Dallas Center for Architecture Selects Design

A new structure for AIA Dallas offices will serve as home for several area organizations; also, Brown & Gay honored for engineering excellence on Houston’s Bridgeland.

AIA Dallas Selects Winning Design for Dallas Center for Architecture

The Dallas Center for Architecture, expected to open in September, incorporates a new initiative of AIA Dallas and allied architectural groups, including Dallas Architecture Forum, Dallas Architectural Foundation, USGBC and QUOIN. The 9,000-sq-ft space will contain the center and the new AIA Dallas offices.

A design by Peter Doncaster of Booziotis & Co. Architects of Dallas, in collaboration with Nicholas Marshall of nodesign of New Orleans, and Gabriel Smith of Thomas Phifer and Partners of New York City, was selected as the winning design for the interior of the new Dallas Center for Architecture in Uptown Dallas.

Don Gatzke, dean of the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture, chaired the jury, which included Kevin Alter, associate dean for graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture; Jeffrey Brown, principal in charge of design at Powers Brown, Houston; and Martha Jane Murray, who is currently on leave from the Wilcox Group, Little Rock, while working with the William Clinton Foundation’s Climate Change Initiative.

Houston Firm Awarded 2008 Engineering Excellence Gold Medal

Brown & Gay Engineers of Houston, with General Growth Properties, earned a Gold Medal in the 2008 Engineering Excellence Awards for work on Bridgeland, a development in Houston’s Harris County.

Houston-based Brown & Gay Engineers Inc., in partnership with General Growth Properties of Chicago, earned a Gold Medal in the 2008 Engineering Excellence Awards for land development within Bridgeland, a master-planned community in northwest Harris County.

The 11,400-acre Bridgeland development is planned for 65,000 residents over the next 20 years and will include single-family homes, town homes, condominiums, schools, churches, community centers, corporate offices and retail.

Brown & Gay is providing the engineering design services for Bridgeland’s major infrastructure, the centerpiece of which is a 1,000-acre system of interconnected lakes and streams. This waterway system functions as part of Bridgeland’s drainage network, controlling storm water run-off and providing floodplain storage mitigation. The design team adapted modeling typically used for large natural water networks to tailor the system to serve the development’s needs and fully mitigate downstream impacts.

The engineering team also designed Bridgeland’s roadway, bridge and utility systems. It developed original criteria for the neighborhood roundabout circles and reduced the standard street width to 25 ft, lowering the concrete heat index and preserving green space. Signature bridges were built using prefabricated concrete culverts clad with brick.

The Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by the Texas Council of Engineering Cos.

National Civil Engineering Society Honors Lifetime Achievements

The American Society of Civil Engineers presented several individuals with its 2008 Outstanding Projects and Leaders Lifetime Achievement Awards for spending their careers pushing the envelope. The winners were recognized in April.

William H. Luyties III, P.E., vice president of major projects at Dallas-based Luminant Construction (previously TXU), was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Construction.

Luyties joined Shell Oil Co. out of college and spent the next 30 years working on the development of offshore platforms, including design, construction, installation and project management. His first major project was the Eureka platform installed off the California coast, where he served as lead design engineer and later, as site construction engineer. Luyties later moved into the realm of deepwater floating platforms, where he was responsible for structural design and construction support for deepwater tension leg platforms installed by Shell. The first such, Auger TLP, received ASCE’s Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 1995. In October 2006, Luyties retired from Shell and joined Luminant.

A Lifetime Achievement in Education was presented to Ernest T. Smerdon, dean emeritus at the University of Arizona and founder of the Water Resources Institute at Texas A&M University, where he served as its first director. Later, he served as vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University of Texas system and taught at the University of Texas at Austin in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the civil engineering department, where he was named the Bess Harris Jones Centennial Professor in Natural Resource Policy Studies and the Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering.

