Government Goes Full Throttle
More than $1.1 billion worth of construction is under way on federal government buildings in the Midwest. The figure includes regularly scheduled projects as well as renovations funded by the federal Recovery Act.
Through July, the General Services Administration had obligated more than $981 million for 120 stimulus projects in 51 cities throughout 10 Midwest states. About 70 of the projects are small-scale, often targeted to a specific part of a building’s HVAC system or to gathering data for reducing energy consumption. About 16 of the projects exceed $10 million, and a few surpass $100 million.
Kluczynski Federal Building
About 2,500 employees of 20 government agencies are scooting over to make way for the $93.4-million overhaul of all mechanical systems at the Kluczynski Federal Building. The demand for space is so great in Chicago that there’s no alternative swing space, according to J. David Hood, commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service.
For the next year and a half, each of the 18 floors will be divided into six zones. One zone will be under construction while workers compress into the other five zones of the floor. Construction work will run 16 hours a day and move around to each zone in a clockwise fashion, shuffling tenants along the way.
“That effort requires intense coordination and detailed planning,” Hood says. “Our relationship with the building occupants is to keep them 100% operational.
“It’s the first time in the life of the 40-year-old building that we’ve had a chance to go in and modernize all the mechanical systems. Previously, due to a shortage of capital, we’ve done partial improvements.”
More than 4,000 fan coils in the heating and cooling units around the perimeter of the building will be replaced, as will 26 air-handling units. The project team includes Chicago-based firms OWP/P Canon Design and Pepper Construction.
Federal Plaza Restoration Downtown workers crisscross the vast granite plaza in front of the federal buildings at Adams and Dearborn streets in Chicago daily, and the plaza isn’t just a hardscape on ground. “There’s an enormous amount of space underneath,” Hood says.
A $25-million rehab of the 40-year-old plaza began in early summer and is slated to finish in February 2012.
“Mies van der Rohe designed the federal complex at a key point in his career, and it looks contemporary,” Hood says. “But there are aspects of it, in comparison to the technology we use today, that are primitive.
“The plaza is about the size of two football fields of dead flat construction. Throughout the decades, we’ve never had any slope to drain. Water sits and ultimately breaks through any type of barrier membrane systems.”
The result was a deterioration of the slab and damage to equipment systems underneath. Now, all 6,600 granite pavers, ranging in weight from 1,000 to 5,000 lbs, are being removed. A highly insulated, tapered waterproofing and drainage system is being installed, and “every paver is indexed, identified, numbered and set back in exactly the same place and orientation,” Hood adds.
“About 90% of the pavers are reusable, and we’re working with the original granite quarry in Cold Spring, Minn., to extract stones of similar color for any replacement stones.”
The insulation will have a 21 R-value, which is a 376% improvement. An electronic leak detection system under the plaza will also detect leaks for future maintenance.
To accelerate the project, the general contractor, Chicago-based Bergland Construction, is keeping three shifts per day at work. Chicago-based Ghafari Associates is the architect.
Dirksen Federal Courthouse
Although not a Recovery Act project, a $148-million renovation of the Mies van der Rohe-designed Everett M. Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago is focused on improving building performance in three ways – replacing a 50-year-old HVAC system, modernizing DDC monitoring and controls and installing an advanced lighting-control system.
Built in 1964, this 384-ft-tall skyscraper is one of the nation’s largest federal court buildings with 57 courtrooms. The project began in 2009 and is slated to be complete in October 2012. The architect/engineer is Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Chicago-based Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor.
Because the building is on the historical registry, sensitivity to the architecture is once again critical. For instance, speakers for the fire alarm system must be hidden in the entry’s minimalist grand lobby, according to Linda Grabert, project manager for GSA.
Because many sensitive court cases take place there, such as the most recent trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, tight security is employed. Construction workers must clear a security check with the Dept. of Homeland Security, enter through a separate guarded entrance and carry badges equipped with a homing device that tracks their arrival and departure.
The building is nearly fully occupied, and so floor 10 is designated as swing space with four courtrooms. Judges from one floor move into the space for 10 weeks while their space is renovated. This process continues throughout the building.
Richard Bolling Federal Building
This 18-story downtown Kansas City, Mo., building houses 3,000 federal employees. Built in 1965 at a time when energy was cheap and asbestos was extensively used for fireproofing, the 1.2-million-sq-ft building is undergoing a floor-by-floor modernization.
About $104 million in Recovery Act funds is going toward completing a $250 million, four-phase renovation that began in 2000 and is expected to be complete in 2014.
In the late 90s, an agency left the building, opening up 20% of the building’s space, which “provided us an opportunity to use the floors as construction space, staging space and isolate our work from the other floors,” says Donald Distler, project manager for GSA. “We started at the top of building, remodeling four floors at a time, and came down through the building.”
More than 80 tenant moves took place to accommodate the work.
“The total renovation of the building was driven by removing hazardous materials, including asbestos, which required removing about 99% of everything on a floor and starting with a barebones building,” Distler says. “Everything is rebuilt within the building.”
The project also included reconfiguring the elevator lobbies for exiting to a large, light-filled space and making restrooms handicap accessible.
The Kansas City, Mo.-based project team members, which remained the same since the project’s inception, include Helix Architecture + Design, Gastinger Walker Hardin Architects and JE Dunn Construction, general contractor for the first three phases and construction manager as constructor for the final phase.
Jefferson City courthouse
Construction of the $71-million new federal courthouse in Jefferson City, Mo., is going up on former prison property.
The four-story, 118,300-sq-ft, classically designed foursquare structure will open next year and will hold four courtrooms and offices for court-related agencies.
“There’s a green roof with two small terraces on the north side overlooking the Missouri River,” says George Gourse, project manager for GSA. It also will overlook the State Capitol building.
JE Dunn Construction came on board as CM as constructor at the same time as the architect, Boston-based Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects, which helped preserve design intent while incorporating budget conscience design decisions.
“To save money, instead of having traditional handset stone on the exterior of the building, we’ve taken limestone and laminated it to precast, and we have the entire panel lifted into place,” says Chris Paris, project manager for JE Dunn. “It provides the look of hand-cut stone but at same time it provides blast protection.”
