Top Projects Started

1. FDA Headquarters Consolidation

Cost: $880 million

When it’s completed, the $880 million, 3-million-sq-.ft. Food and Drug Administration Consolidation Project at White Oak near Silver Spring, Md., will unite on one campus 7,700 employees from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and the Center for Biologic and Evaluation Research.

The buildings in the complex will cluster around a green commons and connect via second-level, enclosed pedestrian bridges.

The Department of Health and Human Services, of which the FDA is a part, began planning the consolidation in 1991. Four years later, the Naval Surface Warfare Center at White Oak became available through a Base Realignment and Closure process, and Congress decided to locate the FDA at the former naval center. Each year, lawmakers appropriate additional funds for construction at the FDA complex.

Kling of Philadelphia in association with RTKL Associates Inc. of Washington, D.C., created the master plan and designed the buildings, retaining a 1940s-era structure for renovation into administrative offices.

Brick matching that used in the historic structure and metal panels grace the exterior of new office buildings, said John Robinson, principal with and director of projects for Kling. The more technical buildings, the laboratories, use glass curtain wall and metal panel, he added.

Tompkins Builders Inc. of Washington, D.C., completed the 130,000-sq.-ft. Life Sciences Building in 2003, and Centex Construction of Fairfax, Va., finished the more than 500,000-sq.ft., six-story Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in 2005. Forrester Construction Co. of Rockville, Md., built an 800-car parking facility.

Centex was expected to wrap up work by this fall on the 130,000-sq.-ft., three-level Central Shared Use structure. This main hub of the campus will contain a cafeteria, library, fitness center and security department.

Tompkins is working on the 140,000-sq.-ft. Engineering and Physics Laboratory, with an expected completion in the first quarter of 2007. It will connect with the Life Sciences Lab. The lowest level of the four-story engineering building is larger than the upper floors to accommodate experiments requiring vibration-sensitive equipment.

Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda, Md., has topped out the second, 300,000-sq.-ft., six-story Center for Drug Evaluation and Research office building, scheduled for completion in 2008. The second building has a narrower profile than the first structure to bring in more natural light.

The GDA has requested bids for construction of the 390,000-sq.-ft. Center for Devices and Radiological Health office building. Renovation of the 80,000-sq-.ft., historic building is now in design, at the schematic level, as is a 450,000-sq.-ft. adjoining building for the Office of Regulatory Affairs. The lobby of the older structure will connect to an atrium in the shared-use building. A 1,200-car parking facility will be built near the administrative offices.

A second Life Sciences Laboratory, an office building for the Center for Biologic and Evaluation Research and the Center for Veterinary Medicine remain to be designed. GSA anticipates a 2011 completion, assuming future congressional funding.

Team Box:

Owner: General Services Administration, Washington, D.C.
Architect: Kling, Philadelphia, and RTKL Associates Inc., Washington, D.C.
Life Sciences Laboratory General Contractor: Tompkins Builders Inc., Washington, D.C.
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research General Contractor: Centex Construction, Fairfax, Va.
Central Shared Use General Contractor: Centex Construction, Fairfax, Va.
Center for Devices and Radiological Health General Contractor: Tompkins Builders Inc., Washington, D.C.
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research General Contractor, building two: Clark Construction Group LLC, Bethesda, Md.

2. Nationals Baseball Stadium

Cost: $611 million

A $611 ballpark for the Washington Nationals, one of the key components of the District of Columbia’s plan to entice the former Montreal Expos Major League Baseball team to the nation’s capital, has begun taking shape along the banks of the Anacostia River, 1 mi. south of the U.S. Capitol building.

The ballpark is anchoring a new public-private, mixed-use entertainment district aimed at revitalizing that part of town.

The Nationals have played since the 2005 season at the aging RFK stadium, while the city sought suggestions for the new stadium from fans, architects, business leaders and area citizens.

In May, Major League Baseball announced the sale of the team to a group led by real estate developer Theodore N. Lerner of Washington, D.C. Along with the District of Columbia Sports & Entertainment Commission, the owners immediately began involvement in refining the stadium design.

Clark/Hunt/Smoot, A Joint Venture, began working on the $388 million construction, 1-millionsq.-ft. project in May and expects to complete it on time for the April 2008 season opener. Partners include Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda, Md.; Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis; and the Sherman R. Smoot Corp. of Washington, D.C.

