The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the “jewel” in Dallas’ newly named AT&T Performing Arts Center, seats 2,200 and is designed to accommodate opera, musical theater, ballet and other dance forms. Photo: John W. Davis, DVD Design Group Inc, Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Located on a five-acre site with landscaped plazas and a reflecting pool, the 220,000-sq-ft building is located in the heart of the Dallas arts district and is a monument to innovative and challenging construction. Delivered on time and on budget, the aesthetically dramatic and acoustically precise space fully serves its complex function while making
One of the first challenges encountered in the construction of Pearland’s first public recreation center and swimming facility was dealing with extremely wet subsoil conditions, primarily due to the area’s low elevation. Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Pearland, which lies within the Houston/Sugar Land/Baytown metropolitan area, is located in the northern portion of the Gulf coastal plain, a 40- to 50-mi swath along the Texas Gulf Coast. With a great deal of meetings and cooperative planning among general contractor, EMJ Corp., the structural and soil engineers, and others on the project team, a solution was found that fit the
Despite complexities faced during building and renovation at Richland High School, the project finished early. Photo: Randal Vanderveer Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Renovations encompassed more than 450,000 sq ft and involved the complete demolition or gutting of every building on the school’s campus. Facilities included offices, classrooms, a science wing, cafeteria, auditorium, band hall, choir hall, library, gymnasium, agriculture building, ROTC space and common areas. To keep personnel and students safe, general contractor Adolfson & Peterson built emergency egress corridors. With entrance points at existing exit doors leading to parking lots, the corridors had to pass directly through
With a construction timeline of nearly six years, the Roosevelt High School Replacement Campus was the longest duration job to date for Joeris, the job’s construction manager. Photo: Joeris Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards The 465,000-sq-ft job was an entire campus rebuild done while the existing school remained fully operational. The campus underwent a complete inversion of its previous layout, from a central core of buildings surrounded by open space to a large central courtyard surrounded by new buildings. Work included 11 bid packages, from three bond programs. New facilities include science labs, art rooms, music halls and practice
Cedar Ridge High School is the Round Rock Independent School District’s fifth high school and the largest building under one roof in the city of Round Rock. Photo: Jim Lincoln Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards The 375,000-sq-ft, two-story, tilt-up concrete building’s systems include structural steel and tiltwall interior framing, slab-on-grade with footings and drilled piers, exterior metal panels and architectural flyovers. The entrance floors are terrazzo with 10-ft-diameter school logos laid in the design. The school includes grades nine through 12, including seven career and tech academies. Other space includes fine art and performing art classrooms, black-box theater, media
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 Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards 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
The new 44-story Spring condominium tower is Austin’s first “point tower,” a design concept that lends itself to far-reaching views and offers a tremendous amount of space efficiency. Photo: Park Street Photography Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Its slender design allows for glass-walled living rooms and bedrooms in each unit that overlooks the city. The concrete-frame building has HVAC ducts embedded inside 7.5-in.thick post-tension concrete slabs. There are no interior columns. The 249-unit tower also includes a seven-story garage with two underground and five above-ground levels of parking and approximately 10,000 sq ft of ground-level commercial/retail space wrapping the
At 115,000 sq ft, the Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA is the flagship facility of the YMCA of Greater Houston. Photo: Thomas Mcconnell Photography Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Four generations of the Tellepsen family have served on YMCA boards. The project is seeking LEED silver and may receive LEED gold. Innovations incorporated into the facility include an in-slab electrical system for strength/cardio equipment to prevent cords from being seen and becoming a trip/safety hazard. It also includes metal mesh ceilings to increase airflow and reduce humidity, polished concrete floors in public corridors and a glass wall at the main
Intense teamwork was necessary right from the beginning of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas’ Hamon Tower project. The tower would be built right in the middle of campus over a main traffic throughway. Its location was needed as a connection for six existing structures. Photo: Ed Lacasse Related Links: Best of 2010 Awards Austin Commercial and HKS had to coordinate with the hospital facilities group, hospital staff and its users as well. The seven-story, 460,000-sq-ft tower reaches two levels below ground. The GC/CM had to work with many team members to coordinate logistical obstacles. Several structures associated with
Built on a 30,000-sq-ft site with zero laydown area, The Austonian project team had to lease an adjacent 5,000-sq-ft staging area during construction and orchestrate material deliveries with precision.
RSS