The United States Army has enough on its plate without having to worry about operating as a hotel manager, too.
TOP 30 MILITARY ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. HDR $24,971,124
2. Clark Nexsen $13,005,940
3. Guernsey $10,279,317
4. EwingCole $8,541,000
5. RS&H $8,100,000
6. Integrus Architecture $8,054,265
7. Leo A Daly $6,179,243
8. VOA Associates $4,600,000
9. Morris Architects $4,227,000
10. Emersion Design $4,095,748
TOP 40 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Fluor Corp. $823,562,993
2. Walsh Group, The $382,116,917
3. Hensel Phelps $340,673,000
4. Gilbane Building Co. $303,821,000
5. Lendlease $269,240,000
6. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The $180,266,105
7. Balfour Beatty US $167,548,244
8. Turner Construction Co. $137,117,144
9. McCarthy Holdings $121,411,531
10. Haskell $81,252,088
TOP 40 MILITARY ENGINEERING FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Jacobs $67,384,666
2. AECOM $50,000,000
3. Burns & McDonnell $41,464,789
4. Benham Design $15,481,228
5. Sherlock, Smith & Adams $14,439,000
6. Thornton Tomasetti $10,840,435
7. Jensen Hughes $8,068,991
8. Dewberry $5,353,171
9. RMF Engineering $5,028,000
10. Woolpert $4,083,332
On the heels of a U.S. Government Accountability Office report that showed that more than 80% of Army lodging needed repairs or replacement—at an estimated price tag of $1.8 billion over 20 years—the Army kicked its Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL) program into high gear.
By privatizing the construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and ownership of its hotels (it is the only military branch to do so), the Army expects to cut that 20-year timetable down to eight years.
Lendlease is a key partner in the PAL program, serving as the exclusive developer and owner of the hotels (the Army owns the land). InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the PAL hotel operator under the Holiday Inn Express brand (for renovated Army hotels) and Candlewood Suites name (for newly constructed hotels).
The relationship between the Department of Defense, the Army, Lendlease, and IHG has produced lodging that has far exceeded anything created before PAL went into effect. For instance, the 310-room extended-stay hotel built on Joint Base San Antonio, completed in 2014, is the largest Candlewood Suites in the world.
The recently completed 92-room Candlewood Suites at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., is the first cross-laminated timber structure on a U.S. military installation and the first all-CLT hotel under any ownership type in the country.
Lendlease’s use of CLT, which is made of several layers of pressed lumber board stacked in alternating directions, is not a surprise. The company has committed $1 billion over the next five years to its Sydney, Australia-based startup, Design Make, which is dedicated to manufacturing prefabricated building components such as CLT.
Despite some early obstacles, such as meeting the highly restrictive military Anti-Terrorism and Force Protection requirements, the Building Team found that CLT construction was a great solution for the Redstone Arsenal project. Testing showed that the material performed well against the ATFP requirements due to its ability to carry load in varying directions.
“Labor scarcity, labor cost issues, schedule concerns, and foundation issues are all challenges that make CLT an attractive proposition,” says Lendlease’s Murray Woolcock, Executive General Manager, Strategic Business Units.
The Candlewood Suites on Redstone Arsenal totals 62,688 sf and can house 492 occupants. The structure used 1,200 CLT wall panels and 200,000 CLT fasteners. It is the first PAL structure to use prefabricated bathroom pods, which further helped to accelerate the construction schedule and reduce on-site waste.
By using prefabricated CLT, the Candlewood Suites was erected in just 10 working weeks by an 11-person crew, a 37% speed increase compared to conventional framing materials and methods for a similar-sized structure, according to Lendlease.
The Redstone Arsenal hotel represents a small portion of the PAL program, which encompasses 12,492 guestrooms across 41 Army installations. Because CLT lends itself to structures with a repetitive room types, such as hotels, there is a good chance the Redstone Arsenal project will not be the only building on an Army base to utilize the material.
“Lendlease is currently evaluating numerous sites in our PAL portfolio to implement the use of CLT,” says Woolcock. “We are confident that CLT will gain traction in many areas, and Lendlease is well positioned to grow our platform off the back of the successful delivery of Redstone Arsenal.”
House approves $81B military Construction bill
With a vote of 277 to 147, the House on May 19 passed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, which, if enacted, would provide $81.6 billion in discretionary funding for the sectors in 2017. The total is $1.8 billion more than the 2016 budget, but $1.2 billion short of what President Obama requested.
Contained within the bill is funding to house, train, and equip military personnel, provide housing and services to military families, and maintain infrastructure.
Nearly 10% of the total ($7.9 billion) would be used for large- and small-scale military construction projects at military bases in the U.S. and abroad. The allocation marks a $305 million decrease from fiscal year 2016, but is $250 million more than the President’s request.
Other allocations of note:
• $172 million for Overseas Contingency Operations and European Reassurance Initiative projects involving overseas bases
• $1.3 billion for the construction, operation, and maintenance of military family housing; while meeting the President’s budget request, it is $84 million off the budgeted amount in FY2015
• $304 million for the construction and alteration of military medical facilities
• $673 million for construction projects at National Guard and Reserve facilities across 21 states
• $900 million for VA construction projects
• $246 million for safety improvements and infrastructure work at DOD Education Activities facilities.
More on the bill at: http://bit.ly/28L8vwb.
RETURN TO THE GIANTS 300 LANDING PAGE
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Nurturing the Community
The best seat in the house at the new Seahawks Stadium in Seattle isn't on the 50-yard line. It's in the southeast corner, at the very top of the upper bowl. "From there you have a corner-to-corner view of the field and an inspiring grasp of the surrounding city," says Kelly Kerns, project leader with architect/engineer Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo.
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA Course: Historic Masonry — Restoration and Renovation
Historic restoration and preservation efforts are accelerating throughout the U.S., thanks in part to available tax credits, awards programs, and green building trends. While these projects entail many different building components and systems, façade restoration—as the public face of these older structures—is a key focus. Earn 1.0 AIA learning unit by taking this free course from Building Design+Construction.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM adoption tops 80% among the nation's largest AEC firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 survey
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design+Construction's premier Top 50 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey. Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and near...
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Collaboration
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
2009 Judging Panel
A Matthew H. Johnson, PE Associate Principal Simpson Gumpertz & HegerWaltham, Mass. B K. Nam Shiu, SE, PEVP Walker Restoration Consultants Elgin, Ill. C David P. Callan, PE, CEM, LEED APSVPEnvironmental Systems DesignChicago D Ken Osmun, PA, DBIA, LEED AP Group President, ConstructionWight & Company Darien, Ill.
| Aug 11, 2010
Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
Office design has always been linked to productivity—how many workers can be reasonably squeezed into a given space—but why isn’t it more frequently linked to creativity? “In general, I don’t think enough people link the design of space to business outcome,” says Janice Linster, partner with the Minneapolis design firm Studio Hive.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
