First Project: 50fifty office building
Background and Introduction: Hensel Phelps was the contractor that built the 50 fifty tower. It is 12-story tower with six floors of office space, an enclosed parking garage, and ground floor retail space. The focus for this building was to bring in natural light on both the interior and exterior. This structure appeared successfully through about a 24-month period, opening its door in November of 2018 in Denver, Colored. This commercial structure was built with materials such as steel, concrete, and glass. This allowed construction managers to utilize ironworkers, pipefitters, and glaziers to produce this project in a timely manner. The owner (Corium Real Estate Group) wanted to have, not just another average office building, but one that was different from the rest and had everything their employees deserved. This building consists of a convenient location with nearby restaurants and amazing 360 views throughout the building, conference rooms, fitness center, bicycle storage, and 100% covered parking garages. In addition to these amazing features, the building is of the top tier, both elegant and luxurious.
Pros and Cons: A complex design like this seems almost too good for an office building, although that was the whole goal of this building. Not only is this building visually pleasing but it is built with amazing ecofriendly features. For instance, it is LEED gold certified. The windows are made to reduce heat and glare, as well as the insulated roof and walls to limit heat transfer. Very high-quality water source heat pumps for space conditioning. Twenty-six percent energy cost savings over LEED baseline design, and low flow fixtures. Although like every project there are disadvantages. With this specific project it is hard to recognize these disadvantages, but if I had to say, I would go with the fact that there is limited office space and of course that it is only available to the companies that rent out the spaces. Also, the bookings for the offices will be booked for quite some time since this will be the desired office location in Denver.
Future Impacts, Recommendations, and Conclusions: the design of this project was unique and risky. This is a great example for architects and interior designers or even property owners who need inspiration, and the concept behind this building well thought out. The project represents an office space building with some fashion and efficient workspace for their employees and good return on investment by building an ecofriendly building.
Second Project: Assault Battalion Maintenance Hanger
Background and Introduction: The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the 4th Infantry Division (ID) Combat Aviation Bridge (CAB) needed a home for their fleet of 30 Black Hawk helicopters, also known as the Sikorsky UH-60, so the USACE built one on Butts Army Airfield on Fort Carson. According to (Barth, 2014), the general contractor (David Boland Inc.) was awarded the $52 million contract to build the hanger both designed and owned by USACE, Omaha District. The building is a Commercial/Military use 88,000 square foot high-bay hangar. The overall square footage of the project was 113,800. The contract also included 92,667 square yards of concrete on the airfield flight line and the demolition of six buildings on the airfield. Special concrete pads were used due to the corrosive nature of the soil. Additional features include six helicopter bays, a two story interior space for office space, classrooms, administrative areas, supply storage, company readiness purposes, pedestrian bridge and bridge cranes, an elevator and fire suppression systems which include wet, dry and foam application in their perspective areas. Over 1,250 tons of steel and 107,375 square feet of decking were used in the process. The project was completed on December 6, 2017.
Pros and Cons: One very interesting feature of the fire suppression system is the use of foam. In the event of a fire inside the hangar a certain type of foam is released which begins to fill the entire maintenance bay extinguishing the fire before it is all drained back out. This process takes only a matter of minutes to complete its cycle. The Project Manager at Pioneer Civil Construction showed us a video he recorded with his cell phone of the test of the foam system being deployed. It is amazing how quickly a building that size can be filled with foam. Our time on the jobsite concluded with finishing items on the punch list like, installing test stations for the utilities we installed, raising and lowering valve boxes, and using loaders and skid steers to bring the dirt back to final grade before the landscapers came in to spray the area to promote grass growth.
Third Project: The Construction of the Pentagon
Background and Introduction: The pentagon is a very strange looking building located in Washington DC. It can be seen in a multitude of movies, television shows, and many other forms of media. Yet the Pentagon serves a much larger purpose in the United States. The Pentagon is the main department building for the US Department of defense. Being that the Pentagon is a building meant for a government agency, it falls under the Commercial building sector of construction. There were many powerful players in the construction of the Pentagon. For example the main architect of the Pentagon was G. Edwin Bergstorm (History.com, 2009). Being that the building was for the US Department of Defense, they are the owners of the building. The main contractor of the Pentagon was John McShain, who owned one of the largest construction companies in the US (Fowler, 1989).
Pros and Cons: According to the (History.com, 2009), the construction of the Pentagon was a very lengthy process. Yet the process was forcefully rushed after a few events in history. There were over 3000 workers on the site at a time. The Pentagon was finished in only 16 months, which was due to the start of World War II. This was due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. There
were upwards of 10,000 to 15,000 workers on site at a time; yet it seems as if the construction of the Pentagon has not ended yet. For example the terrorist attack of 9/11 forced the Department of Defense to rebuild part of the Pentagon. Along with the two planes that attacked the twin towers, another plane was hijacked and flown at the Pentagon
Future Impacts, Recommendations, and Conclusions: countless time and money has been constantly poured into the Pentagon. In fact the initial completion of the project cost was around $83 million dollars (Fowler, 1989). The pentagon first opened its doors in 1943, yet the many attacks on the building have caused it to open and close almost periodically. The building covers over 29 acres of land and has a 5 acre court in the center (Fowler, 1989). It has 5 floors and around 17.5 miles of hallways throughout the building. Therefore, the Pentagon was one of the largest construction projects of US defense history. The project had thousands and thousands of workers at a time. Including the best of the best when it came to architects and project managers. The project has been under constant construction and repairs. Yet the building still stands as a show of US power and hard work.
Fourth Project: Leaning Tower of Pisa
Background and Introduction: the leaning Tower of Pisa is a famous building that intrigues tourists to Pisa daily due to the fact that it leans over 16 feet south off its centric. The purpose of constructing the tower was to show the advanced construction technology and capability Pisa city had at the time.
Future Impacts, Recommendations, and Conclusions: many people had participated in building the building, so the building undergone three phases. During the first phase, which started in the year 1173, two architects were in-charge on the design and construction Bonanno Pisano and Din Gherardo (Rodriguez, 2019). As the third floor was being built in the year of 1178, the two architects noticed the lean in the structure, which were due to the facts soil moving about and destabilizing the foundation and the building materials were clay and fine sand and shells. When this happened, the construction stopped. The second phase started again in 1275 by Giovani di Simone, who tried to alter the angle that the three previous levels were built at for the next four, but this did not fix the problem. The construction stopped again in the year1284 due a war, but then it started back up in the year1350. The overall construction took 176 years from start to finish and costed around $35,462,550. The failure of planning and construction resulted in a remarkable historical building; similarly, it was able to withstand all the war Pisa went through.