The apartments project uses an unusual steel framing process.
The GoggleWorks Apartments construction project in Reading uses a building process that relies on an arrangement of prefabricated steel boxes on each floor.
By Kathleen Shannon
Reading Eagle correspondent
The wraps on the new GoggleWorks apartments on Washington Street in Reading will be long gone by early summer. In the meantime, the $16.7 million building remains swathed in plastic to keep workers warm.
The plastic also has been covering up an unusual construction process based on a metal framing system. Instead of a typical structural steel framework filled in with masonry blocks and wooden planks, it has prefabricated metal framing and walls that stack in place made by ClarkDietrich Building Systems, an Ohio-based provider of steel construction products and services.
Eric Burkey, president of Reading-based Burkey Construction Co., the project?s general contractor, said the walls are set in place and the cold-formed steel joists and metal deck are set before the walls are placed on the floor above. The wall panels literally sit one on top of the other and carry through the overall height of the building.
?This kind of system has been around for a while,? Burkey said. ?It just hasn?t been used a lot.?
He?s using it because of cost considerations.
Lee Olsen of Olsen Design Group Architects in Bern Township, architect for the project, initially planned to use concrete, but that would have cost more than was budgeted, and he was asked to provide less expensive options.
Olsen sent investigative teams, including Burkey and retailer Albert R. Boscov of the nonprofit Our City Reading, to research projects using ClarkDietrich structural systems in Cleveland and Baltimore. He was happy with what he heard.
?While the wall thickness is less than with traditional building materials, the sound rating is the same,? Olsen said.
Burkey said he likes it because it?s environmentally friendly: There is minimal waste with steel products designed to mesh, and it?s recyclable.
Olsen said the switch saved $800,000 to $1 million.
Nader Elhajj of the Mid-Atlantic Steel Framing Alliance in Fairfax, Va., said there are many advantages to a metal framing system, not just costs.
?It?s totally insect- and termite-proof,? Elhajj said. ?Another great aspect is that it?s pre-punched for both electrical and plumbing work, making it much easier for subcontractors.?
He echoed Burkey?s comments about recyclability, saying that steel has no memory and can be reused multiple times.
Burkey said he never worked with this kind of system before and acknowledged there are some drawbacks.
?It?s not flexible,? he said. ?Design changes are extremely hard. You can?t move a door easily. But I would use it again.?
Since everything stacks and meshes in place, Burkey said, it?s not suitable for low office buildings with large open spaces. Spaces should be fairly small and repetitive.
He also considered a similar system manufactured by Hambro but went with ClarkDietrich because of its lower cost.
Burkey said the proposed convention center hotel in the 700 block of Penn Street also will use this type of building process.
Burkey hired a subcontractor?s assembly crew from Pittsburgh that already knows the process. These workers travel to ClarkDietrich project sites and don?t need any training. He has hired local workers for the GoggleWorks project, but they?re not assigned to jobs unique to the system.
Jim Collins, ClarkDietrich?s director of marketing, said one of the system?s largest advantages is fire protection, especially between apartment units or hotel rooms.
While business is only half of what it was pre-recession, Collins said the metal framing industry mirrors the construction industry, with business gradually starting to increase.
?We?re starting to see an uptick,? Collins said. ?Good things are on the horizon. There will be a gradual return to previous sales levels. We?re picking up again.?
The apartments, with 59 units on six floors, will officially be named Sen. Michael A. O?Pake GoggleWorks Apartments, honoring the late state senator from Berks County. They will be managed by the Reading Housing Authority.
Contact Kathleen Shannon: businessweekly@readingeagle.com or 610-371-5080.
The ClarkDietrich process
At the Goggleworks Apartments, workers installed the floor for the first level (also the parking garage roof), then arranged boxes made of a steel framing in rows on the first floor, leaving room for halls and corridors. Interior and exterior walls were put in place and then the boxes for the second story were added, followed by additional floors up to the fifth. The metal framing system eliminates the need for a single structural steel framework for the entire building.
The main stairwell and elevator shaft were built by Burkey Construction on the first floor up five levels prior to any of the metal framing system going in to place.
? Kathleen Shannon
tesla model s tesla model s prohibition alex honnold koch industries dexter season 6 andy rooney 60 minutes
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন