. CM and Design-Build projects need people skilled and experienced in evaluating the pros and cons of building systems. Making smart decisions early in the design can lower the project costs and avoid costly and untimely redesign efforts.

During the past year American's goal of zero lost workdays was met for an entire year. In achieving this record of no days lost to accidents, everyone contributed to this success - those who answer the phones, those who account for the costs, those who estimate the work and those who every day pick up a tool or direct others in their workday efforts. Working to achieve a safer and accident-free workplace as well as guide the Company's safety effort is our Safety Committee whose members are Craig Eilers, David Fletcher, Gary Hall, R.C. McMillan, Rebecca Pratt, Terry Sheehan, Steve Swanson, Corey Taylor and Del Tally (Construction Safety & Health Institute). In addition to achieving a ZERO LOST WORKDAY YEAR, American Constructors' Clint Small, Jr. Middle School project team and Superintendent R.C. McMillan were given the "Superintendent Safety Award" for the month of February 1999 by the Austin Independent School District.

Leander School District continues to keep pace with their record growth by building schools. The 144,000 SF second phase expansion of their new Cedar Park High School, originally planned for 2001/2002, is now scheduled to open a year earlier and involve expansion to all of the schools major buildings. Selected to work with Leander and their designers, American Constructors started their planning and estimating efforts concurrently with the start of design. After evaluating the owner's needs and school operations, a revision was made to the design, bidding, construction schedule and work sequencing. Of critical importance to school Principal Ron LaFevers is the sequence of work and minimizing interference to the schools daily routine. American's planning team headed by Marty Burger and Tim Cahalane includes Scott Cooper, Tom Peoples and Grant Hutton. The results of this upfront planning will be shorter construction period, lesser cost and more work being done during summer months when school is not in session.

With three schools under construction and three more ^ scheduled to start in April and May, the company's school work continues to grow. In Leander, American Constructors has roofed and closed-in Elementary School #9, north of FM 2243, and is starting work shortly on a 156,000 SF middle school located near North Lakeline and New Hope Road. Leander's elementary school is scheduled to open in August and is a copy of Pauline Naumann Elementary, which American Constructors completed last year. Round Rock School District's $31 million Stony Point High School is rapidly nearing a summer completion. Further south, American Constructors' $14 million Clint Small, Jr. Middle School project for the Austin Independent School District is 58% complete and on schedule for opening in August.

Completion of two more design-build mail handling projects in California for the U.S. Postal Service again has shown how the design-build process can drastically reduce the duration of a project. Following completion of mail handling projects in Austin and McAllen, Texas, American Constructors California Inc. was awarded projects in San Jose and Fresno, California. Led by Superintendents Jack Simensen and Terry Adams, these projects were started just prior to the El Nino rains that deluged California in early 1998. Despite the greatest rainfall ever recorded in these cities, the projects were turned over to the Post Office less than eight months after contract award. Construction and purchase of material started as soon as the buildings engineering was done. Submittal review and approval times were shortened and decisions made quickly. Working together with the U.S. Postal Service, time was trimmed from both design, procurement and construction phases.

Leander Independent School District's Performing Arts Center and Gymnasium opened recently to high acclaim from visiting university bands, staff, students, facility designers and consultants. This recognition was the culmination of a comprehensive pre-design review of existing facilities and discussions with users throughout Texas by the architect and school personnel as well as valuable contributions by technical design consultants. The Team developed design sensitivity for optimization of the multi-use facility, which includes band, drama, dance, choral and University Interscholastic League competition. An integral part of the success of the project was American Constructors' team of workers and subcontractors lead by Project Manager Tim Cahalane and Superintendent Gabe Navejas. The architect for this magnificent theater was Don Tew & Associates.

TEXAS LINDA SELLERS has joined the construction team after a number of years as a Navy construction engineer. Linda is currently working at Leander Elementary School #9. At the new Round Rock Stony Point High School job is Superintendent ROBERT NUCKOLLS. Helping in the office on new project estimating and planning is GRANT HUTTON, and NANCY GOODMAN is our new accounts payable person.

CALIFORNIA (ACCI) At the Valencia Town Center AL ZELAYA has joined us as Project Engineer. Al comes to American from the U.S. Army where he served as a construction and facilities engineer.