Turner provided preconstruction and construction management services for the Chicago Botanic Gardens Education Building, a two-story steel structure plus a basement. It houses approximately 30,000 sq. ft. of classroom, multipurpose (media) room and office space. The building features a curved brick and curtain wall façade, several hundred feet of saw tooth skylights and is expected to achieve LEED Platinum status.

Quality control was a must for successful completion of the Education. The clean lines and detailing required extreme care to ensure that the little details that make the building so architecturally successful were maintained. Because of the curved shape of the building and exposed structural steel, extensive coordination was undertaken to make sure that the exposed structural grid aligned with the exterior fenestration on walls and extensive skylight system perfectly. Window openings also had to be carefully coordinated with brick modules which had to be carefully laid out on the curve so that coursing worked out perfectly at the tops and bottoms of openings, but at each side of openings as well. Curve templates were created to ensure that the curvature of the masonry was maintained evenly at each façade.

Quality of plant material and planting methodology was critical for a successful completion of landscaping work. The Garden staff were integrated into the QA/QC process early on in the project to ensure that the high level of workmanship they expected would be integrated into this portion of the work.

The Regenstein Learning Campus houses multiple programs for learning for all ages and backgrounds under one roof. Not only does the facility provide adult education classes and preschool for those in the immediate vicinity, but also houses the Garden’s Science First program. Science First targets Chicago Public School minority or economically disadvantaged students and helps develop their interest in science. Graduates of the Science First program can apply for the College First program which, through paid internships at the Garden, further these efforts and encourage College attendance.

The Learning Campus advances the ability of the Garden to advance a key initiative, which is to further develop an appreciation amongst the public the role that plants play in a sustainable environment.

The project was completed without single recordable incident.

Berglund Construction was hired to complete a design build of a (3) story ~ 72,000 sf ambulatory care center. The construction process Berglund utilized to accomplish this project was an Integrated Construction process, in which the owner and the end users sat down for meetings with the Design team to go through wants & needs in every aspect.

During the course of construction St. Bernard, Berglund and all subcontractors utilized Lean construction to be able to track all durations, material deliveries, and quality testing. To accompany the Lean construction Berglund required that all subcontractors provide their companies quality plans which included:

1. 100% material verification
2. In wall sign off
3. Above ceiling sign off
4. All city inspections and manufacture inspections

In addition to the above mentioned items, Berlund and all MEP contractors utilized BIM to coordinate all MEP items before construction began and utilized trimble layouts.

St. Bernard Hospital completed the Ambulatory Care Center, residents of the Englewood neighborhood would have to travel outside of the community to seek basic care. St. Bernard realized that most residents were not receiving the basic health care they required and in part created a “safety – net” in the Ambulatory Care Center for residents to be able to receive the necesscarry health care they deserve with out leaving the neighborhood.

During the course of construction Berglund nor our Subcontractors recoreded a lost time accident.

Gilbane provided construction management services for the 54,500 SF Diermeier Therapeutic Youth Home (Phase I); and new 31,200 SF John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Center Program Services and Headquarters Building (Phase II) located on a seven-acre urban site.

The three-story Diermeier Therapeutic Youth Home includes 70 rooms organized into dormitories for youth that have experienced severe violence, trauma, neglect and abuse. Each dormitory features single-occupancy bedrooms, a living room, restrooms and study areas, all connected to resident staff offices. The building includes a central dining room, full-service commercial kitchen, multipurpose gymnasium and fitness room. Social worker and therapist offices are also located throughout the facility, with group rooms that focus on art, computer science, group counseling and education.

The 1,500 SF full-service institutional kitchen includes all the equipment and facilities necessary to properly receive and store food and prepare meals by UCAN’s full-time kitchen staff. Meals are served to the residents in the 1,200 SF communal dining area via a 300 SF servery, which includes coolers, warmers and plate and utensil storage. A walk-in cooler, walk-in freezer and kitchen manager’s office are also included to support the food service operations.

The new two-story Nichols Center building includes administrative, violence prevention program and training space. It also provides UCAN with space to host large numbers of staff and/or external partners in one room for events such as trainings and workshops. The space is also available for community residents and organizations.

Lean construction practices combined with Gilbane’s Quality In Construction (QIC) program enhanced construction quality and minimized waste and rework on the UCAN City Campus.

Enhanced planning and visual communication tools identified the flow of work and a reliable schedule to optimize the execution of the work.  Our QIC program ensured that the right work was being installed and satisfied or exceeded the scope requirements. This was achieved through mock-ups, first-delivery inspection, pre-installation meetings, rolling-completion inspections, quality inspections and daily huddles.

In addition, maximizing technology played a vital role in enhancing quality.  The project utilized Building Information Modeling to coordinate above ceiling MEP/FP installation to eliminate conflicts and rework in the field.  Bluebeam was utilized to manage the contract documents and posting of the documents was completed in real-time.  This enabled the trade contractors to access the drawings in the field on lap-tops or tablets and provided current design documentation.

