Landis Construction Co., LLC

A bridge to the community┬áIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the campus of Dillard University was flooded along with most of the New Orleans area. The university presidentÔÇÖs ambitious rebuilding initiative includes using a new student union being built by a local contractor as a bridge to the surrounding neighborhood, as Keith Regan learns.  During its 50-year history, Landis Construction Company has grown into an $80 million company with an impressive portfolio of projects in the New Orleans area.  From private commercial work such as the HarrahÔÇÖs New Orleans Casino to institutional work on the campus of Xavier University, to an extensive list of healthcare projects in the region, New Orleans, Louisiana-based Landis has developed a reputation as a community-minded builder eager to help build memorable projects. With that reputation, it made sense that Landis would be among the firms tapped by Dillard University as it began to revamp its own campus in the heart of New Orleans. Dillard, a private and historically black liberal arts college, has been a fixture in the cityÔÇÖs Gentilly community since 1869. For much of that time, however, the 55-acre campus and the neighborhood where it sits have often been seen as distinct entities, with the high iron fence around the leafy campus separating the college from the rest of Gentilly. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Dillard was the last university to be able to occupy its own campus again. Most of the campus was under water, three buildings burned to the ground and three more had to be razed. As it began to rebuild the flooded buildings and infrastructure, the university also set out to enhance community relationships as well. A key part of the New Dillard, as the changes have been dubbed by university president Marvalene Hughes, PhD, is the Student Union and Recreation, Health and Wellness Center being built, with Landis serving as general contractor. The 57,000-square-foot building will feature student amenities such as a bookstore, fitness center and elevated jogging track, a movie theater and four-lane bowling alley, retail space, and a common meeting area and food court. A large banquet facility is also being built into the project. Dr. Hughes says while the community has long used the campus chapel and library, the school saw the need to offer local healthcare in the wake of Katrina. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre looking forward to having the community feel that this campus is a central anchor in their neighborhood and a place they can turn to for services and care.ÔÇØ The facility will also feature a health center and support services, provided through a partnership with Tulane University and a community organization that will staff the centers (Excelth) to the public, notes Christian Generes, director of business development at Landis. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs an effort to bridge that gap and invite the surrounding neighborhood to be more a part of the college and vice versa,ÔÇØ Generes says.Like the 160,000-square-foot 21st Century Professional Schools and Science Building going up nearby, the student union will be LEED certified and should be open early in 2010. Designed by John T. Campo & Associates, Inc., the new building reflects the Dillard look, says Landis project manager Melanie Champagne, with a white brick exterior and a classical look.Landis has worked closely with the designer and with subcontractors, as the project was done under a design-build model, with an updated campus master plan providing guidance as well. The building is gaining LEED points from a number of sources, including high-efficiency systems, heavy use of locally or regionally produced materials, and preservation or enhancement of existing natural features, including the duck pond that fronts the building, Champagne says. The school is requiring that the building be certified as LEED Silver, though the builders are striving for the higher Gold standard, with LandisÔÇÖs own LEED Accredited Professional working closely with a LEED expert on the staff of the architecture firm.┬á Generes says LandisÔÇÖs experience with design-build helped it get the most out of the process, with subcontractors brought on board early to provide feedback on the best ways to design systems and select materials with an eye toward both long-term sustainability and current pricing to ensure adherence to the universityÔÇÖs budget of $15 million.┬áÔÇ£When youÔÇÖre dealing with LEED, any feedback and expertise you can get into the mix early on is going to pay off in the long run,ÔÇØ he adds. Among the various other constituents who were part of the design and pre-construction process were Dillard students themselves. ÔÇ£The college leaders made it very clear to us that the students were the ones who paid for the building through their tuition, and theyÔÇÖre the ones who should be making decisions on what was needed in the building,ÔÇØ says Generes. ÔÇ£The criteria in the original request for proposals came straight from the students. This is their building, and theyÔÇÖve had a lot of input into the process to this point.ÔÇØConstruction challenges include the need to work on an active and busy campus, with a second construction site not far away. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre fortunate in that we have road access to our site, but we still spend a lot of time and resources making sure the site is secured and safe for not only our workers but the students and faculty as well,ÔÇØ says Champagne, adding that Landis hopes to stay on schedule to turn the building over to the university in February 2010, which would be a full month ahead of schedule. Dillard, which marks its 140th anniversary in 2009, is seeking to use the recovery from Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to effect even broader positive change. Under the guidance of Hughes, the school is seeking to revitalize community relationships as it rebuilds its physical campus. ÔÇ£Dillard has always been a beautiful campus, but to a lot of people in Gentilly it was separate, kind of hidden behind the fences and gates,ÔÇØ says Generes. Dr. Hughes, who had been on the job just a month when Katrina hit, says part of the New DillardÔÇÖs philosophy is that a college should be the educational and cultural center of the neighborhood where it sits. ÔÇ£We were able to find opportunities in the tragedy of Katrina to extend that mission.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Greg Petzold┬á