Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.
Issue link: http://concrete.epubxp.com/i/82325
FINAL FORM PRECAST High Concrete AFB project commands PCI Design Award Denver, Pa.-based High Concrete Group won the top prize in the military structures cat- egory of the 50th Annual PCI Design Awards competition. The company pro- duced the architectural precast concrete walls for the 711th Human Performance Wing Complex at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fariborn, Ohio. Designers persuaded the Corps of Engineers to use precast concrete panels embedded with thin brick, instead of laid-up brick veneer, as the precast could offer better quality control and faster production due to its off-site cast- ing. According to Dave Mankowski, senior project manager for Archer Western/Butt Construction, "Partnering with High Concrete Group, the structural engineer, and the struc- tural fabricator, we successfully allowed off- site fabrication of precast panels and structural steel to run concurrently. In essence, three major building components Project Principals General Contractor: Archer Western Contractors Ltd. (Chicago, Ill.)/ Butt Construction Co. (Dayton, Ohio) Joint Venture Architect of Record: Cannon Design, Arlington, Va. Associate Architect: Burgess & Niple, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio Structural Engineer: THP Limited Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio Architect/Engineer for RFP: KZF/BWSC Joint Venture, Cincinnati, Ohio were being built both on-site and off-site at the same time during the winter months. As a result, sequencing of the structural steel erection and precast panel erection was able to begin concurrently in April 2009, versus the original scheduled start of precast in July 2009, a 90-day schedule improvement. That improvement was maintained through- out the completion and turnover of the proj- ect which gave the government a nearly 90-day head start on moving into the entire 679,000-sq.-ft. complex." To complement adjacent buildings, design- ers worked with the precaster to find the ap- propriate color in a 5/8-in.-thick brick for the building's façade. Some areas also used ex- posed architectural panels in a buff color with a light sandblast finish. Furthermore, to over- come concerns about aesthetic quality, the Request For Proposal (RFP) included specifi- cations that panels would provide a toothed appearance at the building corners and expan- sion joints located at the column center lines. The $194.5 million complex is the center- piece for Wright-Patterson's $334 million Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) construction program. The Department of Defense 2005 BRAC Act consolidated military programs and closed excess bases to save money. As part of the act, numerous medical research functions from across the country were relocated to the base, including the U.S. Navy's Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory and the U.S. Air Force Physiological Training Unit. The PCI Design Awards honors design ex- cellence and construction quality in build- ings and transportation structures that use precast concrete. This year, a panel of five independent judges representing the con- struction industry honored 27 buildings out of 112 qualified entries from through- out North America. 56 | SEPTEMBER 2012 WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM