The new $937,755 Hightower Trail Bridge over Gum Creek in Newton Co., Ga., replaces a century-old wooden structure built by local residents but deemed unfit for school buses and closed in 2006 by the Georgia Department of Transportation. That forced citizens and emergency services to make long detours. Rural Newton County undertook the replacement project as part of its special-purpose, local-option sales tax program. County employee Otis Ellington donated the land. PBS&J of Atlanta managed construction of the bridge. Contractor Cline Service Corp. of Columbus, Ga., began the project in April and completed it in August, two months ahead of schedule and at no additional cost. The structure is built to withstand a 100-year flood. A prefabricated, modular CON/SPAN bridge, with distinctive arch action, offered an economical, speedy construction method. Offsite fabrication of the prestressed concrete panels and arches ensured tight adherence to specifications and less onsite work. Installation of the arches was completed within two days. The walls give the appearance of natural rock.

Owner: Newton County, Ga.; Construction Manager: PBS&J, Atlanta, Ga.; Contractor: Cline Service Corp., Columbus, Ga.; Design Consultant: J.B. Trimble, Atlanta

Newton Co., Ga.

Photo courtesy PBS&J

The $60.8 million Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center — Greer Memorial Hospital, a 130-acre satellite campus in Greer, S.C., replaces a hospital built in the 1950s. BE&K Building Group of Charlotte, N.C., provided preconstruction and construction services for the 181,000-sq-ft facility. The owner accepted $2.1 million of the $3.1 million value-engineering changes recommended by BE&K. Prior to construction document completion, BE&K issued an early-release steel package to guarantee deliveries in time for completion of footings. The contractor also used early purchase and managed delivery of mechanical and electrical equipment to maintain the schedule. The 72-bed hospital project also included construction of an 8,900-sq-ft central energy plant and medical office building.

Owner: Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, Greenville, S.C.; Contractor: BE&K Building Group, Charlotte, N.C.; Architect: Design Strategies, Greenville, S.C.

Greer, S.C.

Photo by Architectural Image Group

A new $6.3 million community center at the 850-home, active-adult community Carolina Preserve by Del Webb at Amberly in Cary, N.C., features fitness facilities and social function rooms. A long, narrow parcel was set aside during master planning for the community center. Major streets and utilities were installed before design for the clubhouse took place. A manmade lake sits at the back of the property. The owner requested that amenities face the water. Architect Niles Bolton Associates of Atlanta designed the building. Poythress Commercial Contractors of Cary, N.C., was the contractor. The team discovered during the planning phase that an active stream ran through the bottom third of the property, which required natural setbacks. Niles Bolton mitigated the site limitations by designing the building with a slight bend to maximize its placement with the parking requirements and street setbacks. This also allowed the building to serve as a visual buffer between the urban paved front of the site and the more pastoral landscaped activity spaces in the rear. Bending the building plan also allowed for a dramatic and high-volume lobby. The commons area has a forced perspective, which focuses one’s attention on the rear pastoral setting and the lake.

Owner: Pulte Homes, Raleigh, N.C.; Architect: Niles Bolton Associates, Atlanta; Contractor: Poythress Commercial Contractors, Cary, N.C

Cary, N.C.

Photo courtesy Niles Bolton Associates

Ivey Mechanical Co. of Stone Mountain, Ga., completed a complex $7 million mechanical and plumbing project at Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.’s new 315,233-sq-ft aircraft assembly facility, adjacent to the Savannah (Ga.)/Hilton Head (S.C.) International Airport. Selected during the design phase, Ivey offered value-engineering ideas and discussed constructability issues with the design team. Ivey began working on the project in January 2006, with construction beginning before the design was complete, and wrapped up in March 2008, three months ahead of schedule. Mechanical scope included installation of eight air-handling units, two dedicated outside air units, three 550-ton chillers, three cooling towers, two boilers, three air compressors, one 3,800-gallon air receiver, 20 exhaust fans, 46 variable air-volume boxes and 14 pumps. Assembly-area air handlers were placed on the mezzanine floor after the building was closed in. The specialty contractor ran approximately 6 mi of mechanical piping, 102,000 lbs of rectangular duct and 114,000 lbs of spiral duct. Ivey installed two condensate-removal systems for the air-handing units serving the office and assembly areas to reduce the risk of water leakage on the assembly floor. Large vertical stacked pipe racks carry chilled water, hot water and compressed air along the outside walls of the assembly area to avoid interfering with overhead crane travel in the 700- by 280-ft building.

