Burlingame High School
Large-scale gym, support-space, and infrastructure work at Burlingame High School, including high-elevation speaker installation, projector support coordination, under-bleacher routing, and careful field execution around a newly finished gym floor.
Burlingame High School was one of the larger projects I worked on with Dave and one of the clearer examples of the kind of field work that requires more than just following a print. There was overlap with the type of gym and classroom support work we were doing elsewhere at the time, but Burlingame stood out because the gym systems were larger, the access challenges were more significant, and the site conditions changed in ways that forced us to keep adjusting without losing momentum.
The main gym was a brand-new build with heavy speaker systems mounted high overhead, long speaker-cable pulls through conduit, and projector work that depended on backing being present where the drawings said it should be. In practice, that meant verifying conditions instead of assuming they were right, sending concerns back through the GC when needed, and making sure the mounting path for heavy equipment was actually safe before committing to it.
This building also had more than just the main gym. There was a second-story gym, a wrestling room, a PE teacher area, a workout room where I installed speakers, and boys' and girls' locker rooms that required TV support using an in-ceiling rack approach that was new to me at the time. There was also a dedicated AV rack supporting parts of the gym-related scope. The project moved across a wide range of spaces, but the common thread was staying organized, adapting quickly, and getting each part of the system installed without creating problems for the finished building.
Main Gym Rigging And Speaker Infrastructure
The main gym was the most demanding part of the project. Dave led the job, and a large portion of the work involved installing heavy speaker systems high overhead and pulling the corresponding cable through long ceiling pathways. These were not light devices, and getting them into place required careful planning, safe rigging, and attention to the supporting structure above us.
Part of the challenge was that the official answer from the GC about backing was not always enough on its own. On paper, the support might have been accounted for, but in the field we still had to confirm that what was supposed to be there was actually there before mounting heavy equipment. That kind of verification matters a lot more when the devices are suspended high in the air at a school and the consequences of being wrong are serious.
The long cable runs were another major part of the work. The electricians had conduit pathways running through the building, and we had to pull long sections of heavy speaker cable through those routes to reach the required speaker locations. That made the job physically demanding, but more importantly, it required sequencing and coordination so the routing, mounting, and final landing all stayed aligned.
Heavy overhead speaker work and early main-gym access
Gym conditions before the finished floor was installed
Access logistics for upper-level and gym-related work
Working Around The Finished Floor
One of the biggest shifts in the job came when the gym floor went in before all of the overhead work was fully complete. At that point the project stopped being a normal high-access installation and became a risk-management exercise as well. We still had to finish the work, but now every lift movement and material move had to be planned around protecting a brand-new floor.
That changed the workflow considerably. We had to work over protection, keep access clean, and avoid turning progress into damage. It added a layer of operational control to a job that was already technically demanding. This part of the project stands out to me because it was not just about installing equipment correctly. It was also about adapting to a less favorable sequence and still getting the work done without creating new problems for the customer or the GC.
Protecting the new gym floor while overhead work continued
Under-Bleacher Infrastructure And Support Spaces
Not all of the project value was overhead in the main gym. I also spent time working under the bleachers, where the mounting and cable-routing approach had to account for a space that would eventually be subject to movement, load, and the practical risk of equipment being damaged if it was not protected correctly. That required special attention to how equipment and pathways were secured instead of treating the area like an ordinary open wall or ceiling space.
This broader scope also included support-space work elsewhere in the building. I installed speakers in the workout room, supported the dedicated AV rack, and worked on TV-related scope in the locker rooms that introduced a dedicated in-ceiling rack style I had not used before. It was a good example of how a single school job can require switching between heavy high-access work, detail-oriented interior work, and organized system support without losing continuity.
Under-bleacher routing and protected device support
Dedicated AV support equipment
Finished Main Gym System
Once the speaker clusters were in place, the cable pulls were landed, and the remaining overhead work was resolved, the finished main gym came together well. The final result reflects a lot of field effort that is easy to miss if you only look at the completed room: heavy rigging, access coordination, pathway verification, support checks, and a return to the same space under tougher conditions after the floor was already finished.
This was a substantial job with a lot of moving pieces, and it was one of the better examples of working through construction uncertainty without losing control of the installation. Dave led it, and together we got it across the line.
Completed overhead speaker system
Finished main-gym environment
