Southeast Wisconsin cities under development – A snapshot of construction projects in the region

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University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Communication Arts building reconstruction

Owner: UW-Parkside, Kenosha

Lead contractor: Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah

Lead architect/engineer: Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc., Minneapolis

Completion date: fall 2011

Cost: $34 million

Location: UW-Parkside campus, 900 Wood Road, Kenosha

Project challenge: The project ran into problems facing any such construction job: aligning the wish list for amenities with the available budget, said John Desch, the campus planner. The solution required cuts, such as whittling the number of classrooms to five, he said.

Significance to southeast cities: The new building is intended to be a gathering place for different types of art in the region, Desch said. It will have theaters, two art galleries and rehearsal halls for theatrical drama and music. “We’re going to try to create a regional center for the arts,” Desch said.

Point of interest: The most interesting thing about the building’s exterior design is that it’s intended to be unremarkable, Desch said. Hammel, Green and Abrahamson designed the arts center to match the existing campus buildings. “If it works out as planned,” he said, “they aren’t going to notice necessarily that it’s a new building.”

Health and Emergency Responder Occupations Center

Owner: Burlington Area School District, Burlington

Lead contractor: Scherrer Construction Co. Inc., Burlington

Lead architect/engineer: Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP, Milwaukee

Completion date: First week of August

Cost: $1.5 million

Location: Gateway Technical College Burlington campus, 496 McCanna
Parkway, Burlington

Project challenge: The building must accommodate large fire trucks and the need to use the interior space for firefighter training. “It’s relatively easy to build a roof if you can put a post up every 10 to 15 feet,” said Ron Jandura, Burlington School District administrator. But the HERO building needs a high roof with clearances of about 80 feet by 60 feet for the trucks, he said.

Significance to southeast cities: Gateway will use the 10,000-square-foot addition to train police officers and firefighters to improve emergency response in the region, said Gary Olsen, director of buildings and grounds for the Burlington School District. “It’s going to enhance their ability to meet that need,” he said. “And certainly for Burlington, it’s going to help people in the Burlington area have better access to those services.”

Point of interest: The partnership between the district and Gateway Technical College is unique in the region, Olsen said. The district owns the buildings in which Gateway operates and oversees college projects, and the two collaborate when planning projects.

Carthage College Student Center

Owner: Carthage College, Kenosha

Lead contractor: J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison

Lead architect/engineer: Burt, Hill, Philadelphia

Completion date: May 2011

Cost: $13 million

Location: Carthage College campus, 2001 Alford Park Drive, Kenosha

Project challenge: The project team will renovate a 1975 building that housed a campus swimming pool until closing in 2001. Environmental sustainability is a goal, so campus planners had to figure out what to do with the aluminum swimming pool in the building, said Bill Hoare, Carthage associate vice president for business.

He said he took a gamble by hiring a contractor to cut the pool into aluminum strips for recycling. The contractor took 60 percent of the profits, and the college took 40 percent, he said.

Significance to southeast cities: The building is in the center of the main housing cluster on campus but has been vacant since 2001, Hoare said. This project will bring the building back into use and, by adding four new restaurants and a bookstore, make it a central area for students.

Point of interest: The building is on a hill overlooking Carthage’s main athletic field, so the project will add stadium bleacher seating for 1,000 people and a new press box on the third floor.

Grandview Meadows

Owner: Brookstone Homes Inc., Oconomowoc

Lead contractor: Brookstone Homes Inc.

Lead architect/engineer: Somerset Home Planning LLC, Pewaukee

Completion date: Phase 1 of the 107-lot development will be complete by the end of 2010.

Cost: At the current selling price of $175,000 per lot and house, the development will be worth $18.7 million.

Location: 4137 35th Ave., Kenosha

Project challenge: The site, a former shipping yard for car motors, has been vacant for decades, and the first challenge was getting Kenosha residents to realize the property is turning into a neighborhood, said Casey Masterson, Brookstone director of marketing. There were no roads going through the site until Brookstone’s project began. However, with seven houses sold, buses and postal vehicles are driving through, and the community is starting to realize the neighborhood exists, he said.

