Combining prominent transportation and energy projects, impressive revenue growth in the Golden State and an active community outreach program, Kiewit has been selected as ENR California's Contractor of the Year.
The design-builder team of Hensel Phelps and Fentress Architects recently joined U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, acting Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael P. Huerta, Mayor Edwin M. Lee and airport director John L. Martin in officially breaking ground for San Francisco International Airport’s new air traffic control tower. Rendering courtesy of SFO HNTB designed the tower. Image courtesy of SFO HNTB was the designer of the new tower. Related Links: Watch the YouTube video of the new control tower design and construction. The new control tower will be located between Terminals 1 and 2, east of the existing tower. It will
A key green element to the just-opened 13-floor, $190-million San Francisco Public Utilities Commission headquarters is its water management system, called the Living Machine. According to the project’s designers, KMD Architects & Stevens Architects, the building will consume 60% less water than similarly sized buildings. The advanced gray-water and black-water system was developed by Worrell Water Technologies, Charlottesville, Va. The SFPUC headquarters at 525 Golden Gate is one of the first urban office buildings to use the system, satisfying 100% of the water demand for the building’s low-flow toilets and urinals. The Living Machine system, along with faucet sensors, on-demand
A new pilot program system designed to target an increase in water savings and crop output has captured the interest of several agencies and regional water districts. The system serves a portion of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District (SSJID) in California’s Central Valley near Ripon. Local growers using the system utilize a combination of mobile technology and “airline-ticketing-style” online tools to schedule individualized water deliveries, according to Danny Craig, a spokesman for Stantec, the project’s consulting engineer and construction manager. Stantec provided mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
Nearly 20 months before the December 2010 groundbreaking for the massive University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, members of the design and construction team gathered at the project's site in the Mission Bay neighborhood to map out a plan of attack. Their goal: to win a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold rating—a rare achievement for a hospital—for the 878,000-sq-ft complex. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record The team brought together about 100 key players, including the project's general contractor, architects, engineers, construction-management advisers and 13 subcontractors, to produce a plan to integrate lean construction methods, implement
A California seismic-retrofit mandate for hospitals has produced a wave of major projects over the past several years, giving a welcome lift to the state's architectural and engineering firms. But as the program's first major deadline draws near, the wave of hospital work has receded. To cope with the decline in the health care sector, many A/E firms are branching out to new regions or offering a wider range of services to potential clients. Related Links: Top Design Firms 2011 Architectural Record Combined revenue for this year's top 10 design firms rose a modest 2.6% over the total for last
A three-office California design firm that has made sustainability central to its projects, large and small, was chosen by the editors of the ENR regional publications as the Design Firm of the Year 2012.
Clif Bar & Co. reports that its Emeryville headquarters has been awarded LEED platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Related Links: Clif Bar Headquarters Wins Award of Merit Located at 1451 66th St., Clif Bar’s 115,000-sq-ft office space is the first building in Emeryville to achieve LEED platinum certification in the commercial interior category. The firm is a maker of organic foods and drinks.The general contractor/construction manager on the project was DPR Construction and the architect was ZGF. The project, which won an Award of Merit in last year’s ENR California’s Top Projects competition in the Office category,
Stanford University Medical Center’s goal of reaching $1 billion in donations to fund its expansion project reached the half-way point this month and site prep and utility work are now under way. Preston Top Grade (a joint venture with Preston Pipeline and Top Grade Construction), Sandis engineers and AECOM landscaping are working on the Welsh Rd. utility improvement project, which replaces utility services and information technology infrastructure along Welch and Quarry roads. The project also includes the widening of Welch Rd., one of the main arteries into the medical center campus, and the replacement of sidewalks, planting of new trees, installation
As California Department of Transportation Construction Manager Douglas Coe tells it, the key to success on a very complicated seismic retrofit of the Antioch Toll Bridge is the mastering of the three B’s – birds, bearings and bracing. Rebuilt in 1978 from the original 1926 edition, the steel-plate girder, 1.8-mi bridge spans the San Joaquin River from the East Bay city of Antioch in Contra Costa County to the Sherman Island wildlife refuge in Sacramento County along State Route 160. It has one lane in each direction with bicycle and pedestrian access and traffic numbers about 15,000 vehicles a day.Though