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Hometown Renovation
LaGrange, Ga., project has added
meaning for contractors
By Scott Judy
Paul Meadows remembers growing up in Troup County, Ga., and
attending numerous parades that culminated in downtown LaGrange's
Lafayette Square. Even though he lived outside of town, LaGrange
was "part of home."
Today, Meadows works as a project executive for Batson-Cook
Co., a major contractor headquartered in nearby West Point,
Ga., also in Troup County, that ranks among Engineering News-Record's
Top 400 Contractors nationally.
While Meadows doesn't live in Troup County anymore, it's
in his and Batson-Cook's hometown county that he is working
on what he considers a "once-in-a-lifetime project,"
one he views as a chance back to contribute to the community
in which he grew up.
"We're very excited," he said. "It's one of
the biggest projects I can imagine for LaGrange, and it's
something that the people have been very excited about and
talked about for years."
Likewise, Troup County was pleased to be able to hire a local
contractor.
"By going as local as much as possible, we feel we're
helping our local economy," said County Manager Mike
Cobb.
The project's location near Lafayette Square will be a boost
to the downtown economy, Cobb added. "The center will
meet the needs of the community for years to come," he
added. "We're ready to get in it."
The Project
The project will consolidate numerous governmental functions
and improve ease of use for area residents. It includes a
new, 124,000-sq.-ft. courthouse building; a 138,000-sq.-ft.,
335-space parking deck; and the renovation of a historic courthouse
building. The project is being built as the result of a September
2001 passage of a local tax that also funds several enhancements
to the county's recreational amenities.
The new courthouse includes county administration offices,
various courtrooms, prisoner holding cells and other spaces.
The renovated structure will accommodate juvenile court and
other support offices. Completion is set for May.
Batson-Cook is serving as construction manager and also holds
contracts covering concrete work and general trades. The contractor
self-performed all concrete work on both the new courthouse
structure and the parking deck.
The new building was constructed with a cast-in-place-concrete
shell and an exterior featuring brick, architectural precast
concrete and copper shingle siding along the roofline.
The new courthouse and parking deck rest on driven steel
piles.
"That was quite an undertaking," Meadows added.
"You get a lot of noise and vibrations, so we went to
extensive lengths to monitor vibrations in the existing buildings
downtown to make sure none of those were damaged," including
the existing courthouse across the street.
Foundation contractor F & W Construction of Ozark, Ala.,
installed the roughly 300 piles required for the two structures.
Meadows said vibration proved to be quite low, "well
within the tolerances."
Batson-Cook crews oversaw the concrete work, utilizing a
forming subcontractor and another firm to handle finishing.
"Once we had the structure poured out on (the new courthouse),
we moved over to the parking structure and started working,"
Meadows said.
Crews topped out the new building in July and then poured
out the parking deck in October.
Batson-Cook divided all three phases of the project - new
building, parking deck and existing courthouse - along trades,
so that one firm would handle all related construction in
all three parts of the project.
Interior finishes in the new building were "pretty basic,"
Meadows said, with higher-end ceiling and millwork detail
included in the judges' chambers and courtrooms.
Outside, the goal was to design the new, up-to-date structure
to fit in with the surrounding architecture.
"We wanted it to blend in," said Troup County's
Cobb.
"They wanted something that was appropriate to the area,"
said Lamar Chambers, project architect with Urban Design Group
of Atlanta. "They wanted something that had a certain
stature, but something that was very cost-effective."
To that end, the architect chose materials common to the
area, opting for a mostly brick exterior but with some precast
concrete as well.
"We tried to mold the exterior skin of the building
to have the right feel for that area," Chambers said.
The Renovation
Less typical was the renovation of the existing courthouse.
A three-story, 17,000-sq.-ft. structure built in the 1930s,
the existing courthouse was out of date and lacked true handicapped
accessibility. A beautiful courtroom on the third floor, which
will serve as juvenile court, served as the main impetus for
preserving the structure.
Batson-Cook and its crews started work on the existing building
by first doing an asbestos abatement and then made it watertight
with a new roof and new windows.
"It had leaked over the years, so one of the first things
we did was put a new roof system on it," Meadows said.
"They also had problems with water coming through some
of the exterior walls. We actually started putting the roof
on first, and then we started doing the exterior wall repairs."
Engineered Restorations of Lawrenceville, Ga., regrouted
the joints of the exterior marble walls and also cleaned the
entire exterior.
Meadows said easily the most difficult construction task
was the elevator installation.
"We had to cut through a wall from the basement side
into a crawl space," he added. "And no one really
knew what was on that other side of the wall. Once we got
in, we found the dirt was much higher than floor level.
"We had to hand excavate down probably 8 ft. just to
get down to where the floor level would be, and then hand
excavate again for the elevator pit. Then we had to structurally
support each floor before we cut those holes for the elevator
to travel from top to bottom."
Elevator installation took about three months.
To function as a modern facility, the building needed completely
new communication, security and other systems.
"Today's buildings require a lot of communications electronics,
a lot more security electronics, and we expect the security
to be tighter and more automated than it was when it was built,"
Chambers said.
There was little space in which to install these systems,
and they needed to be hidden.
"We tried to run those (systems) in those less-public
areas," such as the offices, Chambers said.
Again, the main focus of preservation was the upper courtroom.
"It's a beautiful old courtroom, with lots of marble,"
Chambers said. "We tried very hard to keep that space
like it was originally designed, but we still had to put in
new air conditioning, fire protection, sprinkler systems,
new lighting without intruding on that beautiful old space."
To help protect the space, designers called for several smaller
HVAC units instead of a single larger unit. The smaller systems
required smaller ductwork, which was necessary due to the
existing space.
To date, the project is under budget and remains on track
for the original May completion date. That's music to Cobb's
ears.
"If you can say that, you've said a lot," he said.
"We're very excited about being able to utilize this
new facility."
Meadows said he's pleased that a project that is as personally
meaningful to him is heading for a happy ending.
"It's been very fulfilling," he added.
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