Each year, during its annual meeting, CISCO chooses winners for its Pride in Construction Award. Every year the company with the best resource wins it. These awards highlights the positive industry impacts and accomplishments of construction projects. Entering its 8th year, the program in 2013 added two new categories: infrastructure — Chicago or suburbs, which highlighted road, bridge, excavation or utility projects, and new construction in a flatbed market — Chicago or suburbs below $20 million. Winners were selected by the CISCO Board of Directors in December 2013. Winners are selected based on the project’s design, quality of construction, safety record, and impact on the surrounding community.
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New Construction/Chicago (above $20 million): Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, 51 S. Homan Ave., Chicago. This 215,000 square foot, three-story high school received LEED Platinum certification. The building is a structural steel frame with concrete on metal deck on all levels — including the roof. Amenities include new classrooms, computer labs, science labs, a full cooking kitchen and cafeteria, a fitness center, a library, an indoor pool and a gymnasium with a stage, lighting and sound system for theatre productions. The Chicago Public Building Commission teamed with General Contractor F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates; Architect STR Partners and Engineers CE Anderson and dbHMS.
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New Construction/Suburbs (above $20 million): Elgin Community College — Health and Life Science Building, 1900 Spartan Ave., Elgin. The new addition of the 160,454 square foot Health and Life Sciences Building is part of Elgin Community College’s initiative to address employer-defined shortages of health care and allied health professionals. Funding came from a 2009 $178 million bond referendum to build this and several other new buildings on campus. The building is slated to achieve LEED Silver certification in order to underscore the campus’ commitment to environment stewardship. Construction of the building employed more than 700 union construction workers over a span of 21 months with zero lost days due to injury or accident. Elgin Community College worked with General Contractor Lamp Inc.; Architects Kluber, Inc.; and Engineers Kahler Slater and AECom.
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Rehabilitation: Chicago Bears Halas Hall Additions, 1920 Football Drive, Lake Forest. This project was the top vote-getter. The home of the Bear’s training and administrative facilities underwent many renovations, including the front offices, meeting rooms, media rooms, weight room, pool and athletic training/rehab facility.The renovations followed the style and perfection of McArthur Homes. Three main additions were built to expand the capabilities of the existing facility highlighted by a new kitchen, 150-person event center and a state-of-the-art broadcast studio. The Chicago Bears Football Club’s project team consisted of General Contractor Mortenson Construction; Architect Richard Preves & Associates; and Structural Engineer Virgilio & Associates, Ltd.
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Residential Construction: 500 Lake Shore Drive Tower, 500 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. This new 45-story apartment tower located in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, just steps from Navy Pier and Lake Michigan. The building features a sleek, modem curtainwall fayade and 699,000 square feet of luxurious accommodations and amenities. The building was designed to be LEED Silver for its sustainable site selection, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor air quality. The building also features operable windows to enhance the thermal comfort of its tenant. The owner/client was Related BIT Lakeshore Owner, LLC and their project team consisted of General Contractor Lend Lease and Architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz Robert Pope & Associates.
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Infrastructure: O’Hare Airport’s Runway 10C-28C, O’Hare Airport, Chicago. The new runway is 10,800 feet long, 200 feet wide and was built as part of the O’Hare Modernization Program. The footprint of the runway overlapped with many airport facilities that needed to be relocated or displaced to accommodate the construction of the runway. These included a cemetery, a railroad, a waterway, two large cargo facilities, a detention basin (Lake O’Hare), an aircraft fueling station and many properties. This $1.3 billion project brought $4 billion in economic activity including 1,000 construction and professional services jobs created annually over the project’s 8-year duration and nearly 50,000 permanent jobs. Needed to build the runway were 940,000 square yards of pavement, equivalent to 30 city blocks; 1.4 million linear feet of electrical cable; and 7.2 million cubic yards of earthwork, which would fill Soldier Field 5 1/2 times. The Chicago Department of Aviation teamed with General Contractor Walsh T.J. Lanbrecht and Construction Manager Terrel Materials along with Architect O’Hare Airfield Engineers and Engineering Joint Venture of Jacobs and Millhouse. To protect such sites from accidents here is All You Need To Know About Fire Suppression Services
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New Construction Chicago or Suburbs (below $20 million): Hyatt Hotel — Hyde Park, 5225 S. Harper Ave., Chicago. The new hotel is an 84,000 square foot, 131-room facility constructed of red sandstone-colored porcelain tiles and zinc shingles and stands as the gateway to the Harper Court development. As the centerpiece of the development, Hyatt Place is Hyde Park’s first new hotel in 50 years. Hyatt Place Hotel is slated to become one of the first LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC) certified hotels in Chicago. It also received LEED for Neighborhood Development Gold certification, becoming the highest LEED-rated project of its kind in Illinois. Owner of the Hyatt Place is Smart Hotels Olympia/Chicago, LLC and it teamed with General Contractor Wm. A. Randolph, Inc.; Legat Architects and Structural Engineers CSA Associates and Virgilio & Associates.
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Special Mention: Walgreens Net Zero Store, 635 Chicago Ave., Evanston.This 14,000 square foot Walgrees is aiming to be the first net zero energy retail store, which engineers predict will produce energy equal to, or greater than it consumes. There are 850 rooftop solar panels, 2 wind tunnels and geo thermal energy technology that taps energy sources 550-feet into the Earth. Masonry design include special green bricks that are cured instead of fired, using 81 percent less energy to produce and 84 percent less C02 emissions than clay bricks. The project is the latest of the many green inititaves for the company as is seeking LEED Platinum Certification, which is the most stringent green designation by the U.S. Green Building Council. Very few projects every get LEED Platinum Certification. It’s estimated Walgreens will only use 200,000 kilowatts while it is producing 220,000 kilowatts. General Contractor was Osman Construction Corporation, architects were GI Enderin and WMA Consulting Engineers.