This winter, NGA’s 700,000 square-foot main operations building, visitor’s center and two parking garages are receiving their finishes – furniture, paving, painting –– as construction of NGA’s new campus in north St. Louis continues toward completion. 

The campus is a little over a year away from being NGA-ready – move-in is scheduled to begin in 2025, to be completed in 2026 – but already many areas of the facility look like they’re ready for NGA team members to set up their computers, grab a coffee, and start collaborating. Throughout the facility, office areas, hallways and conference rooms are being painted, carpeted and furnished.  Aesthetic features of the campus are taking shape, such as decorative panels and lighting.  

“It’s been exciting watching this world-class facility continue to progress and begin to see more of the truly unique architectural aspects of the building come into reality,” said Gene Morisani, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager for the NGA project. “As the project works to its conclusion, the progress the USACE construction team, the McCarthy-HITT design-build team and the hundreds of skilled tradespeople working at the site have made is truly impressive.”

Aesthetic highlights of the new facility include approximately 12,000 square feet of aluminum metal paneling in the south face of the central courtyard and the north face of the exterior of the main operations building, both of which were recently completed. The aluminum features a factory-applied finish to match the other metal accents throughout the facility.

Another stylistic feature, currently being installed, is the decorative ceiling pattern and lighting throughout the entry and grand staircase areas. It will follow a similar triangular pattern as the exterior paneling.

Pedestrian walkways around the campus are also are being constructed. The covered walkways from the Visitor Control Center and the parking garages to main operations building recently were completed. Work is under way on paving the multi-use trail around the campus, where NGA team members can stroll, jog or take part in a walking meeting. 

“We’ve seen a lot of progress across the board at the campus,” said Frank Cooper, N2W program director. “Earthwork has begun on the access control points and the remote inspection facility and, later this year, we’ll see the awards for the final small-business contracts for the project, which will cover our visitor center parking lot as well as the landscaping for the campus."

Later this year, as construction work on the facility is being completed, Cooper said IT and security installation work also will begin.  

The project continues to closely track federal labor goals for worker participation of 6.9 percent women and 14.7 percent minorities per trade, said Josh Gaghen with McCarthy-HITT. Approximately 19.2 percent of workforce hours for the Next NGA West project have been minority participation, with 6.6 percent of workforce hours has been female participation, said Gaghen. 

Written by Jessica Daues, Office of Corporate Communications