Midwest Best Projects
Award of Merit, Interior /Tenant: Ceres
Photo courtesy of Tom Kessler
Ceres
Omaha
Award of Merit
Submitted By: Boyd Jones
Owner: Flatrock Group LLC
Lead Designer: HDR
General Contractor: Boyd Jones
To transform a 130-year-old manufacturing plant into a modern industrial headquarters, the team had to decipher how to harmonize 18 additions from different eras that featured a variety of building materials and methods.
Completed on time and at budget in December 2021, the project created private and collaborative offices as well as a fabrication and installation shop with a rail line for operational testing of heavy machinery attachments
One feature of the site that made it appealing to the owner is a rail line that feeds directly into the building. Designed for off-loading rail cars, the tracks were originally laid at an elevation well below the grade of the floor. The team had to bring the track up to the same grade as the shop floor to load equipment more easily onto the rails for testing.
Initial drawings called for extending the raised portion of track north into the building, which would have required installation of approximately 200 ft of underpinning. The team collaborated with the owner and realized that the existing length of rail would be sufficient. It devised a plan to slope the track up to grade and remove a steel column for easy transfer of equipment onto the rail for testing. The modification was part of the $800,000 saved in overall adjustments. The savings allowed the owner to incorporate other value-added changes without increasing costs.
The project had no OSHA recordable incidents or lost-time accidents over 19,350 worker-hours.
