Pat Barcas photo
College of DuPage’s Homeland Security Education Center has won the accolade of CISCO’s Project of the Year in the category of New Construction/Suburbs. Firefighters train indoors at the first facility of its kind in the midwest, designed to prepare first responders for disasters.
By Pat Barcas
Staff Writer
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012
Those traveling into Chicago on the Eisenhower expressway have no doubt witnessed the stunning new construction of Rush University Medical Center’s new Tower, located at 1653 West Congress Parkway.
The dominant structure is getting recognition from Oak Brook’s CISCO, which has named the center its top project in the New Construction/Chicago category of the 2012 Project of the Year winners.
“We are proud to recognize these projects, organizations and individuals for this prestigious award,” said CISCO Executive Director John Brining. “The Projects we receive each year demonstrates that the union construction industry produces the best product anywhere in the world, and this year was no exception.”
Included in Rush’s 10 year, $1 billion campus redevelopment program is an 840,000 square foot, 14-story hospital building known as the Tower. The Tower houses 304 acute and critical care beds, 72 private neonatal intensive care rooms, 10 labor, delivery and recovery rooms, 28 new operating rooms and 14 procedure rooms.
The Tower was engineered and constructed with numerous sustainable features, including recycled materials, water conservation, green roofs, passive solar lighting and heating, and operating room air quality throughout the entire building. The Tower attained LEED Gold NC certification in July 2012.
Rush University teamed with general contractor Power/Jacobs Joint Venture, architect Perkins and Will, and structural engineer Thornton Thomasetti.
The winner in the category of New Construction/Suburbs is the College of DuPage’s Homeland Security Education Center (HEC) in Glen Ellyn. The HEC responds to public concerns about national security and regional unemployment, and is the first facility of its kind in the midwest.
The 62,000 square foot facility is designed to prepare firefighters, police personnel, and other first responders for international and domestic terrorist acts, as well as man-made and natural disasters.
The College of DuPage worked with general contractor Power Construction, Legat Architects, Inc. and structural engineer Larson Engineering.
Among rehabilitation projects, the Illinois Tollway wins that award with the I-294/I-90 Tri-level bridge project. According to CISCO, The Tri-level bridge that connect I-294 and the Jane Addams Tollway is one of the most complicated, heavily traveled interchanges on the 286 mile tollway system in Northern Illinois.
The Tollway has constructed nearly one mile of bridge deck, built 192 precast, pre-stressed concrete beams, poured 5,000 cubic yards of concrete, spread 3,200 tons of asphalt and used 1.3 million pounds of reinforcement bars in the bridge decks.
The Tollway project team consisted of general contractor Lorig Construction, architect Alfred Benesch and Co. and Burns and McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc.
A formal presentation of all winners is scheduled at CISCO’s annual meeting Jan. 25, 2013.
Pat Barcas’ e-mail address is pat@foxvalleylabornews.com.