Hickory company selected for project

From Hickory Daily Record 

HICKORY - Atriax has been selected as one of the architecture/engineering design companies that will support the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Midwest Medical Centers in Columbia, Mo.; Kansas City, Mo.; Poplar Bluff, Mo.; St. Louis, Mo. (two medical centers); Leavenworth, Kan.; Topeka, Kan.; Wichita, Kan.; and Marion, Ill.

The contract is for a period of one year, with an option to award four additional years. Design fees under this indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract may range from $3,500 to $1 million each, with a maximum award amount of $5 million over a five-year period. 

"We are pleased to win this contract," said George Auten Jr, Atriax's president. "From our headquarters in Hickory, we continue to grow, prosper, and prepare for the future. Our growth is steady and strategic, and this contract will allow us to set up new offices in the Kansas City area, expand into new markets and give our current and future employees opportunities for personal and professional growth. It is a very good time for us." 

This award is the eighth such contract Atriax has received from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Ed Henson, AIA, Atriax's vice president, said: "We enjoy a national contract for design and engineering services and have contracts with VA Medical Centers in Houston, Texas; Salem, Virginia.; Asheville and five others. These contracts establish a partnership between the VA Medical Centers and Atriax. We become their on-call design and engineering support team and act much like an extension of their staff. We work on planned design projects and act as an emergency response team when facilities or infrastructure fail and need immediate design solutions. We are very good at these partnerships and have grown our work with the VA as a result." 

Atriax's work with Midwest contract may include facility condition assessments and investigative reports; conceptual designs; contract documents; energy audits; asbestos abatement; lead removal; mold remediation; exterior and interior layouts and designs; interior furnishings; life safety studies; cost estimating; and scheduling. Atriax will also provide construction period services that may include the review of equipment samples, shop drawings and other related construction submittals and documents, project site inspections/site visits and reports. 

Atriax has extensive experience in architectural, engineering, and construction management services regionally, nationally and worldwide for residential, commercial and federal clients, particularly for the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. 

Atriax is owned and actively managed by two retired Air Force civil engineering officers (one an engineer, one an architect) who have served at installation; major-command and HQ USAF levels. Atriax has been in business for 15 years, maturing from a two-person, small-business consultant, to a technical-services firm with a robust resume of project/program management, design, planning, consulting, and construction period services projects.