Photo by Perrenoud Productions, Courtesy of Big-D Construction Related Links: Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Entries for ENR's First Global Best Projects Competition Are Due Feb. 28 New Natural History Museum of Utah Opens to Big Fanfare Nestled in the foothills above Salt Lake City, the $102-million Natural History Museum of Utah houses a collection of 1.2 million artifacts, including items from Utah's Native American tribes.The 163,000-sq-ft building is composed primarily of exposed concrete with copper-alloy cladding. The natural patina of the copper alloy blends with the hillside setting and gives the building a stratified but fractured appearance,
Related Links: See all of the Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Industry professionals from all across the U.S. donated their time and expertise to help ENR identify and honor the most outstanding construction efforts completed in the U.S. and Puerto Rico between July 2011 and June 2012. Nearly 1,000 project teams submitted their best work to ENR's regional "Best Projects" competitions. For each of the nine regions, our editors assembled an independent panel of industry judges to home in on the winners in 19 categories. The winners of the regional contests moved on to the national competition.A new
Photo by Coleman Photography Eleven roof trusses provide a 464-ft clear span. Related Links: See all of the Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Entries for ENR's First Global Best Projects Competition Are Due Feb. 28 Design-builders of The Boeing Co.'s new 787 manufacturing complex in North Charlseston, S.C., had only 24 months to engineer and construct the program's 11 separate structures, which collectively measured more than one million sq ft. To facilitate the schedule, the KBR-Turner-BRPH team completed the design of the project's structural steel and sitework prior to Boeing's formal acceptance of the joint venture's proposal.Contractors began
Photo by Fitlow The team logged 1.5 million worker hours without a lost-time accident. Related Links: See all of the Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Headquarters Tower Gets Complete Makeover Entries for ENR's First Global Best Projects Competition Are Due Feb. 28 Gilbane Building Co. renovated more than one million sq ft of El Paso Corp.'s state-of-the-art, LEED Gold high-rise, completing work on the 32-story, 45-year-old headquarters in downtown Houston in September 2011.No exterior hoists were used on this project, resulting in $1.5 million in cost savings. Freight elevators moved all materials and crews.Asbestos abatement was conducted while
Designed for net-zero energy consumption and LEED Platinum certification, this $37.2-million, two-story building in Los Angeles features a green roof of low-water succulents.
Related Links: Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Entries for ENR's First Global Best Projects Competition Are Due Feb. 28 Palomar Medical Center's Stellar Project Delivery The $956-million, 750,000-sq-ft Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, Calif. is one of the largest buildings in the U.S. to use integrated project delivery principles and one of only two U.S. hospitals with day-lit operating rooms, according to DPR Construction.Completed ahead of schedule and within budget, the facility includes an 11-story patient tower and a two-story diagnostic and treatment wing, topped by a 1.5-acre green roof planted with native flora to mimic nearby hillsides.
Photo by Benjamin Benschneider Related Links: Best of the Best Projects 2012 Winners Entries for ENR's First Global Best Projects Competition Are Due Feb. 28 UW Molecular Building Accelerates Construction Phases Situated within the central science core of the University of Washington's Seattle campus, the $59-million, 90,000-sq-ft first phase of the master-planned Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building was designed to create a multidisciplinary research setting and strengthen existing science programs.To fit the facility on the site, historic Cunningham Hall—built in 1909 as part of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition—had to be relocated. Within this footprint, the design took advantage of the topography
Rise in Construction StartsConstruction's tentative recovery appears to be gaining more confidence. The dollar value of total construction starts in 2012 increased 6% over 2011's level, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Dodge. That follows a 1% annual increase in 2011.Most of last year's increase came from a 29% jump in residential construction, which, at $163 billion, accounted for 35% of all new construction last year. The dollar value of non-building construction was up 2% last year, while the nonresidential building total declined 9%. The non-residential building market included annual declines of 14% for school construction and 6% for health-care work. Last
Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata Related Links: Construction Photography Reminds Us of What Makes The Industry Great Construction Photography Contest Judging Is Challenging And Rewarding Engineering News-Record photo contest archives Runners-Up Something is changing in construction photography. The pictures are getting strikingly better. That's the only conclusion we could come to after our panel of judges finished reviewing the 1,564 entries to ENR's 2012, The Year in Construction Photo Contest. Not only did the judges give their highest marks to far more images than ever before, but the second- and third-place finishers were almost equally impressive.The photos are evaluated by a fresh
