Nicholson Gateway Development
Baton Rouge
Best Project

Owner: RISE - A Real Estate Company
Lead Design Firm (Nicholson Gateway Housing Facility): Niles Bolton Associates
General Contractor: The Lemoine Co.
Civil Engineer: Stantec
Structural Engineer: Browder + Leguizamon and Associates Inc.
MEP Engineer: Jordan & Skala Engineers Inc.
Architect (Spruce Hall Housing Facility): HEWV-BCB Architects - Joint Venture
Architect (Retail Building/ Parking Deck): Remson Haley Herpin Architects

Nicholson Gateway is a mixed-use development located on a 28-acre undeveloped tract of Louisiana State University’s campus near Tiger Stadium.

The development opened in August 2018 and is helping alleviate the university’s housing shortage by providing 1,529 beds in apartment-style units for upperclassmen and graduate students, a 10,000-sq-ft recreation and wellness space, an 802-space parking deck and 762 surface parking spaces. The project also includes approximately 28 acres of landscape, paving and unit pavers as well as improvements to Nicholson Drive.

The project team recorded 946,500 worker hours with no lost time or recordables. Lemoine’s team created a project specific safety program that included the use of onsite safety supervision.

Other programs included a site-specific safety plan from each subcontractor prior to beginning work on the project as well as color-coded hardhat decals to identify verified training and weekly site safety meetings. Additionally, one safety supervisor from each subcontractor created a safety team outside the production team.

Maintaining safety on a wood-framed structure was one of the project team’s biggest challenges. With the help and cooperation of trade partners, the contractor implemented a wood-frame specific safety plan. Strategies included engineered controls, training and enforcement, special evaluations of fall protection measures for wood framers and a wood-frame fire prevention plan, which included infrared monitoring 24 hours a day.

Nicholson Gateway is the largest project to be completed on LSU’s campus to date, and construction was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, resulting in a savings of $884,706 at completion.

Back to "132 Texas & Louisiana Construction Projects Vie For Regional Honors"