Mid-Atlantic Precast Association (MAPA) Producer Receives Two PCI Design Awards
Lancaster, PA (PRWEB) May 15, 2017 -- The Mid-Atlantic Precast Association (MAPA) recently announced that one of its producers, High Concrete Group, has received industry honors for an office building project in Philadelphia, PA.
The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) presented High Concrete with two awards, including the 2016 Design Award: Best Office Building and the 2016 Design Award Specials: Harry H. Edwards Industry Advancement Award. Both honors were for their four-story office building project at 1200 Intrepid Avenue in the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The project proves that precast concrete enables the most innovative architectural designs while providing a highly energy-efficient and durable envelope.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The building was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a Danish architectural firm that has long relied on precast to achieve form and function in their designs. “We came very quickly to the idea that precast concrete would be a great way to achieve our goals on this project,” says Kai-Uwe Bergmann, principal at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the architect on the project.
One of the most prominent features of the building is the white precast concrete façade, which dips dramatically away from the walkway along the eastern edge, then tips back out again, much like the buildings in a Dr. Seuss story.
“One of the key design challenges was to create that curved façade from precast panels,” says David Bosch, design team leader for High Concrete Group, the precaster on the project and one of MAPA’s producers. The curved load-bearing design was achieved by assembling flat, traditional precast concrete panels to form a complex faceted geometry. An interlocking structural system was embedded within the panels to eliminate the need for traditional precast concrete spandrel panels. “The resulting façade creates an aesthetic versatility that is unique to the project,” Bosch says.
The design breaks away from traditional architecture to better engage with the local surroundings, says Bergmann. “In many cases, architects design big, boxy buildings that could be placed anywhere and don’t connect directly to the site.” He argues that the curved white façade, and deeply reflective windows in this design were inspired by the city’s rectangular city blocks and the adjacent circular park that sits just in front of the building. It also echoes the geometries of maritime architecture and nearby waterway. “You would really be hard-pressed to place this building anywhere else other than where it is, due to how it connects,” Bergmann says. “We like to think about a building beyond its borders and look at how it interacts with its neighbors and the open spaces around.”
PRECAST SOLUTION
Along with being visually inviting, the owners wanted the building to achieve LEED Gold certification, which led to several sustainability measures enabled by the use of precast concrete. The thermal benefits of the precast façade lowered projected heating and cooling costs, contributing 7 of the 60 total LEED points for overall energy performance. The panels were also created using local raw materials and recycled content less than 60 miles from the project site, minimizing the greenhouse gas emissions related to transport and adding more LEED points to the total. “While the concrete production requires a larger carbon footprint initially, it is a material that will have a long life span and can be recycled if needed,” Bosch adds.
Finally, the precast concrete façade solved the fact that the building’s steel structure was designed to carry only lateral loads, which meant the precast concrete façade had to transfer the gravity loads directly through the precast concrete panels to the foundations. To achieve this, the engineers designed a structural steel system embedded into the precast concrete panels. Pockets were formed into alternating panels at the spandrel level to allow the interlocking of each panel during installation. “All the gravity loads are transferred from any given panel to the adjacent panel on either side until they reach the foundation,” Bosch explains. “In order to prevent a progressive collapse in the event that one connection should happen to fail, each panel also has a safety backup connection.”
For video content and a project photo gallery, visit the 1200 Intrepid Project Profile on the MAPA website.
PROJECT AT-A-GLANCE
Location: 1200 Intrepid Avenue in the Navy Yard (Philadelphia, PA)
Precast Producer & Precast Specialty Engineer: High Concrete Group (Denver, PA)
Owner: Liberty Property Trust (Philadelphia, PA)
Architect: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group (New York, NY)
Engineer of Record: Environetics (Philadelphia, PA)
Contractor: Turner Construction Company (Philadelphia, PA)
Project Cost: $19,017,393
Square Footage: 99,450 sq. ft. precast concrete façade for four-story building in Navy Yards of Philadelphia
Architectural Precast Elements: Include 421 architectural precast concrete panels at an average nominal size of 5 ft. x 18 ft.
LEED: The façade is 30% more efficient than the baseline ASHRAE assembly, contributing to the LEED Gold certification.
ABOUT MID-ATLANTIC PRECAST ASSOCIATION
The Mid-Atlantic Precast Association (MAPA) is a professional marketing organization committed to the growth and greater profitability of the Precast Industry in the Mid-Atlantic region. Founded in 1978, MAPA is comprised of 13 prestressed/precast producer member firms located throughout the Mid-Atlantic States, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. The organization is closely associated with the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) and has over 50 associate member companies that produce a variety of concrete industry related products. For more information, visit http://www.mapaprecast.org.
Kae G. Wagner, [email protected], http://www.northstar-m.com, +1 (717) 392-6982 Ext: 1, [email protected]
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