Striking a balance between contemporary requirements and the need to keep intact those places that help define a national experience.

Historic lands and buildings

August 2010 — AECOM architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers, economists and program managers are working on a variety of projects that help U.S. federal agencies preserve and enhance historical and cultural assets. In some cases these assets are historic buildings; in other cases, they are the vast open spaces of the National Park Service system. These projects often involve striking a balance between contemporary requirements, whether functional or financial, and the need to keep intact those places that help define a national experience.

Managing US$3+ billion of construction at a National Historic Landmark

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) commissioned a joint venture between AECOM and Tishman Construction (now an AECOM Company) for Phase 1 construction management of the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security campus. The site occupies portions of the former Saint Elizabeths psychiatric hospital campus, a National Historic Landmark, in Washington, D.C. AECOM and Tishman are providing pre-planning, programming, design management, design review, procurement support, construction management and commissioning services.

National Historic Landmarks are designated by the secretary of the interior for their exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the American heritage. Saint Elizabeths is one of fewer than 2,500 National Historic Landmarks, and historic preservation groups monitor each project within the program. Phase 1 received American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding and has unprecedented federal reporting requirements.

"This campus program has the highest construction profile in the U.S. capital, with its forested hillside visible from points within and surrounding the city," notes Mark Ballard, vice president of Program + Construction Management for AECOM. "Phase 1 is on schedule."

Helping Yosemite do business

AECOM is working with the National Park Service on a comprehensive condition assessment of all concessionaire-operated facilities in Yosemite National Park, California, United States. The park is one of the oldest, most visited and most iconic parks in the National Park Service system.

The condition assessment will include 350 historic and contemporary buildings with over 900,000 square feet, as well as other assets such as equipment and parking areas. The need to assess so-called "high country" assets will require part of the team to hike up to 9,000 feet above sea level and camp there.

"The Park Service is a client with whom we have a long-term relationship, and for this project, we are bringing together a strong team across multiple AECOM locations and disciplines, including economists from Washington, D.C. and Denver, Colorado as well as Design + Planning teams in Fort Collins, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona," said Brian Sands, vice president with the Economics practice, which leads the project. Architectural Resources Group in San Francisco, California, an independent consulting firm with whom AECOM has a strong relationship, provides additional specialized expertise for this project.

Protecting National Historic Trails

The Old Spanish National Historic Trail, which connected Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California, was used primarily from 1829-1848. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail was the "Royal Road to the Interior Lands" that brought the first Spanish colonists into what are now the states of New Mexico and Texas along trade networks linking the Valley of Mexico to the aboriginal Pueblos of the Rio Grande, used mainly from 1598-1821. These trails are U.S. national treasures. Perhaps most famous of all, the Oregon and California National Historic Trails, along with the Mormon and Pony Express Trails, are icons of the nation's development.

AECOM's Design + Planning and Environment professionals will work with the Bureau of Land Management to describe and document the current conditions of these historic trails and the associated visual resources along high-potential route segments and historic sites, meeting the requirements of the National Trails System Act of 1968 and other federal regulations. The seven-state inventory is coordinated through AECOM's new Historic Trails Decision Support System website. Tom Keith, principal of Design + Planning at AECOM, explains, "This study is probably the most comprehensive evaluation of historic trail resources undertaken since passage of the National Historic Trails Act in 1968. The site's data collection system essentially creates a digital administrative record, complete with a live mapping system capable of providing real-time survey status through a Google Maps web service connected to inventory crew's PDAs and GPS systems."

Jake Herson