120 W Gay Street
The redevelopment of this downtown Columbus block involved the renovation and expansion of the Old Police Headquarters to house administrative offices for various city departments and the development of a pedestrian plaza adjacent to City Hall and this building. West Gay Street was renovated to transform the largely asphalt/concrete parking area into a “grand civic plaza” complete with landscaping, shade trees, and benches. In addition to these highly visible components, a pedestrian tunnel was built connecting these two buildings, and over 3,000 feet of electrical and communications ductbank was installed within busy downtown streets. In addition to the ductbank design, Korda generated a detailed utility plan design for a dedicated fire line, a domestic water service line, and multiple sanitary sewers and storm sewers. Finally, we created roadway plans and details including handicap ramps for improved accessibility as part of the City’s Drawer E requirements. The project will pursue LEED Silver certification by incorporating a number of sustainable design concepts. Among these is the conversion of the parking lot adjacent to the 109 Front Street building to a green park. This reduced the site’s imperviousness, and it contributed to the sustainable storm water management system. Through this reduction, stormwater detention was not required and stormwater quality treatment was provided via a separator device at the project outfall. This high profile project required intense coordination between several City of Columbus entities including the Mayor’s Office, the Downtown Commission, the Transportation Division, and various Utility Departments. Korda’s deep knowledge with the City’s plan preparation and submittal process created a seamless plan approval and construction process, and we generated detailed maintenance of traffic plans to minimize the disruption for the many government offices located in this area. We worked with the owners and the contractors to perform much of this construction work during the night and on weekends in response to the high traffic and sensitive nature of the work around City Hall, the Police Headquarters, and the Federal Building.