Houston’s American Subcontractor Association Presents Awards

The Junior League for the American Subcontractor Association-Houston Chapter’s 11th Annual Excellence in Construction Awards honored selected companies, projects and individuals that demonstrate professionalism and excellence in their field.

Among the winners were D.E. Harvey Builders as General Contractor of the Year; Gensler as Architect/Engineer of the Year; Jimmy Upshaw of Gilbane Building Co. as Project Manager of the Year; Gerald Moore of Gilbane Building Co. as Project Superintendent of the Year; M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Faculty Center Two, D.E. Harvey Builders as Project Over $15 Million; Pearland Bass Pro Shop, Gilbane Building Co. as Project $5 - $15 Million; University of Houston, Burdette-Keeland Building, W.S. Bellows Construction Corp. as Project Under $5 Million.

ASA-Houston also honored seven local students with scholarships from the Brian T. Harrington Scholarship fund, which is an educational grant program to high school seniors and college students of ASA members regardless of their degree program.

The 2008 winners are Meena Alavi from member company Marek Brothers Systems; Christopher Aquirre from member company Bowen, Miclette & Britt; Trey Cornelius from member company Insurance Alliance; Danielle Garnier from member company Polar Air Corp.; Alexandria Koenig from member company Veazey Enterprises; Mimi Tesson from member company Bowen, Miclette & Britt; and Caleb Winn from member company Marek Brothers Systems.

Fort Worth Architect Honored With AIA Service Award

David J. Lee, a principal with Quorum Architects, has been awarded the distinguished James R. Wooten Service Award from the AIA Fort Worth.

It is the highest honor the chapter bestows on its individual members. The James R. Wooten Award honors a chapter member who best exemplifies the characteristics of sustained, consistent and effective service in accomplishing the chapter’s goals.

Lee is co-founder, owner and principal of Quorum Architects based in Fort Worth. He has served the AIA Fort Worth chapter since 1987 as president, vice president, vice president of programs, honors and awards chair and as an active member of numerous committees. He also served as Texas Society of Architects director for two years.

TACA Selected as NRMCA Association of the Year

The Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association and the Connecticut Ready Mixed Concrete Association have been named as 2007 NRMCA State Associations of the Year, an award that honors state and area associations for their contributions to the industry in the areas of research, education, advocacy and promotion. The two winners were selected from a field of outstanding nominations for associations around the country.

According to the Texas nomination submitted by Rose Mary Clyburn of Cemex Inc.: "The association has grown from a struggling statewide trade association to one that is more united, member driven and financially solvent than ever before in our 52-year history."

Some of TACA’s recent accomplishments include the development and execution of a comprehensive product and industry promotion program that will measurably increase the implementation and use of concrete, cement and aggregate products in Texas.

TACA has been an organizational force behind the establishment of a Concrete Industry Management program at Texas State University, which should be accepting students this fall.

Freese and Nichols Employees Earn Construction Manager Certification

Larry Eckersley, group manager of the company’s construction services, and Chris Jones, P.E., manager of construction services, earned certified construction manager status.

Hanson Starts Production at New Fort Worth Plant

Hanson Roof Tile, a manufacturer of concrete roof tile, started production at its newest facility in Fort Worth to help broaden the company’s roof tile product offerings in Texas beyond traditional high-profile barrel style tile to include flat-tile styles that emulate slate and shake, as well as a low-profile barrel style tile.

Hanson hired 25 employees to operate the production line at the new facility, which is located at 610 Riverside Dr. Hanson invested about $13 million in the renovation of the approximately 45,000-sq-ft plant and property including building a new office that will double as a product showroom.

The new plant will produce barrel and flat style tiles, in 37 colors and blends. As part of the Fort Worth renovation, Hanson upgraded its existing production facility in Luling to produce trim tile used on the ridges and edges of a roof.

Texas Contractors Equipment Selected as Kennametal Distributor

Texas Contractors Equipment Inc. in Houston is a new distributor in the sales and service of all Kennametal construction tool products for the counties covering Southeast Texas.