Planners at Texas Children’s Hospitals think big. Already the largest children’s hospital in the United States, the Houston-based hospital set out to further build on its vast resources with Vision 2010, a $1.5-billion expansion program.
Texas Construction presents our 2nd annual ranking of Top Green Contractors. This list is the result of an annual survey of Texas firms that makes our Top Contractors ranking, featured in every April issue. Here, we list the top 50 firms’ reported green building revenue. This year’s cumulative total in revenue for the 50 green builders is more than $5 billion. On the following pages we also feature brief profiles of firms from across the state that rank among the 50. Congratulations to all who made the list, in particular the top 15 with revenue in green alone of more
Texas 2010 Rank: No. 9Green Rank: No. 11 Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Austin has incorporated sustainable principles and environmentally responsible practices in all aspects of the company’s administration and construction operations. Photo: Hensel Phelps Dell Pediatric Research Institute. Related Links: Top Green Contractors The Beck Group Bartlett Cocke General Contractors McCarthy Construction Co. Manhattan Construction Co. Being a frequent design-builder offers the company an opportunity from project inception to contribute green ideas and suggestions and evaluate different elements’ first-cost and lifecycle cost. “The key is establishing the strategy about how you will achieve your credits at schematic design, and
Texas 2010 rank: No. 7Green rank: No. 21 Sustainability has become the way Manhattan Construction of Tulsa, Okla., conducts business on every job—whether the client pursues third-party certification or not. That may include recycling, preventing runoff from leaving the site, selecting materials and filtering air when first firing up the mechanical equipment to avoid spewing dust. Photo: Manhattan Construction Grand Prairie’s Public Safety Building and Adult Activity Center. Related Links: Top Green Contractors The Beck Group Bartlett Cocke General Contractors McCarthy Construction Co. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. “We all have to live in this world and hope our great-grandkids can
Texas 2010 rank: No. 20Green rank: No: 18 McCarthy Construction Co. joined the green movement a few years back, responding to client demand for sustainability and a greater understanding of environmental concepts by company leaders. Photo: Mccarthy Construction Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Headquarters. Related Links: Top Green Contractors The Beck Group Bartlett Cocke General Contractors Manhattan Construction Co. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. “It was dual driven, one from the market and one from a philosophical commitment to the importance of sustainable building,” says Mark Elroy, a project director with McCarthy in Dallas. “We’ve taken steps to calculate
By fall, kayakers will enjoy the new waterfalls and whitewater in the Trinity River as part of the recreation portion of the $2.5- to $3-billion city of Dallas Trinity River Corridor project that is 20 mi long and encompasses 10,000 acres. The comprehensive plan includes projects for flood control, transportation, recreation, environmental restoration and economic development. Ark Contracting Services, Kennedale, will begin this month a $3.7-million contract to build concrete “speed bumps,” about 150 ft wide and about 250 ft apart in the river that will create a 3-ft drop and wave action that should thrill kayakers, says Rebecca Rasor,
The Fort Worth area has grown a lot since the historic 1949 Trinity River flood, which prompted creation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth District and construction of the existing levee system. Urbanization has resulted in the addition of parking lots, airports and many hard surfaces that prevent absorption of water into ground soil and rivers, creating the opportunity for higher Trinity River levels and increased risk of flooding. “We have outgrown our existing levee system, and we needed a plan that will take us into the next 50 to 100 years,” says Woody Frossard, project manager
Texas 2010 rank: No. 13Green rank: 12 Bartlett Cocke General Contractors in San Antonio built green before sustainability began gaining in popularity. It completed the Lady Byrd Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin in the 1990s, paying careful attention not to disturb natural flowers and fauna. The company made a commitment to protecting the environment then, and it maintains it to this day. Photo: Bartlett Cocke Texas A&M University Veterinary Research Building. Related Links: Top Green Contractors The Beck Group McCarthy Construction Co. Manhattan Construction Co. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. “If you don’t take a sustainable approach to building, it cannot
Texas 2010 rank: No 19Green rank: No. 9 The Beck Group’s experience building green dates to the late 1990s. The company completed some of the first LEED buildings in Texas and two platinum projects—the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas and the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, says Betsy del Monte, director of sustainability at Beck of Dallas. Now, green building has become an integral part of its business model. Photo: Beck Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. Related Links: Top Green Contractors Bartlett Cocke General Contractors McCarthy Construction Co. Manhattan Construction
Texas gained nearly four million people during the past decade, making it one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and all of those folks depend on clean, potable water, spurring municipalities to build new plants and upgrade to add capacity at existing facilities. Photo BCRUA Pepper-Lawson is building the Brushy Creek Water Treatment Plant. Due to the size of the initial basin, crews poured segments of the first basin, then returned to pour the walls atop the mat. Related Links: Additional water treatment projects A nearly 150,000-person population growth in Williamson County, in suburban Austin, led three cities—Round