Chick Webb Recreation Center
CAM Construction was hired by the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks to complete extensive renovations and an addition to the historic Chick Webb Memorial Recreation Center in East Baltimore. The Rec Center, which was built in 1947, serves as a community hub for East Baltimore, and was threatened with demolition in 2017 before receiving its historic designation. When complete, the ~43,000 sqft Chick Webb Recreation Center will feature a new pool, gym, basketball court, walking track, office space, locker rooms, a teen lounge/game room, kiln room, and a recording studio and vocal booth, in honor of Chick Webb’s musical legacy.
Baltimore City District Courthouse
CAM Construction was hired by the Department of General Services to complete a fully comprehensive renovation of the Baltimore City District Courthouse located at 500 N. Calvert Street. The virtually new building will be approximately 170,000 square feet and will include eight courtrooms, chambers for the judges, offices, detention areas, and DGS facilities management offices; four of the eight new courtrooms will be dual purpose, where both civil and criminal cases can be tried, and partially underground parking garage. The building will be the first DGS courthouse to be eligible for LEED certification.
Eastern Family Resource Center
The new, 80,000 sf, three-floor, LEED Silver Eastern Family Resource Center (EFRC) is located on the campus of Medstar Franklin Square Medical Center. This facility replaces and expands the previous shelter for men, women, and families, while containing the capability for an array of programs operated via Baltimore County Department of Health and Human Services.
With capacity for 330 residents, EFRC provides safe and stable transitional housing, dining, and educational resources for its residents. In addition, there are numerous health and medical capabilities, including: dental, clinical, audiology, and WIC services. The shelter space was designed around the specific needs of those who occupy the building, with childcare and child development areas, an outdoor playground, and program collaboration/flexible office space for partnering agencies.
The new building houses multiple Health Department functions, including the Infants and Toddlers Program, Substance Abuse Treatment, a Sexually Transmitted Infections clinic, Family Planning, and the Womens, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program. Healthcare for the Homeless is also housed within EFRC, as they engage in a partnership with the County to allow for the expansion of primary care, behavioral health, and supportive health services.
Youth Education and Rehabilitation Center
The Youth Education and Rehabilitation Center (YDC) is a 81,000- square foot facility that houses 60 detainees and is located on Greenmount Avenue in Baltimore. Located at the northeastern corner of the Correctional Complex campus, the facility comprises new construction and renovated areas formerly occupied by the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit. The new construction was in place of the main facility of the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit, which was demolished for this project. The area that was renovated was part of a former warehouse building.
The YDC is a dedicated pre-trial facility for youths that provides the extensive support services required of a juvenile population, including a full educational program operated by Baltimore City Public Schools. The facility also includes medical and mental health as well as athletic/recreational spaces geared toward the specific needs of a youth population.
The pre-trial center will provide educational and service benefits to its occupants. This new center will provide the mandatory sight and sound separation from the adult population, while allowing the occupants to take part in an educational program operated via Baltimore City Public Schools. Before this facility, the youth population was detained with hardened criminals, as they awaited trial without the ability to take part in educational and rehabilitative services.
The educational wing separates the school from housing, which will increase a sense of normalization for the youth population. With spaces like state-of-the-art classrooms, a full-sized gymnasium, art-room, media center, and collaboration centers, this facility will focus on educating and rehabilitating rather than just housing its occupants.
The building offers the ability to provide a full assortment of medical servicing capabilities. The facility includes a medical infirmary, full dental clinic, exam rooms, isolation rooms, psychology and behavioral health services and dialysis, and a spacious waiting area within the medical wing. This medical/health wing was designed and constructed around the specific needs of a juvenile population.
The facility achieved LEED Gold certification. A few of the integrated sustainable features include urban site selection and site density, reduction of water usage, a highly efficient building envelope, high-performance HVAC systems, efficient LED lighting sources, and recycled or readily renewable materials and finishes.
MTA Police & Automotive Maintenance Facility
CAM was selected in a Design/Build proposal with a guaranteed max price to develop and construct the 46,000-square foot Administrative and Automotive Shops facility. The two-story administrative area houses 21,150-square feet for the Maryland Transportation Authority, including an exercise room, holding cells, and administrative support areas. The 13,300-square foot Shops facility includes a Vehicle Lube System, Vehicle Lifts, Wash Bays, and an Overhead Crane.
By modifying the limited structural design in the RFP, CAM was able to afford the owner more usable floor area as well as more headroom with the new continuous spread-footing and wall-bearing structural system. Our structural analysis revealed a lack of structural flexibility, so we deleted perimeter columns and beams to alleviate the stress and improve interior space.
Due to the fast-track nature of the contract, the redesigned footings were completed during the design phase of the project, and the steel fabrication proceeded to maintain the tight completion schedule. Numerous finish enhancements were also added to the project during design; no additional costs were added to the contract as a result of these changes.
