Awards of Excellence 2007

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Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

High atop a hill overlooking Atlanta, three giant, arching, metallic waves reach across the $145 million Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

The facility, built by Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta in 26 months, features a 2,750-seat, three-level theater designed to accommodate Broadway touring shows, concerts, plays, operas and corporate events. An orchestra pit reaches 30 ft down and seats up to 84 musicians.

The center sits below the final aircraft approach pattern for an active military base, and so 20- to 24-in-thick, cast-in-place concrete walls surround the auditorium and 12-ft deep roof trusses support two slabs for noise mitigation. Crews built the trusses in midair. Hardin pretested the acoustic seals by generating noise on one side of the seal and monitoring it on the other.

To ensure the center met technical performance criteria, Hardin initiated a triple redundant quality-control program. Every major activity was reviewed prior to starting, inspected during construction and verified upon completion.

The ballroom can accommodate 600 seated guests. The center houses a full-service kitchen.

Grand staircases flank either end of the 60- to 80-ft-tall lobby entrance. Lobby finishes include backlit alabaster stone, Venetian plaster walls, glass and stainless trim. Ten 1,000-lb chandeliers grace the lobby.

Key Facts:
Owner: Cobb Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Atlanta
Location: Atlanta
Cost: $145 million
Contractor: Hardin Construction Co., Atlanta
Architect: Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Atlanta

Patewood Memorial Hospital, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center

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Patewood Memorial Hospital, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center’s first new hospital in more than 30 years, opened in May on a campus a few miles east of downtown Greenville, S.C.

The $55.5 million, short-stay specialty hospital, built by BE&K Building Group of Charlotte, represents the first project of a major expansion at the Patewood campus. A curved five-story room tower connects to a diagnostic and treatment wing. A $5.3 million, 1,000-ft underground pedestrian/utility tunnel joins the new 190,000-sq-ft, 72-bed facility with an existing medical office building.

The hospital will serve primarily adults and does not have an emergency department.

Surgeries will take place in four universal, digital operating rooms. The surgical suite includes eight pre-op and 14 post-op beds. An energy-efficient green roof tops the building.

Design Strategies of Greenville designed the structure to accommodate the addition of four more operating rooms, four additional pre- or post-op beds and up to 36 inpatient beds. 

BE&K began preconstruction services in August 2004 and broke round in March 2005. Value engineering resulted in more than $3 million in proposed savings, of which $2.2 million was accepted.

Key Facts:
Owner: Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, Greenville, S.C.
Location: Greenville, S.C.
Cost: $55.5 million
Contractor: BE&K Building Group, Charlotte, N.C.
Architect: Design Strategies, Greenville, S.C.

Kendall Regional Medical Center

Highly anticipated by a local community involved in its planning, Kendall Regional Medical Center’s $58 million emergency department/intensive care unit addition in Miami met with a year of design delays, followed by a year in securing a Miami-Dade County building permit.

During the holdup, Bovis Lend Lease of Orlando demolished two four-story office buildngs and seven houses, and the company proceeded with construction of an MRI suite. 

Bovis built the emergency department/ICU in two phases. Phase A began first, in 2005, while crews received permits and moved a main water line running underneath Phase B, which connected to the main hospital and began about six months later.

Crews poured auger cast piles and piles caps around existing utilities, which could not be relocated because of issues with permits between the owner and the county. The team used a Concure vapor barrier system and has experienced no issues with delamination.

The team also constructed a central energy plant within an existing parking garage with 24-hour ambulance traffic to serve the new building and cooling towers in an existing medical office building parking lot.

Key Facts:
Owner: HCA Inc., Nashville
Location: Miami
Cost: $58 million
Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease, Orlando
Architect: Gresham, Smith & Partners, Nashville

 DeKalb County Juvenile Justice Center

The five-story, 110,000-sq-ft DeKalb County Juvenile Justice Center in Decatur, Ga., accommodates six courtrooms, six training rooms, offices, 30 inmate holding cells and support areas. Skanska USA Building of Atlanta began the 19-month project in September 2005 and completed it in mid-2007.

The project team aimed for LEED silver certification, which would make it the first project to achieve silver in the county and within the state’s municipal court system. The $27 million project boasts a reflective roof and a rooftop drainage system to aid with landscape irrigation. Five gas-supplied, water-cooled screw chillers on the roof heat the building through 82 independently controlled power-induction units. Skanska recycled 90% of the material from four abandoned office buildings that were demolished to make way for the center.

