DBIA names best design-build projects

by David Anderson | July 26, 2016 1:41 pm

Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has named the winners for the 2016 Design-Build Project/Team Awards. The program, now in its 21^st year, was established to recognize exemplary collaboration and integration in design-build projects.

Award-winners were evaluated and picked by a panel of expert judges in 10 categories.

Aviation
Los Angeles International Airport central utility plant replacement project, a Clark/McCarthy joint venture, provided one of the world’s busiest airports with a modern, state-of-the-art, computer-managed utility plant. The design-build effort greatly improved the reliability and efficiency of the airport’s utility service and helped the owner provide an enhanced passenger experience.

Civic/Assembly
The Public Building Commission of Chicago selected Wight & Company, in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, to provide design-build services for the Chinatown Branch of the Chicago Public Library—a new civic, educational, and social hub for the neighborhood. It features high-performance glass curtain walls, maximizing visibility and, allowing the exterior to present the image of a glowing lantern at night. The building features numerous sustainable elements and was designed and constructed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold status.

Another civic/assembly project was the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center Expansion.The $325-million work comprised an addition of 67,400 m² (726,000 sf), including exhibit halls, a multi-purpose hall, meeting rooms, a ballroom, loading docks, a kitchen expansion, new administrative offices, and support space. The primary goals of the project were to create contiguous space, gain the ability to host multiple shows simultaneously, and replace the antiquated west building to allow for expansion of Hemisfair Park—all while maintaining continuous operations.

The third winner in this was category was the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park Visitor Center. The original building had been devastated by a fire in 2013. Faced with a compressed timeline and a project without a known budget, the owner selected the Beck Group (involved in architecture, construction, and real-estate development) to rebuild the park’s facilities through a fully integrated design-build delivery model.

Commercial Buildings/Office Buildings
The Gateway Plaza was developed by Construction Racing Group (CRG), designed by Forum Studio, and built by Clayco; it represents a custom design solution to become the headquarters for law firms. Located in Richmond, Virginia, it sets a new standard for office construction, accommodating multiple tenancies, with retail space and parking on lower levels. The 50,000-m² (538,000-sf), 18-story Class A Office building includes floor-to-ceiling glass and was certified to  LEED Gold.

The second winner in the commercial buildings/office buildings category was the Texas Christian University Frog Alley Parking Garage. The Beck Group served as the designer and builder for the 31,900-m² (343,400-sf) parking garage at Texas Christian University (TCU). The design aligns with the Fort Worth Deco aesthetic of the nearby athletic venues. It was completed on time within nine months, during North Texas’ wettest year on record, and under budget.

The third winner was the Zev Yaroslavsky Family Support Center. On a 3-ha (7-acres) campus, this new LEED Gold 20,000-m² (216,000-sf), five-story support center and six-level parking structure in the San Fernando Valley consolidated seven L.A. County family services departments into one location which serves the most vulnerable and disadvantaged residents of the Valley. The project created a community-friendly, park-like campus while providing a safe, welcoming, and sustainable environment for the facility’s clients. The project also promotes interdepartmental collaboration among 1000 employees calling the building home.

Educational Facilities
Cornish College of the Arts: Cornish Commons is a small, private, liberal arts school located in the heart of Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. In 2013, Cornish’s current housing stock was under-served and officials were going to lose the lease on the existing housing facilities. Faced with an urgent problem, the design-build team was able to deliver a state-of-the-art, live/learn facility for students, faculty, and staff on an accelerated schedule.

The Los Angeles Valley College Monarch Center project was the second winner in the category. It required a unique building design facilitating a bookstore, cafeteria, health services center, café and meeting area, and recreational spot for students and faculty. McCarthy Building Companies was brought on as a design-build partner to create a functional and contemporary structure without disrupting the campus environment throughout the construction process.

The Virginia Tech Indoor Athletic Training Facility project was the third winner. This indoor training center is an instrumental asset expanding Virginia Tech’s core brand while supporting the university’s mission, spirit, and philosophy. The 8454-m² (91,000-sf) center offers ample room for full-contact scrimmages with practice space for football, baseball, softball, and lacrosse teams. The building features roll-up doors for protection against inclement weather, two observation decks, and full stadium lighting. This signature building reflects the spirit of Virginia Tech’s traditions and campus architecture.