Designed by a joint venture of HOK Sport of Kansas City, Mo., and Devrouax & Purnell Architects of Washington, D.C., the 41,000-seat stadium will feature an outfield restaurant, conference center, two membership-only dining locations, office space for the ball club and street-side retail space. Polshek Partnership of New York served as a design consultant.

The stadium will include a glass curtain wall on the upper-level lounges to allow fans to view the city and waterfront, and ground-level openings for passersby to look into the ballpark. The first two ballpark levels are poured-in-place concrete. The upper levels are structural steel.

The fast-track, 22-month project broke ground with only partial drawings, and the architects are staying ahead of construction. Clark/Hunt/Smoot awarded design assist contracts to several trades to help expedite ordering of materials with long lead times, such as structural steel and the structural precast seating. Design takes place in phases, allowing ordering of materials and construction on one segment of the project before proceeding to the next area. Final plans are expected in October

“It’s going to be a real challenging to make sure the follow-on design is within budget and coordinates perfectly with the structure,” said Matt Haas, a project executive with Clark Construction.

Crews are excavating 300,000 cu. yds. Concrete piles and foundations began this summer, and concourse-level concrete started in late July. Structural steel will begin in October.

The team aims to achieve 50 percent minority participation in the construction. In mid-July, Clark/Hunt/Smoot had committed $122 million of those contracts awarded to date to local small disadvantaged business enterprises. That represents about 54 percent of the subcontractor work. Also, 75 District of Columbia residents, both experienced tradesman and unskilled laborers, have joined the construction team.

Owner: District of Columbia Sports & Entertainment Commission, Washington, D.C.
Tenant: Washington Nationals
Program Management: McKissack & McKissack, Brailsford & Dunlavey and Turner Construction Co., all of Washington, D.C.
Construction Manager: Clark/Hunt/Smoot, A Joint Venture, comprised of Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda, Md.; Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis; and the Sherman R. Smoot Corp. of Washington, D.C.
Building Architect: HOK/Devrouax & Purnell, PLLC, a joint-venture of HOK Sport, Kansas City, Mo., and Devrouax & Purnell Architects, Washington, D.C.
Interior Architect: HOK S+V+E Kansas City, Mo., and Bowie Gridley Associates, Washington, D.C.
MEP Engineer: M-E/JVP/Sim-G Engineering, A Joint Venture, comprised of M-E Engineers Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; JVP Engineers, PC, Washington, D.C.; and Sim-G Technologies,Washington, D.C.
Civil Engineer: Delon Hampton & Associates Chartered, Washington, D.C.
Structural Engineer: ReStl/Thorton Tomasetti, A Joint Venture, comprised of ReStl Designers Inc., Gaithersburg, Md., and Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Washington, D.C.

3. Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

Cost: $565 million

The $565 million Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center will help anchor The Peterson Companies’ 300-acre National Harbor development on the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C., in Prince George’s County, Md. Construction of the 42-acre Gaylord project, managed by a joint venture of Perini Building Co. and Tompkins Builders, both of Washington, is set to complete in 2008, at a contract price of $350 million.

According to Gaylord Hotels, the developer, the project will be the largest combined hotel and convention center in the Washington region, and the largest non-gaming resort on the East Coast outside Orlando. The complex includes 2,000 hotel rooms and over 470,000 sq. ft. of convention and meeting space.

The design by Gensler of Washington, D.C., features an 18-story, 1.65-acre, climate-controlled glass and steel atrium. Surrounding the atrium, interlocking towers house the hotel as well as retail shops, bars and restaurants, a 20,000-sq.-ft. spa and fitness center, and a top-floor nightclub. The atrium allows views from several interior rooms of the capital from across the Potomac. A separate, connected building holds the convention center.

“The Gaylord model is to have everything under one roof,” said a Gaylord spokesman. That includes the hotel, convention center, and amenities. The company currently operates three other resorts in Texas, Florida, and Nashville, each with unique designs particular to the region.

Gaylord National also features terraced landscaping of about 80,000 sq. ft. that slopes to the riverfront and is designed for special events. Along the river are a private marina and a paved waterfront promenade.

Gaylord intends the complex to be an all-encompassing destination, with significant overlap to the National Harbor. The larger development will be a “town center”-like district adjacent to the Gaylord project, featuring a mix of retail and office space, additional hotel rooms, and 2,500 residential units.

