Maine's oldest neighborhood, Munjoy Hill in the City of Portland, has gone through a lot of changes over the past four hundred years. In 2018 alone the area has experienced more than 700,000 SF of new construction and millions invested in development.
100 Fore Street is one example that is changing the urban landscape with a mixed-use development in line with Portland’s Comprehensive Plan. Cianbro managed the construction of the 275,000 SF mixed-use project that includes a 589 space parking garage and 86,000 SF of office and retail.
Given the historic nature of the neighborhood, as well as traffic congestion and lack of parking, the Fore Street development utilized a hybrid system that combined precast concrete floor members with structural steel frame. JP Carrara manufactured flat slabs to reduce the floor to floor height requirements while the system allowed for rapid delivery and erection.
The precast concrete deck and the steel beam and column structure also created a system to accommodate different exterior architectural expressions, especially between parking levels and the office levels while also meeting the openness and sight lines necessary for both drivers and pedestrians.
Cianbro utilized lean construction methods to work within the tight site. With no laydown area, just in time delivery was used to bring the precast concrete and other materials on site and subcontractors coordinated closely to meet schedule requirements.
JP Carrara & Sons manufactured more than 500 precast components including 8” thick x 10’ wide x 27’ long solid slabs with integral precast washes and shipped them from their Middlebury, VT facility. JP Carrara coordinated delivery of the pieces directly to the crane to avoid handling and storage on site.
The top surface of the precast slabs received a medium broom finish for final wearing surface. Since no field applied topping slab JP Carrara manufactured variable thickness precast concrete plank that sloped to the drains that were cast in them.
The property is adjacent to the new WEX headquarters and their employees will make use of the three-level parking garage. Topping the garage will be 82,400 square feet of office space, with those floors set back from Fore Street as per the zoning requirements.
The project integrates a two story parking garage with highly transparent offices on the upper floors and retail on the ground level at Fore Street. Stair towers serve as anchoring elements and the building uses grade changes to hide parking.
Precast slab installation started in August 2019 and the entire project is expected to be completed in 2020.
The new steel and precast concrete hybrid structure provides a substantial increase in public parking while meeting the architectural requirements that feature a design using high levels of fenestration and curtain wall.
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