Pierre Federal Building – Curtainwall Replacement and Water Mitigation Project

The Pierre Federal Building is a four story cast-in-place concrete structure. The existing facade was made up of steel frames which supported small aluminum windows and large granite panels with masonry back-up. The main goal of the project was to replace the old facade with a new state of the art energy efficient curtainwall system which will provide more natural light and greater comfort for the tenants, in turn providing substantial energy savings. The project was completed under a Design/Build Best Value Method of contracting.

The building is occupied by 13 different federal agencies. Some of those agencies include District Court, Bankruptcy Court, Social Security, the US Marshalls, and the United States Post Office. Proactive communication, creative scheduling, and constructing temporary noise / weather barriers made it possible for the perimeter offices to remain occupied during replacement of the entire facade. In addition, the building is located at the intersection of two state highways which is the busiest intersection in Pierre. Close coordination was required with state and local agencies related to highway closures.

In addition to four stories above ground, there is also a full story and crawl space below ground. The elevation of the basement and the crawlspace are below the elevation of the nearby Missouri River. The crawlspace has held varying levels of ground water from the time the building was constructed in 1964. We developed a plan that implemented a drain tile pumping system that would ride the crawl space of standing water and allow the Owner to access the crawl space to complete building maintenance. The work was successfully completed during record flooding of 2011.