06/10/03
By JESYCA WESTBROOK
Times Business Writer JMWest5@aol.com
NASA officials will break ground today for a new Engineering Directorate building that will feature solar panels and other environmentally friendly features.
The new, $22 million building, to be constructed at the southwest corner of Martin and Rideout roads at Marshall Space Flight Center, will replace the 1960s era engineering building across the street from the new site. The old building will be demolished, and the new one will be known as Building 4600.
A ceremony was to begin at 10:15 a.m. at the construction site. About 500 Marshall employees will move to the new five-story, 139,000 square-foot office building when it is completed in September 2004.
The Engineering Directorate provides development and research engineering services for Marshall. The engineering building will be the first in a construction plan designed to transform Marshall into a modern, highly efficient and environmentally considerate research campus.
A lot of the buildings at Marshall are now 50 years old, or older. "They are expensive to operate now and they have drawbacks with handicap access. We want to improve that," said Keith Kirksey, a Marshall planner.
The Marshall office buildings were state-of-the art in the mid-'60s, and have not structurally changed since that time. The buildings aren't designed for modern computers, satellites and telecommunication devices, and aren't very environmentally efficient.
Marshall currently pays up to $1.2 million a month for utilities. "We estimate that our plan for new buildings and renovations will save 20 to 30 percent of our current utility prices," said Edwin Jones, manager of Marshall's facilities engineering department.
The Engineering Directorate will be the first new building at Marshall in 10 years. The facility will be the first of three buildings to be built in a new complex. The other two buildings are scheduled for construction in 2005 and 2006.
GSC Construction of Waynesboro, Ga., has been selected as the contractor for the Engineering Directorate building. George McKnight, project manager for GSC, said 80 percent of the subcontractors will be Alabama-based.
McKnight said the new building will have solar power to contribute to the main power grid and other environmentally friendly features. Buildings constructed using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design techniques, McKnight said, must contain a certain percentage of recycled building materials. For example, ceiling tiles, carpet, cement wall board and steel must be made of 30 percent recycled material.
The techniques are so new, McKnight said, "we have to go to school and learn about all the programs before we start the actually building."
The same familiar blue paneling, famous in older Marshall buildings, will be maintained to create uniformity across the campus.
