One Team, Every System: Student Housing Spotlight

In Phoenix, Arizona, a new student housing community called The Rambler is now home to a wave of residents. Behind the finished building is a project where we self-performed electrical, mechanical, low voltage, fire alarm, CCTV, DAS, and gas detection as one team, on a schedule dictated by the start of a school year. 

Meet Power Design's Systems Superintendent Jose Quintana and Layton Construction's MEP Superintendent to hear how together, we brough this project to life. 

The Multi-Trade Advantage

“We have a bigger scope here — we have mechanical, electrical, and we have all the systems scopes we can have,” said Power Design Superintendent Jose Quintana. “We have low voltage, we have fire alarm, we have DAS, we have gas detection.” Rather than coordinating a stack of separate subs, the general contractor was working with one accountable team. “What makes it special is that we have all the different trades under the same PDI umbrella,” Quintana said. “What made us stronger was the communication we've had from day one to the end of the job.”

Systems Built for the Long Run

The low-voltage scope covered security cameras, CCTV, AV, access control, a jumbotron, and wireless card readers in every unit and more — but fire alarm and life safety is where the philosophy really shows. “We're not just looking to pass inspections. We do a life-safety system — we take care of live people,” he said. “So we make sure our system is commissioned and done the right way, following our PDI best practices.”

That experience showed up on-site, too. Nick Erickson, Layton Construction Superintendent, saw it firsthand: “This job was definitely heavy with low voltage. It was great to have the fire alarm team on board, because they had just finaled out several towers in Tempe as well. Jose already knew all the building officials and fire marshals, so it really helped streamline the process.”

Meeting a Deadline That Doesn't Move

Student housing move-in dates are set by the academic calendar, not the punch list. “Power Design did a really great job at understanding the task at hand,” Erickson said. “We had that fixed deadline, and the team did great at coming to the table with solutions. Every time we had a problem, they always had a solution.”

That reliability built real trust: “We became a great team,” Erickson said, “and you guys were a great asset for us from the beginning all the way through the end.”

The Team Behind the Building

We asked Jose what he's most proud of, and it's not a system — it's the people. “The long hours, the late nights, all the effort — the office and the field team, my foremen, all the guys who were involved since day one — they definitely did a tremendous job.”

From rough-in to commissioning, The Rambler shows what happens when one team owns every trade, every system, and every deadline in between — a seamless project delivery for our partners.