Chicago Department
of Aviation (CDA)
O'Hare International Airport South Air Traffic Control Tower (SATCT)
CHICAGO, IL
Size:
10,000 SF (base building)
210 FT tall (tower)
Construction Cost:
$45 Million
Scheduled Completion:
2015
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The new 210' tall, 13-level South Air Traffic Control Tower (SATCT) and 10,000 square-foot Base Building at Chicago O'Hare International Airport serve the new 7,500-foot Runway 10-Right/28-Left. The project is part of the City of Chicago’s overall reorganization of the airport to establish a parallel runway system to ease congestion caused by the crisscross layout of runways currently in place. The design of the tower/base building provides a simple, economical, and durable solution to meet the operational needs of the FAA, while addressing the interest of the Chicago Department of Aviation in creating a sustainable, elegant, and iconic image. The base building attached to the tower was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification and includes a vegetated green roof and geothermal heating and cooling.
The overall scope of the project consisted of providing full architectural and engineering services from concept design through construction administration for the new SATCT, which included the air traffic control tower and base building, as well as site development and perimeter security.
Garza Karhoff Engineering provided Structural Engineering and Construction Administration services for the project. The design scope portion of the work included design of the tower’s concrete 2-way slab floors and shear walls, along with QA/QC of the base building design. For the Construction Administration portion, responsibilities consisted of reviewing shop drawings for the concrete tower’s 2-way slabs, concrete walls and stairs along with the steel cab framing and responding to RFI’s for the construction of the tower and base building.