Owner: Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga.; General Contractor: BE&K Building Group, Greenville, S.C.; Mechanical Contractor: Ivey Mechanical Co., Stone Mountain, Ga.; Architect: BRPH Architects-Engineers, Melbourne, Fla.

Savannah, Ga.

Photo courtesy Ivey Mechanical Co.

With demand for student housing exceeding available beds, Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla., developed the self-contained South Village Housing complex on a 135-acre parcel of land adjacent to the main campus. At the completion of a 10-year construction program, the complex will provide more than 3,000 beds. Kraft Construction Co. of Fort Myers completed the $31 million initial phases of the project, which included installation of a 110-ft-span access bridge, site development, dining hall and food service facility and the first 400-bed freshman residence hall. The team began working on the project in March 2007 and completed it in July 2008, one month ahead of schedule. The contractor built two mock-ups of typical student suites, early on and later during construction, providing the owner, developer and design teams an opportunity to change materials.

Owner: Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Fla.; Contractor: Kraft Construction Co., Fort Myers; Architect: HADP Architecture, Fort Myers

Fort Myers, Fla.

Photo courtesy Christina Marie Photography

The new $12 million Sanibel Island recreation center provides the city with an affordable facility in which its residents can exercise, entertain children in after-school programs and hold private events. Peter R. Brown Construction of Clearwater, Fla., completed its work on the 186,000-sq-ft center in 15 months. The project includes a gymnasium, weight room, dance/fitness room, locker rooms, meeting rooms, tennis courts and aquatic area with a six-lane competition pool, plunge pool, exercise pool and shallow pool. The team did not seek LEED certification but incorporated many green features, including a hydrochlorofluorocarbon-free air-conditioning system; solar thermal systems; environmentally sensitive building materials; a monitoring system for indoor air quality; daylighting; water-conserving plumbing fixtures; and energy efficient low-e glass to filter out unwanted ultraviolet/near-infrared light while minimizing heat loss/gain. The interior uses special indoor chemical and pollutant source controls and low-volatile organic chemical primers, paints and clear wood floor sealer.

Owner: City of Sanibel, Fla.; Contractor: Peter R. Brown Construction, Clearwater, Fla.; Architect: Woodroffe Corp. Architects, Tampa, Fla.

Sanibel Island, Fla.

Photo by Anthony John Coletti Photography, St. Petersburg, Fla.

The $5.1 million Turner Field SunTrust Club adds a 6,000-sq-ft underground restaurant, lounge and three rows of premium seating behind home plate to create an exclusive club for affluent Atlanta Braves fans. New South Construction Co. of Atlanta began construction in October 2007 by saw cutting the concrete at the camera-staging area behind home plate and the surrounding seating to gain access for excavating and construction equipment. The team selected this location, in the center of the new club, to allow the skid-steer loaders to dig in opposite directions at the same time, saving time. Air-circulating fans at the doorways helped keep air quality at acceptable levels.

Owner: The Atlanta Braves, Atlanta; Contractor: New South Construction Co., Atlanta; Architect: Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow, Atlanta

Atlanta, Ga.

