Precast Solutions - Winter 2009 - (Page 11) the only thing tying the wall together laterally,” Macrae says. The TRIAD design also called for two giant black-and-white checkered precast finish line flags on the front of the building above the large glass garage doors. The glass doors spill light onto the 20-foot black and white checkered stained concrete “winners circle” on the concrete floor in the front of the building. High Concrete Group used a retarding agent to expose 6-foot square black and white relief patterns. In the final stages of production, High Concrete Group acid washed the entire building to create a smooth, clean finish. The use of three different materials (gray, black and snow-white rock) added about $5,000 to the entire project cost and required a meticulous attention to detail to avoid overruns on reveals, according to Josh Fisher, High Concrete Group project manager. However, it had a dramatic impact. “It is aesthetically unique,” says Fisher. “It is amazing how many different possibilities there are for precast.” “It is aesthetically unique,” says Fisher. “It is amazing how many different possibilities there are for precast.” High speed Time was the other benefit of precast concrete for the functioning campus. Most of the work was done off site at High Concrete Group’s climate-controlled plant in Springboro, Ohio. That eliminated four to five months of teams of bricklayers on site and the need for a staging area on the functioning campus. It also eliminated rain delays, a major factor in Ohio. “While the material cost of this option may be a little more expensive than the traditional brick and block cavity wall construction, the true savings lies in the erection time reduction and its impact on the job schedule,” says Macrae. He estimated that the district realized a 20 percent cost savings on the $4.6 million building in labor due to time schedule savings. The job started with schematic designs in July 2006 and the district awarded the bid to Westerville, Ohio-based contractor Corna/Kokosing Construction Co. in March 2007. At that point, the contractor sat down with the architect, electricians and HVAC team to go over the details of embedding the wiring in the walls. “Coordinating this at the beginning saved a lot of problems later,” says Jamie Srbljan, Corna/ Photos courtesy of TRIAD Architects. Winter 2009 | Precast Solutions 11 www.precastsolutions.org http://www.precastsolutions.org
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