Bravo > News > Recent News > Sandra Wilkin recipient of the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award
Sandra Wilkin, founder of Bradford Construction, received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award at the NYS MWBE Forum in Albany on October 6, 2022. The award recognizes Sandra’s tireless and ongoing work for women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
Sandra’ friend and collaborator, Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson presented her with the award. The Senator received the first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.
In 1989, Sandra Wilkin founded Bradford Construction Corporation, a woman-owned business enterprise (WBE) in Greater New York City. Dubbed a “hard hat with style,” by “Crain’s New York Business,” she built Bradford into one of the leading diversity consulting, construction technology, and construction management firms in the region. With a proven reputation for solving challenging problems for minority-owned, woman-owned, and local business enterprises (M/W/LBE), Sandra developed sought-after, innovative statewide and citywide mentorship programs, numbering more than 600 in 2014 alone. In 2016, she co-founded Bravo, a business cooperative, which provides informal post-mentorship opportunities for M/WBEs.
Photographed here from left to right:
Julissa Gutierrez, Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
Sandra Wilkin, Founder, Bradford Construction
Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, NYS Senator, New York State Senate
Jerome DuVal, Executive Vice President & Executive Director, Division of Minority & Women’s Business Development
Recent Projects
New 3K School X494
ViewNew Auditorium Renovation at K540 John Dewey High School
ViewOn-Going Restoration Work at Brooklyn Navy Yard
ViewClient
New 3K School X494
Location
The Bronx, NYMarket
3-K, Pre-K–12 & Higher EducationProject Description
This new, 19,595-square-foot, 150 student 3K School leased property is located on the First Floor of a 12-story residential tower located in the Bronx. The design for Learning Through Play Pre-K Center is based on a collaborative teaching model, with large common learning areas in each classroom wing to providing a variety of teaching and learning configurations. This school consists of 10 fully equipped and ADA compliant classrooms each with its own bathroom.
The exercise room, parent’s lounge, and staff room are centrally located within the core of the building, providing ease of access and functionality throughout the school day including after-hour uses by the community. Acknowledging the benefits of natural lighting within an educational space, the final design incorporated the special site features of the floor-to-ceiling perimeter windows and two rooftop skylights to pull natural light deep into the space. Timeless and enduring blue accent walls are suggestive of the sky at dusk, bringing a sense of peace and tranquility into the space and expanding creative thinking, providing an anchoring foundation for the students. Featuring a central multi-use space with high ceilings the idea is to have the children reach their full creativity and allow for celebrations and art exhibitions.
Client
New Auditorium Renovation at K540 John Dewey High School
Location
Brooklyn, NYMarket
3-K, Pre-K–12 & Higher EducationProject Description
We are providing architecture and engineering for the $7.5 million total renovation of the 900 seat auditorium at K540, a 350,000 SF school with the capacity to serve 2,250 students. Broadway grade theatre improvements include a new air-conditioning system as well as ADA accessibility.
And be sure to read the wonderful article on this project, featured in the Brooklyn Paper, by Rose Adams, Staff Report. Here is the link: https://www.brooklynpaper.com/broadway-inspired-auditorium-upgrades-slated-for-john-dewey-theater/
We are also the architects and engineers for the school’s restaurant grade $2 million Culinary Arts classroom.
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On-Going Restoration Work at Brooklyn Navy Yard
Location
Brooklyn, New YorkMarket
Corporate & IndustrialProject Description
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is home to over 400 businesses employing more than 10,000 people and generating over $2 billion per year in economic impact for the city. Through a nearly $1 billion investment, the Yard is undergoing its largest expansion since WWII. BRAVO companies and leadership have provided a wide-range of design services under numerous contracts at the Yard since 2003. Renovation and restoration design work has included structural repairs, fire protection system upgrades, feasibility studies, code compliance, and electrical work.