Southwest Contractor gives a progress update on numerous metro area projects--nothing really new here, but lots of construction details.
(*Interesting to note that Rafael Vinoly is still listed as architect for the new UofA Science Center/Arizona State Museum--not a bad gig since he's already received millions for designing the Rainbow Bridge fantasy.)
Crews have excavated 130,000 cu yds of dirt at a former
landfill to make way for Tucson Origins Heritage Park.
(photo by Lloyd Construction Co.)
The University Medical Center’s new six-story patient tower
includes a new emergency department and children’s hospital.
(photo courtesy Kitchell)
Old Tucson Becoming New Again
Tucson Activity Report
While Tucson is feeling the economic pinch as much as the rest of the region, there are still a healthy number of projects, mostly related to the Rio Nuevo downtown revitalization or the University of Arizona.
By Alan M. Petrillo
Southwest Contractor
November, 2008
One of the longest anticipated projects in Tucson is beginning to show activity, although no steel has risen yet. The Tucson Origins Heritage Park, part of the Rio Nuevo project to revitalize downtown Tucson and the surrounding area, is a $55 million project that will recreate the historic Mission San Agustin Complex and Mission Garden. Located at the base of “A” Mountain, it will become a historical park with outdoor gathering spaces for events and performances.
The 34-acre project includes a three-story underground parking garage that has now been excavated. Steel and concrete work is planned to begin in March. The entire site sits on a former landfill.
“Last June we began excavating 130,000 cu yds of dirt,” says Jeff Dupuis, field project manager for construction-manager-at-risk Lloyd Construction of Tucson. “Then we had to bury 7 mi of 1-in. high-density polyethylene piping for HVAC before we backfilled the excavation.” Dupuis says he expects Lloyd will perform more landfill removal before it begins construction on the mission complex, a walled compound that will house a chapel and two-story Convento building. The rectangular former convent was originally built in 1770 but fell into ruin in the 1880’s until it was later demolished.
The project is pursuing a LEED silver certification. In addition to the complex itself, a 30-acre park will sit atop the underground garage and tie in all the public structures at the site. The overall design firm is Burns Wald-Hopkins Shambach Architects of Tucson, while the garage is designed by Overland Partners Architects of San Antonio. Excavation work is being performed by Granite Construction of Tucson.
Diamonds Are Forever
University Medical Center’s new emergency department, patient tower addition and Diamond Children’s Medical Center are part of a six-story project at the University of Arizona. The new 61-bed emergency department on the first floor will have a seven-bed trauma unit as well as a 16-bed clinical decision unit and 61 emergency beds. The second and third floors will be dedicated to two 20-bed intensive care units and two 24-bed medical/surgical units, primarily designed to serve patients coming from the emergency department. Scheduled completion is August for the first three floors.
The Diamond Children’s Medical Center will occupy floors four through six and is expected to be completed by January 2010. It will feature 36 intensive care beds, 36 medical-surgical beds, 20-room pediatric intensive care unit, 12-room hematology-oncology unit and six-room bone marrow transplant unit. The center will have its own entrance and a 24/7 pediatric emergency room. A two-spot heliport will be on top of the structure.
Bud Bedingfield, project manager for general contractor Kitchell Contractors of Phoenix, says the first year of the project entailed prep work to clear the building footprint and relocate communication systems, as well as the existing heliport. Extensive underground utility work was required to relocate three emergency generators under the existing heliport, says Kitchell project director Pat Watson. He says they also had to build a new chilled water facility in the basement of the existing hospital, set up a temporary helipad while the other was being dismantled and provide a temporary access ramp for ambulances. The project totals 218,509 sq ft. Cost of the entire project is $116 million.
When Doves Fly
Another anticipated project is the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain Hotel, with an expected construction cost of $276 million. Fred Bullington, project manager for general contractor T. L. Roof & Associates of Tucson, says the hotel is the biggest project his firm has tackled in Arizona with a total of 250 rooms - 225 in the main hotel and 25 others in nine detached wood-frame casitas. The four-story main hotel uses concrete columns with post-tension decks, adobe block, straw-flecked stucco, native stone and clay tile roofs to give it a Southwest flavor, Bullington says. The hotel features two ballrooms, outdoor venues, three restaurants and a 17,000-sq ft spa and fitness center. It also has a $60 million Jack Nicklaus-designed golf club with 27-hole golf course planned to complete in late 2008. A $220 million residential component of 91 single-family homes also is planned.
