The Build New York Awards

Winners

BBL Construction Services, LLC

Bovis Lend Lease LMB Inc.

Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corporation

Lehigh Construction Group, Inc.

The Pike Company, Inc.

Winner (read this project's entry narrative here)
New Project

Albany County Judicial Center
Albany

Team Members
Construction Manager
BBL Construction Services, LLC

Owner
Albany County

Architect and Engineer
Clough Harbour Associates
Crandell Associates

Contributing Team Members
David Wall, Vice President of CM, BBL Construction Services
Mike DeLima, Senior Project Manager, BBL Construction Services
Tim Ruland, Preconstruction Services Manager, BBL Construction Services
William Jewett, General Superintendent, BBL Construction Services
Lew Howells, Superintendent, BBL Construction Services
Guy Robinson, Superintendent, BBL Construction Services
Jay Quackenbush, Project Manager, Albany County Court Facilities Office
Tom Murray, President, Colonie Masonry Corp.
Jimmy Pigliavento, Vice President, Colonie Masonry Corp.

In 1996, the County of Albany undertook a study to realign and renovate their antiquated court system. What quickly became apparent was that the existing Albany County Court Building could no longer house a majority of the court functions. There ensued a decade-long odyssey of options, revisions, feasibility studies and designs. Ultimately, the courts would expand beyond their single historical building by adding two new structures, the largest of which is the Albany County Judicial Center, home of the Criminal Courts.

In 2001, Albany County hired BBL Construction Services to act as its construction manager on this high-profile building. BBL and its team completed the project on budget in 26 months – without a single change order!

With a County legacy of over-budget projects, the Legislature demanded that the Court Facilities project be constructed without any change orders. To accomplish this task on a public works project requires an extremely accurate estimate of the construction cost. BBL’s staff had to coordinate closely with Albany County’s Court Facilities staff, and every add change had to be weighed against a deduct change. Late-occurring changes sent the team scrambling to negotiate with prime contractors to minimize cost impacts. Ultimately, several million dollars of changes were incorporated into the project with a zero net cost effect. BBL, the Court Facilities staff and the prime contractors all share the credit in this amazing cost-control exercise.

Budget constraints were not the only challenges the BBL team faced. The project site covered a complete city block in downtown Albany, surrounded by historic buildings, a church, the existing courthouse, and busy downtown streets. To keep the project on schedule and minimize impacts to the neighbors, BBL and its team consulted with them, halting work for daily mass and court schedules.

A portion of a major thoroughfare had to be closed to traffic to provide a staging area for cranes. Educating the public on the new traffic patterns required an army of flagmen for the first few days of closure – an event that brought praise from Albany’s Mayor during his weekly radio show. Crane operations had to be sequenced with court dates, as the operating courthouse across the street had a main entrance within the swing of the crane. And room adjacent to the site had to be sequestered for “sidewalk superintendents,” which often included the judges themselves.

BBL brought in specialty contractors and designers at every stage to ensure correct design and proper execution. One of those specialty contractors was Colonie Masonry. When their precast concrete panel supplier unexpectedly ceased operations, Colonie Masonry came up with the solution of changing the building banding and accents to Indiana Limestone. The limestone made a perfect façade for this historic area, and Colonie Masonry was able to use a product they excelled at.

It is rare when a public works project is completed without a single change order. When the finished product is a structure that is timeless, durable and a beacon of justice for the citizens of Albany, that is truly a remarkable accomplishment.



Winner (read this project's entry narrative here)
New Project

Flushing Meadows Corona Park Natatorium and Ice Rink
Flushing

Team Members
Construction Manager
Bovis Lend Lease LMB, Inc.

Owner
New York City Economic Development Corporation
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Architects
Handel Architects
Horn+Goldman Architects

Engineers
Geiger Engineers
Flack & Kurtz
Langan
Heller and Johnsen

Contributing Team Member
Hunt Construction Group, CM Subconsultant

The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Natatorium and Ice Rink is the largest recreation facility ever built in a New York City park. Open year-round for both competitive and recreational use, it is also home to the City’s first indoor public pool in four decades. The pool meets Federation Internationale De Natation (FINA) Olympic standards with a length of 50 meters, 10 lanes, surge tanks and overflow gutters, making it one of the largest and fastest in the Northeast United States. The ice rink was built to USA Hockey and US Figure Skating Association standards at 200 x 85 feet.

The design for the project originally commenced in 1999 and construction of foundations began in 2001. However, the project was abruptly halted soon thereafter due to cost overruns, schedule slippage and the need for New York City to concentrate on the 9/11 rebuilding effort.

In 2004, a redesigned version of the project was expedited at the request of the Mayor’s Office as part of the City’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Bovis Lend Lease, the construction manager, worked with the design architect to drastically alter the original design to meet Olympic standards.

Although the City’s bid for the Olympics ultimately failed, the Bovis team pushed to keep the project on track. Value engineering was utilized in many instances and was essential in keeping the project feasible. During preconstruction there were no fewer than five building envelope redesigns!

