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PICCO Celebrates 30 Years!

#1992-2022

This October, we’re celebrating a milestone! What began in 1992 as a one-person operation with Mike Picco, evolved into an award-winning engineering firm recognized around the world for its unmatched expertise in stone cladding and anchor systems. Fast forward 30 years–PICCO continues to strive to exceed the expectations of every project we work on, and clients we serve. We do this by fostering success through our talented and diverse group of people, and their unrelenting pursuit for creative engineering.

“We’ve been fortunate to work on many world-class projects. We’ve really opened ourselves up to learning various applications and solving unique challenges. PICCO has evolved to become a recognized leader in natural stone, and what I would classify as experts in our field.” —Mike Picco, Founder

A few fun facts from our third decade:

• 2012:  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts wins TTMAC Hardsurface Awards–Project of Year

• 2014:  PICCO moves to 8611 Jane St. and throws a great open house party!

• 2015:  First BIM project completed–Private Mausoleum

• 2015:  PICCO recognized as business leaders in the City of Vaughan

• 2017:  PICCO celebrates 25 years of business and throws an anniversary party

• 2017:  PICCO raised $25,000 in support of Camp Ooch and matched the donation totalling $50,000

• 2017:  Mike Picco selected as one of McMaster’s Top 150 Alumni

• 2018:  Great success with the first annual Volley for Camp Ooch

• 2018:  PICCO honoured with Vaughan Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Award

• 2019:  Our brand gets refreshed

• 2020:  Remote work begins (...we all know why!)

• 2020:  Our new website launches

• 2021:  PICCO Structures joins PICCO Engineering to form PICCO Group

• 2021:  Mike Picco serves as Natural Stone Institute Board President

• 2022:  Mike Picco awarded NSI Person of the Year

• 2022:  PICCO hosts NSI Mid-Year Board Meeting and Study Tour in Toronto

Did you miss our previous two decade highlights? Read them here:

» First Decade: 1992-2001

» Second Decade: 2002-2011

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The Baker Museum

#NaplesFL

Originally opening its doors in 2000, The Baker Museum is an art exhibition located in Naples, Florida. With over 30,000 sf, over three floors, this museum holds a diverse collection made up of more than 3,500 American and Mexican art pieces from the 20th and 21st-Century. The facility houses several spaces used for musical and dance performances, education, and theatre. Unfortunately, in September 2017, the museum closed due to water damage caused by Hurricane Irma. Re-opening a few years later after repairs were done, this included an expansion project with an additional 18,000 sf. This new space was made to further grow collections, host events, and create social gatherings. The museum's curved exterior is now clad in pleated metal panels and Trosselfels Limestone. A high-density, sand-coloured limestone characterized by an abundance of fossils reflects the beach just steps away. Trosselfels’s low water absorption rate, and resistance to extraordinary forces, along with steel struts and traditional stainless steel clips designed to withstand the atmospheric pressure shifts, were the perfect combination for Florida’s unpredictable weather.

Weiss/Manfredi |  Institutional  |  2020

Photo: Albert Večerka/Esto

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Ask An Engineer

#Q&Aseries

In 2022, PICCO launched a new series—“Ask an Engineer” to answer common questions in our industry, asked by design professionals about using natural stone.

Category: Project Management

Q&A: How do you tackle challenges associated with large project scopes?

The biggest challenge associated with large project scopes is related to RISK. The risk of budgeting, scope creep, resourcing, and unrealistic deadlines all become amplified as the scale of the project increases. To help mitigate this, more time and effort must go into the high-level planning stage of the project to ensure your risks are identified as thoroughly as possible. This way, you are prepared throughout the lifespan of the project to soften the impact of these risks as they occur.

Estimating: A much more extensive estimating process is required for large projects. A single oversight or unqualified assumption could consume your contingencies and put the project in an unrecoverable state. It’s imperative that the scope and design intent is clearly defined and understood by you, but most importantly, that it is aligned with the customer’s expectations.

Planning: With large project scopes, the planning phase truly needs to begin during the estimating process. While you don’t need to establish a step-by-step plan for executing the project at this stage, it’s important to develop a high-level plan which, lays out the full scope, deliverables, and broad timelines of how the project will be executed if awarded. Not being prepared with this basic plan could leave you in a very troublesome position for meeting scheduling expectations.

Executing: The execution of a large project can be very complicated. The initial hurdle to overcome is that the scope of a large project can be overwhelming, and you can be left asking yourself, “Where do I start”? The key to this challenge is to break down the project into smaller pieces–then, what you’ll be left with is nothing more than a bunch of small projects. The next challenge is that these small projects will likely need to run concurrently in some capacity. This is where the quality of the pre-planning will come into effect. Identifying the phasing early on so that resourcing can be planned for will help set you up for success.

While you can expect challenges to present themselves during the lifespan of any project, having the

proper planning in place will help you effectively address them as they arise.

Answered by: Nathaniel Hoover, PMP, Project Manager

Curious about stone and sourcing, anchoring, facades, fabrication or installation?
» Submit your Question 

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Stone101

#Marmomac

Mike Picco and Karl Doucas had the pleasure of visiting MARMOMAC in Verona, Italy, September 27-30, 2022. We never tire of seeing all the new technologies and innovative ways to use natural stone!

» See Highlights from the Italy Trip

#FeatureLink

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SocialRecap

#HighlightReel

Missed us on social? Follow @piccogroup to stay up-to-date on projects, events, learn about designing with stone—and how we do it!

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