Top 2008 Projects

by Craig Barner Editor, Midwest Construction

We are making an annual presentation of the Midwest's biggest projects in our Top Projects coverage.

Top Projects features the biggest completions and starts by cost in Illinois, Indiana, eastern Missouri and Wisconsin. Cost figures are based on the best available information.

The top-20 completions are presented first followed by the top-20 starts.

Top Projects Completed 1
Dan Ryan Expressway Renovation
Cost: $975 Million

The three-year reconstruction of the aging Dan Ryan Expressway on Chicago’s South Side is the largest road rehabilitation project in the city’s history.

The famed expressway, which was originally built between 1961 and 1963, had grown increasingly unsafe. A combination of heavy traffic, deteriorating pavement and poor drainage contributed to the need for reconstruction.

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In 1963 it handled 150,000 vehicles per day. Since then average daily traffic volume has doubled to 320,000 vehicles.

From just 1998 to 2000, 8,200 accidents occurred on the Dan Ryan, resulting in 27 fatalities and 1,800 injuries.

An additional local lane in each direction is designed to allow motorists more space for merging into traffic and easing onto exit ramps and to improve the capacity of the road.

The exit- and on-ramps were redesigned to allow more graceful entrances into moving traffic and thus safer merging conditions.

The reconstruction has delivered a wider, better-drained, more easily accessed and more durable expressway than the one it replaces.

Highway Layer Cake

The pavement laid in the early 1960s construction was designed to last about 20 years—12 in. of aggregate subgrade, 10 to 12 in. of mostly reinforced concrete and 5 in. of asphalt for 27 to 29 in. of total thickness.

The new roadway is a 44-in.-thick layer-cake of paving, including 24 in. of aggregate subgrade, 6 in. of stabilized asphalt and 14 in. of reinforced concrete.

Thicker pavement is only half the recipe for roadway longevity in northern Illinois.

Reducing surface puddles and flooding diminishes freeze/thaw damage, while keeping the subgrade relatively dry reduces the risk of blowups from underneath the concrete. Old drainage pipe had been removed from the expressway and was replaced by new pipe.

The combination of better drainage and thicker, more durable pavement should give the road a lifespan of about 30 years.

A full interchange was created at 47th Street with the addition of a northbound exit and a southbound entrance.

Other elements include enhanced lighting and overhead message signs, higher barrier walls along the Chicago Transit Authority’s Dan Ryan Red Line and landscaping.

Top Projects Completed 2
McCormick Place West Building
Cost: $882 Million

The existing 2.2 million sq ft of exhibit space and 360,000 sq ft of meeting-room space of the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago make it the largest in the nation, but its two biggest competitors in the trade-show business have been catching up.

Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas have expanded their exhibit space to 2.1 million and 2 million sq ft, respectively.

In spring 2004, Chicago’s Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority began constructing its fourth building on the McCormick Place campus. The 2.3-million-sq-ft McCormick Place West offers 470,000 sq ft of exhibit space, giving the campus a total of 2.6 million sq ft of exhibit space.

The five-level West also has 250,000 sq ft of meeting room space, including a 100,000-sq-ft ballroom, which gives McCormick Place a total of more than 600,000 sq ft of meeting space.

In addition to staying competitive, McCormick Place expanded because it was at or above the industry standard of 75% occupancy level from 1994 through 2000, and it turned down shows for lack of space.

The Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission estimates that the expansion will increase local and state tax revenue by $80 million and Chicago employment by 21,000 jobs.

The expansion will allow for more small- to mid-sized trade events. About 95% of shows in Chicago require up to 500,000 sq. ft. of space.

The West Building, with so much meeting space, is ideal for the growing number of events such as medical conferences and educational meetings.

Financing for the project was secured through a 2002 bond sale.

The Design-Build Decision

McCormick Place’s first expansion, the North Hall, resulted in substantial cost overruns and delays, and the MPEA almost lost some booked shows.

For the next expansion—the South Hall—the MPEA chose the design-build method, and it was delivered on budget.

In an effort to repeat this success, the MPEA opted for design-build again for the West project.

A consortium of 10 firms – known as Mc4West LLC – was selected in early 2003 to complete the design-build project.

The West Building is so massive that Soldier Field could fit within the ballroom. The building’s size is also equivalent to the Sears Tower laid on its side.

Top Projects Completed 3
Weston Power Plant Unit 4
Cost: $773 Million

The increasing demand for electricity drove the Weston Power Plant Unit 4 project in the towns of Konenwetter and Rothschild in northern Wisconsin.

