ENR Southeast's November 9th issue features for its 15th year the Southeast Best Projects contest, which continues to highlight the ‘best’ of the region’s construction and design achievements.
For 15 years now, ENR Southeast’s annual Best Projects contest has been recognizing construction and design excellence performed on contracts from across the region.
At the new headquarters of Porsche Cars North America Inc., the roar of jets from nearby Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport competes with the purr of engines, as drivers try out some of the German-based auto manufacturer’s latest models on a 1.6-mile test track.
Though Charleston’s manufacturing sector has been growing for years, it’s just now “beginning to hit a major stride,” says LS3P’s Marchant, citing recently planned investments by Daimler and Volvo.
To build Gwinnett County, Ga.’s 664,000-sq-ft Discovery High School—all under one roof—contractor Carroll Daniel Construction Co. had to transform a 90-acre site that contained an old tire warehouse.
The state of North Carolina’s first major municipal design-build project, the McAlpine Creek Water Wastewater Management Facility, is Charlotte Water’s largest, with a treatment capacity of 64 million gallons per day (MGD).
When contractors demolished Alachua General Hospital in 2010, the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency, the University of Florida and the city of Gainesville worked to create a vision for the 16-acre property, which is located between the university’s main campus and downtown.
For its I-Drive NASCAR project, design firm Rabits & Romano Architecture, Planning and Design transformed a 30-year-old, 65,000-sq-ft warehouse space into an indoor kart racing facility and entertainment complex.
Winder, Ga., revitalized its main downtown thoroughfare by combining the design and resources of a streetscape enhancement effort with those of a roadway maintenance project.
In building its latest SkyHouse project in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, Batson-Cook Co. once again utilized lean construction methods to erect the 26-story luxury apartment building.
With the two-phase renovation at Harbour Town Golf Links championship golf course at Hilton Head Island, S.C., Choate Construction Co. updated the 17-year-old conference center’s exterior, demolished the existing clubhouse and constructed its replacement, all within a 10-month window.
The $42-million modernization and renovation effort of the Robert Smith Vance Federal Courthouse—originally built in 1921—aimed to remediate and solve moisture-intrusion problems in the structure’s basement.
This 11,000-sq-ft renovation transformed an outmoded basement mechanical space into a light-filled workspace for the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
In renovating an historic, nearly 90-year-old tobacco company building in downtown Durham, N.C., into a first-class research facility for the Duke University School of Medicine, LeChase Construction converted a former warehouse structure into Class A office and laboratory space for developer Longfellow Real Estate Partners and Health Care Property.
Built on the site of the former Savannah Ice Co., the One West Victory project blended historic buildings with new structures to create a $25-million mixed-use development.
The South Carolina Research Authority’s Applied Technologies Center was developed to be a hallmark office structure within the community of Nexton in Summerville, S.C.
In 2013, Herbalife began the design-build renovation of a 790,000-sq-ft existing structure in Winston-Salem, N.C., transforming it into the Herbalife Innovation and Manufacturing (HIM) facility.
In design-building Unilever’s expanded ice cream manufacturing facility adjacent to the company’s existing production facility in Covington, Tenn., contractor Primus Builders and its design arm, Primus Design Services, connected the two buildings via an elevated corridor that’s kept at a temperature of -20°F.
This $91-million, 223,000-sq-ft building not only features laboratory, office and administrative spaces, but also a basement vivarium, two underground cisterns with 24,000 gallons of capacity and tunnels designed to connect to two future buildings.
Georgia State University’s $63-million, 200,000-sq-ft law college—its first dedicated legal education facility—includes 21 classrooms, a conference center, a 230-seat ceremonial courtroom and a two-story law library and sits on a tight, 2.4-acre site in downtown Atlanta.
Auburn University’s Wilford and Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital—one of the largest teaching and referral veterinary hospitals in the U.S.—proved a challenge for construction manager Brasfield & Gorrie.
Housing the world’s first wind-wave storm-surge simulator, the Marine Technology Life Sciences Seawater Research Building features an 8,520-sq-ft Surge Structure Atmosphere Interaction research facility designed for the study of hurricane physics.
This ambitious project replaced Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport’s original 5,300-ft runway by expanding and elevating it to an 8,000-ft-long, 150-ft-wide structure that extends over the existing airport perimeter road, Florida East Coast Railway and U.S. Highway 1.
In only 25 months over the course of two school years, Robins & Morton orchestrated the $39-million, 210,000-sq-ft phased renovation and expansion of Opelika High School.
In 15 months, a Choate Construction Co.-led project team completely transformed an occupied, six-story office building in Atlanta’s Buckhead area into Atlanta Tech Village, a high-energy commercial space designed to foster collaboration for creative startup companies.
Located in the heart of the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus, the Frost Music Studios project is part of a $61.5-million master plan that will nearly double the school’s space while preserving its historically significant architectural elements.
Turner Construction provided preconstruction and construction management services through an integrated project delivery approach for the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton, which was completed in December 2014.
When Florida Hospital-Tampa embarked on a $53.7-million project to add a larger 91,000-sq-ft emergency department, the hospital hired Robins & Morton, which had recently delivered another nearby facility for the owner.
On the $4.3-million Northside Hospital Ground Floor Surgery Renovation and Addition project, Batson-Cook Construction overhauled 16,000 sq ft of existing surgery space while also expanding the waiting room by 585 sq ft.
To build the city of Orlando’s five-story Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Balfour Beatty-led project team had to overcome numerous challenges, including major public funding issues and several subcontractor defaults.
Opened in April 2015, Zoo Atlanta’s Scaly Slimy Spectacular! includes a main amphibian and reptile exhibit, event space, Georgia river pond and playground.
Contractors leading construction of the 94,000-sq-ft, three-story College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-Fil-A Fan Experience had to overcome an extremely tight site in downtown Atlanta bordered by Marietta Street, railroad tracks, the Omni Hotel and Baker Street.
Due to the size and complexity of its $900-million South Runway expansion project at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, project owner Broward County Aviation Dept. divided the massive redo into two separate, but still complex, contracts.
The $72-million Pinellas County Public Safety Facilities and Centralized Communications Center project called for the complete demolition of existing buildings on a 40-acre campus and replacement with new, storm-hardened facilities such as a sheriff’s administrative building, emergency operations and dispatch centers, a 1,248-space parking garage and an energy plant to supply emergency power and cooling.
Named for two FBI special agents killed during a 1986 shootout in Miami, the Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building in Miramar, Fla., consists of a four-building campus situated on the edge of the Everglades.