The New Kennedy-King College Unveiled
Mayor Richard M. Daley, along with a host of elected officials and community representatives, officially introduced the new, $254 million Kennedy-King College Campus to the Englewood community on July 18, 2007, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Austin AECOM – formerly McClier – an architecture, engineering, and construction firm – is proud to have provided construction management leadership, on behalf of the Public Building Commission of Chicago, for this significant project. Setting an accelerated pace, Austin AECOM delivered the Kennedy-King project early, which paved the way for a Summer 2007 session.
Located at 6301 S. Halsted Street, in the heart of the former Englewood business district, the new 40-acre campus features an academic building, library building, applied sciences building, athletic and student services building, culinary and theater building, and a daycare facility. A frontrunner in the design-build industry, Austin AECOM employed this approach on Kennedy-King’s showpiece – the campus’ $30 million, high-definition television station (WYCC) and radio station (WKCC).
“This project demonstrates the flexibility and range of Austin AECOM’s services,” says Austin AECOM President Steve Helms. “We delivered the overall project using a progressive ‘Construction Management At-Risk’ delivery method, and the state-of-the-art television and radio station using our integrated design-build approach. Kennedy-King truly has been a professionally-rewarding project for the entire Austin AECOM team.”
Managing an unprecedented 95 different sub-contractors, Austin AECOM broke contracts into smaller packages so that small and minority firms could bid and build capacity by their involvement on this project. “Since many of these same firms faced bonding coverage challenges that would have prohibited their ability to even place a bid, Austin AECOM implemented a progressive solution – the Sub Guard program, or, contract default insurance that we made available to all sub-contractors,” Helms explains.
As community representation was key to the overall success of the project, 47% of the construction dollars were awarded to minority and women-owned firms and vendors, with nearly 60% minority construction workers.
The new Kennedy-King College Campus is creating a renaissance in Englewood. In addition to private developers and the Chicago Department of Housing building residential facilities, other developments springing up near the campus include police and fire stations, a public library, senior center, and McDonald’s, Aldi’s, and Walgreen’s.
