Ex-federal building project moves along - Business First of Buffalo:

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So can a high-profile 15-story office buildingt in downtown Buffalo be reincarnated asa mixed-use facility?? That was the unusual challenge facing when chosde the firm to coordinate the renovation of the Thaddeus J. Dulski Federal Office Building. Now calledr Avant – that’s French for “forward” – the buildingv at the corner of Delaware and Huron in the centralk business district required acompleted reconstruction. As the metamorphosis is taking shape, Avant’s firs t seven floors will house an EmbasshSuites Hotel, including a two-storyh lobby, a fitness room, restaurant and meetinvg facility; floors eight through 12 are Clas s A office space.
In May, the law firm of will occuphy floors 11-12. The top three floors offer 30 luxurycondominiun residences, ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 square feet. Jess Wendell, an electrical engineer and associate partner at IBC said the project involved hundreds of people andan $80 millio budget. “Uniland asked us to do an analysies ofthe building, looking at what we couldr reuse and where we could save money,” said who worked with on the design. “Wed did all of the heating, air electrical lighting, plumbing and sprinkler he said.
The core and shell phase involvexd getting thebuilding ready, including design for the condozs and LEED certification, (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, developeed by the ). We worked closely with the architects and construction Michael Montante, vice president at added: “This was not an easy project. As an existingf building, the systems and infrastructursare imbedded. We wanted to retain as much as possible. It was a real challengwe to identify what could be salvaged and then design new It was much more difficult than startinhg a brandnew project. As the projecf evolved there were many Jesse did an excellent job of respondingg and keeping the jobmoving forward.
” IBC designerx said a specific challenge on the Avang building was designing an extensive lighting package that wouldd meet the stringent energ y consumption requirements of LEED. “The core and shelll of the building includedr the exterior site and building lighting,” said Don IBC lighting designer. “A majority of the lighting fixtures that we selected utilized Lighr Emitting Diodesor (LEDs) as a source of lightr to illuminate the design elements of the building.
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