Federal, State, County, Municipal
Oregon Department of State Lands Office project involved the renovation of approximately 1200-m² (13,000-sf) of existing office space on the ground floor of the Oregon Department of State Lands Building, including demolition, new finishes, and mechanical and electrical improvements to be coordinated with the owner’s selection and purchase of new furniture systems. Additional scope included a controls upgrade for the entire building. This was the first design-build project from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services.

The second winner was the SLAC Science and User Support Building project. It included a new four-story, 5700-m² (62,100-sf) building, a 350-seat auditorium with a vegetated roof, a cafeteria with two patio areas, and several collaboration spaces throughout the building. The first phase of the project involved the demolition of existing facilities including the original Panofsky Auditorium, visitor’s center, and cafeteria.

The third winner was the Spokane Central Service Center project. It is a consolidated fleet maintenance and solid waste facility for the City of Spokane, Washington. The project was designed to create operational efficiency, savings, and is the city’s first design-build project. Design-build was chosen to speed construction and control costs to meet consolidation functions identified since 1983. A thorough, yet revised plan with a design-build approach at the center was able to achieve this result.

The last winner in this category was the Wallace Creek North Bachelors Enlisted Quarters Complex project. Under a design-build contract, Brasfield & Gorrie and RQ Construction overcame a historic amount of rain during construction and the challenge of working on an active Marine Corps base to complete this LEED Gold and living environment for U.S. Marines. The accomplishment of the project is directly attributable to the teamwork demonstrated by all parties in utilizing a design-build approach to deliver a high quality complex.

Healthcare Facilities category
The Sharp Mesa Vista Expansion and Modernization project occurred in a fully occupied and operational acute psychiatric hospital. With more than 5000 inpatient-discharges a year, the facility is San Diego County’s largest privately-operated psychiatric hospital. Over six construction phases and three buildings were renovated to provide the facility’s diverse patient groups and treatments programs with a modern, safe, and healing oriented space serving the local community.

The second winner was the St. Luke’s Surgical & Procedural Care Expansion project. The Hospital’s ultimate goal was to bring the latest in surgical and integrated imaging technology to its patients around Duluth, Minnesota. The hospital’s surgery department was expanded in the new building by adding two hybrid 100-m² (120- sf) operating rooms, four general surgery operating rooms, one EP/IR/Cath Lab room, four endoscopy procedure rooms, one bronchoscopy procedure room, and a café.

The third winner was the University of Arizona Cancer Center at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. The 20,400-m² (220,000-sf) school was designed to deliver the highest standard of care within an evidence-based, multidisciplinary model, using the most modern technologies. The building program includes spaces for radiation oncology, diagnostic imaging, endoscopy and interventional radiology, exam and procedure rooms, a support and wellness center, infusion, a clinical pharmacy, and a healing garden.

Industrial, Process and/or Research Facilities
The first winner in this category was the Champion Petfoods Kentucky DogStar Kitchens. Gray Construction completed the first design-build kitchen in the U.S. for Canadian-based Champion Petfoods. The 34,400-m² (371,000-sf) kitchen prepares its foods in its state-of-the-art kitchen designed and operated to meet the same food safety standards that are required for the manufacturing of human foods. DogStar was designed, constructed and commissioned in 14 months—from a zero percent design to 100 percent test runs of their new recipes.

The second winner was the Kroger Forest Park Distribution Complex project. When The Kroger Company was in a position to streamline its distribution channels in the Southeast, they chose Primus to provide design-build services on one of the largest, most technologically advanced and sustainable distribution centers in its history. Primus’s fully integrated design, engineering, estimating, and construction management team partnered with Kroger and local government officials to successfully deliver the 109,300-m² (1,177,000-sf) cold storage and distribution complex in Forest Park, Georgia.

The third winner was the USCG Base Ketchikan Alaska – Fast Response Cutter (FRC) Homeport Upgrades project. It involved the design and construction of a 1400 m² (15,000 sf) shop and hazardous materials (MAT/HAZMAT) building, a 120-m (400-ft) floating dock for USCG’s new fast response cutters, construction of a seawall to accommodate 6 m (20 ft) tide line fluctuations, the relocation of an existing dock, a strengthened crane operations area, the demolition of an existing building, and the relocation of a 54-m (180-ft) breakwater and debris deflector.