The organic-laden earth of what was once the Flushing Basin is not an ideal setting for a building’s foundation. During the initial building effort in 1999, over 800 piles had been driven and capped. The Bovis team reused as many of the existing piles as possible, saving thousands of dollars with each one. Only 200 new piles were required.

Then there was the roof system. To cover an Olympic-sized pool or an NHL-sized ice rink with a column-free long span roof would challenge any project team. In having both large venues under one roof, the structure had to clear span both venues, but also do so in a way that would minimize long-term maintenance by addressing the warm humid chlorine environment of the pool and the cool dry environment of the ice rink. This was achieved with a centered twin mast and cable stayed roof. While such a structure is conventionally reserved for bridges, it provided the two 240-by-120-foot clear spans over the pool and ice rink. The centered masts and lateral support structure are enclosed in a demising wall between the two venues. This wall is essentially two walls that help to separate the two spaces environmentally and also keep the structural elements out of the corrosive atmosphere of the natatorium.

The safety demands of the roof structure and of the empty concrete swimming pool presented another challenge to the Bovis team, one that they met with a combination of innovative approaches and an emphasis on safe working practices.

The facility stands as a testament to the hard work and dedication invested in the project by not only the Bovis team, but all the project’s visionaries and stakeholders. It is already being referenced as a model for similar projects throughout New York City. (Photo: David Sundberg/Esto)



Winner  
New/Renovation Project (read this project's entry narrative here)

Bathgate High School Educational Complex
Bronx

Team Members
General Contractor
Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corporation

Owner
New York City School Construction Authority

Architect
John Ciardullo Associates, P.C.

Engineer
DVL Consulting Engineers Inc.

Contributing Team Members
Richard F. DeMatteis and Scott L. DeMatteis – Principals
Steve Tartaro – Vice President of Construction
Drew Langer – Superintendent
Ben Mena – Project Manager
Craig Collins – Chief Project Officer (NYC SCA)
Kiwesa King-Yara – Project Officer (NYC SCA)
John Ciardullo, RA NCARB – President (John Ciardullo Associates, P.C.)
Jose Valencia – Vice President (DVL Consulting Engineers, Inc.)

The Bathgate area of the Bronx is a densely populated portion of the borough that desperately needed a new high school. The available sites were few and most could not be used without displacing large numbers of residents or local businesses. One site considered was an old vacated industrial park owned by the Port Authority. The New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) studied the empty facility and determined that the site could satisfy their needs.

Through competitive bidding, Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corporation and its team were successful and accepted the challenge to take this abandoned industrial building that had not been serviced for years and convert it into a vibrant structure for learning. And do it in an almost impossible time frame.

What’s more, the DeMatteis team was required to selectively demolish the existing building. The only portions of the original industrial building that remained were the reinforced concrete footings that had been placed on compacted fill. In lieu of installing new footings, the design required installation of micro piles through the existing footings. These 40-ton micro piles were used to accommodate the additional loads imposed by the introduction of a second floor to the building.

In addition to the micro piles, the work included removal of the façade, selected demolition of the existing structure, and removal and refabrication of the existing columns to accommodate the new building height. Another major challenge to the DeMatteis team occurred when excavated material to be disposed of was found to be contaminated. The material had to be stockpiled on site until an authorized dump was found, and this limited the areas the team could work in until the material was removed.

Before commencement of the work, the SCA negotiated an accelerated schedule of 14 months, making this the most aggressive fast-track SCA school project to date. Frequent, even daily, meetings with team members were essential to anticipate problems, avoid delays and keep the project on track. Due to the DeMatteis team’s extraordinary efforts, the project was completed within the original accelerated contract time and within the contract price, despite approximately 150 design or field-mandated changes.

A DeMatteis employee was assigned the task of acting as Community Liaison representative for the project. Within the first two weeks of construction he attempted to visit with all the residents and businesspeople of the community, offering to assist in any way and answer any questions about the construction process. During the course of the work he advised the residents of the different activities and what they might expect. As the work progressed, the residents became more interested in the building process and excited at the prospect of a resurgence in the neighborhood.

The new Bathgate High School is a beacon of hope that stimulated the Bathgate community. The first classes entering the school in September 2007 were very proud to be part of the beginning of an excellent opportunity for learning. (Photo: Bernstein Associates)



Winner   
New Project (read this project's entry narrative here)

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse
Buffalo

Team Members
General Contractor
Lehigh Construction Group, Inc.

Owner
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse Corporation

Architect
Anthony Putnam Architect, LLC

Engineers
Tredo Engineers
M/E Engineering, PC

Contributing Team Members
Martin Knauss, Lehigh Project Manager
Richard Potter, Lehigh Field Superintendent
HB Cornerstone Partners, LLC
Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects, LLC
West Side Rowing Club

Building a boathouse on the waterfront in Buffalo, New York is, at best, a challenging task. Constructing a future landmark and masterwork, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps America’s greatest architect, is a far greater task. Lehigh Construction Group and its team completed the project successfully despite dreadful weather conditions and a variety of other challenges.

