Sundt Construction, Inc. (www.sundt.com) led the design-build team that earned top honors at the Design-Build Institute of America’s (DBIA) 20th Annual Design-Build Project/Team Awards for its work on the Old Main renovation at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The project was one of just 10 projects to win an Award of Excellence in each of their respective categories during the ceremony, which took place at the DBIA’s Design-Build Conference & Expo, Nov. 3 in Denver, Colorado.
The Old Main team, which included Poster Frost Mirto, Inc. architects, Martin, White & Griffis Structural Engineers and AEI Affiliated Engineers, competed against one other Merit Award winner in the Rehabilitation, Renovation and/or Restoration category. The team caught the judges’ attention by balancing historical preservation with new programmatic functions, on a fast-tracked schedule. Winners at this level will have excelled in two or more of the following areas: (1) interdisciplinary teamwork; (2) design-build best practices and processes; and/or (3) excellence in design.
The project’s scope of work included rehabilitating deteriorated building elements to extend the 123-year-old building’s life, restoring the interiors to its original character with modern accents, and accommodating new functional uses. Old Main is Arizona’s second-oldest occupied building.
Sundt also led another design-build team that was honored with a national Merit Award during the ceremony for its work on the John M. Roll Federal Courthouse in Yuma, Arizona. The courthouse project team, which included Erlich Architects, Caruso Turley Scott Structural Engineers and LSW Engineers, Inc., competed in the Federal, County, State Municipal category. Members of the DBIA judging panel were particularly impressed with the courthouse project team’s ability to achieve cost, schedule and quality goals, while demonstrating unique applications of design-build best practices.
The two-story, 57,000-square-foot building has two courtrooms, judges’ chambers, jury facilities, and offices for probation and pretrial services, district and bankruptcy court personnel and the U.S. Marshals Service. Sandstone and masonry cover the building’s exterior, and a “living wall” of vines supported by steel trellises provides a natural shade barrier from the sun. Meanwhile, an expansive photovoltaic canopy covering the building’s entrance invokes the feeling of a front porch, and generates electricity for the building.
The courthouse is named for the late Federal District Court Chief Judge John M. Roll, who was among six people killed in the January 2008 incident in which U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in Tucson.