Rehabilitation, Renovation and/or Restoration
The Rising Frontstretch Grandstand Replacement now represents the “World Center for Racing,” as the first motorsports stadium in the world, providing the ultimate fan experience. Stretching over 1.6 km (1 mi) in length, with 101,500 wider and more comfortable seats, it also included 60 suites, 520 club seats and 185,800 m² (2.5 million sf) of space. Barton Malow + ROSSETTI’s integration was evident in design, project setup and construction.

The second winner in the category was the Zura Hall Housing Refresh project. Balfour Beatty Construction, HMC Architects, and San Diego State University (SDSU) partnered together under California State University’s new collaborative design-build process to design and build this highly successful project that finished on time and on budget in Fall 2015. This complete, top to bottom renovation and reinvention of the 592-bed first-years residence hall is acclaimed by senior leadership at SDSU to be the most successful project ever built on campus.

Transportation
The 11^th Street Bridges project was the largest construction job in Washington, D.C.’s Department of Transportation (DDOT) history, and its first design-build procurement. The primary goals of the 11^th Street project were to complete all freeway connections for regional traffic, to replace structurally-deficient bridges along the 11^th Street corridor, and to provide a dedicated bridge for local traffic. The entire project promoted job growth and economic stimulus to the area as part of the greater Anacostia Waterfront Initiative.

The second winner was the Route 27/244 Interchange Modification project. The $32.5 million project replaced the existing Washington Boulevard concrete arch bridge over Columbia Pike in Arlington. The new, longer and wider bridge includes significant aesthetic features including decorative parapets and abutment walls, memorial pylons at the bridge corners, and hunched girders with a two-tone paint scheme to mimic the arch structure of the old bridge. In addition, a light well separates the westbound and eastbound lanes. The new bridge also accommodates the widening of Columbia Pike.

SR-520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Landings Design-Build Project (Transportation category)
The project designed and built the world’s longest floating bridge, creating a safer, more reliable link between Seattle and the growing high-tech cities east of Lake Washington. With high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, full shoulders for disabled vehicles, a cross-lake bicycle and pedestrian path, and the largest, heaviest, and strongest bridge pontoons ever built, the new, 1.5-mi (2.5-km) floating highway improves the movement of people and freight in the Central Puget Sound region.

The third winner was the Veterans Memorial Bridge project. The bridge in Martin County, Florida, is a premier example of the design-build approach meeting challenging schedules and fostering innovation to produce a cost-effective project. Three organized legal challenges threatened to halt the project: a federal injunction, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) challenges, and permitting challenges. The team never gave up pursuit of project acceptance, permit approvals, design, and construction. As a result, a once controversial project is now considered a resounding success by all stakeholders.

Water/Wastewater category
The $922-million Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere, with average production of 189.3 million L (50 million gal) of fresh, high-quality drinking water a day. Owned by Poseidon Water and completed by the design-build team of Kiewit Shea Desalination with Arcadis, IDE Technologies and Tetra Tech, it is a harbinger of a new era in which desalination is viewed as a viable solution to water challenges and a way to drought-proof public water supplies.

The second winner was the Clifton Water District Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration Water Treatment Plant project. The Clifton Water District selected the Carollo Design-Build Group to help add a new microfiltration/ultrafiltration system to the existing water treatment plant. Carollo used an ‘open platform’ design approach that gave the district more operational flexibility and reduced costs. A strong partnership helped the project go from 40 percent design to an operational plant in just 14 months, and the district’s operators have found operation exceeds the team’s performance guarantees.

The third winner was the Davis-Woodland Water Supply project. A regional project helping solve the long-term water needs of two California cities, the project highlights how design-build delivery achieved significant capital savings and cost certainty for the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency. CH2M worked with the agency to develop a true design-build partnership and balanced risk approach to achieve significant capital savings and cost certainty. The project, completed in 2016, provides a needed water resource to mitigate severe drought conditions.

The last winner in the category was the Wichita Equus Beds Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program, Design-Build Surface Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and River Intake project. The joint venture team of Burns & McDonnell, Alberici Constructors, and CAS Constructors (part of ABC Partners) designed and built the surface (WTP), river intake, and pretreatment facilities as part of the City of Wichita’s Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program. As the largest and most complex package of the program, ABC Partners managed design and construction interfaces with eight other programmatic projects to ultimately deliver a state-of-the-art treatment system that saved the city nearly $20 million.

For more on project teams and to see different photos, click here[1].

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/dbia-names-best-design-build-projects/

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