Dane County Regional Airport Terminal Building

Smooth Ride

Airport remodel avoids turbulence

By Holly Johnson

“No late flights here” was as much a mandate as it was a motto during the remodeling of the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison.

It wasn’t an easy goal to achieve considering that the project team, led through a joint venture between Gilbane Building Company and Tri-North Builders Inc., added 60,000 square feet to the airport and performed extensive updates throughout the terminal. But, when it was all said and done, the airlines were happy, and their customers were still flying on time.

And, better yet, they were flying out of an airport that finally shook off nearly 40 years of status quo. The last time the facility underwent a major renovation was in 1966.

“The airport was very dated and not very pretty,” said Steve VanBommel, Gilbane’s superintendent.

But before the project team could even consider the aesthetics of the remodeling, it needed to focus on the systems that operate the airport. That portion of the job covered replacement of all of the structure’s wiring, lighting, plumbing and paging systems, VanBommel said.

The team also demolished and replaced the facility’s heating and cooling systems and built a new cooling plant with a state-of-the-art energy storage system in a separate building, he said.

Of course, any airport terminal remodel should include new ticketing, baggage-handling and carousel areas. And this project was no exception.

Elegant upgrades included Italian mosaic-tile floors installed in the ticketing lobby and up through the baggage claim. VanBommel said other interior improvements included marble countertops, cherry paneling, granite wainscoting and a new elevator and escalators in the lobby.

But the truly majestic portion of the project was the creation of a two-story lobby atrium.


	Project Name: Dane County Regional Airport Terminal Building Location: Madison Submitting Company: Gilbane Building Company, Milwaukee General Contractor: Joint venture between Gilbane Building Company and Tri-North Builders Inc., Madison Architect: Architectural Alliance, Minneapolis Engineers: Arnold & O'Sheridan Inc., Madison, structural and plumbing engineer; Mead & Hunt Inc., Madison, mechanical and electrical engineer; Ken Saiki Design Inc., Madison, landscape engineer Owner: Dane County Regional Airport Project Cost: $32.9 million Project Size: 198,300 square feet Start Date: January 2003 Completion Date: April 2005

“The atrium has about a 40-foot curtain wall with a vintage airplane hanging from the ceiling,” VanBommel said.

Building the atrium forced the project team to raise the roof, and that presented some serious challenges. Builders needed to remove existing structural columns and add new ones while maintaining the building’s integrity.

“The floor had to be dug down, and new footings had to be put in,” said VanBommel. “Meanwhile, we had to shore up the remaining building … carefully.”

The finished atrium added a final touch of beauty to the airport’s interior, and Architectural Alliance, the project architect, kept the trend going on the exterior with a prairie grass motif in and around the terminal, VanBommel said. The architectural details echo Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie wheat style.

And throughout the entire project, the team focused as much on the environment as it did on beauty, using green-building techniques to minimize waste. More than 90 percent of the demolition material was recycled, all of the new carpeting in the concourse area was manufactured from recycled carpet, and ceiling tiles were constructed from recycled soda bottles.

But green building and a beautiful new terminal wouldn’t mean much if the airport was forced to shut down during the improvement process. That couldn’t happen, so timing and coordination trumped every other aspect of the job.

“The airlines and their tenants all depended on the deadlines,” VanBommel said. “There were very few problems. Actually, it went pretty smooth.”

After completing nine phases of the project on time and within budget, VanBommel said the team can consider the job a success.

“The airlines never missed a beat,” he said. “It went very well.”