Shedd Aquarium Wins Bronze

April 2009

Building Design+Construction Magazine awards renovation projects based on overall design, engineering, and construction quality and the collaboration of the building team. The Shedd Aquarium, awarded bronze, was a technically challenging project with tight site conditions along the Chicago lakefront that was completed on time while addressing all the owner's demands. Specifically, the judges look for attributes such as inventive use of materials; structural engineering problems and solutions; use of innovative technology and value engineering; evidence of extraordinary efforts to meet owner's needs; unusual solutions to budget and schedule; and performance of a public good.

To complete the $55 million renovation of the historic John G. Shedd Aquarium in the allotted 17-month schedule, the Building Team had to move fast to renovate and update exhibit and back-of-house maintenance spaces, expand the visitor group holding area, upgrade the mechanical systems, and construct a single-story steel structure on top of the existing oceanarium to accommodate staff office space-all while the facility remained fully operational.

BIM software was used to model a significant portion of the reconstruction work to facilitate coordination of the complex construction schedule and tight working conditions along the Chicago lakefront. The team also had to deal with complex, unforeseen problems. When the 3M gallon tank was drained, Walsh discovered that hydrostatic pressure was the only thing holding the acrylic viewing windows in place. The team managed to avoid the costly and time-consuming process of hoisting the windows out of the pool.