Ten structures were built, including the boiler and turbine buildings, water treatment facility, lime-preparation building and 500-ft.-tall chimney.

The 530-MW, coal-fired power plant is the largest project Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. has ever undertaken.

About 11,000 tons of structural steel went into the project. Price volatility in the steel market in 2005, when the steel was being erected, had an impact on the overall project cost. Indeed, steel prices varied anywhere from 25 to 40 percent, according to WPSC.

A means of mitigating possible price fluctuations was to get a declaratory ruling that allowed WPSC to commit certain dollars to facilitate meeting the project’s end date even before the project had received written approval.

The ruling allowed WPSC to order components such as piping and piping spools ahead of time and at favorable prices so that they would be onsite in time to be set with the structural steel.

In addition to the tremendous amount of steel, 60,000 cu yds of concrete were needed—an amount that would cover a football field with a 28-ft.-thick slab.

Site Settlement

Placing the tremendous weight of the steel and concrete structure, as well as the power-generating equipment it will house, was not an easy task.

To reduce the possibility of settlement, crews overexcavated by 10 ft. and backfilled with an engineered fill. Fly ash-stabilized soil was used.

Using fly ash from WPSC’s own plants, a byproduct of coal burning, is part of the company’s commitment to the environment.

The plant itself will burn clean coal, mined in the Powder River Basin on the Montana-Wyoming border. The region contains one of the largest coal deposits in the world and is the largest source of coal in the United States.

Systems will be installed to ensure air quality, including a selective catalytic reduction unit, dual-train dry scrubber and baghouse.

In addition, the plant will be equipped with a system to control mercury in the flue gas output, the first of its kind in the state.

Top Projects Completed 4
Interstate 355 South Extension
Cost: $730 Million

The Interstate 355 South Extension is 12.5 mi of new highway connecting interstates 55 and 80 in Will County, Ill., southwest of Chicago.

Expanding Will County

Will is one of the fastest-growing counties in Illinois, and the extension will provide a regional connection that improves north-south mobility between I-55 and I-80. The extension is expected to reduce travel times 20% and provide a direct route between residences in Will and areas where jobs are plentiful.

The roadway follows an alignment recorded in the 1960s. Local municipalities have protected the alignment restricting development and limiting usage to primarily agricultural. The thoroughfare crosses the Des Plaines River, multiple railroad crossings, two canals and several creeks.

Construction of a new interchange at I-55 and I-355 was included. More than 100,000 vehicles travel through the interchange on a daily basis, so fly-over ramps were built to help facilitate operation of the interchange.

Temporary runarounds were constructed on most local streets crossed by the new highway during construction of the new cross-road bridges to mitigate the impact on local traffic.

Construction of the I-355 South Extension was begun in 1996, but a challenge in court to the environmental impact statement halted work. The court injunction was ultimately lifted, but funding was no longer available until the project was included in the $2.3 billion Congestion Relief Program implemented by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

The design plans were more than 10 years old and required revision. They needed to be updated to reflect policy changes. The geometry was evaluated to accommodate increases in traffic volumes and changing land-use, and temporary construction easements had lapsed, requiring the Tollway needed to renegotiate easements with all the adjacent property owners.

The Des Plaines Valley Bridge was constructed as part of the project. It is a 6,600-ft-long overpass to carry six lanes of the extension over the Des Plaines River Valley through Lemont. The 1.3-mi-long bridge spans the Illinois & Michigan Canal, the Ship & Sanitary Canal and the Canadian National Railroad.

Top Projects Completed 5
Lucas Oil Stadium
Cost: $715 Million

Just south of the soon-to-be-demolished RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium has become an imposing part of the skyline.

The seven-level stadium will feature a retractable roof and seat 63,000 for football. The project’s lead architect, Dallas-based HKS Inc., designed it with basketball in mind as well because as headquarters of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis hosts NCAA Final Four basketball events every few years.

Lucas covers 1.8 million sq ft and includes 142 corporate suites. Its football seating will be about 5,000 greater than the seating at the RCA Dome, and it will beat its predecessor in numerous other measures, including the distance between rows, seat width and the fact that all seats are theater-style—no bleachers.

The stadium has twice the number of public toilet fixtures as the RCA, concourses twice as wide, nearly double the number of concession stands, twice as many elevators, plus two pedestrian ramps and 14 escalators. (RCA has neither). Lucas will include 183,000 sq ft of exhibit space and additional meeting spaces.

