Corps Value

On Sept. 12, 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) — Baltimore District selected design-builder Grunley Construction Company Inc., with Samaha Associates Inc. as its lead designer, to deliver a new state-of-the-art child development center (CDC) and school age center (SAC) to the military and civilian community serving the mission at Ft. Myer, Va., and the Pentagon.

Officially opened July 15, 2008, it is the largest child development center the USACE has ever completed and serves more than 400 children, from infants through pre-school-aged and on to school-aged children.

It will now serve as the benchmark for the design and construction of 66 childcare centers scheduled for construction within the next two years.

The project did not start out as design-build. The existing center, built in the 1960s, was in failing condition, had exceeded its economic life and was too small to meet the needs of Ft. Myer families.

Traditional design-bid-build was the initial delivery method chosen for the much needed facility. With the design complete and the project released for bid, the macro-economic climate and the scope of the project did not align well: Bids came in over budget, and further delays for redesign were potentially self-defeating in that it would likely add cost to the project.

As a result, USACE decided to take the design work completed to date, package it as program document within an RFP and issue a design-to-budget type of design-build procurement. The essence of the procurement was to seek the most benefit for the dollars available, recognizing that the existing architecture-engineering documents provided an acceptable programmatic solution to the user requirements (i.e., areas, uses, space planning, configuration, affinities, general aesthetics, etc.). With this in mind the proposing design-build teams were challenged to complete value analysis, redesign and re-engineering in order to deliver as much of the scope as possible within the time and money constraints presented.

Grunley Construction was selected as the design-build contractor for the project, and with their team of architects and engineers headed by Samaha Associates Inc., performed additional analyses of the building.

In addition to the value analysis package proposed, a structural redesign was completed. The original structural steel bay was left in place to support the high roof lines above the SAC wing. The balance of the building was redesigned with load bearing light gauge structural steel panels.

The roof trusses were also redesigned with light gauge steel and were designed to be supported by the exterior walls and the interior corridor walls.

The site for the CDC is a seven-acre strip of land that presented some challenges. Previously, a portion of the site was a landfill and burn pit that did not provide a suitable foundation for the structure. Also, the site was long and narrow and did not meet present-day force protection requirements.

The design, presented as part of the design-build procurement package, was completed by the Lukmire Partnership and it:

• Complied with force protection requirements
• Resolved the site foundation issue by locating the building away from the unsuitable materials and replacing any additional unusable soils
• Met the required guidelines for the gross area of the new facilities
• Met guidelines that each classroom have direct access to age appropriate playgrounds
• Provided additional parking and an area for buses to pick-up and drop off the school aged children
• Created separate identifiable entries for the CDC and SAC each with its own administrative areas to monitor families entering and exiting the building

Due to the historical nature of Ft. Myer and the project site being located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, the design of the building exterior is required to be similar to the other existing buildings. It was stipulated that the brick used for the new CDC be similar to that of the surrounding buildings and a synthetic slate roof also be used.

The CDC design entails a 51,000-square-foot, one-story-long narrow building with three wings. Two of the wings accommodate the CDC and the third accommodates the SAC with administrative areas situated in the center. The building has a high roof on the SAC wing and age-appropriate playgrounds. As required, the facility was designed to accommodate 348 CDC children and 90 SAC children. The central registration office is also housed within the building.

Other features include:

• Reception areas for both the CDC and the SAC.
• A large training room.
• A staff lounge.
• Storage areas.
• A commercial kitchen for both the CDC and the SAC in their respective areas. (The SAC kitchen also has a demonstration area for educational purposes)

The CDC wings accommodate eight infant modules, three toddler modules and three pre-school modules. The SAC wing includes a computer lab, activity room, performing arts room and an arts & crafts room. These all surround the two-story atrium area. Off the atrium area there is a two-story multipurpose room.

The building is designed around a structural steel bay with the remainder being light gauge structural steel panels. Roof framing consists of light gauge trusses.

To avoid a warehouse look, off-sets within the building were created to expose different roof lines. The multipurpose room and the mechanical rooms are enclosed with CMU cavity walls.

The centralized cooling system was designed with an air-cooled chiller served by two circulating pumps. Chilled water is circulated to three wheel energy recovery units located at the end of each wing, and fan coil units are provided for each room.

The heating system consists of two high-efficiency gas-fired boilers served by two circulating pumps. Hot water is circulated to the three wheel energy recovery units. Also included in the heating system is an in-slab radiant heat flooring system that is located in the crawl spaces of the infant modules.

Architecturally the interior consists of gypsum board on steel stud walls and acoustical ceiling tiles. Flooring consists of heat welded sheet vinyl in the care modules, carpeting in the administrative offices and training room, pour-in-place athletic flooring in the multipurpose room and VCT throughout the remainder of the building.

The move from design-bid-build to design-build was the right move. By working together as a team — USACE, the Grunley/Samaha design-build team and the tenant user group — design-build worked best.