Boom continues: Anchorage construction hits record high: from hospitals, to schools, to new...

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich calls the 2006 construction season "a record construction boom, with nearly $500 million in new building permits" during the first half of the year. In his 2006 State of the City report, Begich cites the new civic and convention center, an 800-plus-space parking garage

The mayor's Heritage Land Bank Executive Director Robin Ward said the new convention center is on schedule and within budget. This 215,000-square-foot, $103 million facility was designed by RIM Architects and LMN, and is being built by Neeser Construction. The center is scheduled for completion in 2008.

The museum expansion is also under way in downtown Anchorage. Contractor for the project is Alcan General Inc., and Ward said this $100 million project is scheduled for completion in 2010.

"We're also actively pursuing three more parking structures downtown," Ward said, "one at 7th Avenue and C Street, one at 7th Avenue between E and F streets for state employees, and the other across from the Nesbitt courthouse."

NEW LIFE TO MOUNTAIN VIEW

The new Glenn Square regional mall, under construction in Mountain View, is scheduled to open its first stores in March of 9007.

"The first foundations are in and there are bricks going up," Ward said. "It's about a $37 million investment by POB Montgomery/Kimco in partnership with the Anchorage Community Development Authority.

"It was city land," Ward said, "and it's changed title to the new owners. In exchange, we'll share profits from the mall for the first two years under a development agreement."

NEW LOCATION, NEW STORES

Ward said Regal Cinema is looking to relocate into northeast Anchorage from its current Fireweed location, and she confirmed the Municipality has been in discussions with several businesses not currently in Anchorage-Bed, Bath & Beyond, Olive Garden, Target and Macy's.

"We're actively trying to bring good retailers to town, ones that will complement what we already have and those that have a high standard for their facilities," Ward said.

"The mayor is very pro-active when it comes to retail development," Ward continued. "He says 'we'd love to have you come in--with stipulations. We want good design standards, we want you to meet or exceed the big box ordinance. We want you to be involved in our community, and that means being involved with the community councils and participating in our charities.'

"He gives them a pretty stern chat," Ward said.

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

Rounding out municipal construction projects is the Muldoon Area Middle School, still under construction, and the recent completion of the Bartlett High School auditorium, East High's library, and classroom additions and renovations to Bartlett, East, Service and Polaris K-12 schools.

Total costs for the recently completed projects reached $73 million--$27 million at Bartlett, $20 million at Service, $19 million at Polaris, and $7 million at East.

"They're all in full use by the schools this year," said Mike Price, ASD's construction manager. "We're using more durable, low-maintenance materials inside and outside," Price added. "With the improvement in materials over the years, we think these buildings can last for 40 or 50 years and can reduce long-term operations and maintenance costs."

The one large project still under construction is the Muldoon Area Middle School near the corner of DeBarr and Muldoon roads. This $55 million project--$36 million in building construction and the rest in design, site prep, furnishings and project support costs--is being built by Roger Hickel Contracting Inc. Kumin Associates was the project designer.

"This school should open in August of 2007," Price said, "and it will be a long-overdue addition to the northeast part of town."

AT THE AIRPORT

On the west side of town, the Ted Stevens International Airport will soon be entering into the next phase of security, seismic and efficiency upgrades. According to James Dougherty, project manager and a principal with RIM Architects, Phase I of these upgrades has already gone to bid and will begin construction before the end of the year. Anticipated cost of this first phase is $25 million to $30 million.

"The objective of these changes is to bring the existing south terminal up to par with the level of service travelers get in other West Coast airports," Dougherty said.

Much of the airport construction will be "behind the scenes," according to Dougherty, but it requires sophisticated retrofitting to assure the security measures required since Sept. 11, 2001, take place but at the least disturbance to the public.

"In many airports, much of the lobby space has been annexed to provide that extra screening," Dougherty said. "But in airports renovating after 9/11, there is an opportunity to move much of the process away from public spaces."

In the Anchorage airport, Dougherty said the plan is not to add square footage, but to add efficiency to the square footage already there.

"The building is 50 years old," Dougherty said. "So much of the infrastructure--the heating and ventilating systems, for example--are outdated. We'll be working to meet new standards for energy efficiency, the amount of fresh air required. We'll also be strengthening the building to meet seismic standards."

The first phase of the renovation will add gates to the A Concourse on the east end of the building, and do the necessary enabling work to move all carriers from the B Concourse to other locations.

"We'll also do some enhancements to the exterior of the building," Dougherty said. "We'll add high performance thermal windows and better signage, which will result in a new exterior appearance to the passenger pick-up and drop-off areas. It will be more closely aligned with the colors and materials in the new C Concourse."

