2022 Engineering Excellence Grand Award Winner

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GRAND AWARD: HDR | Children’s Hospital Hubbard Center for Children

Client: Children’s Hospital & Medical Center

HDR has been named the ACEC-Nebraska Engineering Excellence Award (EEA) Grand Award winner for 2022.

The Children’s Hospital and Medical Center is a regional pediatric hospital in Omaha, NE. The new Hubbard Center for Children doubles the programmable space of the hospital and expands the Emergency Department, the Surgery Suite, PICU, NICU, Central Sterile, and Radiology. The Hubbard Center for Children also provides a new dining and cafeteria for the whole campus, new meeting space for learning and continuing education, new chapel space, a new patient check-in/check-out, new outdoor gardens, and solarium to enhance the Center’s healing environment.

The construction of the new hospital tower consists of a 427,000 SF, nine-story structural steel frame and concrete slabs on metal deck with a unitized curtain wall envelope that ties into the existing hospital and specialty pediatric clinic on seven floors. The mechanical systems include a new Central Utility Plant that services the new tower, the existing hospital, and the Specialty Pediatric Clinic. The patient rooms and public spaces are mechanically tempered with new Air Handling Units utilizing chilled water, steam, heating hot water and controlled by a building automation system. The electrical systems include power, emergency power, critical power, security systems (CCTV and access control), nurse call, building automation, and fire alarm.

The project was procured under an Integrated Project Delivery contract. The group worked collaboratively through design and preconstruction to provide real-time estimating and target value design to create over $50 million in cost savings and 40 days in schedule duration savings with no impact to the project’s program.

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Aaron Buettner

State Director

Aaron Buettner, PE, CVS leads Benesch’s Nebraska structural group, bringing more than 27 years of experience in structural engineering, project management and value engineering to every project he touches. His work spans highway, railroad and pedestrian bridges, and he has delivered public and private projects across the country involving a wide variety of materials and structure types.

Aaron’s technical depth covers the full project lifecycle, from structural design and in-service inspection to forensic evaluation and construction administration. He is proficient in multiple structural design and analysis software platforms and has a keen understanding of load paths and constructability. As a Certified Value Specialist (CVS), Aaron’s Value Engineering work has generated tens of millions of dollars in potential construction cost avoidance for clients ranging from state DOTs to transit agencies.

Notable projects include the Lincoln South Beltway, where his team designed 10 of 21 bridges on the freeway corridor; the N-12 Emergency Bridge Repairs in northeast Nebraska, where biddable plans for three flood-damaged structures were delivered in just three weeks; and the Penny Bridges Replacement in Lincoln, where value planning produced a context-sensitive solution that earned broad community support.

Aaron also serves as a Structures Specialist on Nebraska Task Force 1 (NE-TF1), which is one of 28 FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) teams located throughout the United States. In this role, he supports the search and rescue mission by assessing damaged structures, recommending structural hazard mitigation within those structures, and monitoring the structure for condition changes during rescue and victim recovery operations. During his tenure with NE-TF1, he has deployed ​on numerous missions within the state of Nebraska and around the nation to assist communities that have been impacted by emergencies or disasters.

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