After Hurricane Katrina, the State of Louisiana decided to strategically place multiple Louisiana Army National Guard facilities around the state in order to decrease their response time after natural disasters. The Louisiana Army National Guard Readiness Center Covington, completed in July 2008, is the first of fifteen Army National Guard Projects completed in Louisiana. The new 30,000-square-foot home of the 1021st Engineer Company and Detachment 1 of the 843rd Engineering Company occupies 3.4 acres in Covington, Louisiana. The facility is designed to serve two-hundred part time National Guard troops and five full-time staff, and houses administration offices, an assembly hall, training classrooms, a fitness room, locker rooms, kitchen, recruiting center, family support center, and security vault.

The design-build team of HMS Architects and Citadel Builders LLC, both of New Orleans, Louisiana, worked closely with the client to provide a facility that would meet all of their programmatic needs and the stringent design criteria of the National Guard for anti-terrorism force protection achieving a SPiRit Gold Rating and LEED Silver Certification. The primary function of the facility is to provide administrative, training, and material storage areas for assigned military units. The secondary function is that it be utilized in support of state functions such as disaster relief and policing actions in case of civil disturbance. The tertiary function is to provide for military and community social functions.

The project was administered with the design-build project management approach due to the limited time constraints resulting from special funding appropriated from Congress. The design started in September 2006; construction began less than six months later in February 2007 and was completed in the following seventeen months. The design-build method provided the architect and contractor an advantage by allowing early collaboration on construction methods, materials, and design ideas. Through architect/contractor collaboration, the project was designed with minimal wall types and fewer varieties of carefully chosen interior finishes further reducing construction time. The result allowed for many phases of the traditional design-bid-build method to be eliminated, saving valuable time.

The final building design was integrated into an existing semi-rural site. An outdated, unused meeting facility and an old readiness center were demolished making room for the new development. Particular attention was given to protecting the existing live oak trees that surrounded the site. New trees were added providing an extensive landscape screening between the building and its residential neighbors. The newly planted trees will also gain LEED points through reducing the heat island effect of the large paved surfaces. A large rainwater retention pond was also added to the site, alleviating much of the storm water run-off due to the increase of site paving for the military vehicles. To further minimize the rainwater run-off, grass pavers were placed at the fifty-six public parking spaces near the front of the building. The pavers challenged the design-build team to innovatively developed a solution to reduce the cost of the pavers by implementing a poured in place paver system in lieu of the traditional individual pavers.

The overall building design is comprised of a low unobtrusive one story brick and steel building approximately 240 feet by 107 feet set back 100' from the street as required by National Guard guidelines. The largest portion of the building, the 5,700-square-foot assembly hall, was tucked into the back of the building, minimizing the large volume from the street view. The assembly hall's main overhead doors open up to the local fairgrounds behind the property, allowing it to serve as a joint-use facility for military and civilian events. Several smaller secondary buildings on an adjacent tract of land are used for vehicle maintenance, hazardous materials storage, fuel tanker parking, and vehicle wash-down.

A majority of the design focus was given to meeting the stringent Anti-Terrorism Force Protection (ATFP) requirements of the National Guard, while still allowing for the building to be designed to SPiRit and LEED Silver Guidelines. Careful attention was given to selecting durable materials that would minimize operational cost and still meet the sustainable criteria of SPiRiT and LEED.

The primary exterior building materials consist of concrete block and brick masonry walls with a 4-inch air space, R-19 rigid board insulation, and membrane waterproofing. The glazing system is insulated tinted and reflective glass that meets both the ATFP blast resistance and the International Building Code – 2003 large missile (hurricane) projectiles criteria. Translucent Kal-Wall is used as the clearstory glazing on the assembly hall walls, bringing natural glare-free daylight into the large volume. A light colored, high reflectance roofing system was chosen for the standing seam metal roof with double folded seams over insulation on a heavy gauge structural steel deck. The roofing system is designed to resist 120 mph hurricane force winds. Exterior Doors consist of insulated galvanized steel doors and frames, aluminum and glass doors and frames and rolling insulated overhead doors, all designed to meet the ATFP Blast Ratings and IBC-2003 requirements for “importance factor” for buildings. Due to these robust construction materials and methods, the facility can safely be designated as a refuge center during natural disasters.

The use of durable, sustainable materials continued into the interior finishes of the project. The interior partitions are CMU and a minimal amount of gypsum board on metal framing. Interior finishes consist of sealed hardened concrete floors in the assembly hall, mechanical and electrical equipment rooms, storage rooms, locker rooms, heated storage rooms and supplemental areas. The more formal look of terrazzo flooring is provided in the entry lobby, adjacent offices, main corridor, break room, library, and classrooms. Low-VOC Carpet is provided in the administrative office area. Ceramic Tile is provided in the toilet and shower rooms (walls and floors). Low VOC paint was used on all painted surfaces throughout the facility.

In order to understand both the building massing and solar effects of the daylighting strategies, the design team created several three-dimensional models. To study the effects, the design team completed multiple design options illustrating the lighting distribution for various roof monitor configurations. The studies provided innovative design solutions for achieving a high level of indirect natural light to the majority of the primarily occupied spaces. The chosen design incorporates twelve strategically placed roof monitors allowing natural light into the deepest areas of the building. As a result, the administration offices, physical training rooms, break room, restrooms, and shower rooms all receive ample natural lighting.

Large expanses of window were used in the offices and classroom spaces to maximize daylighting. These windows are fitted with exterior sunshade devices to block all but winter sun angles, thus minimizing direct glare and solar heat gain through the windows. On the interior of these windows, lightshelves were added reducing the direct glare and increasing reflected natural light further into the spaces. These innovative lighting strategies help mitigate the need to use excess lighting to perform basic tasks associated with the spaces.

The resulting design produced a strong, sustainable facility that will serve its country and local community while continuing to function through nature's harshest times. The project success is a direct result of innovative solutions through successful project collaboration with the owners, users, design teams and contractors.