Fall-Protection Railings for Ten Buildings in Mountain View, CA
Challenges
At a multi-building hi-tech campus in Mountain View, our team was tasked with designing and installing a comprehensive rooftop installation of a fall-protection system across ten buildings—all within tight access constraints and an active, mission-critical environment. Several major challenges had to be overcome on this project:
Diverse Roof Conditions:
Ten separate buildings, each with a different structural edge: side-mounted parapets, top-mounted slab edges, and areas that required non-penetrating counter-weight bases—each demanding a custom rooftop installation approach to maintain compliant fall protection.
Aesthetic Requirements:
All rail sections had to be custom-fabricated and powder-coated to a uniform architectural color so the fall protection system would disappear into the skyline while preserving design intent.
Rolling Start Dates:
Work on each building began weeks apart, forcing the rooftop installation schedule to flex without losing momentum or material traceability.
Solution
Our mandate was simple: keep ten active rooftops on schedule while imposing zero downtime on the campus below. To do that, we merged structural ingenuity with factory-grade repeatability, turning a web of unique roof edges into a single, tightly managed production line. The following tactics turned that vision into reality:
Performance: Unified Engineering for Varied Anchors – Our design team created three interchangeable rail-to-roof interfaces—side-mount, top-mount, and non-penetrating counter-weight bases—then standardized hole patterns and hardware so every part could ship in one consolidated kit. This ensured consistent fall protection performance across every rooftop installation.
Full-Scale Mock-Up & First-Article Testing – Before fabrication, we built a rooftop-edge mock-up that combined all three anchoring methods and the final powder-coat finish. The owner’s safety team approved the fall protection solution on the first review, eliminating late-stage redesigns and streamlining the path to final rooftop installation.
In-House Powder-Coat Workflow – By running finishes through our own booth and oven, we matched the campus-wide architectural color and kept lead times under our direct control. This guaranteed that even as scope or quantities shifted, the fall protection railings maintained both compliance and consistency across all rooftop installations.
Phased Execution Playbook – For the staggered mobilizations, each building received a pre-labeled “rail kit” and a three-week look-ahead tied to crane, HVAC, and roofing activities. A dedicated project coordinator issued weekly trackers and same-day “roof safe” confirmations so the GC could re-sequence other trades without guesswork. This phased strategy simplified rooftop installation logistics while ensuring uninterrupted fall protection availability.
Results
Despite the project’s complexity, the results were a clear demonstration of our core capabilities:
Performance:
All ten rooftops were finished on or ahead of their staggered milestones—zero crane stand-by charges and zero schedule slips, with every fall protection requirement met through careful rooftop installation planning.
Precision:
The full-scale mock-up won first-pass approval, eliminating fabrication rework. Every rail segment was installed exactly to layout—no field drilling, no dimensional surprises, just precise fall protection across each rooftop installation.
Peace of Mind:
Facilities staff now has a single, campus-wide fall protection standard, simplifying annual inspections and future expansions.
By engineering a modular, mock-verified rail system and managing every detail from phased mobilizations to real-time status alerts, Mathews transformed ten uniquely challenging rooftops into one cohesive safety standard—on budget, on schedule, and without a single change order. The result: compliant access today, simplified maintenance tomorrow, and a client who can focus on innovation knowing their people are protected by Performance, Precision, and Peace of Mind—and backed by reliable fall protection and efficient rooftop installation.
