MEP/FP
The Military Freefall School, part of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, needed permanent facilities and infrastructure to train over 2,000 Special Operation Forces (SOF) students each year at U.S. Army Garrison Yuma Proving Ground. Currently the training, support, and aviation support are spread across 18 buildings at the airfield and cantonment area creating inefficiencies in training. In 2018, AEC and our team partners began executing three contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Louisville District to design a 49,000- SF, $48 million two-bay maintenance hangar configured to accommodate two C-27J Spartan aircraft, a new $12 million Ready Building for the students to sleep in, and a new 155,000-SF, $52 million state-of-the-art “schoolhouse” Advanced Training Complex. The projects directly improve mission readiness, providing expeditious service to the maintainers and operators.
The new two-bay fixed wing aircraft operations and maintenance hangar includes maintenance bays for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, flight detachment administration and operations, maintenance support, tool and parts storage, and shop space. Built-in building systems include fire alarm/mass notification, fire suppression, energy management controls, advanced communications network, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), electronic access control, Energy Monitoring Control Systems (EMCS) connection, and a protected distribution system (PDS). AEC was responsible for communications engineering design.
The new Advanced Training Complex is a 1-story, 149,000 SQ FT structure that consists of classrooms, parachute rigging and packing rooms, offices, administrative spaces, and storage. Given the size of the building, the design/construction was broken into four sections separated by an expansion joint and having its own lateral system. Specialized building systems were provided for fire protection of the storage spaces, oxygen piping and manifold system to support the parachutists, direct digital controls based on occupancy schedules and sensors, and cybersecurity compliance. The project was designed to met LEED version 4 and version 4.1 guidelines for Silver certification. The team worked closely with each of the user groups to determine space requirements and any specialized systems needed to meet individual needs. AEC was responsible for design of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and communications systems.
The Ready Building consists of student team rooms, multi-purpose room, latrines, locker rooms and showers, laundry room, reception area, storage room, overhead protection, and building support space. Built-in building systems will include fire alarm/mass notification, fire suppression, energy management control, telephone and advanced unclassified communications networks, cable TV, closed circuit surveillance, and electronic access control systems. AEC was responsible for communications engineering design.