RCA was completed in 1983 but is considered small and without the amenities that fans desire. It has the smallest seating capacity in the National Football League (57,693) and ranks low in the number of corporate suites. They are major revenue generators for NFL teams, and the Colts’ ownership made it clear that the team might consider moving if the revenue picture did not improve.

Before excavation began in September 2005, the 38-acre site was primarily a parking lot, the site of pregame tailgating for the RCA Dome.

The biggest issue posed by the site was a combined sewer line carrying away most of the downtown area’s sewage and stormwater. Fortunately, because of the way the stadium is oriented on the site, the sewer affected only one corner, and the decision was made to build around it.

A Gridiron on Grass

Among the benefits football fans will gain when the Indianapolis Colts move into Lucas Oil Stadium is the option to let in fresh air when the weather is nice. The stadium’s design achieves this in some groundbreaking ways.

Most prominent is the retractable roof. Though a movable roof is not a new idea, the way it is achieved here is different.

Panels slide down the sloped, steel roofing structure, coming to a stop over the east and west stands and bathing the field in natural light. Closing the top means pulling the panels back up the incline.

Top Projects Complete 6
Port Washington Generating Station
Cost: $650 Million

Since 1932 the Port Washington Generating Station 35 mi north of Milwaukee received about 18,000 tons of coal each month of the shipping season. On June 19, 2004, the plant—whose stacks served as beacons for mariners on Lake Michigan for more than 70 years—took its last delivery.

Advances in power generation rendered the plant with its five coal-based generating units obsolete. They have been replaced by two 545-MW, natural-gas-fueled generating units on the same site.

The units consist of two combustion turbine generators, two heat-recovery steam generators and a steam turbine generator.

As part of the project, the coal units were knocked down, including one unit dating to 1935. The demolition process was more a matter of deconstruction, rather than traditional demolition.

The first step was removal of any salvageable equipment, followed by the removal of oil and other substances used in operations.

With the old plant out of the way, early construction work on the natural gas units is beginning.

Logistics of Power

The constrained Port Washington site affected the project logistics: The town is to the north and west, Lake Michigan is to the east and a bluff and overflow channel to the south.

The crew looked toward the water to solve the problem. Vessels on the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan were used to deliver materials and components, including stacks, ductwork and boilers. Some materials were off-loaded in Milwaukee and taken via barge to the plant where a crane on the existing coal dock was used for unloading.

Each of the two boilers, which were manufactured in Indonesia, was shipped modularly, with the biggest part weighing 250 tons.

Other site issues included a pit for a water pump is needed to provide cooling relief for the steam turbine. The 40-ft.-deep hole was below the lake level just yards away. A concrete-lined cofferdam was constructed to provide a watertight enclosure.

Keeping the concrete from freezing in the frigid Upper Midwest temperatures was a struggle. Temporary encloses and propane heaters have been brought in to keep the ground warm.

Top Projects Completed 7
Lumiere Place Casino Resort
Cost: $507 Million

The Lumiere Place Casino Resort in St. Louis includes a five-star-quality hotel tower, multiple restaurants, parking and the gaming facility itself.

In addition to the new hotel, an existing Embassy Suites hotel was renovated as part of the project, to be called The Suites at Lumière Place. The renovated hotel is connected to the casino via sky-bridge.

The project also had a pedestrian tunnel under Interstate 70 offering access to visitors at the America’s Center convention complex and Edward Jones Dome.

The site is just north of the historic Laclede’s Landing riverfront area, known for cobblestone streets and rehabbed structures. That is playing a role in the building’s appearance.

The building’s south facade is traditional with brick and stone. But the north facade is contemporary with simple lines and green glass.

The 20-story hotel, which will offer 200 rooms, will light up the downtown skyline with an LED-backlit arc that will swoop up the side of the tower, curve 40 or 50 ft above the top floor and run back down the other side.

Drill-pier foundations support the project, which includes a valet parking area and the casino basin below grade. On the street level will be porte cochere canopies at the entrances to the casino and hotel. Five levels of parking rise from the street, along with some hotel office and support space.

Water, Water Everywhere

The team had water to deal with—but the Mississippi River was not the concern.

The water that comes into play fills a manmade basin in which the casino portion of the project floats.

As in many states, Missouri casinos are legal only if they float and float on river water no more than 1,000 ft from an actual river. That makes for some unusual architectural and construction issues, at least for those trying to build a casino that doesn’t resemble a riverboat.

Gamblers walking into the casino portion of the Lumiere Place project won’t even be aware that they’re boarding a boat.

The designers are well aware that under normal circumstances an empty barge will float higher on the water than a barge loaded with hundreds of fortune seekers.

