Precast Solutions - July/August 2008 - (Page 16)

FRESNO FEDERAL PRECAST ARCHITECTURAL PANELS CREATE AN INTRIGUING, ONE-OF-A-KIND FACADE TO EXACTING BUILDING STANDARDS IN CALIFORNIA. BY DEBORAH R. HUSO PROJECT PROFILE Project: Robert E. Coyle U.S. Courthouse & Federal Building, Fresno, Calif. Project Owner: General Services Administration Architects: Gruen Associates, Los Angeles; and Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners, Santa Monica, Calif. Exterior Wall Consultant: CDC, Dallas Precast Manufacturer: Clark Pacific, West Sacramento, Calif. Builder: Dick Corp., Pittsburgh; and Matt Construction, Fresno, Calif. D owntown Fresno has never had a reputation for stunning architecture, yet the city is surrounded by a stunning landscape, CREATING PANELS WITH RANDOM ARTICULATION Precast concrete is not a common architectural component for civic buildings, but in the case of the Robert E. Coyle U.S. Courthouse, it made a lot of sense. “This job had significant challenges,” explains Steve Voss, plant manager for the project’s precast provider Clark Pacific. “Chief among them was the variation of each panel. Randomness was a key objective.” Joe Healy, project manager with Matt Construction, says that before this job he had worked with precast but only as a structural material. “The facade on this building is about as complicated as precast gets,” he says. The designers and owners of the federal building wanted to create a facade for the 439,570-square-foot, 225-foot-tall structure that would establish a monolithic, masonry-like look that would take advantage of the light and shadow of Fresno’s powerful sunlight. “Fresno doesn’t offer a lot of design cues in terms of architecture,” Chen explains, “but the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the agrarian history of the place do.” The designers’ idea was to create a building reflecting the ruggedness of the landscape in the language of abstract texture on the building’s facade, something the general public could see and get close to on a minute scale apart from the grand size and stature of the situated as it is in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Thirteen years ago, when the General Services Administration (GSA) began making plans for a new, larger and stronger federal building, the administration also hoped to create a structure that would stand out on the Fresno skyline, emulate the rugged countryside around it, and create a sense of accessibility to the public. With a limited budget, this was no easy task, but architectural precast offered an economical and versatile option for intricate design, blast and seismic event resistance, and the requisite 100-year weatherability demanded by the GSA. “Precast offered the material that suited the nature of the region, as well as the needed blast and acoustical qualities,” explains Jeanne Chen, principal of the design architecture firm Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners in Santa Monica, Calif. Blast qualities refer to the blast resistance criteria required for federal government buildings since the aftermath of the Alfred P. Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City. Precast concrete provides a hardened, secure envelope and, by its nature, absorbs significant energy and redistributes loads across a broader area. “This was an opportunity to do something completely different with precast,” she says. 16 PRECAST SOLUTIONS | JULY/AUGUST 2008

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Precast Solutions - July/August 2008 Contents What You Should Know About UHPC A Winning Hand Fresno Federal Expanding U.S. Wind Power Precast Concrete Pipe

Precast Solutions - July/August 2008

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