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Current Construction News

Latest Article:

CWA: A Concise History by Tom Kuennen

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Construction Tours

Since 1999, CWA Construction Tours are a unique feature of CWA meetings and conferences. At that time, Ron Worth, CWA President, organized a session for a lively discussion on how trade associations could work together. The outcome was to organize construction tours of current projects at the annual and midyear conferences. Today, the tours continue to involve new and interesting projects such as the new national park, 911 Memorial Park, to significant buildings and developments such as The U.S. Institute of Peace's new headquarters located at the National Mall in Washington DC.

Since CWA holds two major conferences per year that are located in Chicago and Washington, DC, the construction tours are centered on significant projects in each of these locations. These tours provide a great opportunity to network with peers, enjoy the area, and obtain relevant information on noteworthy construction projects.

Tours began in the spring of 1999 with members touring the Newseum in Arlington, VA. The Newseum closed its Arlington location in March 2002 and reopened in Washington, DC, in April 2008. Today, the 250,000-square-foot museum of news blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The first official tour was in 2000 when Gordon Wright, CWA president, organized a tour of the U.S Capitol with the architect. The tour discussed the renovation of the Capitol dome and the planned visitor center project, the largest project in the Capitol’s more than 200-year history. When it opens, the visitor center will feature an exhibition gallery, orientation theaters, a 550-seat cafeteria, and gift shops.

In 2001, CWA members toured the architect/engineering firm Smith Group in Washington, DC, to see how architects and engineers design buildings. In the same year, two construction tours were inaugurated in the fall in Chicago, also under the leadership of Gordon Wright. The first tour was the North Bridge mixed-use construction project on Michigan Avenue. The second tour was of the reconstruction of Upper and Lower Wacker Drive, a double-deck street that runs along the Chicago River.

U.S. Botanic Gardens

In 2002, CWA was fortunate to tour of the recently renovated U.S. Botanic Gardens near the U.S. Capitol. In 2002, members also toured the new USB Tower on Wacker Drive to get a first-hand look at the evolution of the design of the 50-story building. The special glass panels of the building allow more light into the building even when the sky is overcast. The glass panels of the building have a surface reflectivity of less than 1 percent compared to the normal glass reflectivity of about 7 percent.

In 2003, members took a hard-hat tour of the under-construction National Museum of the American Indian. In Chicago, members took a cruise on the Chicago River to view Chicago architecture and visited Chicago’s newest tourist attraction, Millennium Park. This 24.5-acre park is an unprecedented center for world-class art, music, architecture and landscape design, interactive public art, ice skating, al fresco dining, and free classical music presentations by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. One of the park’s prominent features is the dazzling Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States, designed by Frank Gehry, one of the world’s greatest living architects.

Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance

In 2004, CWA members took a bus tour to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and a walking tour of the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center project. In Chicago, members toured the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, one of the indoor attractions at Millennium Park. The theater was designed for joint use by a number of Chicago's performing arts groups.

In 2005, CWA toured the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Federal Building, led by the contractor, Gilbane Building Company. The six-year occupied renovation and modernization project was affected by 9/11 and the anthrax scare, resulting in added security features. Included were a new television studio and centralized data room plus extensive restoration of the main library, Great Hall, and historic executive suites. The building contains the largest federal art collection, and Gilbane developed special art protection systems for it. The project also won a 2004 GSA Design Award for preservation and conservation.

S.R. Crown Hall

Later in the year in Chicago, CWA members visited the newly renovated S.R. Crown Hall, a national historic landmark on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The building serves as the ITT College of Architecture, was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and is considered his "masterwork;" it underwent an extensive renovation. Mike Tenuta, an IIT alumnus and senior vice president of Clune Construction Co., the company in charge of the restoration, led the tour.

Air Force Memorial

In 2006, CWA members were privileged to climb the scaffolding of the Air Force Memorial to see a spectacular view of the District of Columbia. The three-acre site at the Naval Annex overlooks the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. The main feature of the memorial, designed by Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, is three stainless steel, reinforced concrete spires that extend as much as 270 feet in the air. In Chicago, members took a behind-the-scenes tour of O’Hare Airport and learned about new runways planned there.