From the very beginning, Gilbane was committed to helping reinvest the funding for the UCAN project into local businesses and labor, and we valued and understood that building this facility was a major economic opportunity for the North Lawndale neighborhood, businesses and community.

Community relations and development was a top priority for this project with a 50% city of Chicago residency requirement and 28% DBE participation (24% MBE and 4% WBE). UCAN was not satisfied with just meeting these MBE/WBE requirements, so they set the project goal at 50% DBE participation (45% MBE and 5% WBE).

• Phase 1 – Reached: 63% (MBE participation: 47%, WBE participation: 16%)

• Phase II – Reached: 42% (MBE Participation: 37%, WBE Participation: 5%)

The new campus provides a community-based benefit on an unsafe parcel of land that had been vacant for more than 40 years, as well as closing an unsafe, hazardous street. The project has also delivered shared community space that includes prospects for a community garden, recreation area and sculpture garden.

Having the building in the community that it serves is of the utmost most importance to UCAN. Building the facility here was an extraordinary community development effort to encourage reinvestment in a struggling community; and to provide clinical services, support and mentoring to young people that need to heal, grow and thrive in their community.

Gilbane’s extensive and thorough safety program addresses the many aspects of safety. It integrates management philosophy and action, quality, regulatory and monetary requirements, as well as meeting the ultimate objective of successful project completion.

In order to proactively monitor and track safety performance in the field, Gilbane’s safety manager and project team performed regular safety inspections using SafetyNet, a software-based service on a tablet which allowed the team to instantly record safety-related observations into a centralized database system. Then the team worked with the trade contractors to perform pre-task planning to identify hazards associated with their work and develop processes to mitigate those hazards.

The Gilbane team also held regular principals safety meetings where Gilbane’s project executive and senior leaders of our trade partners discussed safety practices as it related to the current construction progress. These meetings consisted of a jobsite walkthrough to review what was going well and to identify opportunities for improvement. These principal meetings sent a message to all workers onsite that leadership from all companies were committed to safety.

The UCAN project generated 302 construction jobs and safety was a top priority logging: 117,361 man hours with no lost-time accidents!

• Phase 1: 82,444 man hours
• Phase 2: 34,517 man hours

• 3-story, 49,000-sq-ft annex
• Adds approximately 350 student seats
• 15 total classrooms:
  • 10 general classrooms
  • Art classroom
  • Music room with 3 soundproof practice areas
  • Special education classroom:
    • kitchenette, washers and dryers
    • adjoining resource room
  • Driver’s education/health classroom
  • Dance studio
• Gymnasium:
  • Locker facilities
  • Equipment storage
  • Adjoining weight and fitness room
• Multipurpose black box theater:
  • Theatrical lighting grid
  • Soundproofing
  • Moveable seating
  • Storage
• Administrative office
• Student lounge/café
• Elevator
• Existing Building Renovation:
  • Minor interior renovations
  • Conversion of existing teacher’s lounge in library room into two offices
  • Conversion of existing special education room into a biology lab
  • Conversion of existing black box theatre into a typical classroom
  • Renovations to existing auditorium

Landscaping

The construction of an addition at a school requires careful attention to the link between the old and new buildings. At Payton, the new building seamlessly connects to the legacy building by linking each floor in a way that allows for easy flow from one building to the other. On the ground floor, the main gathering space off the lobby serves as the connector between the two parts of the school. On all levels of the new building, minor visual distinctions tie into the legacy’s building’s design while establishing the annex as a separate and unique space.

The tight, urban location of this public high school brought numerous construction challenges. Using the footprint on the existing lot, the annex’s proposed program narrowly fit across two floors, allowing for the upper level to be occupied by the competition-size gymnasium. By locating this volume on top of the building, it reduces the need for long structural systems to support spaces generally requiring shorter spans. In the end, the efficiency of the top-floor gym proved to be a great design opportunity, offering a volumetric shift expressed differently in exterior material color and appearance.

The PBC implemented a two-phase delivery method, grouping the foundation work into one package and the site development, renovation and vertical construction under a separate package. Since the building was occupied during the renovation work, this phasing was critical. Key components of the project logistics plan were establishing a sequence of work that was the least disruptive to school operations, and defining the areas of contractor access and work while classes were in session. The construction team kept the new annex building completely isolated from the existing school for the duration of the project to keep students safe and to minimize disruption to school activities. Delivery time restrictions were also enforced during the morning and afternoon hours of school days when students were entering and exiting the school.

As an example of this close coordination, the team worked with the school in order to provide street parking for teachers, since the mobilization and laydown space for contractors took over the existing parking lot. The team also consulted CDOT extensively on the site’s perimeter protection, which enabled construction to move forward without any traffic closure.

