William "Red" Ward
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Red Ward worked as a carpenter on his first Pankow job in 1986. Thereafter, he moved up the ranks to become operations manager, a position he has held since 2000.
The Kansas City, Missouri-native moved to Minnesota in his senior year in high school. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. His four years of service, from 1966 to 1969, included two tours in Vietnam.
He spent one year at the University of Minnesota before relocating to Colorado, where he pursued his interest in carpentry and construction. In 1974 he joined the local carpenters' union and entered into its apprentice program.
When work slowed in the late 1970s, Ward formed a construction company. It stayed in business for four years. In 1985, with little prospect for regular construction work in Colorado, Ward moved his family to southern California.
On the last day of 1985, Ward was hired out of the union hall on his first Pankow job, the parking structure attached to South Coast Plaza, a regional shopping center in Costa Mesa. After that job, he worked for another contractor for several months before Pankow hired him as a carpenter foreman on Shoreline Square, in Long Beach. Superintendent Bill Hughes put him in charge of the jumpform that was used to pour the concrete for the core of the 22-story Sheraton Hotel associated with the project.
Work in the commercial construction sector was slowing when Shoreline Square was completed in mid-1988. Taking work where he could get it, Ward spent a year with another contractor.
In the summer of 1989, Ward came back to work for Pankow for good. After working as a carpenter foreman and general foreman for Hughes on an office building for Clarion Studios and a luxury condominium in West Los Angeles, Ward was promoted, in October 1990, to field superintendent.
In more than eight years in this role, Ward was involved the expansion and renovation of Tyler Mall and Roosevelt Field Mall, and in the construction of a parking structure at Stanford Shopping Center, the Gateway Intermodal Transit Center at Union Station, Los Angeles, and the headquarters for the Metropolitan Water District, also at Union Station.
In 1998 Ward was promoted to project superintendent. He worked in that capacity on The Paramount, a residential tower in San Francisco, and Pacific Plaza, an office and entertainment complex in Daly City, California. Both projects utilized the precast hybrid moment-resistant frame, an innovative structural technology designed to make buildings more "earthquake proof."
In April 2000, Ward was promoted to operations manager.
