Blog

Summer 2012 Design-build brings a vast, complicated department of defense project to fruition under budget and ahead of schedule. By Jim Whitaker, AIA, DBIA, principal, HKS, Inc., and Jeff Vandersall, AIA, LEED AP, principal, HKS, Inc. The latest office complex for the Department of Defense (DoD) is huge. Opened in September 2011 in Alexandria, Va., […]

Summer 2012 While experienced design-build teams can satisfy the objectives of military construction projects, the work is not without its challenges. By Mike Duffey, P.E. The Sept. 15, 2011, deadline mandated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission left no room for delays in project planning, design, scheduling and implementation. The U.S. Army […]

Winter 2011 How Washington State’s Department of Corrections made partnering work on a large design-build prison construction project By Jerry Winkler, AIA, NCARB Completed in 32 months, the $190 million Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, Wash., spans 564,000 square feet and houses 2,048 new beds. It is the largest non-Department of Transportation design-build project […]

Winter 2011 A new UCSF research building overcame extensive site constraints to become an award-winning example of innovation and collaboration. When Michael Saks first saw the building site for a new medical research facility to be constructed on a hillside on the Parnassus campus of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), his first […]

Fall 2011 On Time, On Budget and Built for the Next 50 Years The Pentagon is the largest low-rise office building in the world, and its renovation was the most complex in contemporary history. Completed at top speed in 1941 as the United States prepared to enter World War II, the Pentagon has remained much […]

Fall 2011 The Wayne N. Aspinall federal building and U.S. Courthouse, the nation’s first net-zero energy historic building, breaks new ground. The 92-year-old (and still fully functioning) Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colo., is slated to become the country’s first net-zero energy usage historic building. “This project is part […]