Office Project Nears Completion
Finishing Details Consume Attention

Seen from the front, the facade of the new IMEA headquarters is shown here near completion. The front elevation shows two long floors in the Prairie style. The building is actually three stories, with a drive out lower level  area in the rear.

This view shows the construction of the board room desks. In the background is a gallery area for guests to observe board meeting activities.

It's called stomped (not stamped) concrete and this is why. Workers are stomping on rubberized molds to press a brick pattern into the concrete area immediately in front of the building. The concrete is also mixed with a color compound to give a realistic brick look to the finished product.

With the new IMEA office building's exterior complete and the parking areas poured, most of the builder's time and attention shifted to finishing details within the interior. Finish flooring, interior woodwork and painting were all going on simultaneously as the project sprinted toward completion.

Begun in August 2006, substantial completion of the project is expected within a few weeks. The Agency has scheduled a tentative date for moving from its current building into the new structure in mid October.

The new building will feature 24,000 finished square feet of space. The new operations center is housed within a hardened concrete structure to provide for security and safety. The building also features geothermal heating and cooling and backup generation on site in case of extended power outages.

Designed by the architectural firm of Melotte, Morse, Leonatti of Springfield, the building is being constructed by Harold O'Shea Builders, also of Springfield. Initial design work began in late 2005. Land was acquired at the site in central west Springfield in early 2006. Construction was expected to take approximately a year and the project has remained essentially on schedule throughout.