Renovation at Hobby Airport Adds Expanded Facilities With Texas Twist

Once complete, the renovation and expansion of William P. Hobby International Airport will have passengers thinking they've arrived at an entirely new - yet unmistakably Houston - destination.

by Lesley Hensell

An aerial view of the expanding concourse under way at Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport. (Photo courtesy of Clark Construction Group.)

Construction under way at Houston's William P. Hobby International Airport will expand the Central Concourse to 25 gates and centralize all airport operations and airline gates into the single building.

With its dated interior and sprawling design, Hobby Airport had seen few major changes since its construction about 70 years ago. It wasn't until 2005 that the Houston Airport System completed a new multiphase Central Concourse with 20 gates at the airport.

"The renovation is really designed to bring the terminals up to modern-day standards," said Eric Potts, deputy director of planning, construction and design for the Houston Airport System, which oversees Hobby Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Ellington Field. "This was Houston's original airport, and it definitely needed some upgrades."

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The current five-gate, $58 million expansion includes the construction of two main levels containing airport offices, an employee rest area, passenger holding rooms and concessions.

The new construction's exterior walls on the lower level consist of masonry with punched windows. The upper floor is skinned with a glazed curtain wall and metal-panel façade, topped by a high, curved standing-seam roof.

"A key objective in the design was to improve overall circulation by consolidating Southwest Airlines into one new concourse," said Elwin Dobson, senior associate for Houston-based Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc., the architect on the
project. "The three existing concourses were narrow, restricting the flow of passengers, and were showing their age dating back to the 1960s. With changes in
security brought about by Sept. 11, amenities such as concessions were located inconveniently on the non-secure side of the security checkpoint. In contrast, the new concourse provides an open spacious experience with convenient passenger amenities on the secure side of the checkpoint."

The design of the concourses highlights the character of the city of Houston, Dobson added.

"The Hobby Airport design represents a convergence of Houston's technological heritage and its Texas roots. As one team member put it, 'Houston is where NASA meets the rodeo.' Therefore, [the architects] preserved the landside façade with minimal updates for function." Dobson said the original airside terminal façade was captured inside the new vaulted ticketing lobby prominently displaying 'William P. Hobby Airport' in red neon letters.

Working at a busy airport means even the simplest construction processes must be carefully choreographed movements of labor and materials. (Photo courtesy of Clark Construction Group.)

The new construction, which began in January, will add 50,000 sq. ft. of space to the building, including 12,000 sq. ft. for airline tenants and 25,000 sq. ft. for passenger loading. The construction will provide a single point for passengers to access ticketing, baggage claim, dropoff and pickup.

Once the five-gate expansion is complete, airlines will relocate their operations into the Central Concourse.
The older Concourses A and C will be removed, with demolition work extending into mid-2008.

The expansion work began in January. That portion of the project is expected to be complete in July, and further demolition work at Hobby is scheduled to extend into mid-2008.

By centralizing operations, the airport hopes to simplify and improve traffic flow for the eight million passengers that pass through its doors each year.

"Travel distances within the airport will be shorter, and it will be easier to navigate," Potts said. "In addition, operations will be more efficient in the back of the house."

Risky Business Airport construction projects can be particularly challenging, in large part due to ever-changing security regulations, a fluctuating demand for travel and the difficulty of working at a 24/7 facility with high traffic levels. Combine those factors with the rising cost of construction materials and a fluctuating labor market, and the Hobby Airport project became too risky for the Houston Airport System to undertake, said Chris Desko, senior project manager for the Houston division of Clark Construction Group, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Md.

So the Houston Airport System chose to take a new approach by hiring a construction manager-at-risk, in hopes of staying on time and on budget. So far, the strategy seems to be paying off, Desko said.

In April 2005 the airport system chose Clark as construction manager-at-risk. Since then, Clark has cut time and money from the project, he added.

"The airport brought us in early enough to undertake a design and constructability review of the construction documents," Desko said. "We spent a lot of time and effort finding conflicts and omissions in the documents, as well as presenting value-engineering proposals."

As a result, the project has had zero change orders to date, Desko said. The only exceptions have been changes in project scope made by the owner, when the number of new gates being constructed was reduced from six to five.

Clark also resequenced construction, determining that the demolition of Concourses A and C could take place at the same time, rather than one after the other.

"All it took was some coordination with the airlines and a change in when and how we would move their operations," Desko said. "This will save us four months on the job. We'll be starting the demolition four months earlier, and delivering a new building faster. The airport is excited about that."

Bringing Down the House Working at a bustling airport presents a myriad of construction-management difficulties, Desko said.

"Site access and staging have been tough," he said. "Our project site is a fully fenced-in area, monitored by security, in the middle of the Airport Operations Area. We refer to it as Alcatraz. When materials are delivered, they must be escorted by a vehicle with a security guard to and from the site."

Work activities are coordinated daily with airport operations personnel to ensure there is no interference with air-traffic control, ground operations or travelers. All construction employees have to park offsite, and a bus that takes them to their work area. Photo identification is checked, and each employee is logged in and out every day. The jobsite averages 60 to 80 workers each day, but will peak at about 120, Desko said.

When the current projects are completed, Hobby Airport will have further options to develop and expand a proposed East Concourse, which would house all airlines except Southwest. The timing and size of this project depends upon demand for air travel and available funds, Potts said.