By D.Ann Slayton Shiffler

With its classic Hill Country limestone façade and a distinctive red clay tiled roof, the new Academic Building III at the University of Texas campus in San Antonio sets a new standard in usage and style at the growing university.

"The design team was challenged with designing this facility in a new language that the University of Texas system has been striving for," said Alan Colyer, vice president and account manager for higher education for Kansas City, Mo.-based HOK Architects Inc.

"(We are) sort of going back to the architectural character of some of the buildings on the Austin campus and yet finding a way to design it with some of the regional context of San Antonio, and of course (fitting) with the previously constructed buildings on the UTSA campus."

HOK designed the building and organized the design-build team that is on target to complete the building by May. Temple-based BFW Construction is the general contractor for the $32 million project that also calls for the renovation of an existing building on campus. The entire project is slated for completion in spring 2005.

"The red clay tile roof and limestone set the stage for future construction on the San Antonio campus," Colyer said. "The building represents a new front door to the campus because the new entry drive will lead right into this building. My understanding is that UTSA is in a significant building mode for onsite residential facilities, and I see the campus taking on a new flavor."

In mid-July, the cast-in-place, 204,000-sq.-ft. academic building was about 50 percent complete. With an L-shaped footprint, the building will feature two wings: one with four stories and the other with five, with the wings connected at the second floor. From some angles the structure appears as two separate buildings.

A particular challenge of the design team was to create a building that would accommodate many different uses, Colyer said. The building will house classrooms, small auditoriums, computer laboratories and student services departments, including financial aid offices. The administrative suite for the university president and the regent's board meeting room will also be in the new structure.

The building will feature the latest technologies in wiring and wireless communications.

"It's going to have some sophisticated infrastructure involved, but most university buildings demand that today," Colyer said.

Construction Continues

While the design team was put in place a year prior to construction, ground was not broken until September 2002.

"The concrete structure is poured out and we are finishing the stud columns for the roof," Bob Evans, resident construction manager for the University of Texas System, said in early July. "We're probably a little ahead of schedule. It's actually going well.
We're meeting expectations."

The concrete framework and basement required about 5,700 cu. yds. of concrete, all of which was poured in place.

The steel frame for the red-tiled roof is being fabricated on the ground in several sections that was to be lifted into place over the summer.

Since the project began, two cranes have done the lion's share of work - a 50-ton crawler crane owned and operated by Texas Crane Services of San Antonio and a tower crane owned by Dallas-based Lewis Equipment Co.

One of the most challenging aspects of construction was the basement, which required excavation to between 20 ft. and 25 ft.

"There was a lot of rock busting involved," said BFW project manager Joel Benjergerdes, who added that the building's mechanical systems will be housed in the basement.

Aside from dealing with the rock, the construction team ran into a cavern soon after the basement excavation began.

"Because we are on the Edwards Aquifer, there are recharge features," Evans said. "It was not an active cavern, but once we penetrated it we had to get the environmental agencies in to come and take a look. We had to follow the protocol in that situation.
There are rules that are engaged when you run into something like this - it's unusual to run into one."

The cavern didn't present any issues, but it changed the sequence of work, Evans added.

Benjergerdes said his crews will work to get the building enclosed by early fall. The cut limestone is being pieced together using the Arriscraft system.

Evans and Benjergerdes said there have been no major hiccups thus far, but working in such a tight space hasn't been easy.

"We don't have the luxury of a big open field to store materials," Benjergerdes said.. "It's a challenge but again has not caused any limitations."

Once the building is complete and tenants move in, the construction team will begin renovating the vacated space on the fourth floor of the adjacent library. The design work for that stage of the project is nearly complete, Colyer said.

"Much of the vacated space in the library will be renovated for new usage," he added. "The library will be able to expand into those spaces."

Design-Build Praised

The design-build delivery system has allowed the San Antonio project to progress smoothly.

"Design-build works well for this type of project," Benjergerdes said. "It has its challenges because of the amount of paperwork, but it has still worked well."

Colyer said the UT System has embraced the design-build method over the past few years for its building projects on several campuses, although more recently has gone back to more traditional methods.

"For the success of a project like this, and developing it in a design-build process, you need all the entities to work in an environment of trust," he said. "Fortunately, we had worked with BFW on a similar project in Harlingen for UT. The lines of communication were open and the relationship was in place and the lines of trust were there. It's been a pretty smooth design process that ultimately transitioned into construction."

UT's Evans said he sees value in both the design-build process and the competitive bid process.

"We use design-build quite a bit," he said. "This is the second time I've been involved with it. There are advantages of design-build and advantages of other processes. On this job, design-build has worked well."