The current size of the project is expanded from its original plan of 1,500 hotel rooms and 400,000 sq. ft. Gaylord proposed the expansion in February 2006, based on advance booking demand, the company spokesman said. The Prince George’s County council provided tax incentives to Gaylord at the beginning of the project, and approved additional incentives for the expansion in July 2006.

The company estimates the project will generate $3.2 million in taxes in the first year and $346 million over a 30-year period. The annual payroll will be $51 million for 1,850 permanent jobs at the resort. The company also estimates generating 1,135 indirect jobs for the county, and 1,018 construction jobs.

4. Columbia Heights Redevelopment

For the nonprofit Development Corp. of Columbia Heights, the completion of Grid Properties' DC USA shopping center in 2008 will mark the culmination of close to 25 years of effort in revitalizing the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Currently, developers in the area are building at least $390 million in major new properties, fueling a surge of activity for homebuilders and small businesses.

The center of the Columbia Heights neighborhood is the five-way intersection of 14th Street NW, Park Road NW, and Kenyon Street NW, less than 3 mi north of the White House. Residents abandoned the area in large numbers in the 1960s following riots in the wake of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., and only recently have small businesses started to creep back.

Levert said that in recent years, Columbia Heights has been a place "where people moved to when they couldn't afford the rest of Washington." She likens it primarily to the Harlem area of New York City, which has experienced a similar revitalization recently with help from another Grid retail development, Harlem USA.

The impetus for much of the development has been the National Capital Revitalization Corp., a public/private city agency created by Congress and the City Council that started doing business in 2001. The NCRC acts like a private real estate firm, but with a social agenda, said spokeswoman Mafara Hobson. In Columbia Heights, it sells off city-owned land to qualified developers through an RFP process.

DC USA is receiving $46.9 million in bonds from the NCRC, Hobson said, and is the only Columbia Heights development to receive a subsidy. The NCRC will also retain and operate a parking garage in the project.

The Development Corp. of Columbia Heights, on the other hand, works on the development process. While it has no financial stake in the projects, developers meet with the corporation to design projects that are appropriate to local needs, Levert said. Thanks in part to input from the nonprofit, she added, DC USA will devote 15,000 sq. ft. to small local businesses, balancing out the national chains.

While DC USA will be a cornerstone of Columbia Heights, community leaders consider the revitalization movement's first real success to be the opening of the $39.7 million Tivoli Square development in 2005. The development includes 40 town homes, a retail center and supermarket, and the historic Tivoli Theatre. The developers, Horning Brothers and Tivoli Partners, restored the theatre and offer it a reduced rent, at the prompting of the development corporation. It is also successfully moving owners to add basic amenities to the neighborhood, such as dry cleaners and postal services.

5. The Johns Hopkins Hospital - New Clinical Building

Cost: $360 million

Construction on the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s 1.4-million-sq.-ft. New Clinical Building got under way in June.

The $360 million structure will serve as the hospital’s main clinical facility when it’s completed in 2009 and represents the core component of the hospital’s $1.2 billion redevelopment program, which has already added nearly 1.3 million sq. ft. of space for clinical services and research to the East Baltimore medical campus.

The New Clinical Building is a single, two-tower structure. The two-tower concept will streamline operations for the new clinical facilities. Although each tower will have its own emergency department, both will be accessible from single ambulance and walk-in entrances.

The 913,000-sq.-ft. Cardiovascular & Critical Care Tower will include 320 adult beds, 44 operating and interventional procedure rooms, 16 endoscopy rooms, adult emergency department and associated support space. The tower will also will house the new Johns Hopkins Heart Institute.

Next door, the 530,000-sq.-ft. Children's & Maternal Hospital tower will include 205 pediatric inpatient beds, pediatric emergency department, 10 operating rooms, eight labor-and-delivery rooms, 35 post/ante-partum beds, outpatient services and support spaces.

A new pedestrian bridge will link the New Clinical Building with the recently constructed Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, which provides clinical services for cancer patients.

The project also includes a new entry court and a 640-space underground parking garage. To make way for the new complex, the joint venture construction management team of Skanska USA of Parsippany, N.J., and Smoot Construction Co. of Washington, D.C., demolished an existing parking structure and relocated several underground utility lines.