During the post-bid process, with the project award still unresolved, Lehigh determined a way to restructure the sequence and interaction of site work and substructure construction, achieving a savings of more than a quarter million dollars. This was just the beginning of the critical role Lehigh played as chief problem solver for the project.

Lehigh also identified a faster and more flexible way of completing site work at the water’s edge than the traditional steel coffer dam method. A portable coffer dam was used that could be erected in less than a week and was easily repaired when necessary.

As the project began, Lehigh and its team quickly realized that such a simple, refined building leaves little room for error. But a major design misjudgment was recognized that required the raising of the finish elevation of the boathouse five feet. The change did not take place until early November 2006, when most of the waterfront’s exterior construction season was gone. Postponing the work until 2007 was never considered; Lehigh and its team finished the substructure by early January 2007.

The change in elevation also complicated the building’s appearance because a significant portion of the foundation was now exposed on the land side of the building. Lehigh was charged with coordinating and matching the color tones of six different concrete products employed in the construction to create the originally intended monolithic appearance of stucco.

Several of the pre-cast panels that composed the building were exceptionally large and heavy. The erection of the panels was a challenge that Lehigh and its erector met safely and efficiently. Despite the hazards of working around a body of water, and the dangers of trenching, excavation and fall hazards, Lehigh and its team experienced no lost-time injuries or incidents during the project.

To say that Mother Nature did not cooperate with the boathouse project would be an understatement. Lehigh and its team had to contend with three major storms in October and December 2006. All three storms swamped the worksite, and the third, with 70-mph winds, destroyed the Portadam fabric but did not damage the frame. Portadam divers mobilized quickly with all new fabric.

Then there were the muskrats, who had been displaced from their pre-winter home on the shore, and expressed their displeasure by chewing holes in the Portadam fabric. The task of “repairing muskrat holes” became a daily occurrence.

The Boathouse serves as another important landmark in Buffalo’s rich architectural history. As a functional, working extension of the West Side Rowing Club, the nation’s largest, the Boathouse will support their mission of creating world-class rowers and cultivating a love of the sport.



Winner
New/Renovation Project (read this project's entry narrative here)

Rehabilitation of Mann Library
Cornell University, Ithaca

Team Members
General Contractor
The Pike Company, Inc.

Owner
New York State University Construction Fund

Architect
Beyhan Karahan & Associates

Engineers
Thornton-Thomasetti Engineers
M/E Engineering

Contributing Team Members
Ted H. Orr, Executive Vice President, The Pike Company
Brian Kelly, Operations Manager, The Pike Company
Peter Baldwin, Project Manager, The Pike Company
Rich Kauder, Superintendent, The Pike Company
John Kuitems, Superintendent, The Pike Company
Doug Rapalee, Project Engineer, The Pike Company

Mann Library is the largest library on the Cornell University campus. It serves the University’s Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology. The challenge for The Pike Company and its team was to complete 132,000 square feet of renovations. The project also included the demolition of the library’s existing stacks, reconfiguration of the existing spaces and rehabilitation of the exterior façade. The renovation enhanced the original design while providing modern upgrades, such as temperature and humidity controls, 38 miles of fiber optic cable, 2500 network ports and wireless internet capability.

Significant deviations in the original construction schedule became necessary upon the discovery of several complications not revealed in the initial building survey. These included geological issues beneath the building requiring the excavation of 20 feet of clay soil, and the presence of a large amount of unsurveyed asbestos. These deviations caused several work stoppages and more than $4 million in change orders. In spite of these problems, Pike and its team delivered the project in time for the start of Cornell’s 2007 fall semester.

The renovation included the complete demolition and removal of six stories of library space to make room for an atrium in the center of the building. The area was adjacent to the existing library area, and the Pike team had to alter work schedules to minimize noise and disruptions. The demolition was performed from inside the building, using machinery no larger than jackhammers, a Bobcat loader and a micro pile drill.

The original plan to remove debris through the front door was abandoned after it became apparent that this could damage marble floors, stairs and artwork on the building’s first floor. Instead, the Pike team commissioned the design of a custom conveyor belt that lifted the material through a basement window to awaiting trucks. The construction site’s location in the center of the occupied library also necessitated the use of a crane to lower materials into the building cavity that would eventually become the atrium. The crane operation was conducted with two-way radios, between a spotter inside the building and the operator on the other side of the wall.

A further challenge to the Pike team was the preservation of historic features of the building, including decorative woodwork, engraved wooden sculptures and a marble stairwell. After demolition of the adjacent area, it was discovered that the 80-foot stairwell structure was encased in decaying masonry and resting on an unsuitable foundation. Steel bridges had to be constructed to each of the concrete floors, steel pins added to hold the masonry together, and a new steel foundation constructed on which to rest the stairwell. Despite all these safety challenges to the Pike team, there were no recordable injuries and no lost workdays on the project.

Pike employees were a major part of the project’s unique topping off ceremony, which used the crane to hoist “Cornellia,” a life-sized fiberglass cow, to the top of the library roof. The renovated Mann Library has been received by the Cornell University community with great enthusiasm and appreciation.