C.D. Henderson Construction Group, the general contractor for the Southwest Airlines General Use Building, trained a number of its employees to be Green Advantage certified or a LEED-accredited professional in anticipation of construction of the airline’s first LEED project.

Photo: Brent Combs

The 55,000-sq-ft industrial building is divided roughly into thirds and includes a cargo area for bulk air-freight shipping, a provisioning area for the onboard food and beverage service and a ground-support equipment area to serve all non-flying equipment for the airline.

The building was the first project to kick off a major $519-million modernization project at Love Field and has received LEED-silver certification.

Some of the notable sustainable efforts include 100% use of certified wood and the use of more than 50% regional materials.

Crews diverted 99.3% of debris such as wood, metal, concrete and trash from landfills. The concrete was hauled away, crushed and returned to the site to serve as backfill for sitework. Indoor air quality was carefully measured by the general contractor, who put in place an air-quality control plan to reduce harmful emissions from engines, paint fumes and carbon dioxide.

Key Players

Submitted by: C.D. Henderson Construction Group LLC
Developer/owner: Southwest Airlines, Dallas
General contractor: C.D. Henderson Construction Group LLC, Garland, Texas
Construction manager: JMH Construction Services Inc., Dallas
Architect: CamargoCopeland Architects LLP, Dallas
Civil engineer: Pacheco Koch Consulting Engineers, Dallas
Structural engineer: Jaster-Quintanilla, Dallas
MEP engineer: Blum Consulting Engineers Inc., Dallas