Phase II of the airport reconstruction will upgrade baggage-handling systems, rebuilding the whole of Concourse B and improving the ticket lobby and passenger-screening functions.

"We're scheduling the phases to begin in late fall of this year and next to be the least hindrance to the tourist season," Dougherty said.

MIDTOWN GROWTH

Midtown also is seeing changes to its skyline, with new buildings going up at Providence Alaska Medical Center, Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Providence is adding a new medical office building to its health park, adding to its parking garage and building a new Providence House for patients and families who need to stay near the hospital.

"The health park will be a three-building structure when it's complete," said Karina Jennings, regional director for communications and marketing for Providence. "The Vista Pavilion just opened in May, and it has 116,000 square feet--the Alaska Heart Institute has moved into this building. The second building, the Horizon Pavilion, is in construction now and will open at the end of 2007, and the Summit Pavilion is on the books to provide for growth opportunity. It has no construction date at this time. We'll look at it after 2010."

Davis Constructors is the design-build contractor for both the Vista and the Horizon pavilions, and RIM Architects did the design, according to Jennings.

"The first project, Vista, included a parking garage with 500 spaces and a sky bridge connecting it to the medical center," Jennings said. "The second project adds another 336 parking spaces to the parking garage, and constructs a 95,000-square-foot building. The new cancer center will take 54,000 square feet of this space.

The new Providence House will be finished at the same time as the Horizon Pavilion, Jennings said. It will increase the capacity to 40 beds for individuals and families who need to be near the hospital.

"The entire first project, with the parking garage and pavilion, was $90 million," Jennings said, "and the second project--with the Horizon Pavilion, parking garage addition and Providence House--is $85 million."

Two additional projects on Providence's plate right now are the reconstruction of the former Anchorage Psychiatric Institute into a new Providence regional administration building and a partnership with BridgeCare Hospitals to build a new long-term acute-care hospital to be called the St. Elias Specialty Hospital. St. Elias is currently going up on a site south of Tudor and west of the Old Seward Highway.

"Providence is a financial partner in the new hospital, and BridgeCare will manage it," Jennings said. "It will open near the end of this year and add 60 long-term, acute-care beds."

The new St. Elias hospital will be a 65,000-square-foot structure, and the project cost is $21 million. Design firms for the project are Kumin Associates and a Birmingham, Ala., firm, CLA Architects. Davis Constructors is building the hospital.

At the APU campus, a new $2.2 million student-housing project is going up--the first new building since 1991. To be called Segelhorst Hall, after donors Mary and the late "Knobby" Segelhorst, the new building will house 24 students in six four-bedroom apartments.

The new 8,600-square-foot building was designed by RIM Architects, and is being built by Cornerstone Construction. It is scheduled for completion in December 2006.

UAA is adding two new buildings to its campus. The integrated science building was scheduled to break ground in September, and will provide 120,000 square feet of new lab facilities, classroom and office space. This facility, including a central atrium, was designed by a team of ECI Hyer, an Alaska firm, and ZGF from Seattle.

"They're doing this project under a construction-management-at-risk contract," said Cyndi Spear, associate vice chancellor for facilities at UAA. "Total cost for this building and a related project--the east campus parking garage and loop road--is slated to be $87 million. It's scheduled to open in the fall of 2009 to coincide with 50 years of statehood.

"We haven't done any construction in the sciences in the last 30 years," Spear said, "so this is really exciting for us. It lets us deliver a science curriculum that's changed quite a lot over the years. This is a big future growth issue for the campus."

The second building going up at UAA is the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Building, under construction by Davis Constructors.

"We broke ground last fall," Spear said. "This building will give us 12,031 square feet of collaborative learning space for students, and it's being built in the shape of a canoe."

Designer of the building is RIM First People, and the developer is JL Properties. The building was scheduled to open in late October, and the total project cost is $5 million.

"We asked Native leaders to help with the design of the building," Spear said, "and it's a unique project."

The new space will provide group-learning opportunities that don't exist in current buildings, according to Spear.

The new buildings add to the university's quad design, Spear added.

"It allows us to do some campus planning," she said. "We want to preserve our core academic zone for pedestrian use--all the buildings tie into the campus spine. That helps keep vehicle traffic to the exterior of the campus.

"We're also using sustainable design practices in both buildings," Spear said. "We're working with faculty in the environmental sciences--recycling the asphalt, preserving stands of trees, reusing plants, boulders, and so on."

With all the construction going on in 2006, Mayor Begich may well be right. Record construction boom or not, however, the skyline of the city is growing.