Pushing the Envelope to Deliver the Iconic U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs
In athletics, the gold medalist is recognized as a champion among all of humankind. Legacies in construction or design are harder to quantify, but when the new United States Olympic Museum opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it will certainly be meaningful for design architect, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), and General Contractor/Construction Manager, GE Johnson Construction Company.
“The incredible architecture we are delivering is challenging all of us to think beyond boundaries,” says GE Johnson Superintendent, Tim Redfern, an industry veteran of more than 25 years.
DS+R’s design for the U.S. Olympic Museum (USOM) idealizes athletic motion by organizing its programs – galleries, auditorium, and administrative spaces – twisting and stretching centrifugally around an atrium space. Circulation is organic; spiraling down from the top floor through the museum’s galleries, the folded planes of the building’s superstructure create helical volumes of space circling the open center core.
A full-scale mock-up of an exterior wall section was built on site to troubleshoot assembly and streamline sequencing for the exterior skin configuration.
“The dynamic building form defies typical construction. Thinking outside of the box is not an adequate description of what we’re doing to make this happen,” shares Redfern. The design’s diverse elevations called for fifteen independent concrete- slab-on-metal-deck elevations, scaling just four stories of construction with no two planes running parallel for long. Structural tolerances are ultra-tight, becoming even less forgiving higher up in the structure – the opposite of most builds. The exterior frame tolerance is two inches, while interior frame tolerances are only a quarter of an inch, with just an eighth of an inch of deflection. Controlling precise placement of every piece of an exceptionally intricate puzzle like the U.S. Olympic Museum is a process that can only be accomplished through a spirit of continuous improvement.
“Normally, once you have things figured out, construction becomes routine,” says Project Manager, John McCorkle. “I do not see that happening here. We are continually questioning how we do things. The ingenuity of this structure demands constant collaboration with designers, builders, fabricators, and installers. Everyone will be learning all the way until the end.”
The exterior plaza is designed to frame year-round views of Pikes Peak and welcome visitors from around the globe.
The team is pre-thinking and rethinking every move by incorporating a 3-D point cloud that provides an accurate digital record of the physically intangible space. All subcontractors are required to use the point cloud to develop approvable shop drawings. The point cloud is integrated with the BIM model, which draws from several computer-aided designs, graphics, engineering, and manufacturing programs, along with the discipline-specific platforms of a variety of different subcontractors. Integrated work plans developed with subcontractors define every aspect of each construction activity including who, what, when, and where. Most importantly, plans will detail how each piece is assembled, verified, and validated for accuracy against the overall model as tasks complete. Looking beyond typical clash detection, the fully detailed steel fabrication model allows the clearances of each structural framing member to be independently checked to make sure the design’s distinctive shell of diverging planes and scaled metal skin reads as intended.
The building’s structural steel skeleton will ultimately be enveloped in more than 9,000 diamond-shaped anodized aluminum panels, giving the finished façade an other-worldly quality.
“There will be a high-level of scrutiny on a building like this because of the iconic architecture,” says McCorkle of the pressure on GE Johnson to deliver the signature design.
The museum’s unique exterior skin aptly illustrates the intricate precision of purpose and combination of expertise required to succeed at the Olympic level. The facade will be covered in more than 9,000 individual diamond-shaped anodized aluminum panels that interlock to form a single, beveled surface with integrated drainage channels. In total, an estimated 27,000 anchor points will attach the exterior wall sections to the structural frame. The specific details of every panel from backing materials, sheathing, and waterproofing will all be independently analyzed within the model because, seemingly, every panel is either uniquely shaped, placed, or attached. GE Johnson brought highly specialized subcontractors who had previous experience with similar configurations onto the team to achieve the use of these unusual building materials and intricate assembly processes.
Wedged between a now-industrial zone and a through-town rail yard, the new USOM strives to be a catalyst for area redevelopment when complete.
“Premium-quality construction is always a collaboration,” says McCorkle. “Delivering this design uncompromised means getting out of the comfort zone and seeking capabilities beyond our own.” Early in the problem-solving process GE Johnson worked with design architect DS+R, architect of record Anderson Mason Dale, and structural engineer KL&A on refining the micro-framing system that attaches exterior wall sections to the structure. To address the complex sub-framing of the skin through a design-assist collaboration, the team decided to work with Radius Track, renowned for developing curved, cold-formed steel framing, to develop a buildable system. Through continual collaboration, the team was able to optimize wind-girt supports, which increased certainty and repeatability in installation while also decreasing costs overall.
The twisting, helical design takes inspiration from the twisting form of a discus thrower but before release.
Even as the structure reaches its highest elevation, preconstruction activities continue. For the specialized subcontractors developing a sequence of efficiently attaching the exterior skin to the structure, nothing is more valuable than the full-scale exterior wall section being erected on-site. McCorkle and Redfern estimate that the 20- x 20-foot mock-up wall section will require more than 1,000 labor hours to assemble and will likely cost more than $150,000 to build. Eight different subcontractors must delicately interlace their work through a maze of structural framing, light-gauge framing, waterproofing, drainage, glazing, and aluminum panels. Identifying components within wall sections that can be prefabricated off-site, like the micro-framing system and laser cutting framing plates, increases quality control and supports repeatable processes during construction. Each component is individually numbered like a giant model, indicating where, how, and to what it attaches, and each placement can be checked against the point cloud to verify alignment accuracy.
Thinking outside of the box has not been limited to solving challenges on the outside of the building. Placing the museum’s extremely large, yet whisper quiet, air handling unit presented a series of sequencing challenges with a ripple effect that will likely continue to reverberate.
“It is low-speed, high-volume and is by far the largest air handler I have ever put in,” says Redfern enthusiastically. “The size dictates a basement placement, which meant installing it before we put in the structural steel for level one.” Once installed, this unorthodox situation left the massive (and expensive) unit unprotected from the weather until the floor above it could be dried in. Complicating matters, structural engineering indicated that the concrete floor slabs across the building’s many elevations should be poured from the top down to deflect loading. Waiting until the museum’s 15 elevations were poured and cured would greatly extend the exposure period for the mechanical system, presenting significant risk and an extremely difficult situation to rework if the unit was damaged. “We encouraged the owner and design team to install terrazzo on the first level floors instead of stained concrete so that floor placement could be moved up in the schedule, increasing protection of the AHU and equipment below.”
Placing the air handling unit first also required fireproofing the basement before setting structural steel, one of several conditions which make multiple mobilizations of key trades likely throughout construction.
“We have been empowered to use ingenuity to solve complex challenges at every turn on a very, very cool building,” finishes Redfern. “GE Johnson is using anything and everything we can to build this right. Pushing boundaries, gaining outside expertise, and asking more of oneself than others will is the Olympic spirit this museum is being built to honor.”■
