BUILDING DIALOGUE
From the time of award, GE Johnson, the project team and I have understood the significance of building the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum as it will honor the very best: our nation’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Their achievements, dedication and strength will be memorialized in this museum, so we knew we had to approach this project with the highest level of passion and commitment.
John McCorkle
Construction Manager for U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, GE Johnson
Undoubtedly, this project resonates with every project team member, but it struck an even more personal chord with me. As a rowing Olympic hopeful in 2000 and husband to a former professional women’s soccer player, I am personally motivated to build a project that honors many of our friends, coaches and teammates who are Olympians. Just like them, the GE Johnson team is embracing Citius, Altius, Fortius, or “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” the motto coined by the 1984 Olympic Committee.
With this in mind, we have embraced the design changes – something that very few general contractors would say. Early on, we knew the complexity of the museum would be an extremely iterative design-build process requiring field testing and then retesting many materials and details to achieve the right solution. After all, a building like this has never been built before. The 15 independent deck elevations, unique building shape and myriad materials can only be as successful as the problem solving and teamwork behind it. This is not to say that we do not preplan extensively, though. The exterior, which will be made up of nearly 10,000 uniquely shaped aluminum panels once completed this month, took us a year and a half to design, mock up, test and coordinate before we installed the first panel.
The exterior is made up of nearly 10,000 uniquely shaped aluminum panels.
Despite the intensive workload, we knew how vital it was to get the community involved from the beginning and to be a steward of Olympic City, USA. The project team has gladly gone above and beyond to accommodate more than 300 construction tours to date, totaling more than 3,000 visitors. Olympians, public officials, U.S. Air Force Academy cadets, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and many, many other groups have visited the museum since we broke ground in May 2017. There is tremendous excitement locally for the museum, and I believe the tours and sharing the construction progress of this moonshot project with the community has played an important role in that.
Even more, we wanted to reciprocate everyone’s contributions and support of the museum thus far. Our project team has volunteered and donated to various local food and clothing drives, events like the Colorado Hot Air Balloon Festival and Girl Scouts’ Build Like a Girl Day, and organizations like Junior Achievement and Westside Community Center. This project is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for GE Johnson, so we want to make sure we are doing our part to thank the Colorado Springs community for the tremendous honor to build it.
I am both bewildered at and grateful for how much this project has positively impacted everyone involved; it is truly a testament to the Olympic movement and what the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum will do for Colorado Springs once it is completed. In addition to the excitement and pride this building has already evoked, there has been a tangible economic impact during construction. As of now, approximately 70 percent of the labor and suppliers have been local, which has contributed approximately $35 million to $40 million to the local economy and more than 170,000 hours have been worked by local men and women.
When I bring my wife, two daughters, and other friends and family to tour the museum, I will be as proud as any athlete who puts in years of training for her performance on the world’s stage. I know future visitors will be captivated by the exhibits and stories, just as we are all captivated every time the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympics take place. This is truly a world-class, Olympian project, right here in Colorado.
Published in the September issue of Building Dialogue.
