For a second year in a row, a Georgia military infrastructure project from Burns & McDonnell's Southeast team earned an ACEC Georgia Engineering Excellence Honor Award. This year, the Atlanta Readiness Center (ARC), a new primary and permanent 62,300 square-foot facility designed for the Georgia Army National Guard's 3rd Squadron of the 108th Cavalry Regiment and 560th Battlefield Support Brigade was completed by Burns & McDonnell on-schedule and on-budget.

"We consolidated multiple armories and distant storage locations, into a single, state-of-the-art command and control facility that allows the Guard to meet ever-increasing standards," said Shawn DeKold, PE, LEED AP, regional global practice manager, Aviation & Federal, Burns & McDonnell. "Our team's award-winning work reflects our engineering and architectural expertise and our commitment to deliver excellence through every phase of a project."

Burns & McDonnell provided comprehensive planning, architectural and engineering, along with construction support services for the ARC. Built on an existing site, the new, spacious facility enhances standard military design while maintaining required functionality, improving the Army National Guard units' readiness posture. The facility incorporates numerous energy-conserving features, including occupancy sensors, energy management control systems and water-saving fixtures. Burns & McDonnell also used design techniques to turn the challenge of the topography – including an elevation differential of 130 feet from front to back – into enhanced force protection while reducing the costs of perimeter protection to the Guard. The ARC was designed to earn U.S. Green Building Council's LEED-Silver certification. The ARC is also an attractive new asset to its suburban Atlanta community. 

This is the third military infrastructure project Burns & McDonnell has completed in Georgia, including the award-winning Cumming Regional Readiness Center and the Macon Regional Readiness Center; nationwide the company has completed more than two dozen Readiness Centers.