Patient floors will feature large lobbies and waiting rooms with small private alcoves for meetings between medical staff and families. Decentralized workstations will help nurses stay close to their patients, who will have private rooms with amenities such as daybeds and sleep chairs for overnight visitors. To maximize the building’s flexibility and life span, the facility-wide infrastructure will support advancing technologies and techniques for surgical, interventional and emergency procedures, as well as critical and acute care for adults and children.

High-resolution digital display screens in each room will bring diagnostic images, lab data and patient records directly to the bedside.

Key Players:

Owner: Johns Hopkins Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md.
Construction Managers: Skanska USA, Blue Bell, Pa.; Smoot Construction Company, Washington, D.C.
Architects: Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, Washington, DC (Children's & Maternal Hospital tower); Perkins & Will, New York City (Cardiovascular & Critical Care Tower)

6. Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel

Cost: $230 million

Baltimore is in the process of bolstering its reputation as a major convention destination with the construction of a new 756-room headquarters hotel adjacent to its downtown convention center.

Scheduled for completion in fall 2008, the $230 million city-owned and financed project is designed to address a longstanding shortage of hotel rooms that has limited Baltimore’s ability to compete with other major U.S. cities for large conventions and other major events.

The 850,000-sq.-ft. Hilton will actually consist of two structures straddling Eutaw Street. Set on 164 caissons and a two-level underground parking structure, the 20-story, cast-in-place West Building will have podium levels containing the main lobby, a 62,000-sq. ft. grand ballroom, back-of-house functions, swimming pool, fitness center and an L-shaped tower with 756 guestrooms.

The East Building, a three-story structure on aggregate piers, will contain a 2,024-sq.-ft. junior ballroom, full-service restaurant, meeting rooms and street-level retail space.

The two hotel buildings will be connected by a two-story, 220-ft. enclosed pedestrian bridge across Eutaw Street, while a 150-ft. skyway spanning nearby Howard Street will link the East Building with the Convention Center.

Architect RTKL Associates of Baltimore has designed the hotel to be a visual showpiece from all levels. The exterior of the East Building and the West Building’s podium levels will be clad in brick veneer and curtain wall, while the guestroom tower will feature metal panels with aluminum windows. Both buildings will be topped with large green roof areas that will be easily visible from surrounding high-rises.

In preparing the site, design-build contractor Hensel-Phelps first had to dig into its past. In the months since excavation for the parking garage began in February, work crews have uncovered several storage tanks and other artifacts from more than a century of disparate uses that included automotive service stations, a rag factory, an apothecary and a livery.

The project’s close proximity Oriole Park at Camden Yards has also required the project team to schedule deliveries and other logistics around the Baltimore Orioles’ home schedule. Access to the construction site is closed during games to ensure the safety of fans and other pedestrians.

Another task awaiting the project team will be erection of the sky bridge across Howard Street, which is the main thoroughfare linking downtown Baltimore with Interstate 95. Precise scheduling and phasing will be essential because of Howard Street’s near-constant volume of traffic.

Key Players:

Owner: Baltimore Hotel Corporation, Baltimore, Md.
Design-Build Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Chantilly, Va.
Architect of Record: RTKL Associates, Baltimore, Md.
Hotel Operator: Hilton Hotel Corporation, Beverly Hills, Cal.

7. Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

Cost: $210 million

University of Pennsylvania's Health System broke ground last fall on the $210 million state-ofthe-art outpatient facility designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly of New York and Perkins Eastman of Arlington, Va.

The 550,000-sq.-ft. facility was later renamed the The Raymond and Ruth Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, following a $25 million gift from the successful philanthropist. L.F. Driscoll Co. of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., is serving as construction manager on the job, scheduled for completion in late 2008.

The center will serve as the heart of the patient campus and be flexible enough to accommodate future expansions, as well as put all outpatient services in one convenient location steps away from the physicians' offices across the street. A U-shaped building with five levels above ground and three levels below ground will have an atrium and main entrance as its focal point. The building is organized vertically around treatments for particular conditions to allow for efficient patient processing. In the overall master plan, the U-staped building eventually will be surrounded by a cluster of three towers to house hospital beds, further expansion of ambulatory care, and research labs.

Phase I of the projects, scheduled for completion in 2008, will include the Abramson Cancer Center, a new cardiology center, and an outpatient surgical pavilion. The team will seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, according to Perkins Eastman.

8. VCUHS Critical Care Hospital

Cost: $175 million

“This has to be the most challenging, most cut up, mussed up site I’ve ever worked on,” Brooks Ballance, project director for WM Jordan of Richmond, Va.,, said about the $175 million Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems Critical Care Hospital in Richmond. “But we’re going to do it, man.”

