Dane County under development

Several construction projects are in full swing across Dane County. Here’s a sampling of what is under way:

Project: Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
Owners: UW Board of Regents, state of Wisconsin
Lead contractors: J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison; Mortenson Construction, Milwaukee
Lead architectural/engineering firm: Uihlein-Wilson Architects Inc., Milwaukee
Completion date: November 2010
Cost: $200 million
Location: Madison
Project challenge: In addition to working toward high sustainability goals, designers had to assemble plans flexible enough to change with technology and unspecified tenants, said Teresa Adams, capital budget planner with UW-Madison’s department of facilities and planning management.
Significance to Dane County: “It’s part of the overall significance of the university advancing its cutting-edge research,” Adams said. “This will promote new discoveries, contribute to economic growth, and this will be the kind of project that will make people move to the area.”
Point of interest: The project also has a private component, the Morgridge Institute for Research, where privatized research in fields such as stem cells can be performed.

Project: fourth phase of East Washington Avenue reconstruction
Owner: city of Madison
Lead contractor: Speedway Sand & Gravel Inc., Middleton
Lead engineer: HNTB Corp.
Completion date: June 2010
Cost: $18.8 million
Location: Madison
Project challenge: Maintaining traffic control and figuring out phasing has been the biggest challenge of the multiyear and multiphased project, said Deputy City Engineer Rob Phillips.
Significance to Dane County: East Washington Avenue is one of the major gateways to downtown Madison. This is the final phase of a 4.5-mile pavement replacement project that started in 2004. The project replaces deteriorated pavement and adds landscaping, decorative lighting and aesthetic treatments to the bridges and will make for an attractive entrance to the city.
Point of interest: The project included replacing some water main and storm sewer lines, some of which dated to 1900, along the corridor. The new lines should help prevent flooding on East Washington Avenue during heavy rains.

Project: Meriter Business Administrative Office
Owner: The Alexander Co. Inc., Madison
Lead contractor: Iconica Inc., Madison
Lead engineer: JSD Professional Services Inc., Verona
Lead architect: Iconica Inc.
Completion date: December 2009
Cost: N/A
Location: Novation Campus, town of Madison
Project challenge: “Meriter actually needed to free up space for the Park Street clinic because it was just getting so crowded over there,” said Dan Peterson, Alexander Co. spokesman. “This presented a nice opportunity to give them room to expand and grow the campus.”
Significance to Dane County: “A 110,000-square-foot building is obviously a big addition that can help attract more big users to the area,” Peterson said. “The other nice thing is it builds up the tax base for the town of Madison.”
Point of interest: The office building is the latest addition to the Novation Campus, an approximately 70-acre parcel, which Peterson said could still take another 20 years to fully develop. The city of Fitchburg will annex most of the land in 2022.

Project: Biochemistry II
Owners: UW Board of Regents, state of Wisconsin
Lead contractor: J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison
Lead architectural/engineering firm: Flad & Associates Architects Inc., Madison
Completion date: September 2011
Cost: $107 million
Location: Madison
Project challenge: The project site in the heart of the UW-Madison campus is a complex spot with several historic buildings surrounding it, said Teresa Adams, capital budget planner with UW-Madison’s department of facilities and planning management.
Significance to Dane County: The project will help advance biochemistry research on the campus, Adams said, solidifying the university’s highly touted reputation for research.
Point of interest: In addition to coordinating construction with historic buildings surrounding the site, the new construction also has to work around a historically significant elm tree and murals done by American painter John Steuart Curry.

Project: University Avenue reconstruction
Owner: city of Madison
Lead contractors: Homburg Contractors Inc., Monona, for State to Park streets; Parisi Construction Co. Inc., Verona, for Park Street to Babcock Drive; Raymond P. Cattell Inc., Madison, for Babcock Drive to Hill Street
Lead engineer: city of Madison
Completion date: September 2009
Cost: $7.9 million
Location: Madison
Project challenge: City Engineer Chris Petykowski said the biggest challenge is maintaining traffic and pedestrian flow through one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares as construction covers 2.7 miles.
Significance to Dane County: In addition to being one of Madison’s busiest thoroughfares, University Avenue also is one of the major arterial roads to the downtown area and the UW-Madison campus. Part of the reconstruction work is financed with federal stimulus money.
Point of interest: The city is simultaneously upgrading pipelines and sewer systems, some of which date back to the 1800s, under University Avenue.