They had to create a vessel that floats at the same level no matter how many or how few people are onboard, even if a crowd rushes to one side of the boat to watch a lucky slot player collect a jackpot.

Top Projects Completed 8
Arrowhead-Weston Transmission Line
Cost: $439 Million

The Arrowhead-Weston Transmission Line is intended to ensure reliable power delivery.

Prior to the project, Wisconsin had only four transmission lines coming into the state from outside. What a contrast to other states next door, such as Illinois and Minnesota, which have dozens.

The 220-mi project runs between Duluth, Minn., and Wausau, Wis. About half the 345-kilovolt line went through existing transmission corridors. The line carries about 600 to 800 MW—enough to power 250,000 homes.

1,500 Line-Towers Raised

The construction cycle began with surveying and soil testing and move into negotiating easements when needed. Construction followed a typical pattern for the approximately 1,500 steel towers raised.

Concrete was poured for the foundations, while steel was received in a staging area for partial assembly. The steel was moved to the line site and erected by crane into towers 125 to 135 ft tall, and about 25,000 tons of steel were used as part of the project.

The wire was strung, sometimes in double circuits. In all 1,700 mi of wire were used in the project.

Between 20 and 30 vehicle visits were necessary for each tower—or 24,000 to 36,000 trips.

Biosecurity was maintained, especially in agricultural areas. Boots and tires are selected to ensure pathogens were not transmitted among farms.

Top Projects Completed 9
Reid Hospital & Health Care Services
Cost: $274 Million

Reid Hospital & Heath Care Services in Richmond, Ind., started from scratch when it constructed a replacement complex on a greenfield site about 2 mi. north of its existing hospital.

The project near the Ohio border serves multiple purposes, including making room for the latest technology and trends in health-care delivery and allowing the hospital to enter into new partnerships with its physicians.

Work at the site began in summer 2004 on a heavily vegetated site. Soil surveys revealed the need for lime modification for stabilization.

Looking at Other Hospitals

Officials visited numerous other buildings as they pondered the new facility’s design and even took a bus tour to the southern Indiana community of Columbus, well-known for its large collection of buildings designed by leading architects.

They settled on a style termed “soft contemporary,” marked by richly colored red brick, precast accents, curves, curtain wall and cantilevered canopies.

The new complex comprises four buildings: a six-story, 544,000-sq-ft, 233-bed patient tower; two-story, 136,000-sq-ft, outpatient-care center; and three-story, 66,450-sq-ft medical office building; and 4,200-sq-ft maintenance building.

The three main buildings are connected along the front by a “main street,” as well as a connector in the rear, which allows physicians and employees to move easily from building to building.

Though the hospital does not have any more beds than the facility it is replacing, the new facilities have improvements like private rooms only.

The master plan called for offering outpatient services, such as surgery, radiology and cardiology, which must be available to inpatients without sending them to the outpatient-care center. As a result, the surgery area of the inpatient tower backs up to the outpatient surgery center.

Reid officials’ desire for involvement led to the extensive use of mock-up rooms, which were built in a courtyard near the existing hospital’s cafeteria to allow as much participation as possible.

Further mockup work was done onsite as well. For each of the common room types, contractors finished one room early, allowed an opportunity for alterations and then worked on all rooms of that type using the final design.

Top Projects Complete 10
Kennedy-King College
Cost: $254 Million

A new anchor at 63rd Street and Halsted Avenue in Englewood on Chicago’s South Side finds students strolling across a landscaped quadrangle between classes at the entirely new Kennedy-King College.

Providing a great education was just one of the design goals of the project. The other was to bring safety and stability to the streets of Englewood, which have historically been lined with abandoned storefronts and corner liquor stores.

The existing Kennedy-King building was demolished. It had fallen into disrepair and the cost to renovate it would have been too high.

Colleges in the City Colleges of Chicago system are normally one large building, but it was thought a campus with a number of buildings would bring a collegiate image to the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side.

At the 40-acre site, classrooms are included in each of the six buildings, which range from 18,000 to 140,000 sq ft. Altogether, Kennedy-King will comprise 500,000 sq ft.

A way to get more college students walking around at 63rd and Halsted was to create the entrance and exit to the Chicago Transit Authority at street level, rather than connecting the platform directly to the campus.

Clock Tower, Quad & Red Brick

The campus features all the signs of higher education—a clock tower in the quad and red brick with glass curtain wall buildings flooded with natural light that include several two- and three-story expanses.

As hoped for, commercial and residential developers are taking note of this newcomer at Englewood’s arterial crossroads.