In addition, CAM moved the entire Bay Bridge surveillance and communication system from one building to the new Police and Automotive Facility. The Control Room consisted of running new fiber optics, data lines, video communications, monitoring, and the state police “MILES” system. This transition was completed flawlessly, without any interruption of use.
Patuxent Institution – Kitchen and Perimeter Security
CAM successfully managed the renovations and new construction at this fully occupied, medium-security facility within the 40-acre security fencing. The project included construction of seven separate buildings, many of which were phased, occupied renovations, where CAM maintained excellent owner interaction to ensure uninterrupted facility use.
The seven-phase project within an occupied, operational correctional facility included importation and placement of more than 115,000 cubic yards of fill, installation of 7,000 lineal feet of 16-foot-high, double correctional facility fencing, a new sallyport, and two new 40-foot-tall brick, block, and concrete guard towers.
Renovations and construction also included new asphalt-paved parking for 700 vehicles, a 14,000-square foot visitors center and gatehouse, a 4,000 square-foot addition to an existing building, a and fully equipped, 15,000-square foot kitchen which, with its $1.5 million in detention-approved kitchen equipment, is operated in part by prisoners.
Building construction is brick, block, and concrete. This multi-phase, multiple-building project, within an occupied area, is evidentiary of CAM’s capabilities and represents one of the successful projects completed by the CAM/Bushey Feight Morin team.
Owings Mills Learning Center
The Owings Mills Learning Center is a one-of-a-kind project in Baltimore County and features excellent roadside visibility that generated a high volume of consumer usage for its two occupants following its early spring official grand opening. The six-story, 120,000-square foot building overlooking I-795 has been designed to house a new branch of the Baltimore County Public Library as well as an expanded location for the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Positioned on the first two levels of the structure, within 40,000 square feet of space, is the 19th and largest branch of the Baltimore County Public Library; it is stocked with a collection of nearly 115,000 items and features individual study rooms, 70 computers public use, a magazine lounge, an early learning activity center, teen area, a café, and a large, quiet study area. The library is also wired for complementary Wi-Fi service and contains a community room that will be shared by CCBC.
CCBC has leased the remaining 80,000 square feet and occupies floors three through six. Upon completion of the Learning Center, CCBC relocated from its current space on Painters Mill Road, which operates as an Extension Center to the main campus in Catonsville. The new space is approximately three times larger than the current facility, features 27 separate classrooms and specialized science laboratories, and provides resources to allow CCBC to expand its existing enrollment of 5,000 students.
The post-tension concrete Owings Mills Learning Center has a complex skin of glass curtain wall, architectural pre-cast concrete, EIFS and architectural metal panel skin, faces a public plaza within Metro Centre at Owings Mills, and is connected to the existing eight-level parking garage. The project has been constructed to achieve LEED-Silver certification via its partial green roof designed to improve both air and water quality and mitigate heat loss and gain, use of low VOC materials, use of recycled materials, regionally manufactured materials fabricated within 500 miles of its location, and all wood used on the project is FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council)-certified.
Harford County Public Library – Bel Air Branch
The project included selective demolition, renovations, and new construction for a two-story, 44,0000-square foot addition to an existing occupied library. Also included was significant earthwork, sediment and erosion control, a storm drainage system, sanitary storm sewers, and landscaping.
The structure was built on a deep foundation system, with cast-in-place concrete decks. Interior features included architectural woodwork, automatic entrance doors, acoustical wall panels, glass-reinforced gypsum units, pre-laminated wall panels, pedestrian control devices, lockers, and operable walls. Additional systems and equipment provided include kitchen, laundry, boilers, HVAC, cable TV, and intrusion detection.
Dpt. of Public Works – Park Terminal Maintenance Facility
Converting the 1899, 70,000-square foot, former street car barn in to the Baltimore City Utility Maintenance Division Headquarters presented many challenges. All interior concrete framing and roof structure were removed, leaving only the historic brick exterior walls. The existing streetcar maintenance tunnels were in-filled with concrete, at a depth of 10 feet, to create the new structural footings.
The historic brick walls were braced until the new wide-bay structural steel system was erected and the joists installed to carry the new flat metal roofing panels. These 108-foot-long roof panels were delivered to the tightly congested site at the corner of Fulton Ave and Druid Park Dr; two cranes were required to erect each panel. The existing stair towers were extensively reworked, and a large amount of masonry restoration and lead paint abatement work were completed while the building remained fully occupied. Two stone belt cornices, stone parapets, accents, and sills were fully restored to compliment the restored brick masonry walls.
There were many challenges associated with working in an occupied urban environment. This project included complete restroom/locker room renovations and installation of new mechanical systems using air handlers, steam unit heaters, steam lines, and forced sanitary piping.
Electrical work included renovation or replacement of the power distribution systems, security and fire systems, public address systems, and new light fixtures, switches, and receptacles.
An extensive, elaborate shelving system, remotely and manually controlled overhead doors, dock levelers, and window restoration also were installed. Work was completed ahead of schedule, without interruption to the Division’s operations.