The site is bounded on three sides by existing structures and lies on a grade that rises three stories from the east to west. The critical care tower is 15 stories total and takes up the entire site footprint, tying into the adjacent main hospital to the south.

“There is zero laydown area,” Ballance said.

The contractor stores materials in a rented four-acre yard about 1.2 mi. away and brings nothing to the site without prescheduling 48 hours in advance. The north side of the yard faces the health complex’s visitor’s parking deck, and the deck’s entrance is 30 ft. from the base of a tower crane, Ballance said. He added that a temporary bridge was built to allow visitor and pedestrian traffic.

“There’s no buffer zone between the work area and the cars and pedestrians, so there needed to be a lot of protective measures,” Ballance said.

Preconstruction sitework went on for a year before the official start date in November and included removing an existing steam power plant and installing a shoring wall on the west side of the site, which is adjacent to the historic buildings of the Museum of the Confederacy and White House of the Confederacy.

“Minimizing vibration and settling during these activities was crucial,” Ballance said.

He said the site was so tight that building designers from HKS Architects of Richmond were unable to fit all of the elements of the facility within the site footprint, and they needed to add 8 ft. to the east and west sides of the building starting from the fifth floor up from the street level.

On the east side, the only street-facing part of the site, the building hangs out over North 13th Street. A one-story skybridge will connect the east face to VCU’s Central Sterile Supply Building across the street.

The top 11 floors tie directly to the main hospital on the south side by means of a cantilevered connector bridge. Ballance said the bridge has to be completely constructed before the contractor can break into the hospital, due to infection control considerations.

Controlling infection during break-in will involve the coordinated use of measures such as anterooms, barriers, a negative air state and sticky mats. “You have to be able to prove you didn’t introduce anything,” said Ballance, who holds a professional certification in health care construction.

The bulk of the building will comprise acute care and intensive care units and critical-care patient beds, while Level 5 will be devoted to a 10-room surgical suite. Other areas will include a security care unit for the Department of Corrections, a 40-crib neonatal intensive care unit, a 16bed burn unit and shell space for future expansions and renovations.

Key Players:

Owner: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.
Program Manager: Jones Lang LaSalle, Washington, D.C.
Construction Manager: WM Jordan, Richmond, Va.
Architect: HKS Architects, Richmond, Va.
Concrete: Century Concrete, Ashland, Va.
Mechanical: Colonial Webb, Richmond, Va.
Electric: Northside Electric, Richmond, Va.
Masonry: Masonomics, Richmond, Va.
Steel: Lynchburg Steel, Monroe, Va.

9. DC USA

Cost: $149.5 million

It sat fallow for more than three decades after race riots in the wake of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., but now a five-acre parcel in Columbia Heights is buzzing with construction activity for DC USA, a $149.5 million shopping complex destined to become a centerpiece of Washington, D.C., redevelopment.

“It’s going to be another shot of Adrenalin for that area,” said John Barotti, senior vice president in charge of operations for Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda, Md., one of the joint venture partners building the center.

Clark/Smoot DC USA, a joint venture between Clark Construction and the Sherman R. Smoot Corp. of Washington D.C., broke ground earlier this year on the $85 million construction, three- story, 550,000-sq.-ft. DC USA. The complex is expected to open March 2008. DC USA Operating Co. of New York, a partnership between Grid Properties Inc. and Gotham Organization Inc., in conjunction with Joseph Searles and the Development Corp. of Columbia Heights, purchased the five-acre site from the city’s RLA Revitalization Corp, a subsidiary of National Capital Revitalization Corp.

In the structural-steel shopping center, first-floor retail shops with direct-access from the street will cater to local residents’ needs. A 180,000-sq.-ft. Target store, owned by Target Corp. of Minneapolis, anchors the second- and third-level mall. Other tenants include Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Staples.

Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams called the project the largest and most significant component of Columbia Heights’ revitalized retail corridor in a statement announcing tax-increment financing for the 1,000-car, two-level, 350,000-sq.-ft., underground concrete parking garage owned by NCRC.

More than 80,000 people live within 1 mi. of DC USA, and it’s located across the street from a Metro station.

Several years back, the city asked for residents’ suggestions for the land, and they requested retail on the DC USA site and residential on neighboring parcels.

