The entire complex is expected to be completed in winter 2013.

At the end of each phase of the development, employees will be transferred from their old buildings to the new ones.

“The old buildings will be demolished once the employees have relocated,” says Mike McNerney, senior vice president of Lowe Enterprises. “We have to make sure the county can continue to operate while construction is going on, so we’ve had to get employees and guests around. We have a shuttle program and parking program to help with this.”

McNerney says workers have also had to contend with the reality of a site that hasn’t seen major construction in four decades.

“The entire site was built out 40 years ago,” he adds. “We had to do a lot of research to determine where existing utility lines were, and had to keep a 24-hour phone line open to the sheriff’s department.”

The first phase is ahead of schedule and under budget, McNerney says.

Robbins says the projects should earn at least a LEED silver rating. Among the development’s environmentally friendly features are floor plans clustering private
offices around glass fronts to take advantage of natural light, energy-efficient roofing, glazing systems to reduce heat gain, and a landscape irrigation system designed to reduce water usage.

Composed primarily of precast concrete and glass, the new operations center will
reflect the color scheme of a majority of the complex’s existing structures.

“The precast concrete has a warm tint to it that was influenced in construction designed by others – the medical examiner’s building, for example,” Robbins says. “It’s more of a warm, cream-colored concrete. The glass has a green tint to it. There are metal panels that are essentially the color of a natural silver.”