Related Links: Colorado Contractor of the Year: Understanding Relationships Intermountain Contractor of the Year: Passing the Torch This issue of Mountain States Construction features our 2010 Intermountain and Colorado Contractors of the Year. Each year the editors select a general contracting firm that demonstrates ongoing innovation and sound business practices to be the magazine’s Contractor of the Year. This year, we chose two from the Mountain States’ region. We selected Okland Construction Co. Inc. of Salt Lake City based on the firm’s consistent placement in the top 10 of our annual General Contractors rankings. The firm experiences a profitable and
Related Links: Wells Fargo to Expand LEED Pre-certification Beyond New Construction The Bank at Briargate Crossing in Colorado Springs is Colorado’s first Wells Fargo retail-bank store pre-certified for LEED Silver. The bank’s new stores are based on a flexible design model that can be configured to blend with local architectural motifs throughout the country. Briargate Crossing’s light-harvesting system helps cut energy use by 20%. Insulation is manufactured from recycled cotton, primarily denim, and carpets and window treatments are made of 100% recycled materials. Low-VOC paints help improve air quality. Low-flow plumbing fixtures cut water use by 40%. Countertops for the
In March, a group of students from Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah, spent their spring break building disaster-resistant dome homes in Mexico. Groups of students from SUU have been traveling to Mexico for the past seven years, donating time and resources to build homes, but this was the first time they used the new technology to build dome houses. Last winter, SUU Construction Management Prof. Boyd Fife met with David South, Monolithic Dome Institute president, to discuss the possibility of transitioning from building conventional homes to the dome structures. The dome design makes the homes more resistant to
The March issue of Multifamily Executive gives an interesting overview of the current multifamily market situation and takes a stab at a prediction for a rebound. According to the article entitled “Groundbreaking Ideas,” “Citing low labor and material costs, recovering fundamentals, and a dire lack of competitive market supply, the progressive multifamily mindset says construction will start now.” Here’s how they plan to pull new developments out of the dirt for delivery in 2011 to 2013. Before the downturn in residential development, Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential had been producing an average 6,700 units of apartments annually. Last year, the company’s
UtahIn April, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneer s held a multi-million-dollar grand opening auction in Tooele County, the company’s first in Utah, marking the opening of its 22nd auction site in the United States. More than 1,600 people from 24 countries, including 46 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces registered to bid in person or online on more than 1,100 heavy equipment items being sold at the auction, held on the new 37-acre regional auction unit 20 miles west of Salt Lake City at Salt Point Commerce Center in Lake Point. The next Salt Lake City auction is scheduled for this month.
In order to maximize comfort and productivity, the workplace should provide employees with speech privacy and freedom from distracting noises. To meet these goals, acoustic professionals typically follow the “ABC Rule,” which stands for absorb, block and cover. Unfortunately, many current green design practices inadvertently contravene this formula, creating interiors that are noisy, stressful and lack speech privacy. But, using the ABC Rule correctly can contribute to the green commitment. Photo courtesy of K.R. Moeller Associates Ltd. Acoustics in green buildings are often worse than in their traditional counterparts as they generally feature a large percentage of open plan, creating
Related Links: Top 2010 Intermountain Projects Missoula Federal Credit Union Jupiter Bowl 1. Workers Compensation Fund Corporate Office at Towne Ridge Parkway Sandy, Utah $50 million Owner: Workers Compensation Fund General Contractor: Jacobsen Construction Co. Architects: ASWN Architects, EDA Architects Engineers: Dunn Associates Inc., Van Boerum & Frank Associates Inc. Start: Oct. 2008 Finish: July 2010 This project builds a new six-story, high-rise offi ce building and three-level parking structure. The building is a sideplate job, designed to withstand a maximum plausible earthquake. The parking garage is post-tensioned and can accommodate 450 vehicles. 2. Montana State Fund Office Building Helena,
Welcome to Mountain States Construction’s annual ranking of the biggest projects to be completed this calendar year in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota’s, plus a list of new projects that have broken or will break ground in 2010. 1800 Larimer Related Links: Top 2010 Colorado & Plains Region Projects 1. 1800 Larimer Denver $102 million Owner: Westfield Co. Inc General Contractor: Mortenson Construction Architect: RNL Engineers: JF Sato & Associates, JIRSA Hedrick & Associates, Swanson Rink Among the Subcontractors: Encore Electric, RK Mechanical, Drake Williams Steel, LPR Construction, Four Star Drywall, Harmon Glass, Rocky Mountain Prestress, Otis
Crews building the Regional Transportation District�s FasTracks West Corridor Light Rail Line reopened Denver�s West 6th Avenue 30 hours ahead of schedule after placing a light rail bridge over the freeway in April. Related Links: Enermodal Engineering Inc. Crews spent the past several months assembling the 65-ft-tall, 286-ft-long, steel-tied arch structure along the south side of 6th Avenue near the Simms/Union exit. Over part of one weekend, they transported the bridge into its final position via a large dolly made of two 35-ft platforms with eight axles each. The arch traveled on guided rollers, pushed by hydraulic rams. Reaching speeds
The National Security Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers narrowed the more-than-a-dozen engineering and construction firms bidding on a $1.7-billion data center project at Camp Williams in Utah to just five sets of companies in April. Related Links: Park City High School The five finalists are Whiting-Turner of Baltimore and Dynamic Systems of Austin, Texas; Turner Construction of New York, Kiewit Building Group of Omaha, and Jacobsen Construction of Salt Lake City; Skanska USA Building of Parsipanny, N.J., and Oakland Construction of Salt Lake City; Balfour Beatty Construction of Dallas, DPR Construction of Redwood City, Calif., and Big-D
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