New developments near the campus include a library, senior citizen center, police station, fire station, Korean retail shop, Walgreens, Aldi’s, McDonald’s, Chicago Department of Housing residences, as well as residential building from private developers.

A major project goal was hiring minorities and local residents to build the campus. About 42% were African-American and 15% were Hispanic.

Top Projects Completed 11
Indianapolis Public Schools Upgrade (Phase 1)
Cost: $250 Million

The first phase of a massive capital-improvement project in the Indianapolis Public Schools system has resulted in new schools, infrastructure upgrades and renovations.

Five traditional high schools were renovated to include such enhancements as infrastructure upgrades, accessibility for those with disabilities, air conditioning and telecommunications systems.

At the elementary level, six new schools were built. Two of them, Wendell Phillips and James Russell Lowell, were closed 20-some years ago when desegregation reigned. They were sold and reacquired by the district, although by then the buildings had fallen into disrepair.

Finally, 28 advanced science labs were created in 23 middle and high schools to help prepare students for new state testing standards.

Financing for the phase one was obtained through a bond issue supported by property taxes.

Not disrupting students took some logistical science. Most of the elementary schools stood on two- or three-acre sites in developed neighborhoods with barely enough room for the building, a small parking lot and maybe a playground.

The solution depended on the site. In some cases, the construction teams did remote staging or brought in materials only as needed. In others, they leased nearby land or bartered services in exchange for parking.

Out-of-Date Facilities

The venture is the fruit of community and internal meetings that started in the late 1990s at IPS, which has an enrollment of slightly more than 40,000 students in kindergarten through high school. Input was sought from parents, business groups, teachers and others on a strategic plan for the schools, and improvements to educational quality were identified as the No. 1 goal.

Several findings emerged, including the portrait of a district with out-of-date facilities. A number of the district’s elementary schools are greater than 75 years old, and some are even approaching a century of use.

New facilities are also needed because of a slight increase in enrollment expected during an ongoing phase-out of a desegregation order. Students who had been bused for more than 20 years from city communities to surrounding districts are returning to the IPS system.

With a budget of $200 million, the second phase has begun. Six middle schools will see renovation and infrastructure improvements, three elementary schools will be renovated and selected elements of Arsenal Technical High School will undergo renovation. The classroom buildings were renovated during the first phase.

Top Projects Completed 12
Interstate 70 Reconstruction
Cost: $175 Million

Interstate 70 in Indianapolis was built in 1971, and though it has emerged as the busiest stretch of interstate in Indiana, it has never been replaced.

The project has resulted in 16-in.-thick concrete on the roadway. That includes new decking on 28 bridges over city streets and railroads. It also involves bringing the highway up to today’s standards, including wider shoulders and higher bridge clearance. The thoroughfare carries as many as 180,000 vehicles daily.

A Hoosier ‘Mountain’

The new road will be much like the old—same right-of-way, same number of traffic lanes, same interchanges.

But when it became clear that it would not be feasible to divert rail traffic while lengthening a railroad bridge that ran over the highway, designers chose an option that has come to be known as “Mount Sherman,” the part of the project that was the most dramatically different and turned the most heads during construction.

Raising “Mount Sherman” involved building the roadway up about 60 ft and over the existing railroad bridge as well as a nearby bridge that carries Sherman Drive over the old highway. Some 300,000 cu yds of dirt will have been trucked in to create the “mountain.”

Crews built a temporary retaining wall to hold the hill in place, right next to five lanes of maintained interstate traffic speeding past at the bottom.

Though the highway project is not adding travel lanes, it is widening the right-of-way by increasing the inside shoulder to 14 ft—from 7 ft or less. That means that the railroad bridge would have had to be lengthened to cross the wider highway right-of-way.

The other major challenge was traffic control. Though the state in 2003 took the bold step of entirely closing a downtown section of the highway for the “Hyperfix” reconstruction project, this time the choice was made to maintain both directions of traffic on one side of the interstate during reconstruction of the other.

A total of five lanes of traffic are maintained at all times—three in one direction and two in the other. A special concrete barrier down the middle is moved twice a day, allowing three lanes of traffic coming into downtown during morning rush hour and three outbound lanes during the afternoon rush.

To enhance driver and construction worker safety, crews have shut down exit and entrance ramps along the project route. The state, meanwhile, has reduced the speed limit to 45 mph and has banned most large trucks, diverting them onto the Interstate 465 loop around the city.

Top Projects Completed 13
St. Mary’s Hospital Expansion
Cost: $174 Million

The expansion of St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., was a soup-to-nuts proposition.

