November 6, 2008

USS Arizona Memorial starts work on $52M visitors center

Image courtesy The Portico Group [enlarge]

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held yesterday in Honolulu for the $52 million USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, which commemorates the heroism and sacrifice following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

The center was design by The Portico Group, a Seattle multidisciplinary design firm, and will provide access to the USS Arizona Memorial and other historic sites at Pearl Harbor.

The Portico Group has been working on the center since 2000. It did everything from the initial master plan to designing the buildings and landscape, as well as construction documents. Paladino & Co. was the sustainability consultant. CB Engineers was the engineer, Bluewater handled cost estimating and BRC did acoustics for the project.

(Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct the name of the engineer.)

Portico said the center is Hawaii's most popular attraction and visitors often face long lines waiting to get in. More than 1.3 million people show up annually at the facility that was designed for 750,000 visitors. The current center will stay open while the new one is built.

The new center will have more than twice the capacity. Spaces for visitors to gather will be expanded and the museum will have almost twice as much exhibit area.

The project has been designed to achieve LEED silver certification.

The National Park Service says construction of the on-shore portion is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 7, 2010, in time for the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack.

One new attraction will be an anti-aircraft gun from the sunken USS Utah.

Earlier this fall, the Navy announced that Watts Constructors of Honolulu was awarded a contract to build the new museum, shop and a second theater at the memorial. Watts also has an office in Gig Harbor.