The China Coast

Tampa, Florida (Spring, 1995)

The China Coast restaurant construction project was the ultimate test of my carpentry and construction management skills. I was the carpentry foreman on the project, in charge of 15 men, with skill levels ranging from very experienced carpenters to entry level laborers. The more experienced carpenters had worked on projects as unique as Disney World and the Hard Rock Cafe.

China Coast - Tampa, Florida

I moved from Texas to Florida to build this restaurant, along with my boss and two other carpenters. We hired the additional carpenters and helpers in Tampa, once we arrived. I qualified as construction foreman on the project because I had built a China Coast in Corpus Christi, Texas and another in Dayton, Ohio.

As relatively small construction projects go, restaurants can be quite challenging because of the framing required for plumbing, electrical, stoves, ovens, walk-in coolers, and other restaurant related equipment. This restaurant was certainly no exception.

The China Coast basic structure was, in essence, a "box inside a box" design, where the kitchen and dining room interior walls were positioned as an interior box inside the outer perimeter walls. The 6/12 roof that surrounded the perimeter of the building connected the two "boxes" together.

The restaurant had many complexities that included over 100 various sized laminated beams, a wrap-around deck with railing, copulas, clerestory windows, a complex roof structure, and a free-standing tower in the front that served as a cover over the main entrance.

The roof design consisted of an interior section that was basically flat, surrounded by an external parapet wall that served as the ridge for the sloping 6/12 roof that surrounded the building.

The structure of the building consisted of various sized framing members such as 6x6 posts, laminated beams, 2x10s and 2x4s for wall framing, 10" diameter posts, and a material we called "Tectum" for roof decking. Each window was custom built on site and the glass was special ordered to fit each frame.

China Coast - (unfinished dining room)

Construction took about 5 months and was very fast-pace. Planning each day's work was challenging - trying to match up the day's tasks with the crew member's varying skills. I split the crew into carpenter/helper pairs and assigned these small teams to the tasks that needed to be done that day. I assigned the more complex work to the more experienced carpenters, and the production work, like building walls and roof decking, to the carpenters and helpers that were inspired and driven by the fast-pace of those types of framing tasks.

As foreman, I served as single point of contact for all construction decisions, interpreter of plan details, master builder, boss, psychiatrist, and big brother to the entire crew.

A typical day at the China Coast began at 7am. I would usually arrive about 6:30, fill my coffee cup from my thermos, and walk around the project to check on the quality and progress of each team. When the crew arrived, we would begin rolling out the tools to prepare for the day's work. I would visit each team to see if they had any questions about anything they were working on, and to make sure that they were happy and motivated to work on the tasks I had assigned them.

Around mid-morning, my boss would usually arrive with some take-out breakfast for the project superintendent and I. The three of us would talk about the overall progress of the project, labor, supplies needed, and what we were going to do for dinner that evening.

After breakfast, I would make my rounds again. I visited with the electricians, plumbers, and painters to make sure that there wasn't anything that I was planning that would be in their way, or if there was anything that I needed to build so that they could stay productive.

At lunch, the crew would gather inside the building, find a post or wall to lean against and sit down to a sack lunch. We rarely talked about work, unless it was to re-live some past glory on a project that we were proud of. Mostly, we talked about where we were from, our adventures in construction (and elsewhere), and told jokes.

China Coast - (unfinished kitchen)

After lunch, I checked on all of the teams again to make sure everyone was productive and happy (because carpenters are not productive unless they are happy). Afterwards, I would find projects for myself that I could start and complete quickly, like hanging doors, or installing baby changing stations. I wanted to keep my projects small, so that if I suddenly needed to refocus my attention on something else, I would not be leaving some large task half finished.

At the end of the day, I would fill an ice chest full of cold beer, and bring it back to the jobsite for the crew. The after-work conversations would be much like the lunch conversations, but with more detail and much more humor. After a day of building structures in the hot sun, it felt good to spend some informal quality time with the crew, building relationships.

My Last Day at China Coast

Though almost completed, this China Coast restaurant never opened. The day we got the news that the owners had decided to abandon the restaurant chain, the truck carrying the China Coast sign arrived. It seemed to not even stop, as a few minutes later, I saw the truck leaving the parking lot with the sign still strapped onto the flatbed trailer.

It has been over 15 years now. I've lost track of all of the people I met and knew during my short time in Tampa, Florida, but I hope they all learned something valuable, are living quality happy lives, and have fond memories, as I have, while building the China Coast.

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