James Tuman, chief development officer for Grid, said the resulting shopping area “increases the level of happiness in the neighborhood.”

Grid and Gotham developed a similar, successful retail project, called Harlem USA, which opened six years ago in a New York and has spurred additional redevelopment in that area. Tuman said retailers traditionally have hesitated locating in inner cities, but “the reluctance to go into these neighborhoods has lessened as they’ve been successful. These neighborhoods don’t have the per-capita family income that other areas do, but what they have is more people, a denser population.”

Multifamily residential projects under way across the street from DC USA have created some logistical problems on an already tight site. Clark/Smoot will use interior, electrical tower cranes to conserve space and has located its offices on adjacent property.

Team Box:

Owners: DC USA Operating Co. of New York; Target Corp., Minneapolis; and National Capital Revitalization Corp., Washington, D.C.
General Contractor: Clark/Smoot DC USA, a joint venture between Clark Construction Group LLC, Bethesda, Md., and the Sherman R. Smoot Corp., Washington D.C.
Building Architect: Bower Lewis Thrower Architects, Philadelphia
Structural and Civil Engineer: Delon Hampton & Associates, Chartered, Washington, D.C.
MEP Engineer: Cosentini Associates Inc., New York
Structural Steel: Strait Steel Inc., Greencastle, Pa.
Electrical: Freestate Electrical Construction Co., Beltsville, Md.
Plumbing: John J. Kirlin Inc., Rockville, Md.
Masonry: Manganaro Midatlantic LLC, Beltsville, Md.
Structural Concrete: Clark Concrete Contractors LLC, Bethesda, Md.

10. Ritz Carlton Residences

Cost: $147 million

Baltimore has been working to restore and revive its historic waterfront for more than 30 years, and with construction under way on the $147 million Ritz Carlton Residences Inner Harbor luxury condominium project, the city is now poised to become a part of history. The 182 condominiums slated to be built over the next two years will be the first-ever Ritz Carlton facility designed solely for permanent residence.

The six-building complex overlooking the harbor at the base of Federal Hill is part of a coordinated urban renewal effort that began in the 1970s, which turned a section of the city known more for dormant warehouses and crumbling piers into a local and tourist destination featuring upscale homes, restaurants and marinas.

The complex itself will cover six acres and is being built over the abandoned Bethlehem Steel yard, which had to be demolished prior to the project’s groundbreaking last year. Helmed by general contractors Bovis Lend Lease of Bethesda, Md., construction has been under way since November, though much of the project is still in the bidding phase. Bovis is eyeing a June 2008 completion date, although some units will be ready for move-in in 2007.

The design by Baltimore’s Marks, Thomas Architects for Midtown Baltimore, LLC, features large, luxury condos contained in four six-story and two four-story buildings, all connected on the lower floors.

The complex will include a gourmet restaurant; 15,000-sq.-ft., world-class fitness facility and spa; several meeting rooms; private movie theater; and a 200,000-sq.-ft., below-grade parking garage with room for 410 spaces.

There will be 28 elevators providing semiprivate service to all units, as well as a 22-boat slip marina that will accommodate yachts up to 100 ft. in length. The marina will have direct access to the Chesapeake Bay.

The building structure will be nearly 600,000 sq. ft. of reinforced concrete, supported by precast concrete piles. The exterior skin will be more precast concrete on the lower levels and brick on the upper levels.

The one-, two- and three-bedroom condos will range in size from about 1,600 sq. ft. to more than 5,000 sq. ft. – some being bilevel. The units will feature views of both the Inner Harbor and the skyline of downtown Baltimore. They are priced between $1 million and $5 million and nearly half have been sold.

Amenities include a cobblestone auto court and valet service, solid wood doors, volume ceilings, large balconies – some with harbor views – and designer finishes such as hardwood flooring, marble bathrooms and granite countertops in the kitchens.

Owner: Midtown Baltimore LLC
Architect: Marks, Thomas Architects
General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease, Inc.
Excavation: Potts & Callahan, Inc.
Special Foundations: McLean Contracting
Concrete: DGS Construction
Precast Concrete: Gate Precast
Masonry: Banner Masonry
Elevators: Thyssen Krupp Elevators
Misc.Steel: Baltimore Steel
Waterproofing: Prospect Waterproofing
Electrical: Gill Simpson
Plumbing/HVAC: Comfort Systems
Fire Protection: VA Sprinkler