City-County Building Plaza Improvements

Client: Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority

Project: City-County Building Plaza Improvements

Budget: $750,000

Completed:  October 2018

Details: The City-County Building Plaza in downtown Indianapolis was redesigned and reconstructed. James Babcock, Inc. was awarded the electrical and communications systems contracts for the revitalization of the 1.94-acre plaza.

The project started July 2017 and was completed by October 2018. As the electrical contractor, JBI provided underground electrical piping, grounding and bonding, fountain electrical piping, and electrical demolition. We installed all motor starters and safety switches for HVAC equipment. Additionally, we installed and provided the complete interior and exterior lighting package that included floating ring lights, fountain lighting, and lighting control panels and systems for the swinging bench equipment.

As the systems contractor, we provided and installed a complete audio and video system and six security cameras. The Audio/Video system included the control systems, touch panels, loudspeakers, pole mounting components, digital signal processors, CD players, power amplifiers, control system network switches, and surge protection. This also included microphones, microphone plates, cables, stands, wire, cable, conductors, conduits, boxes, mounting hardware, trim and accessories. We furnished and installed stainless-steel speaker lighting brackets and anti-fall hardware.

The plaza actually sits on top of the City-County Building’s 4-level underground parking garage. The roof of the garage is two feet of concrete, rebar, a waterproofing system with 18” of fill to grade. All construction tasks had to be handled with precaution-to not penetrate the waterproofing system while ensuring that there was minimal impact on the structural stability of the garage’s roof. This became especially important during the installation of light pole bases and the ring lighting support poles. Special care had to be taken when saw-cutting the concrete roof for 30 feeds to the pump room in the garage.

Though challenging at times, especially with the change of seasons, we completed the work successfully, and the aesthetics of the finished project are a nice, unique addition to the plaza’s open public space. We were successful in providing a special look and feel to this environment that beautifies this downtown landscape by day and night, and we were able to do it while minimizing the distractions of necessary electrical equipment and conduit.