New Concourse To Add Eight Gates to Airport Through First-of-Its-Kind Offsite Construction and Relocation Building Technique

From left to right: LAWA Deputy Executive Director of Operations, Doug Webster; LAWA Chief Airport Affairs Officer, Becca Doten; LAWA Chief Operations and Maintenance Officer, Michael Christensen; Commissioner Karim Webb; Commissioner Nicholas P. Roxborough; BOAC Vice President, Val Velasco; LAWA Chief Development Officer, Terri Mestas; LAWA Chief Executive Officer, Justin Erbacci; AWA Deputy Executive Director of the Terminal Development and Improvement Program, Hans Thilenius; W.E. O’Neil Construction President, John Finn; Woods Bagot Principal and West Coast Design Leader, Matt Ducharme. Courtesy Los Angeles World Airports.

(Los Angeles) At a ceremony attended by members of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) executives and staff and members of the design and construction team, the newest addition to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)’s multi-billion-dollar Capital Improvement Program broke ground today. The project, Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South, is an extension of the West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal and will add approximately 150,000 square feet and eight gates for narrowbody aircraft. Utilizing a first-of-its-kind construction technique called Offsite Construction and Relocation (OCR), MSC South will be built in nine segments roughly a mile and a half away from the project’s site and then carefully delivered and assembled in place. The OCR technique is both innovative and adaptive, saving public funds and time with a high degree of building control and supervision.

“It is a testament to LAWA’s consistent focus on innovation that LAX’s new Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South is being delivered with a first-of-its-kind Offsite Construction and Relocation technique that will enable an accelerated project timeline, save money, and be flexible enough to adapt to meet future needs if required,” said Justin Erbacci, Chief Executive Officer, LAWA. “MSC South is original in both the way it is being constructed and in its overall design, which celebrates our transformation while paying tribute to the architectural legacy of our airport.”

MSC South represents another example of LAWA’s dedication to design excellence. Architecturally, the concourse creates a sense of place that celebrates and pays homage to the City of Los Angeles, with elements of the design strongly influenced by notable modernist homes. This is especially true of the project’s exterior brise soleil system – a solar shading feature on the concourse’s façade – that frames sightlines of the surrounding L.A. landscape. Inside MSC South, passengers’ comfort and well-being are of the utmost importance, with the interior feeling more like a domestic space than a traditional airport concourse.

MSC South’s brise soleil system will also enable passive cooling and energy conservation, helping the project achieve its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver accreditation goal. As with all LAWA transformation projects, the team delivering MSC South is comprised of local workers, with more than 30% of the team coming from Los Angeles’s local workforce.

Rendering of LAX’s Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South. Courtesy Los Angeles World Airports.

“Drawing inspiration from California Modernism, the design for LAX’s MSC South captures a feeling of ease, simple but functional design, and timeless beauty,” said Matt Ducharme, Principal and West Coast Design Leader, Woods Bagot. “A great example of this is realized in the concourse’s exterior brise soleil system that links to the building's interior ceiling, creating a strong sense of place and indoor-to-outdoor connection for guests.”

Concept diagram depicting inspiration drawn from California Modernism that informed the design vocabulary of LAX’s Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South’s exterior brise soleil. From right to left: Kaufmann House by architect Richard Neutra, Palm Springs, 1947. Julius Shulman photography archive. Courtesy The Getty Research Institute’s Open Content Program; Case Study House #22 by architect Pierre Koenig, Los Angeles, 1960. Julius Shulman photography archive. Courtesy The Getty Research Institute’s Open Content Program; Detail of LAX’s Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South’s brise soleil. Courtesy Los Angeles World Airports.

“LAX’s MSC South is amazing because of what we’ve figured out how to do together: deliver the job faster without sacrificing precision and care by building the concourse offsite then meticulously moving the segments into place,” said John Finn, President, W.E. O’Neil Construction. “Yes, it will look cool! But another major aspect is the speed at which we are able to realize the project while still maintaining the very highest construction standards.”

Axonometric and segment details of LAX’s Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South. Courtesy Los Angeles World Airports.

Enabling work for the project is now underway, with significant project completion planned for 2025. Interested parties can learn more about LAX’s campus-wide transformation and subscribe for project updates at bit.ly/LAX-Transformation.

MSC SOUTH KEY PROJECT DETAILS

• Approximately 150,00sf of new construction
• Built with innovative Offsite Construction and Relocation (OCR) technique
• 8 Airplane Design Group (ADG) III Narrowbody Gates
• Targeting LEED Silver

PROJECT TEAM

• Design Architect: Woods Bagot Los Angeles
• Associate Architect: Raw International
• General Contractor and Construction Manager: W.E. O'Neil Construction
• Structural Engineer: Buro Happold
• Civil Engineer: Mott MacDonald / MA Engineering
• Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer: Syska Hennessy Group
• Electrical Engineer: PBS Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineer: Diaz Yourman & Associates
• Sustainability Consultant: Buro Happold
• Baggage Handling, Passenger Boarding Bridges and Fueling: Swanson Rink
• IT, Communications and Security: TLC Engineering Solutions
• Wayfinding: Selbert Perkins Design
• Lighting Design: Buro Happold
• Acoustics: Buro Happold
• Site Investigations and Surveying: Pfeiler & Associates Engineers, Inc
• Vertical Transportation: Syska Hennessy
• Group Code Compliance: Jensen Hughes
• Fire Protection: Schwab Engineering

MEDIA ASSETS
A PDF of this press release and a high-resolution image is available to download here: bit.ly/LAX-MSC-South. Credit all assets as “Courtesy Los Angeles World Airports.”