Dive Brief:

• Participants in building Santiago Calatrava's striking and challenging building that is the centerpiece of new Florida Polytechnic University's campus in Lakeland, Florida, say that putting together the $60 million structure took cooperation like nothing they have seen before.
• FTU's 162,000-square-foot Innovation, Science and Technology Building has 94 louvered arms that arc across the top of the building, tracking the sun to control control heat and, someday, generate power through photovoltaic tape on their surfaces.
• Designers and contractors from several firms involved, including construction manager Skanska USA, Baker Concrete Construction, architect-of-record Alfonso Architects and several others made monthly trips to Calatrava's offices in New York City as they worked out how to make supporting structures work and how to move the arms without so much equipment that weight reached a critical level.

Dive Insight:

Skanska "engaged the design members into the construction process more than I've ever seen," Baker Concrete's operations manager, Roger Webb, said. There were design challenges through the project, the team said, and exacting standards loike a required tolerance of 1/16th of an inch across a a 70-foot steel structure.