In February 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) received notice that they were to find a new location for the Aircraft Operations Center. On November 30, 2016 the decision was made official to relocate to Lakeland, Florida. The 10-year contract awarded to the city also required NOAA to design an operations center to house their office and laboratory staff, as well as their aircraft – including their largest and more popular planes, Hurricane Hunters. The Lunz Group was named the Architect on Record for the facility, which they broke ground on a week later.
The project was completed in 250 days, taking 72 days of design and 178 days to build the roughly 106,000 square fee, state of the art facility.
The project was Herculean in both scale and speed.
In the months following, Indie Atlantic Films captured the fast-paced and exhilarating day-to-day of construction on the facility, from ground breaking to open for business. Check out the video below or click on the link to view on Vimeo.
