Commercial

The Portland Cement Association has appointed Lawrence C. Novak as manager of buildings and special structures. He and his staff will consult with engineers, architects and contractors to directly promote the use of concrete and cement for buildings, stadiums, environmental and other structures throughout the United States.

Novak brings to PCA more than 20 years of experience as a structural engineer on some of the world’s most prominent buildings. Most recently as an associate partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, he served as the senior project engineer responsible for the structural design of the Burj Dubai Tower, the world’s tallest building.

Alternative Construction Technologies, Inc. (ACTech), which produces structural insulated panel systems (SIPs), has announced the use of the ACTech Panel System in the building of the world headquarters for National Semi-Trailer Corporation in Orlando, Florida. The project will be designed, permitted and constructed in less than 120 days

Reinforced concrete is being utilized in the new headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston. Using reinforced concrete will make the frame strong enough to meet blast requirements and green enough to achieve LEED certification.

The 290,000-square-foot field office complex includes an eight-story tower built of reinforced concrete. A lightweight metal frame will be hung off of the concrete walls to carry a “second skin” for the building facade.

Designed by Leo A. Daly and LAN+PageSoutherlandPage, the building has been designed to achieve a LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and is being built as part of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence program.

Fire officials said concrete construction limited the damage of a luxury condominium building in Jersey City, New Jersey on Monday.

The fire in the building, which is still under construction, caused evacuations and disrupted light rail service.

Flames could be seen across the Hudson River in Manhattan. The fire quickly accelerated, feeding on lumber being used to frame interior areas of the upper floors.

The building's steel and concrete construction helped limit most of the damage to the two upper floors, fire officials said, and the building itself was in no danger of collapse. Occupancy is slated for the summer of 2009.

Concrete contractors developing the new Art Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan built 177 custom plywood forms at a construction-site millwork shop to complete the project.

Shane Napper, the project manager from Grand Rapids-based Rockford Construction, said the custom plywood forms were developed by concrete subcontractor Grand River Construction of Hudsonville.

“We put in the parking structure that’s below the building first,” Napper said. “And we put in a full millwork shop on site. It’s almost like a waler system. The forms were all wood with tie rods through them.”

Los Angeles-based architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture Inc. designed the building.

The 125,000 square-foot concrete and glass building is organized around a central pavilion of glass and light-colored concrete flanked by a reflecting pool, a pocket park with a water wall and open-air sculpture and dining courtyards. The three-floor gallery wing will feature glass skylight lanterns which admit natural light into the space, and which will illuminate the building at night. In addition to its galleries, the building design includes a multi-use, flexible seating auditorium, education center, art reference library, café, museum shop and conference and study rooms.

For the first time in its history, Chicago has three super-tall skyscrapers under construction in Chicago, and all utilize high-strength concrete and a combination of a concrete core attached to perimeter super columns.

Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will achieve a total height of 1,362 feet, currently stands at more than 500 feet. The Waterview Tower has just emerged from the ground on the corner of Wacker Drive and Clark Street and will reach 1,047 feet when completed, while the Spire on Lake Shore Drive will be the nation’s tallest building at 2,000 feet. The Spire currently is only a hole in the ground, but contractors will soon pound steel and concrete caissons 120 feet into the bedrock below.

Each tower will use a core and outrigger system that allows a tower to place more usable square footage at the exterior of the building, allowing more natural light and larger surrounding views. Concrete “arms” will extend away from the building’s core and attach to high-strength structural columns at or near the perimeter. The enormous weight of the concrete core and super columns reduces the wind-caused oscillation.

Completion dates for the superstructures are: Trump in 2009, Waterview in late 2009 or early 2010 and the Spire in late 2010.

The City of San Francisco has followed the lead of Los Angeles in lifting a moratorium on concrete high-rise buildings, according to an official in the Los Angeles office of the Portland Cement Association.

Attila Beres of PCA says the San Francisco Building Commission has accepted the recommendation of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California in going to a “performance-based” review process that eliminates a restriction on concrete lateral framing systems for high seismic design categories.

The new system, according to Beres, requires designers and developers to prove their design is sound on its individual merits, but does not specifically ban the use of particular materials or systems.

San Francisco had restricted concrete lateral framing systems for two years, during which Beres said developers in Los Angeles jumped ahead by making good use of the performance-based review system.

While San Francisco has made no official announcement of the change, Beres said it has become “common knowledge within the industry.”

Palladon Ventures Ltd. has begun pouring the concrete foundation for power substation facilities at the Iron Mountain project near Cedar City, Utah.

On Tuesday, Palladon began pouring concrete foundations for a four-foot-thick support pad measuring 22 feet by 15.5 feet. This concrete pad will support the new 51-ton transformer currently in transit to the site. The transformer and substation installation is scheduled for September and October with all electrical feed systems to be operational by the end of 2007.

The power infrastructure at Iron Mountain will consist of a large electrical substation and switching unit connecting future Iron Mountain plant facilities to Cedar City's 138 kV main power line which feeds from two directions. The power substation project includes the pouring of concrete foundations, construction of control housing, installation of switching gear and transformer and the installation of transmission lines and power poles. The design of the substation will allow for distribution of power from several sources, ensuring a stable power supply free of surges and interruptions and a substation large enough for future expansion.