Nearly $200 Million in Military Projects in The Works
Randolph Air Force Base, Fort Sam Houston, Naval Air Station Fort Worth and Fort Bliss have construction projects planned to help with medical and training facilities. Also, UT-Dallas plans massive campus upgrades.
University of Texas Dallas Building Future With New Facilities
The next 24 months at the University of Texas Dallas campus in Richardson will bring more than $130 million in new construction projects including new classrooms, a student residence and dining hall as well as a campus landscape project that will change the fundamental look of the UTD campus.
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“The facility upgrades are designed to elevate the campus as one of the top tech university campuses in the nation,” says Thomas Lund, senior project manager in the UT system administration office of facility planning construction. “We are trying to grow both our student population and increase faculty numbers over the next 10 years.”
With the exception of one project, all of the construction is new, Lund says.
“The only renovation is the Founders Hall renovation,” he says. The project will provide an open computer lab in the basement, and classrooms and offices on the ground floor. The renovation is expected to be completed by fall at an estimated cost of $27.8 million. The architect is Dallas-based F&S Partners with a contractor scheduled to be selected by this month.
A massive $30 million campus landscape enhancement project, designed by landscape architect Peter Walker and Partners of Berkley, Calif., is also planned. The project encompasses 802,000 gross sq ft, Lund says.
“It will reforest the front entry along University Parkway with close to 6,000 trees,” Lund said. “From there a roundabout will be built and a large mall area added with six reflecting pools, a lawn and cylindrical shaped magnolia trees all between the current and new building.”
Austin Commercial LP of Austin will be the construction manager. All funding for the project is from gifts, Lund says.
A student services building will house student services such as the bursar’s office, campus medical center, career center, financial aid services and a multicultural center. The 75,800-sq-ft, $27.5 million project is targeted for a 2010 completion with construction starting this summer.
“This project was part of a design competition,” Lund explained. “Perkins+Will along with Peter Busby [of Seattle] are the design architects. We requested drawings, models, and such. It was an interesting collection process.”
The construction manager-at-risk will be Hill and Wilkinson of Plano.
A 700,000-sq-ft arts and technology building is slated for a construction start in late summer 2010 with a completion around early 2013. The building will house space for classes including high-tech arts and graphics, computer gaming and teaching labs, Lund says.
Other projects include:
A student residence hall with a dining hall attached at an estimated $37.8 million price tag for the two separate buildings. The dining hall will seat 500 people with areas set aside for campus functions, faculty and staff functions and presidential events. The framing was complete by the end of 2008. The architect started as Fort Worth-based Carter Burgess and is now Jacobs Engineering Group. Construction manager-at-risk Austin Commercial LP of Austin.
The 74,000-sq-ft Math, Science and Engineering Teaching Learning Center, which will provide spaces for math and science teaching of primarily undergraduate students. Construction of the approximately 29.7 million center is scheduled to complete in 2010. The architect is Kell Munoz of San Antonio and the builder is Adolfson & Peterson Construction of Richardson.
–Tonie Auer
San Antonio BRAC Program Ends Fiscal Year with $148 Million in Contracts
The final contracts awarded in the 2008 fiscal year as part of the San Antonio Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, Program include $148 million for work on Randolph Air Force Base and Fort Sam Houston.
The largest contract was issued by the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment for construction of 420,000 sq ft of classrooms and laboratories that will be part of the Medical Education and Training Campus on Fort Sam Houston. The $116.9 million contract went to Environmental Chemical Corp. of Burlingame, Calif., which operates a regional office in San Antonio.
A $9.7 million contract for construction of a 36,000-sq-ft administrative center on Randolph Air Force Base was awarded to integrate the Civilian Personnel Offices from five other bases across the country. The contractor is Weston Solutions, or West Chester, Penn., with a satellite office in San Antonio. The Civilian Personnel Offices are aligned with the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph, which manages personnel programs and carries out policies affecting Air Force active-duty and civilian employees.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, awarded two contracts to build an addition to the Budge Dental Clinic on Fort Sam Houston and renovate the existing clinic. Both the $13.6 million renovation contract and $1.2 million construction contract went to the John J. Kirlin Construction Co. of Rockville, Md. The 2,000-sq-foot expansion is needed to meet the needs of additional personnel who will relocate to Fort Sam Houston due to BRAC mandates.
