Greene County named Developer of the Year

While Greene County took home the top honors at the Salute to Construction banquet on Nov. 1, its project wasn’t the one that received the most recognition.

The county earned Developer of the Year for its construction of the $20 million Public Safety Center at the banquet presented by the Salute to Construction Council at the Howard Johnson hotel, 3333 S. Glenstone Ave. Work connected to the Bill R. Foster and Family Recreation Center, however, earned a sweep of the council’s other three awards.

The Project Team of the Year went to the workers behind the $30 million recreation center on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield. Superintendent of the Year was Leonard Gass for his efforts on the rec center with general contractor DeWitt & Associates Inc. And Terry Prall of Custom Manufacturing & Polishing Inc. was named Craftsman of the Year for his stainless steel handrails within the center.

This is the 21st year the council, which comprises more than 20 groups including the Springfield Contactors Association, has honored local contractors and building professionals. The American Institute of Architects’ Springfield chapter collaborates to name the superintendent and craftsman awards.

The SCA selects the Developer of the Year and the Project Team of the Year, said association President King Coltrin of Great River Associates.

“We look at the economic impact, the creation of local jobs and the contributions that the developer makes to the community,” Coltrin said. “(Greene County) utilized as many local contractors as it could and the (Public Safety Center) is not only a benefit to the community, but it has an ongoing benefit in the training it will provide with area emergency responders and people from farther away.”

The building, which can withstand an EF-5 tornado, is designed to be a base of operations for more than 70 federal, state and local response teams in the event of a disaster. The Public Safety Center has been selected to serve as the backup center for the state’s emergency management operations.

According to the county’s application, the emergency response headquarters was constructed with 85 percent of the work provided by local contractors such as Allen’s Mechanical, Faith Technologies, Killian Digital LLC, Kirberg Roofing Inc. and Prestressed Casting Co.

Chris Coulter, project manager for the center and director of resource management for Greene County, said about 30 individual contractors and subcontractors contributed to the project that took about 30 months to complete once the funding was in place. He said officials with the Office of Emergency Management, who occupy the center with 911 dispatch staff, began planning for their new home about nine years ago.

DeWitt & Associates served as general contractor on the project. Pellham-Phillips Architects & Engineers Inc. collaborated with Winter Park, Fla.-based emergency management specialist Architects Design Group as the project’s architects, while Olsson Associates Inc. served as civil engineer and Mettemeyer Engineering LLC was the center’s structural engineer.

“Obviously, with the recent hurricane we’ve seen up north and the Joplin tornado from a year-and-a-half ago, this is a facility that is dearly needed,” Coulter said, noting the intense planning and construction work that went into the project. “Being able to have a facility like this is a wonderful feeling.”

Coltrin said the complexity of MSU’s 95,000-square-foot rec center was the key factor in recognizing its construction team led by Gass, superintendent for contractor DeWitt & Associates, and Terry Rowland, MSU’s project manager.

Boston-based Cannon Design was the architect/engineer of record, and Palmerton & Parrish Inc. handled the geotechnical and material inspections and testing.

“The Project Team of the Year is selected based not only on size, but on the complexity of the project, the quality of construction and all those things that go into making it a unique facility,” Coltrin said.

Notable features include a lap pool with a zip line and hydrotherapy jets, and a 26-foot rock climbing wall. The center offers students and faculty a fitness center, indoor jogging track, studios for dancing and fitness classes, three basketball courts and a lounge area.

The project team, which was originally scheduled to open the center in late 2011, had a number of obstacles to overcome throughout its construction, according to the award application submitted by MSU. For example, the steel for the natatorium roof was being painted in Joplin with a delivery date of May 23, 2011 – the day after an EF-5 tornado ripped through the city and destroyed the roof trusses needed to continue on schedule.

Craftsman Prall, who has 11 years of experience with Custom Manufacturing & Polishing, led a team of about 10 workers on the custom construction of the stainless-steel mesh handrails at the recreational center.

“One of our specialties is (designing) down stairs; we can make a continuous rail with no seams in it,” Prall said of the 300 feet of railings that run on the first and second floors and along the stairs between floors. “We just did it one piece at a time, like eating an elephant.”

The team built the rails during a three-month period on-site.

“It is just one of my passions,” Prall said of the award. “The award is great, but this is just what I do.”[[In-content Ad]]