ABC Alabama Excellence in Construction Awards
We are excited to announce two of our projects recently received first place 2022 ABC Excellence in Construction Awards!
The U.S. Courthouse in Anniston, AL
Category: Federal Government Military $10 to $100M
The new 63,000-square-foot Anniston Federal Courthouse is home to the U.S. District Court and the Bankruptcy Court of Northern Alabama. It also provides a workspace for the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The original federal courthouse in Anniston, Alabama, was built in 1906 and had become nearly obsolete. Security equipment barely fit at the building’s front entrance, and there was no way to safely transport prisoners into the courthouse for trial, which meant that jury trials were held in Birmingham, a one-hour drive west. In 2016, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) unveiled a $947 million federal program to build new federal courthouses across the country, including Anniston. BL Harbert teamed with Page Southerland Page to compete for the $37 million design-build contract award. Our team’s winning design concept grew directly from the relationship between this new project and the existing early 1900s federal courthouse on Noble Street. The goal was to create a distinctive new structure related to its distinguished historical context.
During construction, our team used items salvaged from a nearby United Service Organizations facility at the new courthouse, including a stone eagle carving that was placed in the courthouse exterior and cast-iron lamp posts. Portions of the interior include Sylacauga marble, chosen for its white color and designation as the official Alabama state rock. To resemble Alabama marble, the exterior is entirely clad with precast concrete. A larger public pedestrian plaza commemorating the Freedom Riders National Monument anchors the southeast corner of the site to provide a space for visitor drop-off to the Freedom Riders Memorial, as well as seating on the hillside terrace steps.
VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic and Mental Health Campus in Gainesville, FL
Category: Commercial $50 to $100M
The VA campus includes a 106,848-square-foot outpatient clinic and a 57,932-square-foot mental health clinic. Services offered include primary care, women’s health, behavioral health, physical therapy, audiology, diagnostic imaging, dental, ophthalmology, mental health intensive case management, psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery center, suicide prevention, mental health screenings, local recovery coordination, and programs related to eliminating veteran homelessness.
For the last 20 years, several VA Outpatient and Mental Health functions have been relocated to various locations around Gainesville as the Malcolm Randall Veteran Affairs Medical Clinic ran out of space. The new Community-Based Outpatient and Mental Health facilities will allow all those services to be consolidated on one easy-to-navigate campus. This campus will serve over 40,000 veterans in the North Florida community, bringing innovation, new technology, and additional needed medical services and serving as a first step in treating mental health.