Photo by Victor Hayes Photography

The $41 million Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies joins other California research facilities that have located in Florida. The building houses biology, chemistry and biochemistry research labs, a 10,000-sq-ft vivarium, 120-seat auditorium, faculty club and offices. The City of Port St. Lucie hired Suffolk Construction of West Palm Beach, Fla., to design and construct the four-story, 108,000-sq-ft laboratory building in October 2006, before finalizing purchase of a site. Design began one month later, with the team simultaneously starting programming, site planning and conceptual design. Construction started in March 2007, as the city desired, and wrapped up in September 2008, five months ahead of schedule. The project team aims for LEED certification, and if received, it will become the first research building in South Florida to achieve that standard. A 1,200-ton chilled-water plant cools the building. Suffolk used building information modeling (BIM) to coordinate all mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection systems.

Owner: City of Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, San Diego, Calif.; Contractor: Suffolk Construction Co., West Palm Beach, Fla.; Architect: Perkins Will, Coral Gables, Fla.

Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Photo courtesy Suffolk Construction Co.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.’s $50 million G650 Business Jet Production Facility represents the first major addition to the company’s Savannah, Ga., manufacturing facility since 1967 and will increase production capacity by 40%. The project is part of Gulfstream’s $400 million, long-range expansion plan. BE&K Building Group of Greenville, S.C., began construction in April 2007 and delivered the project 2.5 months ahead of schedule in February. Value-engineering suggestions and efficient project management saved the owner $2.3 million. However, owner change orders added $4.8 million, 11% of the original contract value, to the job. The continuous flow of owner-initiated change orders, more than 100, led to more than 300 related subcontract change orders. The facility includes 265,950 sq ft of assembly and paint areas and another 49,283 sq ft of offices, shops, materials receiving and storage areas.

Owner: Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga.; Contractor: BE&K Building Group, Greenville, S.C.; Architect: BRPH Architects-Engineers, Melbourne, Fla.

Savannah, Ga.

Photo copyright 2008 Reel Video & Stills, Greenville, S.C.

The Breakers, an internationally renowned luxury lodging property in Palm Beach, Fla., continually upgrades to remain a top destination. Its most recent upgrade, a $15 million room renovation project, undertaken by The Weitz Co. of West Palm Beach, completely renovates 125 hotel rooms on seven floors into 115 new rooms, butler pantries and service areas. Weitz installed hurricane-rated, impact-resistant windows, new air-conditioning systems, new electrical risers and high-end finishes. Because The Breakers is a national landmark, the windows needed to obtain local landmark preservation commission approvals. Weitz completed the fast-track project in 164 days, while the hotel remained open. The contractor turned over rooms in phases, allowing use of the rooms as soon as each floor finished.

Owner: The Breakers, Palm Beach, Fla.; Contractor: The Weitz Co., West Palm Beach, Fla.; Architect: Peacock Lewis, North Palm Beach, Fla.

Town of Palm Beach, Fla.

Photo courtesy The Weitz Co.

HITT Contracting of Atlanta completed the $17 million interior build-out of Invesco World Headquarters in Atlanta, enabling the investment management firm to relocate from London. Construction began in January on the 177,000-sq-ft, seven-story project and ended in July. Scope included construction and installation of a helix staircase from the 17th to 18th floor, a shroud around a 550-gallon custom reef fish tank, 18-ft custom light fixture, computer room and auditorium with stadium-style seating. Invesco is aiming for LEED gold certification.

Owner: Invesco, Atlanta, Ga.; General Contractor: HITT Contracting, Atlanta; Architect: Gensler, Atlanta

Atlanta, Ga.

Photo courtesy HITT Contracting

The $18 million renovation of the Aycock Auditorium at the University of North Carolina Greensboro modernized the original 2,288-seat facility, which was constructed in 1927. The renovation brought the building up to current standards, with new seating, sightlines, acoustics and amenities. RodgersHardin, a collaboration between Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta and Rodgers Builders of Charlotte, N.C., began work on the project in fall 2006 and completed it earlier this year. The team participated in preconstruction budgeting and constructability discussions. Crews found a flowing stream below the basement slab, which over time had eroded soils. While workers cut a section of the existing concrete to work on the underground sanitary sewer, the section dropped about 2 ft below the slab, alerting the team to a problem with alluvial soils. RodgersHardin removed the existing concrete slab, along with 3 to 5 ft of the soil, installed an underground drainage system and backfilled with suitable soil.

