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Convention center jobs awarded
Wednesday, October 11, 2000 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A city-county agency yesterday awarded nearly $10 million in contracts for glass windows, skylights in the main exhibit hall and steel roofing materials at the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.
The Sports & Exhibition Authority approved a contract for $3.9 million with Ajay Glass & Mirror Co. of Rochester, N.Y., to install glass windows on the western and eastern sides of the building.
Ajay will use windows made by Traco, a Pittsburgh company, said Tom Kennedy, the authority's project manager for the convention center work.
Ajay and D-M Products Inc. of Bethel Park were the only companies to submit bids for those windows at the new convention center, whose total cost has been estimated at $328 million. Authority board members said they wondered why there weren't more companies interested in the work.
"Contractors who do work of this size are busy," Kennedy said. "We didn't expect a lot of bids."
In an effort to encourage more bidders, however, the window work has been divided into smaller packages. Instead of one large contract of about $30 million, components will be broken out, Kennedy said. The windows for the western and eastern sides were the first piece for which a contract was awarded.
Still to be awarded are contracts for the large glass windows on the northern side of the building, which will face the Allegheny River.
The current convention center, which has only 131,000 square feet of exhibit space and 20 meeting rooms, has been criticized for its box-like appearance and dark interior.
The design of the new center, by architect Rafael Vinoly of New York City, has many windows to let light in, both to make the building more attractive and to reduce energy costs.
"Another goal of the design of the new convention center was to take advantage of the beauty of its location along the Allegheny riverfront," said city Councilman Dan Cohen, an authority board member. "Having large windows will help us accomplish that goal."
A second contract awarded yesterday was for $1.6 million to Linel Signature Skylights of Indianapolis to install large glass skylights in the ceiling of the primary exhibit hall, which will be 250,000 square feet. (There also will be a secondary exhibit hall of 80,000 square feet.) Linel was the lowest of five bidders.
A third contract approved was for $4.3 million to Penn Perry Inc. for stainless steel in the roof. Its was the lowest of six bids.
So far, nearly $80 million in contracts have been awarded for work on the convention center, including concrete for the foundation and steel for the trusses in the roof.
The new convention facility is to be open by spring 2003. The existing, 19-year-old center will close in June. It will then be demolished and part of the new building will be built in that space.
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