Significance to southeast cities: The property will bring owner-occupied housing to an area targeted for such development by city of Kenosha planners, said Zohrab Khaligian, Kenosha community development specialist. The site is surrounded by 60 four-apartment buildings.

Point of interest: Brookstone has mostly developed subdivisions on farmland and vacant land outside of larger cities, Masterson said. But the Grandview project is in the center of Kenosha, and requires smaller lots and more compact, traditional houses so the development matches the rest of the city, he said.

Indian Trail High School

Owner: Kenosha Unified School District, Kenosha

Construction Manager: Camosy Construction Co. Inc., Kenosha

Lead architect/engineer: Bray Associates-Architects Inc., Sheboygan

Completion date: summer 2011

Cost: $46 million

Location: 6800 60th St., Kenosha

Project challenge: The project is expanding the Indian Trail Academy, which has about 800 students and will be in use throughout the multiyear project. The situation demanded Camosy fence off outdoor construction areas and build wooden walls indoors between builders and places where students are learning.

The project also requires careful coordination to make sure construction shipments don’t arrive at the same time as buses, said Bob Nikolai, Camosy vice president of construction services. “We have about a mile of fence out there,” he said.

Significance to southeast cities: The Kenosha district’s two high schools are already at capacity, and the student population continues to grow, Nikolai said. The new Indian Trail High School will let the district serve at least 2,200 more students, he said.

Point of interest: Although the 40-acre site demands a lot of fencing, it also gives Camosy a lot of room to stretch out, which is a rare luxury, Nikolai said. There is plenty of space for worker parking and for materials to be stored on site, he said.

St. Catherine’s Medical Center vertical expansion

Owner: United Hospital System Inc., Kenosha

Lead contractor: Riley Construction Co. Inc., Kenosha

Lead architect/engineer: Welman Architects Inc., Waukesha

Completion date: summer 2011

Cost: $60 million

Location: 9555 76th St., Pleasant Prairie

Project challenge: The project includes building three stories on top of the medical center. That means builders are working above operating rooms and have to carefully coordinate to make sure they aren’t working above a room when surgery is taking place, said Scott Gurholt, Riley Construction spokesman. “You don’t want to be moving a 4-ton piece of steel when you have somebody’s heart open,” he said.

Significance to southeast cities: St. Catherine’s is about two miles from Interstate 94 in an area attracting numerous new residents, Gurholt said. “The expansion is really allowing the hospital system to meet the growing patient demand in that western area,” he said.

Point of interest: United Hospital System is moving its birthing center into the expanded third floor from the Kenosha Regional Medical Center in downtown Kenosha. There is more demand for the service around the medical center than in the central areas of the city, Gurholt said.

LakeView RecPlex Pool addition

Owner: Village of Pleasant Prairie

Lead contractor: Riley Construction Co. Inc., Kenosha

Lead architect/engineer: Partners in Design Architects Inc., Kenosha

Completion date: June 2010

Cost: $11.5 million

Location: 9900 Terwall Terrace, Pleasant Prairie

Project challenge: The project team is pursuing the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, but controlling the temperature in the swimming pool and 40,000-square-foot room around it requires more energy use than an average room, said Scott Gurholt, Riley Construction spokesman.

The project includes building a pipeline into nearby Lake Andrea, which stays at roughly 50 degrees, he said. Water will be pumped through the pipes in the lake to provide warm water in winter and cool water in summer.

Significance to southeast cities: The Olympic-size, 50-meter pool will let Pleasant Prairie host regional and national swimming competitions, Gurholt said. Six events have been booked already, he said, and the dues from the events will help pay to keep the building open.

Point of interest: The pool will have less chlorine and sterilizing chemicals than most pools because of a special ultraviolet treatment system. Water in the pool will be filtered through the UV light, which will kill bacteria, so less chlorine is needed to keep the water clean.