Owner: University of North Carolina, Greensboro; General Contractor: RodgersHardin, a joint venture of Rodgers Builders, Charlotte, N.C., and Hardin Construction Co., Atlanta

Greensboro, N.C.

Photo by Tom Kessler, Kessler Photography

Situated on a former citrus grove with deep historical roots, the $70 million Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves, a 1.1 million-sq-ft, open-air shopping center in Winter Garden, Fla., fills a need for retail services and a commercial tax base in a rapidly growing community west of Orlando. The Sembler Co. of St. Petersburg, the developer, named the complex for the grove owned by the Fowler family since 1877. The company incorporated architectural elements that pay tribute to the site’s heritage. A historic walk through the site features plaques commemorating Winter Garden WWII veterans, city officials, artists, a Native American diplomat and the matriarch of Fowler Groves. A clock tower, a replica of the porch that was attached to the Fowler home and fountains honor the past. Through value engineering, Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta saved the owner $2 million by using brick-textured fence in lieu of bricks, changing pedestrian pavers to tumbled brick, deleting the graded aggregate base subbase in pedestrian areas, reducing parapet heights by 2 ft on several buildings, reducing window sizes and using ground-face block instead of precast panel.

Owner/Developer: The Sembler Co., St. Petersburg, Fla.; General Contractor: Hardin Construction Co., Orlando; Architects: CSJM Architects, St. Petersburg; Lyman Davidson Dooley, Tampa, and api( ), Tampa

Winter Garden, Fla.

Photo courtesy Ben Tanner/Ben Tanner Photography

The $107-million Grand Central at Kennedy, with its residential, office and retail space, was the first such project to open in the redeveloped former industrial Channelside District in Tampa. The 1.4-million-sq-ft project consists of 14- and 12-story buildings, with a combined 392 residential units. In addition, it also includes 70,000 sq ft of office condominium space and 110,000 sq ft of first-floor retail. Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta worked with the design team of Urban Studio Architects of Tampa and Scott Partnership Architecture of Orlando to offer more than $7 million in value-engineering suggestions, much of it recommended by subcontractors.

Owner: Mercury Advisors, Tampa; General Contractor: Hardin Construction Co., Tampa; Architects: Urban Studio Architects, Tampa, and Scott Partnership Architecture, Orlando

Tampa, Fla.

Photo courtesy George Cott, Chroma Inc.

Barton Malow Co. of Roswell, Ga., delivered the $34.7 million Woodland Middle School, a replacement school in East Point, Ga., on time and within budget. The two-phase project included building the 189,000-sq-ft, 1,200-student school, which completed in August 2007, and demolishing the old school adjacent to the new structure and constructing athletic fields in its place. The second phase wrapped up in July. The steep site dictated changes to the prototype design used by Fulton County Schools. Built on a significant hill, the school required construction of a massive, 83.5-ft-tall palisade wall to support a large portion of the building. The corner of the building comes within 18 ft of the reinforced, earthen, retailing wall. Once the work began, the team discovered the hill was a dome of rock, resulting in an extensive hauling operation. The team blasted and then removed 88,746 cu yds of rippable rock and 25,248 cu yds of mass rock.

Owner: Fulton County Schools, College Park, Ga.; Contractor: Barton Malow, Roswell, Ga.; Architect: Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow, Atlanta

East Point, Ga.