Included were the construction of an 185,000-sq-ft outpatient building; a 235,000-sq-ft inpatient building; six-story, 715-stall parking structure; expansion of the facility’s utility plant and renovations to portions of the existing hospital.

Ryan Yoho, project manager for the utility plant and renovations portions of the project, the overall campus expansion project began in spring 2005. The inpatient building, the outpatient shell/enclosure, parking structure, emergency department expansion (first phase), inpatient rehab and PACU/holding facets of the project were completed in January.

Work will continue on the second phase of the emergency department expansion and other projects until the third or fourth quarter of 2009.

Working Next to a Hospital

A headache on the project was a large volume of work adjacent to a functioning hospital. The project was also complicated by, “simultaneous construction of all buildings with very limited site conditions and surrounded by residential neighbors of the hospital,” Yoho says.

Construction of foundations beneath the water table and construction of an underground tunnel that connects the new expansion with an existing building added to the complexity. An additional complication lay in performing a complete upgrade as well as an expansion of the existing utilities and emergency power systems of a hospital that is fully functional 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

The inpatient building includes 22 surgical suites, 75 private patient rooms, cardiovascular care unit and rooftop helipad for emergency department arrivals. The outpatient building includes a surgery and care center, digestive health center and office space for physicians. The two new buildings are linked by a skywalk.

The outpatient building includes shelled space slated for future build-out as operating rooms, clinic space and radiology.

Top Projects Completed 14
Altra Indiana LLC
Cost: $160 Million

The 147-acre Altra Indiana ethanol plant in the heart of the Midwest was built to seize increasing opportunities for biofuels.

The project in Cloverdale, Ind., is composed of a substantial amount of piping and processing facilities to turn corn into fuel, says Larry Roan, vice president of business development for Indianapolis-based F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc., the contractor.

Cloverdale is between Indianapolis and Terre Haute, the city on the state’s central-western border with Illinois. The location in the cornbelt is expected to benefit from rail and truck access to Midwestern and Southern fuel distribution centers.

Ethanol in Ferment

The most visible project element are eight 1-million-gallon fermentation tanks that are 60 ft tall, 30 ft diameter, adds Mike Kerr, operations manager for Wilhelm.

“Just shipping the tanks cost $80,000 for one vessel,” he adds.

The volatile nature of the stainless-steel market during construction was a key issue, Kerry says.

“Stainless steel went up 30% to 40% and then dropped,” he says. “You couldn’t buy the tanks at a fixed price.” Nevertheless, the volatility did not delay the project.

Some concrete foundations are about 4 ft thick because of the massive dimension of the tanks.

About 15 mi of stainless steel pipe went into the facility to handle the movement of water, fuel and other components. The facility has its own wastewater plant and a grain-handling system.

With “hundreds” of computer-controlled valves and control points, it was an issue to make sure the work was done correctly in part because of the wiring. The entire facility can be controlled by just a couple computers.

Six buildings were also erected as part of the project, Roan says. These are for administration and other operational activity.

The plant is projected to produce 88 million gallons of ethanol, with production already under way.

Currently, there are 153 ethanol facilities in the United States, and 59 facilities are under construction, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol.

Top Projects Completed 15
Indiana University Simon Cancer Center
Cost: $153 Million

The 405,000-sq-ft Indiana University Simon Cancer Center will hold 80 cancer beds, a 40-chair infusion area and up to 16 operating rooms.

Five levels above grade are joined by a lower level that will house the surgical department and include space for future growth.

The facility was built as an attachment to the existing IU Hospital. The new construction was required to take on the relatively short floor-to-floor heights of the existing building because the buildings are tied together on each floor.

The existing hospital, built in the 1960s, has a floor-to-floor height of just 12.5 ft. A cancer hospital is difficult to make fit because of air issues. Cancer patients often have compromised immune systems, so their rooms need positive air flow, requiring especially large ductwork.

The answer included 9-ft. ceilings and flattened beams in the concrete structure to maximize space.

A Curative Design

The design of the building is about healing. For example, it has several outdoor courtyard areas for patients and families to visit.

Interiors will include natural tones on the walls, with bright color accents from furniture and fixtures. Flooring includes bamboo, natural stone and carpeting.

The exterior is clad in curtain wall along with precast panels that include brick and limestone. It’s designed to fit well into the surrounding campus of the IU Medical Center and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Evidence-based design, a trend in hospital design, was employed as part of the project. EBD seeks to improve patients’ health through design in part because of research showing a link between recovery and the way a hospital is laid out.

