A joint venture of St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. and Tyrone, Georgia-based Barnsley Construction Group topped out the only government facility in Georgia constructed using mass timber as the primary building material, McCarthy announced in an Oct. 14 news release.
The budget for the 58,250-square-foot City Centre project is $78 million, according to a news release the city issued last year, with $60 million set aside for construction. It broke ground a year ago.
The Brookhaven City Centre will include the first purpose-built city hall since Brookhaven, Georgia, was incorporated in 2012, according to the McCarthy release. The five-story structure, which anchors the City Centre mixed-use project, will occupy a site adjacent to the Brookhaven Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail station and replace a former parking lot.
The city hall will house administrative offices and city council chambers, per McCarthy. The building will also include three upper levels occupied by city employees, a rooftop garden and one level of below-grade parking comprising 70 spaces, alongside a multi-purpose room, catering kitchen and various support spaces for public use. Approximately 60% of the building will be allocated for the general public’s use.
The complete building structure will consist of exposed mass timber for all of the upper levels and concrete for the parking garage. The McCarthy + Barnsley JV completed the complex assembly of the wood panels in September.
McCarthy said the team navigated various nuances that differ from concrete and steel construction, including loading and unloading logistics, familiarizing subcontractors with the correct directional positioning of the timber before installation and maneuvering the large pieces of timber within a tight space.
“Brookhaven City Centre is an excellent representation of mass-timber’s inherent flexibility and versatility, and we’re proud to be a part of a development that is breaking new ground,” said Selina Schulten, president at Barnsley Construction Group, in the release.