The Corps of Engineers also awarded a $6.4 million contract to Houston-based Texas Sterling Construction Co. to build a bridge that will serve a tri-service research lab being planned for Fort Sam Houston.
Walton Construction Awarded NAS Fort Worth and Fort Bliss Projects
The Dallas division of Walton Construction Co. LLC recently won a contract for the expansion of Hangar 1048 at Naval Air Station Fort Worth and the construction of the new Consolidated Family Care/Troop Medical Clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso.
The Hangar 1048 project includes the expansion of the existing 20,000-sq-ft-hangar to a 40,000-sq-ft-hangar by adding a pre-engineered building. The project includes the renovation of existing offices to accommodate the relocation of personnel and aircraft of the VR-46 Logistics Support Squadron of Marietta, Ga.
The project team includes VOA Architects of Chicago.
The Dallas division, in coordination with Walton Kansas City, was awarded its first health-care project in Texas, the Consolidated Family Care/Troop Medical Clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso. The $42 million plus, design-build project includes new construction of an approximately 144,000-sq-ft, two-story medical clinic. Construction is scheduled to begin in February and expected to be completed by May 2010.
The project team includes Hoefer Wysocki Architects of Kansas City, Mo.
RTKL Designs $34 Million Methodist Mansfield Medical Center Expansion
Dallas-based RTKL Associates Inc. is designing a $34 million expansion of Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, which opened in December 2006 in Mansfield. As the hospital’s original architect, RTKL will finish-out existing shell space with the addition of patient rooms and an expansion of the emergency department.
Demand for patient care has grown steadily since the hospital opened and the emergency department alone has experienced a significant increase in patients. As a result, Methodist Health System’s Board of Directors approved a two-phase expansion plan.
For the first phase of construction, RTKL will create a 36-bed medical/surgical unit on the fourth floor of the patient tower and finish out the fifth floor for future expansion. The second phase will involve an expansion of the emergency department that will increase the total number of treatment rooms to 35. In addition, eight beds will be added to the intensive care unit, doubling the department’s size.
Phase one is slated for completion in early 2009, with phase two construction ending later that year.
Beck Assists City of Irving with New Convention Center and Performance Venue
The Beck Group of Fort Worth was chosen to serve the city of Irving as its owner’s representative for the city’s new convention center and entertainment district projects. Construction of the mixed-use entertainment complex on a 40-acre development site in Las Colinas will be completed in three phases. The first phase is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2010, followed by the entertainment venue. The master plan calls for a third phase which consists of a future convention center hotel.
The $400 million development plan includes a 275,000-sq-ft conference and event center, 85,000-sq-ft retail/restaurant space, a 3,500- to 5,000-seat entertainment theater, and structured parking for more than 2,000 cars. The city expects the completed project to bring in an additional 4.5 million visitors to the city of Irving.
The new 275,000-sq-ft convention center will consist of a 50,000-sq ft exhibit hall, which features a column-free trade show area. Some 20,000 sq ft is planned for 20 conference/meeting rooms and a top-floor ballroom that includes a full service kitchen.
The mixed-use complex will offer entertainment to convention attendees and other visitors—from unique dining in the park-like setting of restaurant venues to dancing in the convention center’s 20,000-sq-ft ballroom.
Dallas’ LEED Certified Trinity River Audubon Center Opens
Built on top of a reclaimed, former landfill, the Trinity River Audubon Center opened this fall as the first major signature development for the Trinity River Corridor Project, a $2 billion city of Dallas public works project.