Construction was based on a fast-track schedule, and environmental remediation and soil capping began once the design hit 60% completion. Due to the poor stability of the soil (typical Chicago fill), the foundation of the legacy building is made up of caissons and grade beams – a time-consuming process that needed to be repeated for the new annex. Once the soil was capped, following extensive coordination with CDOT’s Office of Underground Coordination, the construction team dispatched contractors to drill caissons and install grade beams while the design team worked towards 100% completion.

The site’s restricted size and location also created some difficulties in staging construction. Fortunately, Paschen/Milhouse Joint Venture secured an area under the CTA tracks on the west side of the site to set up contractor trailers, parking and material storage. However, the close proximity of the CTA tracks posed an issue during steel erection. The project team came up with a solution which involved erecting the perimeter steel in a “U” shape; first erecting the steel around the east, south, and then west perimeters of the site, then working out from the middle of the building.

The schedule was especially aggressive given the complexity of the scope and sequencing as well as the need for timely delivery. From design to completion, there also was a high level of cooperation and collaboration between the PBC, the client, the architect of record and the construction team, all of whom worked efficiently and effectively to meet the challenge of the accelerated schedule.

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said he championed the project after principal Tim Devine told him and the mayor that many children who qualified for Payton had to be turned away for lack of space. “Trying to get him into school was more stressful than trying to get him into college,” the alderman said. “I know how parents feel about their young folks being able to go to a good school and be able to get a good education.” (Chicago Sun-Times: September 5, 2016)

The critical capital investments into Walter Payton College Preparatory High School have helped to grow the school’s capacity while ensuring students, many who are community residents, learn in a safe, modern and comfortable environment.

The annex has transformed the school by affording students an opportunity to receive an enriched educational experience through the new art, music and performance spaces while the state-of-the-art gymnasium provides access to quality physical activity.

Many of the school’s interior and exterior amenities are available for community recreational use after hours and on weekends. This new learning environment also represents an example of how great public buildings foster sustainability within the community while serving as a developmental engine for the neighborhood.

The construction of the annex opened the door to the entire business community, whether they are just starting out or already established, so that all Chicago-area companies have the opportunity to grow and succeed. The project provided contracting opportunities to businesses and created jobs for residents of the City of Chicago and those who live in the community areas where the project was built.

As responsible stewards of the public fund, the PBC implements a strong economic sustainability program for each project it takes on. This program includes bid incentives for the employment of apprentices, minority and female workers; community hiring and resident workforce requirements; and contract provisions that require minority- and women-owned business participation.

The three-story, 49,000-square-foot annex project employed 518 workers who earned more than $3.1M in wages and benefits. Thirteen members of the surrounding community worked 1,976 hours on this project, and the project has achieved more than 30% minority- and women-owned business participation as paid to date.

As these numbers illustrate, this project created impactful economic opportunities for the community in which it was developed. It doesn’t stop there: the school’s impact on the community goes beyond economics and supports the environmental health of the larger area as well.

As a developer of public facilities the PBC has developed a uniquely comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship. The PBC’s commitment to sustainable development is integrated into every project the agency manages. For the Payton annex this includes, but is not limited to the diversion of construction waste from landfills; utilization of durable and recycled materials in construction, installation of occupancy light sensors/controls; high-efficiency heating and cooling systems; low flow/low-consumption water fixtures; native and adaptive landscaping and aggressive stormwater management.

With many urban sites located in areas challenged by industrial contamination or neighborhoods suffering from blight, the use of PBC’s environmental guidelines on the Payton annex project has served as a catalyst of positive development, introducing a vital community anchor into the neighborhood.

“Payton gives kids from across the city an opportunity to think big, dream big, realize big.” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel (Chicago Sun-Times: September 5, 2016)

Safety is a top priority for the PBC and its contractors. The General Contractor, Paschen/Milhouse Joint Venture (PMJV), reported zero lost-time incidents in the construction of this project, the result of excellent teamwork, supervision and adherence to safety regulations. All field personnel had current 30-hour OSHA training, and full PPE was required on site at all times. A safety orientation seminar was mandatory for to all tradesmen and other personnel prior to their entry on site. All subcontractors were required to provide a written copy of their safety program which was kept on site for the duration of the project, and Paschen/Milhouse Joint Venture also created a Site-Specific Safety Program for the project.

A full-time Safety Manager was on site while steel erection, framing, masonry, roofing, and other major activities were taking place, and PMJV employed an outside safety consultant, Sheffield Safety, to perform monthly safety audits.

Special attention was paid to the fact that the area where work was performed is a busy school in a tight site, and all of the necessary precautions were taken to ensure that students, teachers, and community members were diverted safely away from the construction work. The project managers met with Payton’s principal and staff on a regular basis to coordinate construction work with school activities.

The success of this project’s safety record is especially noteworthy given the accelerated schedule, which required the contractors and their subs to work overtime and on weekends to maintain the fast-paced schedule, ensuring that the new addition opened on time for the 2016/17 school year.