BEST OVERALL DESIGN
MetLife Inc. Global Technology Campus, Cary
General contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie LLC, Birmingham, Ala.
Architect: Rule Joy Trammell & Rubio LLC, Atlanta
Cost: $110 million Size: 450,000 square feet
The insurance giant made good on a 2013 promise to move about 2,600 jobs from four Northeast states and California to North Carolina when its Global Technology Campus opened this summer in Cary. The Wake County site has more than 1,000 workers in twin seven-story buildings, following MetLife’s expansion in south Charlotte, where 1,500 are employed. The New York-based company, which is in line to receive as much as $89.2 million in state incentives over the next decade, focuses on software development in Cary and marketing and customer service in Charlotte. Amenities at the Cary campus include a fitness center and outdoor basketball court, coffee bars and rooms where employees can work at treadmill desks, play Xbox and scribble ideas on the walls. Images of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, who have promoted MetLife since 1985, dot the buildings and grounds, which include an outdoor amphitheater. Raleigh-based Highwoods Properties Inc. developed the 26.5-acre campus with the possibility of adding a third office building.
BEST PUBLIC PROJECT
Talley Student Union, N.C. State University, Raleigh
General contractors: Rodgers Builders Inc., Charlotte and H.J. Russell & Company, Atlanta in a joint venture with DayeCo Construction LLC, Durham
Architect: Duda/Paine Architects LLP, Durham
Cost: $120 million Size: 149,000-square-foot addition and 150,000-square-foot renovation.
A howling wolf three stories high is just one sign that student unions are back in a big way. That’s the $120 million bet N.C. State placed when it decided to reinvigorate the building that’s been a hub for student life since 1972. Leaders also hope it’s a place for the public to visit, inviting the community to buy a scoop of ice cream made on campus from the university’s dairy herd or book a wedding in the 1,200-seat ballroom. A 150-foot-tall steel “Technology Tower” is the building’s focal point on the outside, but the school mascot designed into a wooden trellis is the signature feature inside, where there are offices, two theaters, a bookstore, full-size Apple store and food choices ranging from pizza to tapas.
BEST COMMERCIAL PROJECT
Charter Square, Raleigh
General contractor: Choate Construction Co., Atlanta
Architect: JDavis Architects PLLC, Raleigh Cost: $63 million
Size: 242,969 square feet
The new high-rise office tower in downtown Raleigh is only half of the story: As the 11-story Charter Square opened in June, Raleigh-based Dominion Realty Partners LLC unveiled plans for a sister tower, twice its size, on the same site. Law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP is the tower’s anchor tenant, while street-level space will include a Yadkin Bank branch and b.good, a fast-casual restaurant. Eschelon Experiences, which owns six restaurants in the Triangle, says it is planning a “concept” for Charter Square. Charter Square is expected to be the first privately owned building in downtown Raleigh to achieve the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification for energy efficiency. To the north, the second, 22-story tower will have office space and about 200 apartments.
*Articles courtesy of Businessnc.com, Original article (http://businessnc.com/builders-best/) *