Production Facility
The McClatchy Company
Location: Bluffton, SC
Square Footage: 48,500
Completion: 2006

As employees of Austin AECOM, Robin Adams and Todd Heirls worked closely with the owner, planning team, local civil engineers Ward Edwards and the equipment vendor’s engineers to coordinate and integrate a facility that would accommodate the selected production and packaging equipment. The facility incorporated a KBA Prisma double wide press, a SLS-3000 inserter, and downstream bundling equipment.

This phase-II project encompasses planning, programming, design and
construction administration for a new production facility addition to the
completed phase-I editorial and business office building. The new
production facility will print and distribute the The Island Packet and The
Beaufort Gazette, both members of Lowcountry Newspapers. The design
of this facility derived its concept from the established design of the editorial
and business office building, which borrows from the tobacco barn profile
common in the area.

This project was challenged by strict zoning requirements limiting the
maximum height of the building, and by the high water table typical for this
coastal area. Once a press was selected, equipment height required the
reel room to be constructed below the water table. Intricate engineering
coordination, specialized engineering methods, and redundant systems
should assure the building will remain dry.

Construction was completed by Collins Construction Services, Inc.

Reference:

Sara Johnson Borton, Publisher
William King, Production Director