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Since 1972, the Associated General Contractors (AGC) has recognized the best of the best in construction around the country with the prestigious Build America awards. Out of 24 awards given this year, Clark Construction earned three AON Build America awards for: General Motors Vehicle Engineering Center (in the Building - New Construction category); Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (in the Federal & Heavy - Renovation category) and the Washington Convention Center (merit award in the Building - New Construction category.)
GM Vehicle Engineering Center
The one million square feet of new construction and the renovation of the 1.2 million-square-foot original building at General Motors’ Vehicle Engineering Center (VEC) in Warren, Mich. are expected to help slash in half the time it takes to design new vehicles. A few years ago, design - from concept to production - took five years. In the VEC, design is expected to take as few as 24 months.
The new world-class center co-locates 8,000 engineers and technicians of GM’s North America Vehicle Engineering Organization together in one flexible, high-tech environment designed to encourage interaction, innovation, productivity and efficiency.
A joint venture between Clark Construction Group, LLC of Chicago and Roncelli Inc. of Sterling Heights, Mich. served as general contractor on the project.
The project features:
- Steel framed construction with curtain wall exterior, rising from a man-made lake
- World-class, two-story main lobby and 40-foot high skylit atrium, which can be used a central employee gathering space with adjacent display and retail spaces
- Six stories of modular offices providing daylight views to all employees
- Under-floor air distribution system and communication wiring system
- 7,000 cubic yards of concrete and 232,000 pounds of reinforcing steel
- 1,200 person, two-story multi-function “cafetorium” providing food service and large group meeting space
Clark’s completion of the retrofit of Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in for Boeing created a complex to accommodate the launch of a fleet of Boeing’s new Delta IV rockets on the site of an abandoned Space Shuttle facility in central California.
The project included a new 650-ton launch table, renovation and modifications to the 325-foot mobile service tower (MST), 270-foot tall mobile assembly shelter (MAS), and the 200-foot tall fixed umbilical tower (FUT). Clark renovated three existing structural steel towers that service the Delta IV vehicle on the pad during pre-launch operations. The MST features new moveable-multi-level access platforms and a new 50-foot tall addition on the roof to house a 50-ton overhead crane. The FUT doubles in size, and features a new 180-foot tall lightening tower on top of the structure and two 90-foot long cryogenic fueling swing arms. Clark also constructed one of the first utilized fixed pad erector to be built in the United States. The erector is a bridge deck that is 165-foot in length and weighs 186-tons, a component that elevates the vehicle from its horizontal to vertical position in lieu of stacking the rocket sections in place.
Clark and Thompson Metal Fabricators of Vancouver spent ten months building a 77 x 48 x 24-foot, 650-ton hollow, cathedral shaped structure off-site and outfitted it with a pre-assembled cryogenic utility skid. This structural steel monolith supports the Delta rocket on the launch pad and provides critical blast protection while supplying delicate fuel piping and electrical controls for liftoff. Vacuum jacketed piping and quick disconnect umbilical systems on the launch table supply super-cold liquid hydrogen (-430û F) and liquid oxygen (-360û F) fuel to the rocket.
Washington Convention Center
The $634 million Washington Convention Center opened in March 2003. At 2.3 million square feet, the center is the city’s largest building, spanning six blocks. Clark/Smoot, a joint venture of Clark Construction Group, LLC of Bethesda, Md. and Smoot Construction of Falls Church, Va. served as the construction manager at risk on the facility. For four years, Clark/Smoot supervised up to 1500 construction workers a day, including Clark Foundations and Clark Concrete, subsidiaries of Clark Construction responsible for completing the gigantic underground component that houses 40% of the facility.
At the time, the excavation site was largest in the western hemisphere, where more than two million tons of earth was moved. Over 38,000 tons of steel was used to create the superstructure - enough steel for seven Eiffel Towers.
Architects from three firms - Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Devrouax & Purnell and Mariani Architects Engineers - placed 40% of the building below ground, to lessen the visual impact of the building’s massive size, and split the above ground portion into three sections to blend in with the neighborhood. The 500,000-square-foot exhibition hall is the main feature found underground.
Details were not overlooked in this large facility. Makore wood paneling lines two walls in the Grand Lobby. Over 75,000 tons of white, gray and black Canadian marble and twenty-six different carpet patterns are found throughout the center.
In addition, the Washington Convention Center raised the bar for finishes in major convention centers, fitting for its place among the monuments and museums in the nation’s capitol. A dramatic front facade on Mount Vernon Square opens into a lobby atrium featuring a 360-foot long and 60-foot high Grand Wall made of elegant Makore wood, which provides the backdrop for the space. The 450-foot wide, 100-foot high Grand Lobby is the main entrance of the facility and also contains organizational space, directing visitors to all five exhibit halls and ballroom via three monumental staircases.
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