Goizueta Business School Center for Research and Doctoral Education, Emory University

Owner: Emory University
Location: Atlanta
Contractor: Holder Construction Co., Atlanta
Architect: Sizemore Group, Atlanta

Holder Construction Co. was able to build the new 86,000-sq.-ft. Goizueta Business School Center for Research and Doctoral Education at Emory University in Atlanta ahead of schedule, under budget and with no lost-time accidents over the course of 30,845 person-hours.

The new facility is located west of the existing Goizueta Business School, with the two structures connected by sky bridges at the fourth and fifth floors. The new building consists of classrooms, faculty offices, café and a large meeting room with catering kitchen.

One major concern was the schedule. The Emory Goizueta Business School needed to occupy the fourth and fifth floors two weeks ahead of the contract schedule. By permitting the building on a floor-by-floor basis, overlapping design and construction and by executing the underground utilities and structures portion of the job four weeks ahead of schedule, the Holder-led team was able to complete the project five weeks ahead of schedule.

In order to accommodate the school's early-completion requirements, the team divided the construction activities to ultimately gain time on the schedule.

One major obstacle to shortening the schedule was the extensive amount of underground utility work that needed to be completed prior to half of the structure being erected. Underground utility work was restricted to the summer of 2004 due to the amount of scheduled activities within the existing building.

Holder's solution was to divide the structure in half and schedule the first half of the building to be complete four weeks early while allowing for the required chilled-water and steam site-utility relocation and tie-ins to take place. Once the first half of the structure and the site-utility work was complete, the second phase of the building structure was initiated.

The building design and construction incorporated sustainable features for certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. The project earned LEED points for its rainwater harvesting, water efficiency, waste management and energy performance.

According to Holder, the project is on track to become a LEED gold certified building.

Additionally, Emory University submitted the existing building under the LEED EB program and received a gold certification. As a result, upon phase two certification, the entire complex will be LEED certified.