The principles of EBD are scientific. For example, research shows that hospital stays are shorter and have better outcomes when medical facilities address the emotional and psychological needs of patients along with medical needs.

For instance, bright lighting and high noise levels increase stress in patients. High stress levels, in turn, slow the healing process and increase the length of hospital stays.

As a result, decreasing light and noise levels in patient rooms and giving patients some control over lighting created more of a home-like environment, which reduced stress and speeded healing.

Top Projects Completed 16
Palmer House Hilton Renovation
Cost: $150 Million

The Palmer House Hilton in Chicago is the longest continuously operating hotel in the nation, and the renovation of the 1.64-million-sq-ft marvel did not interrupt that record.

There have been three Palmer House Hotels at State and Monroe streets. The first opened in 1871, but burned down 13 days later in the Great Chicago Fire. Business magnate Potter Palmer immediately began rebuilding, and by 1873, a new seven-story hotel opened on the corner, which boasted many “firsts” for a hotel, including elevators, light bulbs and telephones.

The roaring 20s ushered in modern architecture and enough downtown business to support a larger hotel, and the Palmer Estate erected a new 25-story hotel adjacent to the 1873 structure on Monroe Street. Upon completion in 1927, guests from the old structure moved into the new one, and not a day of business was lost.

The renovation of the existing, 1,639-room hotel was done with guests onsite. A chess game ensued of doing the work in the building, installing new services and switching from old to new.

Communication was key and included letting the hotel operators know at all times what to expect so they can communicate changes to their staff and address guest concerns.

In addition to phasing the work around hotel operations, one of the first tasks was keeping the existing mechanical and electrical systems operational while renovating them.

Repositioning the Hotel

Thor Equities bought the Palmer House Hilton from Hilton Corp. in 2005. The New York-based firm redevelops mixed-use and retail in urban-core areas.

While Chicago is increasingly fending off Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., for convention business, the McCormick Convention Center’s new West Building (also a Top Project) is expected to attract more large conventions. The convention trade business accounts for approximately 40 to 50% of the hotel’s business, with leisure and other business travelers accounting for the remainder.

The exterior of the building had been well maintained but still had antiquated exterior fire escapes covering much of its most prominent State Street facade. These were removed.

New retail space will target high-end retailers to revitalize that area of State Street. A basement level was converted to guest parking, and back-of-the-house space is being converted to retail venues. Also being added are an international-quality, three-meal restaurant; contemporary club bar for late-night entertainment; 5,000-sq-ft spa; and 10,000-sq-ft fitness center.

Top Projects Completed 17
Microbial Sciences Building
Cost: $121 Million

The intricacies of the Microbial Sciences Building at the University of Wisconsin at Madison go beyond exhaust hoods.

For instance, the structure was built over a working electrical substation. The six-story structure meets post-Sept. 11 security requirements. And, an open environment was required so ideas could be exchanged and people could interact in the academic programs within—bacteriology, medical microbiology and food microbiology.

Because of these programs, the building’s facilities will include a crystal growth chamber, vivarium and research kitchen.

A seventh-story mechanicals penthouse will top the facility, and four underground parking levels will contain about 150 spaces.

The university has big hopes for the building. It is intended to keep the school competitive and attract top-drawer faculty and students capable of pulling in research grants.

Designing a Lab for Today

The building had to accommodate some conflicting demands on its design, in part because of increased security demands since Sept. 11. Moreover, most researchers come from an era of no security and students just walking into their labs.

Working with faculty members from all three departments, the design team came up with a series of neighborhoods that defined and united the three departments. Atria were designed that will provide neutral space where people can interact outside the labs.

The labs themselves are designed for flexibility and can be expanded when a project needs more space and/or staff.

He added about a dozen firms consulted on the project to handle some of the building’s specific requirements such as smoke control systems for the atria.

Thermodynamic modeling was used to show how the atria would react in the event of a fire. The computerized models showed such things as fire at different temperatures, the smoke spread the fire would create, how quickly the smoke cleared and how long it took the average person to evacuate.

The building also wrapped around two sides of the campus’ historic Hiram Smith Hall, which had an old crack in its foundation. The building was monitored closely to be sure there was no settlement to avoid collapse. Shoring was done with dirt and with soil nails.

Top Projects Completed 18
Blackstone Hotel
Cost: $118 Million

On the ninth floor of the historic Blackstone Hotel on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago is a solitary hotel suite with hardwood trim, fireplace and furniture intact.

This is the famous “smoke-filled room,” the one where numerous presidents and politicians supposedly plotted and schemed back in the heyday of the Blackstone. The room’s political cliché label was applied when Warren G. Harding was picked as the compromise Republican presidential candidate for the 1920 elections.

