Weitz's Sky Harbor T4 Retail Renovation Wins Award
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Southwest Contractor, a leading construction industry publication, held the 10th annual competition, recognizing construction and design excellence in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. Over 700 entries were received in the tri-state region, with a record 282 representing Arizona projects. An independent jury comprised of eight design and construction professionals selected 24 winning projects among 23 categories, with two additional editor’s choice awards. Winning projects were chosen based on their quality of design and construction, innovation, contribution to the community, challenges overcome and overall excellence.
The $25 million Terminal 4 Retail Renovation of over 128,500 square feet was designed to reflect Arizona’s natural beauty and diversity. This project created space for 21 retail tenants and added eight freestanding Retail Merchandising Units as well as six wall Retail Merchandising Units. New tenants include: Arizona Highways, The Phoenix, CNBC News, Brighton Collectibles, Canyon News, AZ Grillin’, In Celebration of Golf, PHXpress, AZ Kids, Desert Breeze, InMotion Pictures, Pass the Popcorn and See’s Candies.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 4 handles about 75 percent of the airport’s passenger traffic. In an effort to accelerate the schedule, Weitz re-evaluated the preliminary phasing plan created for the work in the Terminal area. Weitz proposed re-delineated work areas in order to allow work to occur in multiple areas at once without affecting the functioning of the airport operations. In order to verify the new phasing and sequencing would work, meetings were held with each of the various airport departments which would be affected by the new plan including the Airlines (Southwest and America West), Airport Facilities, Operations and Maintenance supervisors as well as the Engineering Project Management. Ultimately the new phasing and sequencing plan was accepted and allowed the work in the Terminal to be substantially completed ten months ahead of schedule.
“The transformation was unbelievable and we are delighted to be part of team that made it happen”, says Bontrager.
Because of the Airport’s significant impact on economic development and travelers “dwelling experience”, the renovation was held to high quality standards, in both the design and construction.
The lobby design features dramatic lighting against a backdrop of overhanging cliff projections mimicking a canyon floor. Graphic floor designs provide orientation and present native fauna. The retail spaces conform to the motifs as if they were carved out of the canyon wall.
Special care was taken with the tile and stone elements. There were 45 different types of Italian porcelain floor tile in 12 different patterns, plus four special waterjet cut floor feature accents. Twenty different types of wall tiles were used throughout the project. Two different types of native Arizona sand stone from the Chino Valley area were used on the walls at various locations and as column wraps.
The team for this renovation was the City of Phoenix Aviation Department (owner), Abacus Project Management, Inc (owner’s representative), The Weitz Company (general contractor), Minnesota Architectural Alliance (design architect), TranSystems Corporation (construction administration architect) and SI Partners Inc. (retail consultant).
About The Weitz Company
Founded in Des Moines, Iowa in 1855, The Weitz Company is the second oldest general building contractor in the United States. By the 1980s, the company expanded its horizons by appealing to the national market, and today Weitz is the 19th largest domestic general building firm and the 19th largest construction manager at risk firm in the United States.
Weitz Lite, a streamline division of Weitz Southwest, dedicated solely to tenant improvements and smaller scale general contracting in the Phoenix Metropolitan area was developed in 2000 and continues to be an integral part of the Business Unit’s success.
The Southwest Business Unit is pleased to be celebrating 29 years of exceptional service in Arizona and 152 years as a company.