Fans of Youngstown State University football will remember Saturday, September 6, 2014, as the day the Penguins chalked a 34-23 win over Duquesne and junior quarterback Dante Nania passed for a career-high 288 yards with two touchdowns. CIS Office Installers, the FSN member based in Pittsburgh, will remember it as their drop-dead completion date for installing 2,000 new seats in the alumni section at YSU's Stambaugh Stadium. With the job done on time and within budget, the CIS team had their own special victory celebration.
Scope of Work
The CIS client, the St. Louis-based distributor Indoff Incorporated, engaged CIS Office Installers to remove the 2,000 existing seats from the mid-field alumni section of the stadium, patch the anchor holes, and install 2,000 new custom seats to be supplied by American Seating. The project was on a 4-week time line.
The requirements were well within the capabilities of CIS, which has been certified in auditorium seating installation for many years and has successfully installed American Seating products at a number of colleges and universities.
Key Project Data
| Geography | Youngstown, Ohio |
| Project Environment | University football stadium |
| Installation Time Frame | 4 weeks |
| Installed Product | 2,000 fixed outdoor stadium seats manufactured by American Seating |
| Management Team | Jim Gilmore, project manager Jim Gilmore Jr., installation foreman |
Challenges
Schedule
The CIS team had four weeks in which to complete the entire scope of work. They happened to be the four weeks leading up to the first home game of Youngstown State University's 2014 football season. Talk about a hard and fast deadline!
Job site logistics
Stadiums, generally speaking, are designed for easy truck access to major services and utilities. That easy access does not extend to seating areas, at least not at Stambaugh Stadium. Truck unloads at the mezzanine level were a piece of cake for the CIS team. From there, they had to move the seating components and ancillary hardware up ramp ways totaling 100 yards, then hand carry everything down stairs, followed by a hand carry up steeply pitched stairs.
Weather
We typically don't have to worry much about weather conditions in the office furniture installation business. It's largely indoor work. Stadiums open to the sky and the elements are another matter. Eastern Ohio showed the CIS team ample doses of rain, high temps and extreme humidity.
Feedback
The stadium manager at YSU said, "We never thought this would be pulled off in time for our opening kickoff. CIS not only met our deadline but delivered a quality installation with the utmost professionalism. Their foreman, Jim Gilmore Jr., was on top of this the whole way."
