Donohue/Herceg and the City of South Bend, Indiana, received an Honor Award in the 2013 ACEC Indiana Engineering Excellence competition and the 2012 Best Transportation Project from Engineering News-Record Midwest. The awards recognize the South Bend Airport’s Concourse ‘A’ Expansion designed by Donohue/Herceg, which brings a modern look and feel to a regional airport that is now able to welcome up to 1 million passengers annually.

The 45,000-square-foot expansion includes five new gates and multiple amenities for passengers, including a dining room and lounge, gift shop, children’s playroom, nursing lounge, and business center with charging stations and free Wi-Fi at individual work stations. The renovation consolidated passenger screening operations to a single expanded location.

The design features perforated girders and purlins, an arching translucent panel roof, clerestory windows, and full-height curtainwall systems to encourage natural lighting. A daylight harvesting system turns off light fixtures when natural light is present to save energy. The entire concourse addition is heated and cooled using geothermal technology, and seven bubbler fountains provide humidification to the concourse, eliminating the need for high maintenance in-line humidifiers in the ductwork. 

photo credit: Abstract Photography, Inc.