Bullington says
the hotel topped out at the end of June a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, and he expects to be substantially completed by August, even though T. L. Roof has some experienced permitting problems. “Of the nine casita buildings, three of them still aren’t permitted, and neither is the grill building next to the main pool,” he says, “and they’re redesigning the front end of the spa. Modifications to the design is one of the reasons we don’t have some permits.”
UA Report
The University of Arizona has been active this year and even won an award from the National Wildlife Federation for sustainability and education in its academics and operations. Probably the biggest project planned by the university is its Science Center, scheduled to be built on the west side of Interstate 10 and serve as an anchor for Tucson’s Rio Nuevo Cultural Plaza. “We expect to be first out of the box to build for that area,” says Peter Dourlein, associate director of facilities design and construction for the university.
“Our goal is to be completed by the end of 2011 to tie in with the completion of the modern streetcar, which will pass right by our building.” Dourlein says the $130 million budget also includes construction of a new Arizona State Museum. “It’s an interesting concept of how the two overlap for science of the past and future,” he says. “Their programs will be joined physically in the building and also educationally through collaboration. The Science Center is expected to occupy 127,000 sq ft and the Arizona State Museum 76,000 sq ft. Architect is Rafael Vinoly Architects of New York; construction manager at risk is Turner Construction of Tempe.
Another university project is the Student Recreation Center, which is due for occupancy in November 2009 and is on track to earn LEED silver. “We have a pretty large glass façade along the north exposure on Sixth Street that brings a lot of natural light into the building,” Dourlein says, “and we’re also using some translucent walls. The east and west sides have limited numbers of windows.” He adds that the 53,000-sq-ft building uses daylight-sensing controls and features recycled rubber sports floor and recycled fiber carpets. Sundt Construction of Tucson is the general contractor and the architect-engineer is M3 Engineering & Technology Corp. of Tucson. The university also is constructing an indoor practice facility that includes a new diving well and gymnastics training facility, scheduled for completion by the end of October. The main floor of the practice facility is depressed 17 ft in the ground to lower the mass of the building, which needs high ceilings for basketball, Dourlein says. “It’s a better visual effect and also helps insulate the building because part of it is blanketed by the earth,” he adds. The diving well, a separate pool only used for diving, is 30 meters long, 25 meters wide and 17 ft deep.
Recently completed was the $22 million Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences Building, renamed McClelland Park. Hensel Phelps’ Tucson office was general contractor. “The facility is conceived as an icon for the program, reflecting its multicultural identity and diversity as a welcoming place for families, businesses, community members, faculty and students,” says Mark Kranz, AIA, design principal with architect SmithGroup of Phoenix. Comprised of a mixture of aluminum, stainless steel, brick, wood, concrete and glass, the building’s interior uses are equally as multi-faceted with classrooms, lecture halls, retail-like space and even residences for faculty and staff. The exterior features a ramada screened by a steel shade structure that is illuminated at night with a colored LED lighting system.
High-Tech in Oro Valley
The Sanofi-Aventis Tucson Research Center in Oro Valley, a new 110,000-sq-ft research laboratory with space for chemistry and biology labs and regional operations corporate offices, is targeting LEED silver, says Robert Mitchell, project manager for the Phoenix office of DPR Construction Inc., the project’s general contractor. Mitchell expects to get LEED points for energy and water efficiency, use of 10% recycled materials on interior finishes, construction waste diversion and stormwater management. “The architect specified high recycled content, from countertops to flooring, as well as the steel,” Mitchell says.
The $49.1 million structure features two stories over a 21-ft-deep basement under half the building’s footprint. The public façade on the west side is clad in red sandstone imported from India that is mechanically attached with open joints. The back façade is interlocked metal panels. The project is scheduled for on-time completion in June despite delays early on caused by permitting and heavy monsoon rains. Kling Stubbins of Philadelphia is responsible for the mechanical and structural engineering, while the WLB Group of Tucson is handling the civil and landscape engineering.
Fullfillment is on Target
On Tucson’s southeast side, Target Corp. is building a 975,000-sq-ft fulfillment center for its online business. The facility will have automated conveyors, merchandise handling equipment and storage racks, as well as 50,000 sq ft of office space and a 20,000-sq-ft gift-wrapping space. Located in the Interstate Commerce Park, the site covers 133 acres, of which 100 acres are set aside for Target’s fulfillment center. The remaining acreage is reserved for future development. General contractor for the project is Archer Western Contractors of Phoenix.
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