Constant Progress

Preservation and Rehabilitation of Moton Field

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Tuskegee, AL

Moton Field located in Tuskegee, Alabama, was the only primary flight training facility for African-American pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. The National Park Service is commemorating the contribution of the Tuskegee Airmen to the war effort and to the subsequent Civil Rights movement through the creation and development of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Site.

HARTRAMPF provided conceptual design services to the National Park Service for the development of plans to preserve and rehabilitate the buildings and grounds at Moton Field and to construct visitor facilities for the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Site. HARTRAMPF assembled a team of seven subcontractors with specialties in historic building restoration and rehabilitation, survey and civil design, landscape design, exhibit design, cost estimating, and LEED® compliance. In-house, HARTRAMPF provided expertise in structural, mechanical, electrical, and fire protection engineering as well as architectural services for design of the reconstructed building. HARTRAMPF also prepared an animated fly-through presentation of the historic site as it would appear upon construction completion. The project management team at HARTRAMPF coordinated the efforts of these disciplines and subcontractors to produce schematic designs and detailed cost estimates for the development of this 44-acre site.

The design included conceptual plans for: the restoration to historic exterior appearance of eight existing buildings; the restoration to historic appearance and programming for adaptive use of the interiors of six of the existing buildings; the construction of skeletal framing depicting the original configuration and mass of four buildings no longer existing; and the reconstruction of one destroyed building to depict historic exterior with new interior use. Additionally, conceptual designs for visitor access, parking, and amenities such as restroom and vending facilities, as well as informational exhibits, were developed. The HARTRAMPF team conducted several design review sessions with the National Park Service and other interested stakeholders to determine the most advantageous means of developing the historic site. These meetings included a Value Analysis of the proposed designs using the Choosing by Advantages method to determine the preferred alternative.

The success of these efforts resulted in the award by the National Park Service to HARTRAMPF, Inc. of the contract to develop construction documents for the restoration and rehabilitation of Moton Field and the construction of visitor facilities. The assembled HARTRAMPF team then produced the construction documents for the site, which involved separating the entire project into four construction phases to accommodate federal funding restraints. Meanwhile, a separate HARTRAMPF team of five sub-consultants produced a comprehensive museum plan for the four buildings programmed for public visitation and exhibits, and designers at HARTRAMPF created a package of twenty-seven site interpretation signs for the site.

Upon completion of the construction documents and award of the construction contract, the National Park Service contracted with HARTRAMPF to provide construction oversight, acting as the owner’s representative for the National Park Service during three successive construction phases. HARTRAMPF will also provide construction oversight for the fourth construction phase, scheduled to begin mid-2010 and be completed by the end of the year.

The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site project is a signature project for HARTRAMPF. Although we are a small, local, Atlanta firm, architecture, historic preservation, and the major engineering disciplines are gathered in our office, which makes communication among diverse disciplines fast and easy. We have demonstrated the capability to manage multi-million-dollar projects composed of many diverse components, stretching over multiple years, and involving numerous subcontractors, stakeholders, and interested parties. The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site project won the John Wesley Powell Prize for Historic Preservation, given by the Society for History in the Federal Government, in 2006, and is being considered for the National Trust /Advisory Council for Historic Preservation Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation in 2010.

Our services included:

  • Project Management
  • Architectural Design
  • Historic Preservation Architecture and Planning
  • Landscape and Historic Landscape Architecture
  • Structural and Civil Engineering
  • Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
  • Fire Protection Engineering
  • LEED® Compliance
  • Cost Estimating