James McHugh Construction Co.

McHugh in the News:

James McHugh Construction Co. has won the National Design-Build Award for its groundbreaking Battle Stations 21 training simulation complex at the U.S. Navy's Great Lakes Naval Station.

The Design-Build Institute of America not only named Battle Stations 21 Best Public Sector Building Over $15 million, it also honored Battle Stations with the organization's first-ever Best Overall Project award. Battle Stations beat out stiff competition such as the acclaimed new Washington Nationals baseball stadium for the award.

Battle Stations 21, the Navy's one-of-a-kind training simulator, is a 157,000-square-foot, $82.5 million "ship in a bottle" complete with a 210-foot-long replica of a guided missile destroyer. Laden with special effects technology honed in the entertainment industry, it simulates battle conditions in a 16-scenario, 12-hour test of recruits' skills at Great Lakes, the Navy's only recruit training facility, 30 miles north of Chicago.

The Design-Build Institute of America is an association of leaders in the design and construction industry, and serves to promote the use of design-build and integrated project delivery in the commercial building industry. Its annual Design-Build Awards draw thousands of entries from across the country each year.

"We're honored to receive this award, not only on our behalf, but on behalf of the thousands of sailors who may save lives because of their experiences at Battle Stations 21," said Bruce E. Lake, McHugh president.

"From an industry standpoint, it really validates our belief that design-build is appropriate not just for cookie-cutter projects but for challenging, complex works as well," said Lake. "We believe that Battle Stations could not have been built without a design-build program."

McHugh completed the groundbreaking $82.5 million training simulator, on time and within budget, to great fanfare. The Navy formally commissioned the simulator, known as the USS Trayer, just as it would any other ship, in June 2008.

Essentially, McHugh created a 200-foot-long, reduced-scale replica of a portion of an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in more than 90,000 gallons of water, within a 157,000-square-foot building. The team designed and installed layer upon layer of the latest technology, along with thousands of items salvaged from retired destroyers, to reproduce to a frightening degree the look, feel and even smells of a real ship. Recruits conduct an all-night, 12-hour mission on Battle Stations, capping their training and earning the title of Sailor if they successfully complete it. On the Trayer, they take part in 17 different scenarios ranging from the mundane-handling mooring lines-to the horrific. The mass casualty scenario, which has left seasoned Navy veterans shaken, duplicates the conditions following the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole to help recruits respond to the chaos of a strike and the casualties that result. The Trayer is designed to operate around the clock 365 days a year and can accommodate 352 recruits at once.

Battle Stations 21 represented an unprecedented merging of three disparate industries-military, entertainment and construction, said Senior Project Manager Sheila Sheridan, the McHugh executive who led the team. McHugh worked with six different Navy commands, a design team that hailed from seven states, and more than 90 subcontractors to complete the project.

McHugh served as team leader in the design-build project, working with leading entertainment industry firms that have engineered theme park simulations and movie special effects, to create the Battle Stations experience. Salt Lake City-based GlobalSim was the team's lead integrator. Lead architect and structural/MEP engineer was Detroit-based SmithGroup. Downers Grove, Ill.-based Wight & Co. were design architects and civil engineers. The special effects team included Orlando-based Design Island, for media and art direction; Morton Grove, Ill.-based Scenic View for set fabrication, Edwards Technology Inc., El Segundo, Calif., for show controls; Yeager Design, Lake Oswego, Ore., lighting design; and Advanced Entertainment, Monrovia, Calif., action equipment and effects.

Based on the success of Battle Stations 21, McHugh formed a separate division, McHugh Training & Simulation, to cater directly to this growing market. McHugh T & S is based in Chicago but serves an international client base. Additional information is available at www.McHughTS.com.

James McHugh Construction Co. is consistently named as one of the top general contracting firms in the country by publications such as Engineering News-Record, is one of Chicago's oldest and largest construction firms. Founded in 1897, McHugh has long held a reputation as an innovator, from its pioneering use of fiberglass forms to create the landmark corncobs of Marina City to the concrete construction for Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, the tallest structure built in the United States since 1974.