CORE Construction

Core competencies CORE Construction is the construction manager at risk for two new residence halls currently being built for the University of Arizona. April Terreri takes notes. Planning construction for educational facilities nowadays is a more inclusive process than ever before. As environmental impact and sustainability issues become interwoven into American daily life, building designers and architects are listening to the demands of todayÔÇÖs college students by designing and constructing buildings with sustainable features. Many institutions are building to LEED Silver standards at a minimum. ÔÇ£Educational institutions are trying to draw the best students to their colleges, and these students are often those who are interested in protecting the environment,ÔÇØ explains Seth Beer, manager of pre-construction services for CORE Construction, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. ÔÇ£A LEED-certified campus is very appealing to these students. So colleges work very hard to be socially responsible and market themselves as such through projects like these.ÔÇØ Beer notes that the three major universities in Arizona have made a commitment to pursue LEED Silver at the minimum for ongoing projects, and educational institutions throughout the country are following this model. CORE Construction is midway through completing two new residence hallsÔÇöcalled the Sixth Street Residence HallsÔÇöfor the University of Arizona in Tucson. The project is designed to receive LEED Gold certification. Construction on both halls began in May 2009, and both are scheduled for completion by June 2011. The project is valued at $116 million. The architect for the project is Denver-based Ar7 Architects. Tyndall Hall is the larger of the two halls and is a combination of five separate buildings connected to each other by walkways and patio spaces. The five buildings range in size from four to six stories. The 215,000-square-foot Tyndall Hall will provide space for 690 beds. Why the difference in height between the buildings? ÔÇ£We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings we have here in Arizona,ÔÇØ says Beer. ÔÇ£This was done by tying the living spaces together through exterior covered outdoor circulation. There are many exposed areas, and to get from building to building students have to walk outside.ÔÇØ Both halls are constructed with a combination of brick, metal paneling and stucco. ÔÇ£We used a lot of steel awnings over dorm windows facing south to protect the interior from the sun, thereby helping increase the energy efficiency of the buildings.ÔÇØ Three of the Tyndall Hall buildings will have public spaces on the first floor that will include meeting spaces, resident life faculty offices, open classroom spaces and main lobbies. ÔÇ£A few of the buildings have ground-floor residential units, but above that level everything is a combination of residential units and the associated amenities that go along with residential housing, such as study areas, kitchen facilities and shared recreational spaces,ÔÇØ explains Beer. Highland Hall is a bit smaller, with 115,000 square feet of space providing room for about 300 beds. It incorporates three separate buildings connected via exterior pathways. Two of the buildings are four stories high and the third is six stories. CORE Construction is acting as construction manager at risk, a procurement method allowing the company to be selective in the overall planning, coordination and control of the project from beginning to completion, Beer reports. The method guarantees that the project will be completed to the required quality standards on time and on budget. ÔÇ£As the buildings were being designed, we were pricing the work involved and helping Ar7 Architects understand the cost of the design. Ultimately, that allows us to give the owner a guaranteed maximum cost, and then we transition into the construction phase.ÔÇØ Working on this LEED project is a natural for CORE Construction, which already has a successful track record in managing the construction of sustainable buildings. ÔÇ£One of the more interesting LEED components on this project is the solar hot water system,ÔÇØ Beer continues. It is composed of a rooftop panel system using glycol to generate heat, which is sent through heat exchangers. ÔÇ£The system looks like a photovoltaic panel network, only the panels on this system are bigger and thicker to accommodate piping running through the panels.ÔÇØ The closed-loop system transfers heat to water tanks stored in the basement of the buildings. Students get all their hot-water needs from this system, but there is also a backup system if the solar power is not adequate for the hallsÔÇÖ requirements. Another component contributing to LEED points is the projectÔÇÖs stormwater quantity-control aspect. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre retaining stormwater to assure that any rainfall that touches our site will not flow off our site to some other place,ÔÇØ Beer explains. To accomplish this, CORE Construction stores the water in underground cisterns, where the water dissipates over time. ÔÇ£The alternative to this system would have been to pipe the water to the cityÔÇÖs storm sewer system, which is not acceptable to LEED standards.ÔÇØ The company has also taken efforts to reduce the energy load required by each of the buildingsÔÇöan effort that will earn the project additional LEED points. ÔÇ£We have achieved this in the building design approach through the type of glass, the insulation, type of skins and type of roofs we chose,ÔÇØ Beer reports. ÔÇ£All these things play into the energy load. The idea behind LEED is not necessarily to replace using the gridÔÇöthat would be ideal, but itÔÇÖs not really possible. Some of the largest points LEED awards come from reducing overall energy consumption, which we have done.ÔÇØ Of course, every project comes with its unique challenges. Limited space was the obstacle on this project. ÔÇ£Both these sites are very tight areas with little space for any staging of materials, so there was a lot of forethought and planning involved,ÔÇØ notes Jim Jacobs, president of CORE Construction. The company found a laydown yard about a mile from the sites that it rented; materials were staged here so they could be delivered on a just-in-time basis. Overall, the project has been a positive experience, notes Jacobs. ÔÇ£We have a lot of residential housing experience working on college campuses,ÔÇØ says Jacobs. ÔÇ£We recently completed a 1,928-bed facility for Arizona State University and a 400-bed facility for Northern Arizona University. So our experience lends itself to provide great guidance, especially through the pre-construction process. We have a great team to work with on this current project that is yielding successful achievements as we trend on time and on budget for the University of Arizona.ÔÇØ