Aqua Building

In 2007, members toured the National Association of Realtors building, DC's first LEED®-certified building, and also the new House of Sweden, the Swedish consulate and multi-purpose building. In Chicago, members visited the $4 billion Lakeshore East development on the Chicago River east of Michigan Avenue including the Aqua Building, a spectacular 82-story building. Magellan Development Group LLC is creating the luxury village including housing, retail, recreation, and a school.

In 2008, CWA enjoyed a water taxi from the hotel in Alexandria, VA, to view the new National Harbor and Gaylord Resort hotel. In Chicago, CWA will tour the three-story modular and sustainable Smart Home, the greenest home in Chicago, on the campus of the Museum of Science and Industry. The tour presents the advantages of a modular home, explores sustainable landscaping, and includes a rooftop garden. The home was conceived by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and built by American Homes. The Museum of Science and Industry in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago is a treat in itself. It holds more than 35,000 artifacts and has nearly 14 acres of interactive exhibits. The building, designed by Charles Atwood, was constructed for the World’ s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was originally called the Palace of Fine Arts. It is the only remaining building from the Exposition. It opened as a museum for the first time in 1933.

In fall 2008 in Chicago, CWA toured the three-story modular and sustainable Smart Home, the greenest home in Chicago, on the campus of the Museum of Science and Industry. The tour presented the advantages of a modular home, explores sustainable landscaping, and includes a rooftop garden. The home was conceived by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and built by American Homes. The Museum of Science and Industry in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago is a treat in itself. It holds more than 35,000 artifacts and has nearly 14 acres of interactive exhibits. The building, designed by Charles Atwood, was constructed for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was originally called the Palace of Fine Arts. It is the only remaining building from the Exposition. It opened as a museum for the first time in 1933.

Attendees of the CWA Annual Conference in May 2009 in Alexandria, VA, toured the recently completed Pentagon 9/11 Memorial and the U.S. Institute of Peace's new Building For Peace headquarters.

The Pentagon Memorial park consists of 184 memorial units, each of which are dedicated to an individual victim by its unique placement within the field, which is organized as a timeline of the victims’ ages. Each memorial unit is located on its respective age line—thin metal strips that cross the memorial park. This ordering develops a powerful understanding of the broad range of the lives lost, from the youngest child to the oldest adult. The “terrazzo” finish of each memorial unit rises dramatically from the ground on one end, and on the other end hovers over a small pool of lighted water in the surrounding gravel field of the park.

The U.S. Institute of Peace's new headquarters is located at the northwest corner of the National Mall and will serve as a national center for advancing the study and practice of peacebuilding. The 150,000 square-foot, five-story building will house offices, a library and archive, a state-of-the-art conference center, classrooms, and a public education center designed to heighten understanding of the challenges of international conflict management and peacebuilding among students and the general public. The building is a symbolic architectural statement of our nation's commitment to peace and is visible along the capital skyline.

In October 2009, CWA members toured the new Chicago Art Institute Modern Wing, which opened in May, overlooking Millennium Park. The Chicago Tribune exclaimed that the “third-floor galleries … will be hailed by critics and the public as some of the most beautiful rooms in Chicago.” Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion, the Lurie Garden, and Aon Center and other skyscrapers can be viewed through tall, thin windows. Designed by Renzo Piano, the 264,000-square-foot addition is the largest expansion in the museum’s history and increases the size of the museum to more than 1 million square feet, making it the second largest art museum in the United States. The Building of the Century Campaign, the largest fundraising effort for any cultural organization in Chicago, has raised more than $410 million for the design and construction of the Modern Wing, an operating endowment for the building, and related gallery reinstallation projects in the existing building.

Construction tours continue to be a major attraction for conference attendees, who have the opportunity to get a first-hand look as a natural extension of their work as writers, journalists, and publicists in the construction industry.

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