Welcome to Mountain States Construction’s annual ranking of the Mountain States’ and Plains’ regions biggest projects completed in this calendar year, plus a list of new projects that have broken or will break ground in 2010. Projects were submitted by firms from Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming using questionnaires e-mailed to them or made available at www.mountainstates.construction.com this spring. Related Links: Top 2010 Colorado & Wyoming Projects Denver Justice Center Complex Boosts Civic Center Profile Top 2010 Intermountain Projects: Key Connection Firms from any segment of the industry were eligible to submit projects,
A longtime Denver dream reaches fruition July 5 with the opening of the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse on the west side of Dale Tooley Plaza opposite the handsome new Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center, dedicated in April. Denver Justice Center Complex Boosts Civic Center Profile Related Links: Top 2010 Colorado & Plains Region Projects Both buildings are located on a two-city-block site bounded by West Colfax, 14th Street, Elati and Fox. The courthouse completes the downtown portion of the Denver Justice Center, a landmark complex linking the central business district via Tremont Street to the Golden Triangle, a neighborhood of galleries, retail, bistros
Southern Wyoming and its construction business are finally feeling the full effects of the depressed national economy. While the rest of the United States fell into recession in recent years, Wyoming remained largely insulated from the cycle, thanks to boom years of energy production. Royalty payments from natural gas extraction padded the state budget with massive surpluses that kept local economies afloat, allowing capital construction projects to flourish at the state and local levels. But the reserve is running dry, as the natural gas industries and coal-mining operations slow down. “The overall outlook is not good. We’re seeing a continuation
School and commercial multifamily housing projects are helping to buoy construction firms in Northern Colorado, now in its third year of decline. Rendering credit: The FWA Group Colorado State University�s Research Innovation Center contains a manufacturing center, lab and office space, BSL3 imaging and a vivarium. Those contractors, design firms and developers that are surviving are diversified and conservative, and they have learned a new way of doing business to stay in the black, including going out of state. “This whole economy has turned our business upside down,” says Terry Drahota, president and CEO of Drahota Construction in Fort
As in the rest of the nation, construction activity in Idaho�s capital city of Boise has struggled with declining state funds and ultra-tight credit markets. �Like everywhere else, there are not a lot of projects to build,� says Bryan Whipple, president of Interior Systems Inc. of Boise and a member of the board of directors for the Idaho Associated General Contractors. �Our approach to dealing with it is traveling to work in other locations and having to adjust our pricing structure in order to be more competitive. �There are a lot of bidders on every project, and it�s gotten to
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
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
Park City School District announced in April that its new Park City High School recently earned LEED-Silver certification from the USGBC. The $28-million, 26,000-sq-ft, two-story school is the first comprehensive high school in Utah to receive LEED certification, and is designed to incorporate legacy sections of the old Park City High School as well as elements that echo Park City�s mining history. Related Links: $1.7-Billion Data Center Project Salt Lake City-based VCBO Architecture provided planning, design, and construction administration for the facility. The school has previously won awards for excellence in education facility design. Park City High School is designed
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,
The Denver office of Enermodal Engineering Inc. has achieved LEED-Platinum certification, making it the first in the world to be platinum certified under the new LEED 2009 Building Design and Construction rating system. Related Links: West Corridor Light Rail Line To achieve the USGBC�s LEED-Platinum certification, a building must earn at least 80 points. Enermodal�s office scored 84 points, earning every credit submitted. Because the office is housed in an older building in Park Avenue Green, asbestos abatement had to be addressed before renovations could begin. An aging HVAC system was replaced with a new, high-efficiency system. Envelope upgrades, daylighting
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
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
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. Related Links: Top Overall Projects Top Commercial/Office/Mixed-Use Projects Top Cultural/Recreation Projects Top Government/Public Buildings Projects Top Healthcare Projects Top Higher Education Projects Top Hospitality Projects Top Industrial/Manufacturing Projects Top Infrastructure Projects Top K-12 Projects Top Military Projects Top Water/Wastewater/Public Works Projects Top New Projects of 2010 Projects were submitted by firms from all six states using questionnaires e-mailed to