The Sigma Group Corporate Headquarters

Sigma claims landfill for new home

By Sean Ryan

Last year, it was a landfill where the dirt reeked of industrial byproducts dumped there a century ago.

This year, it's The Sigma Group's corporate headquarters, a new building that follows environmentally friendly building standards.

"This place will be here for a long time," Sigma President and Principal Dave Scherzer said of the new building.

Sigma's building is the first new development in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, where the city anticipates a major redevelopment in the next few years. The 28,000-square-foot structure took home one of former Mayor John Norquist's 2003 Design Awards and received some very flattering comments from Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Mayor Marvin Pratt, Milwaukee Department of City Development Commissioner Pat Algiers and state Department of Commerce Secretary Cory Nettles during its grand opening.

Scherzer said the Menomonee Valley location, boggy even before it became dirty, was Milwaukee's industrial dumping ground for a long time.

"All of the soil, by definition, is a solid waste, and that restricts how you can handle it and where you can dispose of it," he said. "It was filled in with industrial byproducts. You know, waste from over 100 years ago."

Sigma, which performed the environmental engineering on the job, completed the project without having to transfer any dirt off site. It sealed the industrial dirt under a cap, devised a new system to trap and remove the methane gas it creates and built its headquarters on a fresh layer of dirt.

It used a Wisconsin Energy Corp. product called minergy, which is more porous and lighter than dirt, to make methane collection easier and to reduce the amount of structural settling the building foundation would experience. The building is supported on underground pilings — a sort of subterranean version of beach houses built on stilts — that reach 100 feet down to where the soil is solid.

In many ways, the site preparation was the project's most complicated feature, Scherzer said, and the project was completed well ahead of schedule.

"We moved in a month ahead of schedule," he said. "We would've been two months ahead of schedule, but they couldn't deliver the carpet."

	Project Name: The Sigma Group Corporate Headquarters Location: Milwaukee Submitting Companies: The Sigma Group, Milwaukee, and The Redmond Co., Waukesha Design/Builder: The Redmond Co. Engineer: Pierce Engineers Inc., Milwaukee, structural engineer; Wagner Komurka Geotechnical Group Inc., Cedarburg, geotechnical engineer Owner: The Sigma Group Project Cost: $3 million Start Date: March 2003 Completion Date: November 2003

The building is designed to have an industrial ambience, with exposed ductwork on the ceilings and exposed concrete floors, said Project Manager Jon Wilson of design/builder The Redmond Co.

"They kind of went for a more industrial look to blend in with the valley," he said. "That was something (Sigma) wanted to incorporate in our design. Sigma was very, very proactive and involved in the project."

The building conforms to many of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. It's designed to incorporate natural light and has a high-efficiency heating system.