Local architect to design Table Rock visitor center

The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center has selected a Springfield architecture firm to design a $7.9 million conservation center at Table Rock Lake, and a subsidiary of Chicago-based Lime Energy (Nasdaq: LIME) to build it.

Mike Hughes Architects, which has offices in Springfield and Tulsa, Okla., won the award to design the Dewey Short Visitor Center for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The center is named for former U.S. Rep. Dewey Short, who lobbied for the building of Table Rock Dam in 1959, which created the lake.

The building is being built for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an educational facility within the organization's public waterworks and dam system. According to the corps, the Branson Lakes area is ranked as the 20th most popular overnight vacation destination in the country, receiving 8.1 million visitors in 2008.

The 15,000-square-foot facility will be designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standards. Planned features of the facility will include maximum use of natural light, bioswales to filter storm water, and limited resource usage and environmental impact, according to a company news release.

Lime subsidiary Applied Energy Management will build the center, according to the release. Design is scheduled to begin immediately, with the new center to open by August 2011.

Several other local companies are also slated to work on the project, the release said. Mettemeyer Engineering of Springfield will perform structural engineering work; Colvin Jones Davis LLC will perform mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering; Architectural Energy Corp. of Springfield will perform work toward LEED standards; Rozell Engineering of Branson will perform civil engineering work; and Denali Construction in Springfield will work with Lime on construction.[[In-content Ad]]