Photo by Robb Helfrick, Robb Helfrick Photography

The $68.2 million Wakulla Correctional Institution Annex expands capacity at the Crawfordville, Fla., prison. The three new open-bay dorms and five two-story secure housing units provide an additional 1,716 beds for male inmates. The 1.6-million-sq-ft project, which Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, Md., began in February 2006 and finished three days early in March 2008, also included front and rear support buildings, a central control tower, front sally port gatehouse and generator building. The secure housing units consist of four quads made up of small, individual concrete cells surrounding a common area, all centered around a control room and sally port. The Florida Department of Corrections designed the general population open-bay dorms with 168 beds each. Clark created a more efficient bunk layout within the same floor space, allowing the installation of 172 beds per dorm.

Owner/Architect: Florida Department of Corrections, Tallahassee; Contractor: Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, Md.

Crawfordville, Fla.

Photo courtesy Clark Construction Group

The $26.6 million expansion of the 82-year-old Walter E. Peele-Dixie Water Treatment Plant replaces a lime-softening treatment process with a 12-million-gallons-per-day membrane treatment facility at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., plant. The expansion is part of the city’s WaterWorks 2011 capital improvement program. The more modern pressurized membrane process increases the level of contaminates removed from the hard, brackish water pumped from the Biscayne Aquifer and produces a clearer, softer water. The city undertook the project to ensure continued compliance with federal water supply guidelines. The new facility is completely enclosed.

Owner: City of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Construction Manager: CH2M Hill, Fort Lauderdale; General Contractor: Poole and Kent Co., Miami; Engineer: Hazen and Sawyer, Hollywood, Fla.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Photo courtesy CH2M Hill

Billed as the largest national monument built in the United States since the Jefferson Memorial was constructed in the 1940s, the $8.4 million Millennium Gate Monument at Atlantic Station in Atlanta will house a unique collection of artwork and historical exhibits that showcase the city’s pioneering and philanthropic spirit. New South Construction Co. of Atlanta began building the monument in February 2007 and completed the five-story, concrete-frame structure one year later, in time for a July 4 opening celebration by the owner, the National Monuments Foundation of Atlanta. The monument rises more than 100 ft from its terrace-level foundations to its gabled roof.

Owner: National Monuments Foundation, Atlanta; Contractor: New South Construction Co., Atlanta; Architect: Collins Cooper Carusi Architects, Atlanta

Atlanta, Ga.

Photo by Scott Robertson Photography

The $4.7 million U.S. Route 17-92 General Hutchinson Pedestrian Bridge connects two portions of the Cross Seminole Trail separated by a busy central Florida thoroughfare. Seminole County selected Ayres Associates and American Bridge, both of Tampa, to design and construct the 1,220-ft-long, S-shaped bridge at General Hutchinson Road, linking Big Tree Park with the rest of the trail. By curving the entire approaches, the engineer was able to avoid the mature trees in the area. Because the project lies in an environmentally sensitive area, Ayres kept clearing to a minimum, and all disturbed areas were replanted with natural vegetation. The bridge’s geometry required three-dimensional computer modeling so the engineering team could understand the structural behavior and to derive the forces on the bridge members. The structure's behavior is not straightforward after trusses are twisted, and it acts more like a beam with a lot of torsion.

Owner: Seminole County, Fla.; Contractor: American Bridge, Tampa; Engineer: Ayres Associates, Tampa

Seminole County, Fla.

Photo by Wade Osborne/www.osbornephotography.com

The $140-million, 2.5-million-sq-ft, mixed-use 3344 Peachtree transforms a prime parcel in Atlanta’s Buckhead section, combining luxury living with Class A office space in a 50-story, spiraling glass tower. The building, with 500,000 sq ft of office and retail space and 82 condominiums priced from $1 million, is the first phase of a larger development on the 26-acre site. At 635 ft, it is the tallest building constructed in Atlanta in nearly 15 years.

Owner: Regent Partners, Atlanta; Contractor: Hardin Construction Co., Atlanta; Architect: Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Atlanta

Atlanta, Ga.

Photo courtesy Fred Gerlich, Gerlich Photography