56The Military Engineer l November-December l 2009 Joint-Service Design & Construction By Maj. Patrick C. Suermann, Ph.D., LEED AP, P.E., M.SAME, USAF, and Raymond Issa, Ph.D., P.E. I magine a four-star generals head- quarters military construction proj- ect where the facility managers priorities are the primary drivers for de- signing excellence. While this may seem like merely a dream to facility manage- ment professionals across the Depart- ment of Defense (DOD), it was a reality for the design of one of DODs premiere new facilities currently under construc- tion: the headquarters of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. The CENTCOM headquarters project was originally scheduled as two proj- ects: an FY07 addition and an FY08 al- teration. But after bids for the FY07 al- teration came in at four times the cost of the programmed amount, the project team regrouped, reprogrammed and recognized an opportunity to combine the two scopes of work into one project: an entirely new headquarters facility. Because there was no change to the funding levels or funding source, the only requirement was a congressional noti?cation. With increased focus on the CENTCOM areas of responsibil- ity and soaring mission requirements, Congress supported CENTCOMs cre- ative new plan. Cheryl Pierce, P.E., Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment (AFCEE) Project Manager, worked with architect-engineer Burns & McDonnell to modify the existing de- sign contract and accomplish the new design. Building on lessons learned from Burns & McDonnells companion Joint Intelligence Center, Central Com- mand (JICCENT) headquarters proj- ect—a facility being built adjacent to the CENTCOM site—the team decided to use the JICCENT structures skeleton and footprint as the basis of design for what would eventually become the new CENTCOM building. Sustainability and Flexibility Building on the adapted JICCENT de- sign, the CENTCOM staff began work to make the facility, in the words of Lt. Col. Jay Beam, M.SAME, USAF, a ?agship facility for all of the Department of De- fense. The design team wanted the joint command headquarters facility to be ?exible enough for a changing mission, comfortable for the staff, aesthetically pleasing, sustainable and technologi- cally innovative. The CENTCOM team eventually decided to pursue Leader- ship in Energy and Environmental De- sign (LEED) Gold certi?cation, and to utilize building information modeling (BIM) to address the design criteria. Following an initial design charrette, CENTCOM, the U.S. Army Corps of En- gineers (USACE) Mobile District and Burns & McDonnell in August 2008 held a 15 percent design review during which stakeholders addressed the new LEED and BIM considerations. The contract management team, led by Doug Cun- ningham of USACE, bene?tted from the expertise of Paula Shaw, AFCEE LEED subject matter expert, who helped the The project team responsible for the new U.S. Central Command headquarters facility voluntarily sought LEED certi?cation more than a year prior to the Air Forces portfolio-wide 5 percent LEED mandate. Images courtesy Burns & McDonnell