Dallas, Texas
GOVERNMENT
“You normally compromise when you go through a VA process. I believe we got everything we wanted.”
—Dan Savage, facilities management, Dallas County
Piles are being driven, foundations are being poured, and a myriad of long-lead specialized equipment is being bought for Dallas’ version of “CSI.”
The $44 million, 112,000-square-foot facility will greatly enhance the County’s forensic capabilities and will include a ballistics testing facility, trace, DNA extraction and drug analysis labs, a one-story medical examiner’s office with a morgue and autopsy equipment, as well as administration areas and conference/teaching space for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “We had a very succesful and collaborative value engineering effort. We saved over $3 million without sacrificing any of the building’s required functionality. The cooperation among the McCarthy team, its subs and the architect produces very beneficial results,” said Dallas County’s Dan Savage. Scheduled for completion in April 2009, the project’s major challenge will be the coordination of all MEP elements, those making up more than a 1/3 of the project’s total cost. Architect: HKS, Inc., Dallas, Texas.