An architectural precast with a thin-brick application clads the first-floor exterior. A three-coat stucco with aluminum panels covers the second through fourth floors, and a curtain wall framing system encloses the two-story rotunda and other exterior window locations.

Key Facts:
Owner: DeKalb County, Decatur, Ga.
Location: Decatur, Ga.
Cost: $27 million
Contractor: Skanska USA Building, Atlanta
Architect: Turner Associates Architects and Planner, Atlanta

Award of Excellence – Retail
Avenue Webb Gin

The Avenue Webb Gin brings together national retailers, local merchants and specialty restaurants in a landscaped, pedestrian-friendly shopping center.

Construction manager Hardin Construction of Atlanta completed the $43 million retail project on time and within budget. The company attributed much of the job’s success to a continual and collaborative value-engineering process, which included finding a way to maintain the original budget while adding a 40,000-sq-ft building between two newly constructed buildings after subcontractors had left the site. 

The company built 25 retaining walls, nine shell buildings, 13 whitebox build-outs and completed a furniture store and a property management office. It also was responsible for landscaping and hardscape.

Sitework included piping an existing creek. Hardin widened an entry road while maintaining public access. It prepared building pads and utilities for the retailers and restaurants. Several conflicts developed routing public utilities around the site without undermining the integrity of the retaining wall and the geo-grid. Therefore, crews ran several large-diameter storm sewer, power, phone and gas lines adjacent to the wall structures simultaneously with erecting and backfilling the walls.  

The concrete masonry unit with structural steel center includes 385,000 sq ft of retail space and 19,000 sq ft of office. The retail buildings feature EIFS and brick exteriors accented with architectural medallions, wall sconces and custom awnings.

Key Facts:
Owner: Cousins Properties, Atlanta
Location: Snellville, Ga.
Cost: $43 million
Contractor: Hardin Construction, Atlanta
Architect: The Preston Partnership, Atlanta

Taxiway V, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

As part of a $6 billion expansion program at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Archer Western Contractors of Atlanta built the $42 million Taxiway “V” (8R End Around Taxiway), the first end-around taxiway in the nation.

An end-around taxiway improves safety and increases airport capacity by eliminating the need for airplanes landing on the airport’s northernmost runway from having to wait for clearance to taxi across active runways to get to the gates. Planes simply travel to the end of the runway, make a sharp left and then turn right onto the new taxiway.

Planes taking off from the adjacent runway continue their takeoffs without interruption.

Archer Western excavated about 1.2 million cu yds of dirt; relocated roads and Interstate 85 access ramps; constructed a stormwater pump station, a 1,600-ft-long retaining wall and a 1,780-ft-long blast wall; and relocated an existing runway localizer and multiple utility lines.

In constructing the new taxiway, crews graded, paved and oversaw lighting, signage and striping of the 3,100-ft-long taxiway. The concrete taxiway has asphalt shoulders and a soil cement base.

Archer Western completed the job in April.

Key Facts:
Owner: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport/City of Atlanta Aviation Department
Location: Atlanta
Cost: $42 million
Contractor: Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta
Designer: Aviation Consulting Group, Norcross Ga., a joint venture between LPA Group of Norcross; Pond and Co. of Atlanta; and IMDC of Orlando

Social Sciences Building, University of North Florida
Award of Excellence – University

The Social Sciences Building at the University of North Florida demonstrates that green buildings can be built economically and in a timely fashion. It was the first LEED-registered building in Jacksonville and achieved certification this year.

The $11 million, 70,589-sq-ft, three-story structure includes classrooms, labs, conference rooms and faculty offices. Waterless urinals, low-flow fixtures and low-energy lighting and control systems translate to decreased utility consumption and helped earn LEED points.

The design was $500,000 over budget when Elkins Constructors of Jacksonville joined the team. Brainstorming with subcontractors and architects produced a $1.4 million value-engineering shopping list of ideas. The team selected $536,657 of those suggestions.

Construction took place within 60 ft of existing buildings. Elkins fenced the site and performed a large amount of work on weekends, evenings, nights and holidays to minimize disruptions. Elkins finished renovating a parking area 12 months early to ease UNF’s critical parking shortage, turning it over while foundation work took place on the building. 

All stormwater runoff went directly into nearby wetlands, requiring constant monitoring to avoid damage to the natural area. The team diverted more than 800 tons of concrete, asphalt and steel to recycling centers, saving $23,000 in disposal fees.

Key Facts:
Owner: University of North Florida, Jacksonville
Location: Jacksonville
Cost: $11 million
Contractor: Elkins Constructors, Jacksonville
Architect: Smith McCrary Architects, Atlantic Beach, Fla.