Project Description
Oak Hall, the first residence hall on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus built from the groud up, is a six-story, 133,000 sq. ft. facility, located on the south end of the campus. This new high-end, state-of-the-art residence hall houses approximately 430 students in apartment-style suites that consist of four bedrooms, a living area and bathroom. The suites are grouped into small neighborhoods, thus encouraging social interaction among students. Several floors feature outdoor balconies and lounge areas equipped with a television. The top four floors also have two full apartments, which are occupied by the resident assistants. All rooms on the second floor are full apartments and are reserved for the resident director and graduate students.
The facility also includes an outdoor pool, computer room, convenient store, community kitchen and dining room, game room, fitness center, mailroom, laundry facilities and storage areas.
In addition, the residence hall is equipped with a state-of-the-art security system, wireless Internet that extends to the courtyard and pool, cable TV and a hotel-style card access to suites.
Unique Challenges
With the project being $2 million over budget, Kozeny-Wagner and the design team faced the toughest obstacle for this project and construction had not even begun: bring the project within the owner’s budget. Kozeny-Wagner spent four months on a value engineering analysis of the project and presented over 100 cost saving options to the University. After presenting a detailed description of each item, the owner accepted nearly half of the value engineering items saving $2 million and bringing the project within budget. All ofthe value engineering items accepted in no way compromised the aesthetics of the project.
Although all systems and procedures were extensively reviewed throughout this process, there were several areas that created the greatest budget and schedule results: masonry and façade redesign, alternate foundation design, pre-engineered metal stud wall system, alternate interior finishes and a substitution of fixtures and furnishings were some of the larger impacts.
2007 AGC Construction Keystone Award Finalist