A flagship location for the National Audubon Society, TRAC is located eight minutes from downtown Dallas on 120 acres of the Great Trinity Forest—the largest urban bottomland hardwood forest in the United States. The center will serve as the gateway to the Great Trinity Forest, which is more than 6,000 acres in all.
In addition to bird watching and outdoor conservation programs and clubs, the Center serves as a teaching facility for 25,000 students, providing them with the option of wet laboratory as well as field-based experiences to help them learn difficult-to-grasp math and scientific concepts.
Designed by Antoine Predock of Albuquerque, the center is gold level LEED certified.
Innovative Developers Inc. Completes Grace Restaurant, Starts THR Project
Fort Worth-based Innovative Developers Inc. recently completed construction of the new Grace restaurant in downtown Fort Worth. Located on the ground floor of the Jacobs Carter Burgess building, the approximately 10,000-sq-ft restaurant features a large open dining room, several private dining rooms, a cocktail bar and a terrace.
The project’s architecture firm was Fort Worth-based FIRM817.
IDI Innovative Developers Inc. also signed a contract with Texas Health Resources to build a single-story multi-building medical complex in Burleson.
The initial phase of construction will include three buildings. The complex will include 256 parking spaces. The firm broke ground in December with a targeted completion of spring 2010. The $8-million-plus project will feature brick and stone veneer, metal-roof accents and two covered porte-cochere entry features.
Meeks+Partners Designs New Multifamily Community Near Uptown Houston
Houston-based Meeks + Partners broke ground on Broadstone Voss, an urban infill multifamily development located in a strategic corridor of the Galleria area near the Uptown District. Developed by Houston-based Alliance Communities, this four-story community features 307 rental apartments that achieve a density of 63 units per acre. The area is known for its high-rise offices and hotels, fine restaurants and retail centers such as the Galleria.
Broadstone Voss is a redevelopment of a former apartment complex built in the early 1970s on a 4.89-acre site. The urban infill features a unique modern design that reflects both the commercial and residential context of its surrounding. The architecture is composed of rectangular volumes, flat roofs, brick, stone, exposed steel and storefront glazing.
Turner Partners Architecture, Fretz Construction Finish Cathedral Centre
Turner Partners Architecture, LP and general contractor Fretz Construction, both of Houston, recently completed the Cathedral Centre project located at 1700 San Jacinto in downtown Houston.
The Centre is a part of the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral Church’s Parish development, transforming a 97,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by the Federal Reserve Bank. The four-story facility is neighbor to the Archdiocese of Galveston -Houston’s chancery and near the new co-cathedral worship space.
Construction Starts on China’s Tallest Building, Designed by Houston Architect
Construction began recently on what will be China’s tallest building — a structure designed by Houston-based architect Marshall Strabala. The 120-story Shanghai Tower will be one of the 10 tallest buildings in the world when it is completed. The 2,070-ft building in Shanghai, China, will be more than twice the size of the 1,002-ft JP Morgan Chase Tower, the tallest building in Houston.
Shanghai Tower will take the form of a soft triangle, with a skin of two walls of glass and steel. It will generate some of its energy from wind turbines. The building will have office space, residences, a hotel, retail space and restaurants.
Strabala is based in the Houston office of the Gensler architecture firm, but has resided in Shanghai for the past year overseeing the building as director of design.
Texas A&M’s McFerrin Athletic Center Nears Completion
Austin-based SpawGlass is nearing completion on the new McFerrin Athletic Center, located adjacent to the Bright Football Complex at Kyle Field, which was completed by SpawGlass five years ago.
The project was designed by O’Connell Robertson & Associates of Austin. Now in the final stages of construction, the McFerrin Athletic Center consists of the indoor football training complex and the indoor track facility.
The Rhonda & Frosty Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium opened in December. The track in the new indoor facility is created with the same surfacing that was used for the track & field events at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The McFerrin Athletic Center indoor football practice facility neighbors the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium at the south end of Kyle Field. The football practice facility houses a regulation size football field with drainable synthetic turf, painted similar to Kyle Field with one upright net in each end zone.
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