by Shane Henson — August 5, 2011—McCarthy Building Companies recently completed the new $95 million, state-of-the-art Chemical and Materials Sciences Building for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Funded by the Office of Science’s Science Laboratory Infrastructure program and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies, the team broke ground on June 1, 2009 for the three-story, 160,000-gross-square-foot research facility situated in a high-profile position on Central Avenue on the 10,000-acre campus.
The Chemical and Materials Sciences Building marked many “firsts” for ORNL, including utilization of the construction management at risk (CMR) project delivery method. With CMR, McCarthy provided preconstruction and construction services. In addition to the utilization of CMR, McCarthy introduced both ORNL and DOE to building information modeling (BIM) technology as a tool for the first time on a campus construction project. By applying BIM during preconstruction, the project team was able to resolve over 7,000 utility interferences prior to breaking ground.
Using BIM, McCarthy developed a prefabricated approach to save money and time. By modeling the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, the team was able to pre-assemble duct work, piping and conduit materials off-site and deliver them to the construction location for installation as needed.
In keeping with campus architecture, the Chemical and Material Sciences building’s structural steel frame is clad with precast concrete and glass curtain wall. The facility features 50 labs, 164 offices and 120 work stations. The new facility replaces prior space constructed in the 1950s that suffered from high energy and maintenance costs.
