Proj Overview

Project Overview

Dry Creek consists of a 7-story office tower and an adjacent 5-level parking garage. First floor of the office building is for executive parking. Extending outside, the garage then has four elevated levels. The building features horizontal ribbons of precast spandrels and glazing that run across the front of the building. A glassed inset ascends the full height of the building and defines the center entrance.

Construction consists of precast stair and elevator cores and precast load-bearing spandrels, double tees and inverted tees. The office design was completed with perimeter spandrels with beam and column lines on the inside. Light weight double tees were used to improve economy in shipping. A mechanical yard uses precast, partition-style walls, some retain soil. Roof construction includes sloped double tees with topping.

The structure is built into a hillside. Soil retention is by a rock anchor and Gunite wall. The garage utilizes precast light walls and shear walls and the precast facing the soil retention system consists of grey precast concrete wall panels. Double tees in the garage are field topped.

Construction had to overcome numerous challenges and late changes.

Precast Solution

Dry Creek was converted from steel to total precast thanks to competitive pricing and an accelerated construction solution. The result was a reduction of 4 months off the delivery time and a savings of approximately $1,000,000.

About half way through design Arrow Technologies came on board as a tenant. A level was added to the office building and the parking garage was expanded from one elevated deck to four. This dramatically changed the precast erection plan. With the garage expansion, use of a planned second crane was not feasible and one crane had to do the work of two cranes in the same allotted time.

Originally red with a buff colored bull nose feature and an acid-etched finish, Arrow had the red concrete was stained to a darker tan. They also required that the structure accommodate a data center and a false floor with data cables beneath. The design team had to figure out how to provide four inches of void space under and accommodate the loads of additional generators and cooling equipment.

Despite changes and weather delays, the project was less than two weeks late.

 

Project Team

Architect

OZ Architecture

Engineer

Martin/Martin Consulting Engineers

Contractor

The Weitz Company

Owner

Miller Global Properties

Precaster

Stresscon Corporation/EnCon United

Office Specialty Engineer

EnCon Design/EnCon United

Parking Garage Specialty Engineer

CEG New Mexico

Key Project Attributes

  • 7 story office tower
  • 5 level parking garage
  • Project built into a hillside with soil retention system
  • Horizontal ribbons of precast spandrels and glazing
  • Precast cores, beams, columns, load-bearing spandrels, double tees and inverted tees
  • Precast light walls and shear walls in garage
  • Precast flexibility handles numerous late changes
  • Office changed from 6 to 7 levels
  • Garage expanded from 1 to 4 elevated decks
  • False floor added for data cables

Project/Precast Scope

  • Converted from steel to precast
  • Office used 1,320 pieces of precast
  • Garage used 1,020 pieces of precast
  • Double tees span 60 ft in outside bays, 24 ft in inside bays
  • Typical spandrel is 7 ft long
  • Camber in double tee office floors solved with dapped tees and “deadman” loading
  • Tees dapped to reduce structure depth and accommodate large ducts
  • Light weight double tees cut shipping costs
  • Use of precast cuts 6 months off construction time
  • Precast saves owner $1,000,000.00