Project: University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation Centennial Building
Owners: UW Board of Regents, state of Wisconsin
Lead contractor: Vogel Bros. Building Co., Madison
Lead engineer: Henneman Engineering Inc., Champaign, Ill.
Lead architect: Flad & Associates Architects Inc., Madison
Completion date: April 2010
Cost: $43 million
Location: University of Wisconsin Medical Campus, Madison
Project challenge: Although the UW Medical Campus underwent plenty of work in recent years, including the $182 million Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research, office quarters at the UW Hospital were getting tight as the need for clinical space grew, said Mark Wells, assistant dean for facilities.
Significance to Dane County: “I think if you look at what the research and health care provided on this campus brings to the region, it’s huge,” Wells said. “What this building does is provide quarters for those doctors and much needed clinical space within the hospital.”
Point of interest: Wells said the cooperation among the architect, engineer and contractor to fit the 130,000-square-foot, seven-story building into a tight spot between existing buildings and historic property cannot be understated. “There wasn’t a lot of extra room to work with,” he said.

Project: Union South
Owners: UW Board of Regents, state of Wisconsin
Construction Manager: CG Schmidt Inc., Milwaukee
Lead engineer: Arnold & O’Sheridan Inc., Madison
Lead architect: Workshop Architects Inc., Milwaukee
Completion date: March 2011
Cost: $94 million
Location: UW-Madison campus
Project challenge: “It’s a tight site in a tight urban setting, and it has an aggressive schedule,” said Greg Oelerich, division manager in CG Schmidt’s Madison office. “It’s a union, hotel and parking structure and it takes a lot of collaboration, but it’s a fun, unique project.”
Significance to Dane County: “It’s a high-profile project for the university,” Oelerich said. “But it’s also the chance for everyone to take a good look at the construction manager delivery method and see if this will be a time- and money-saver or not.”
Point of interest: The UW-Madison agreed to host the 2011 Science Olympiad at the new building in May 2011 before construction even started.

Project name: The World Famous Mustard Museum
Project owner: HP Holdings LLC, Fort Atkinson
Lead contractor: Bachmann Construction Co. Inc., Madison
Lead engineer: 4th Dimension Design Inc., Waukesha
Lead architect: The Architectural Firm LLC, Jefferson
Completion date: November 2009
Cost: $2 million
Location: Middleton
Project challenge: The World Famous Mustard Museum was in Mount Horeb Home since 1992, but the curators in 2008 decided to relocate the museum to the corner of Parmenter Street and Hubbard Avenue in Middleton to attract more visitors and seize a chance for tax-incremental financing.
Significance to Dane County: “I think it will bring a lot more people to Dane County,” said curator Barry Levenson. “It will be easier to get to than Mount Horeb, and we’re certainly going to do our part to make sure people come visit.”
Point of interest: One of the walls of the antiques museum collapsed during site preparation work, resulting in the whole building being torn down. The new museum will be built from scratch. Levenson said the incident was a setback, as he wanted to have the museum incorporate some of the city’s history.

Project name: Villager Mall renovation
Project owner: city of Madison
Lead contractor: J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison
Lead engineer: Arnold & O’Sheridan Inc., Madison
Lead architect: Strang Inc., Madison
Completion date: November 2009
Cost: $6 million
Location: Madison
Project challenge: “Tearing down an old structure while still trying to keep pieces of it in the new one,” said Jim Kalscheur, project superintendent with Findorff. “It’s been rebuilt and remodeled several times, and no one’s kept the drawings, so there’s a lot of guesswork and building on the fly.”
Significance to Dane County: The renovated mall will house offices for the Dane County Department of Health and Human Services, Madison Area Technical College and the UW-Madison.
Point of interest: The project is a key component to revitalizing Madison’s south side, Kalschuer said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to attract some light retail, maybe a coffee shop and maybe a restaurant.”