The suite illustrates the work that has recently been taking place on the Blackstone. It’s a job in which developers at some points are gutting the South Michigan Avenue structure and at other places gingerly chipping around its historic pieces.

The nearly century-old, 22-story Blackstone has been converted back into a world-class hotel—on a tight 18-month schedule—after sitting dormant for about eight years. Reopened as part of the Marriott Renaissance chain, it will offer 330 guest rooms, a restored ballroom and lobby, conference and boardrooms, a Michigan Avenue bar and a second-floor restaurant with views of Grant Park.

The property was purchased in 2005 by Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources, known for rehabbing historic hotels.

The restoration includes a preserved Presidential Suite on the floor above in which 12 U.S. presidents (from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter) stayed.

Exterior Work

One of the biggest jobs of the project has been restoring and shoring up the hotel’s terra cotta exterior. From the 17th floor up, there was a vast amount of terra cotta work to do.

The hotel’s mansard roof has also been rebuilt with much work to the substrate below, and new, double-hung fixed windows are being installed on the exterior.

Inside, the renovation’s focus has been on the first few floors and basement—known as the public areas—which have been meticulously restored to their original charm.

In the main lobby, the work focused on the grand fireplace, mahogany accents and plaster detailing. The Crystal Ballroom, the Art Hall, the English Room and the lower-level barbershop will also be brought back to their former state of grandeur.

There was also a good amount of cannibalizing existing materials to patch and replace. For example, in the hotel’s woody English Room—which will now serve as a boardroom—wooden pocket door panels were used to patch wooden wall paneling that had been damaged or removed over the years, he adds.

Top Projects Completed 19
Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital
Cost: $113 Million

Southwest suburban Bolingbrook has experienced rapid growth through the 1990s and early 2000s as Will and nearby Kendall counties became Chicago’s fastest-growing regions.

Because of this growth, the residents lacked adequate health-care facilities. Indeed, they had to drive more than a half-hour to the nearest major hospital.

Seeing this need for healthcare in the area, Adventist Midwest Health built a hospital on the site of one of its existing emergency medical facilities.

The hospital features 138 single-patient rooms, critical care, pre/post-partum rooms and labor and delivery rooms. A light-filled building was designed.

The project took 26 months and included the phased turnover of facilities.

Utilities, Tunnel Issue

During construction the existing emergency medical facility was to remain operational until the new facility could be completed.

A key issue was the rerouting of utilities. A road with most of the utilities beneath ran through the project site. They were rerouted and reconnected to clear the way for the footprint of the patient-care facility.

A tunnel was constructed between the new hospital facility and the existing ER facility. The tunnel would later be used to join the existing facility to the new hospital, but had to be constructed without disturbing the operating emergency area.

After ER facilities were turned over to the new hospital, utilities to the two facilities were connected while maintaining a sterile environment.

The community impact of the project was seen immediately. On the first day of operation, the hospital received 68 ambulances and a baby was born.

The facility offers advanced health care facilities, including emergency, surgery, radiology and MRI facilities. The hospital also has a chapel, two classrooms, conference room and cafeteria.

Top Projects Complete 20
600 North Fairbanks
Cost: $110 Million

The 41-story 600 North Fairbanks condominium in Chicago’s Streeterville area features 212 condominiums.

In early April, 200 units were sold in the 450,000-sq-ft tower, says Andrena Rodgers, vice president of sales and marketing of Chicago-based Schatz Development, the developer. Units ranged between $395,000 and $2.1 million, with one- to three-bedrooms available.

The facility has 215 parking spaces at the base through the 12th level, and these are screened from view by an aluminum mesh, Rodgers says. The top holds four floors of penthouses and an amenity floor with lap pool, fitness center and sun deck.

The concrete structure is framed in glass curtain wall.

Dealing with Space Constraints

A key project issue was the relatively constrained floor plate due to the relatively constricted site.

The issue attained greater because of the scuttling of or early plans that called for a parking deck to be atop the building to the north, says Louise McElligoett, operations and design coordinator for Schatz. Cars would have gone up through a would-be glass-walled condominium building to increase space for condominium units. But the plan was dropped due to its lack of feasibility.

That left the same problem of a constrained site. The issue was solved by cantilevering the condominium over the building to its north.

“So there is more square footage after the 12th floor, where the residential units start,” McElligoett adds.

Another interesting element is that the building features post-tensioning cables in the floor slabs. As a result, the floor slabs are only 8 in. thick.

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