URS/CROW named quality mgrs for federal building project.

URS/CROW named quality mgrs for Federal Building Project

The United States General Services Administration (GSA) has selected URS Consultants, Inc., and Crow Construction Company, in joint venture, to provide construction quality management (CQM) services for a new 27-story federal courthouse -- the nation's largest -- and a new 32-story federal office tower at Foley Square in lower Manhattan. The $700 million-plus project, scheduled for completion in 1994, has been described by the GSA as the largest civilian government real estate project in U.S. history, and a model of federal-municipal cooperation.

Under the CQM concept, a recent innovation on the part of the federal government, the developers retain sole responsibility for design and construction of the project, while the URS/Crow team functions as the GSA's representative and advisor assure compliance with the terms of the design/build contracts and the quality of the construction. The URS/Crow team will be responsible for providing CQM services during the project's design, construction and post-construction phases.

The 921,000-square-foot courthouse building, developed by BPT Properties, L.P., and designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and Simmom Architects, will rise 457 feet from a nine-story base, providing 43 courtrooms, a ceremonial courtroom, 42 new chambers and related support space for the District and Circuit Courts as well as for the United States Marshals Service.

The 974,000-square-foot, 478-foot-high federal office tower, developed by Linpro New York Realty, Inc., and designed by Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, will accommodate 4,200 employees, principally of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Design highlights include a glass-enclosed, four-story pedestrian galleria, a three-story rotunda, an auditorium, a daycare center, retail space and a landscaped park leading to Foley Square.