Stellar wins four ABC Excellence In Construction awards

Stellar, an architecture, engineering, construction and mechanical services firm, has won four Excellence in Construction awards from the Florida First Coast Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).

ABC's Excellence In Construction program is the industry’s leading award competition, recognizing outstanding construction projects in a variety of categories. Evaluation criteria include personnel management, quality control, scheduling, value analysis, obstacles overcome in the course of the project, and more.

Winners were recognized August 10 at an awards celebration at the Omni Hotel Jacksonville on the Riverwalk. All four of Stellar’s nominations won awards. The winning projects are:

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall
Stellar completed design and construction of the 65,000-sf addition and renovation to the Marine Corps Exchange (MCX) at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Alexandria, Virginia. The MCX, a general merchandise retail store, remained open for business throughout construction. Extensive subsurface foundations and underpinning for existing structures immediately adjacent to the project further challenged the construction sequencing. Stellar began work in April 2010 and completed the project October 2011.

Leilehua Golf Course
Serving as design-builder, Stellar renovated Leilehua Golf Course, a military-owned public course on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The project brought the nearly 70-year-old course up to United States Golf Association standards. The course is now being hailed as one of the military’s top courses worldwide. Construction began January 2011 and was complete March 2012.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Day School
Stellar provided pre-construction and construction management services for the renovation and expansion of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Day School. The project united the school campus and church campus, previously divided by Oxford Avenue, and included creation of a new campus green; addition and renovation of the 1968 vintage chapel; a new 10,000-sf commons building; and 7,400-sf of new covered walkways and a drop-off pavilion. Construction began June 2011 and was complete May 2012.

Warrior Zone
Stellar provided architectural, engineering and construction services for a state-of-the-art recreational center called the Warrior Zone, located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington. Construction began on the 29,000-sf building in September 2010 and was complete October 2011. Stellar worked with the military’s Morale, Welfare, & Recreation branch to help develop the concept for this high-tech facility. In additional to a theatre, restaurant, and billiards, entertainment includes online games played individually or remotely with others using Alienware computers. +

Before you get your shorts in a knot, I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or even mathematics; to the contrary, I love all four “STEM” disciplines (I’m lying about the math). But I question whether we need to be building K-12 schools that overly emphasize or are totally devoted to STEM.

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