Tilt-Up City Hall Shines Silver

Built to replace the old and outdated city hall, the City of Lauderhill Municipal Complex, is the first LEED-Silver city hall in Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach counties in Florida.

The four-story municipal office building features workspace for the mayor, commissioners, city manager and supporting departments, plus a 150-seat Commission Chamber with a pre-function area for community and civic events.

In addition to two-, three-, and four-story tilt-up walls, the original design used cast-in-place beams and columns to help bear the large loads imposed by elevated decks used for archives and filing, which were ultimately incorporated into the tilt-up panel design.  To create depth on the exterior, both entrance alcoves are framed by stacked, offset wall panels.  A domed roof on the City Commission Chamber and standing-seam metal roofs on the other wings accent the architectural design.

Limited access on the downtown site required all the panels to be cast on temporary outside casting slabs and walked to their location. The structural design also required cast-in corbels to support the offset entry panels. To accomplish this, the team cut a void through the casting surface, lined it with Styrofoam, formed the corbel below the casting surface, and cast it with the panel.

The building’s upscale yet traditional architecture earned it the 2011 TCA Tilt-Up Achievement Award in the Municipal Division.

Seminars, Booth Brandish PCA Technical Expertise at World of Concrete

The debut of the 15th edition of Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures, a press conference, seminars, and a bookstore on the exhibit floor showcased PCA’s technical resources to those attending last week’s World of Concrete and conference in Las Vegas, Nev.

Anchored by the tagline, “Think Harder. Concrete,” the booth promoted concrete’s core benefits of durability, economy, and sustainability. PCA gave booth visitors a t-shirt targeting concrete’s durability message.

PCA’s bookstore-exhibit featured the latest edition of Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures.  For more than 85 years, the publication has been the cement and concrete industry’s primary the guide to applications, methods, and materials. (See below.) Popular PCA publications and DVDs were also available for purchase.

PCA experts conducted several seminars at the trade show. PCA’s Michelle Wilson presented “The Effect of Water on Concrete:  To Add or Not to Add?” and Donn Thompson presented “The Concrete Home as a System—the Building Science Behind the Benefits.”

At a PCA press conference at the show, PCA Chair Aris Papadopoulos presented the 2011 plan of the Concrete Joint Sustainability Initiative. The group will focus on increasing the role of functional resilience in sustainable development. PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan presented his concrete and construction forecast (see below).

The new, fully revised 15th edition of PCA’s Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures highlights the many advances that have occurred in the past decade while providing a concise, current reference on the fundamentals of concrete technology and construction.  

For more than 85 years, the publication has been the cement and concrete industry’s primary guide to applications, methods, and materials. It addresses the essentials on freshly mixed and hardened concrete including  cements, supplementary cementing materials, aggregates, admixtures, air-entrainment, mixture proportioning, batching,  curing, hot- and cold-weather concreting, high-performance concrete, and control tests for quality concrete.  Plus, the new edition adds four new chapters on sustainability, reinforcement, the properties of concrete, and durability to reflect the latest information for the industry. 

This comprehensive manual benefits personnel from ready-mixed concrete producers, concrete contractors, and material suppliers and is a reference publication for many national and state certification programs.  Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures also meets the growing needs of architects, engineers, builders, and students.

The 15th edition also includes a forward by William F. Baker, PE, SE, FIStructE, partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
For more information or to order, visit the PCA Bookstore

WOC Press Conference:  Sullivan Expects Slow Construction Recovery

Outlining his forecast for cement and concrete at a January 18 press conference at last week’s World of Concrete, PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan cautioned a crowd of trade-press reporters that while the downturn seems to have bottomed out, significant recovery won’t begin until 2013.

Sullivan expects excess homebuilder inventories, tight lending standards and state budget deficits, as well as high unemployment and capacity constraints to dampen new construction investment in 2011 and 2012. Cement consumption in 2011 will see a modest gain of 1.4 percent compared to 2010 levels, followed by a four percent increase in consumption in 2012.

However, he expects pent-up demand across all sectors to cause cement consumption to grow in 2013 and beyond, starting with a 16.9 percent jump in 2013.
Contact Ed Sullivan

Five Holcim Plants Receive EPA's ENERGY STAR®

Holcim (US) Inc. announced last week that for the third consecutive year, its Devil’s Slide plant in Morgan, Utah and the plant in Theodore, Ala., have earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) prestigious ENERGY STAR®.  In addition, the Ste. Genevieve plant in Bloomsdale, Mo., the Trident plant in Three Forks, Mont., and the plant in Holly Hill, SC were first time recipients of the award.

The ENERGY STAR® is the national symbol for protecting the environment through superior energy performance.  In order to qualify for the award, a plant must score at least 75 of a possible 100 on the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI), used by the EPA to measure energy efficiency in cement plants. In addition, the plant must have a three-year history of environmental compliance.

"The fact that two Holcim (US) cement plants have received this award for three consecutive years demonstrates the commitment our management team and employees have to protecting the environment," said Bernard Terver, president and chief executive officer of Holcim (US).  "Adding three plants to the list is an outstanding accomplishment for our employees who are dedicated to doing what we can to conserve our natural resources."

Eric Hansen

Eric Hansen lost his battle with cancer on January 13.

Hansen had nearly forty years experience in the cement industry in plant operations, research and development, and corporate management positions. He joined Marquette Cement Company in 1974 as corporate quality manager and directed their concrete laboratory through 1980. Hansen then went on to serve as production and quality control manager at a new cement plant at Cape Girardeau, Mo., with a one million ton capacity. 

In 1982, Hansen joined Ash Grove Cement Company to start up a new producing cement plant in Louisville, Neb. He served as vice president and technical director for Ash Grove from 1985 through July 2000, during which time he also directed Ash Grove Cement Company’s Research & Engineering Laboratory. Most recently Eric served as president of the Eric Hansen Group and technical consultant to Cadence Environmental Energy.

Hansen served as the last chairman of PCA's General Technical Committee and was a long-time presenter at PCA's Kiln Process Short Course. He was co-inventor of novel manufacturing technologies that allowed the industry to efficiently use alternative fuels to their fullest potential along with a calcined clay-based cement. His landmark work on the use of tire-derived fuels, high pressure air injection, staged combustion, and alternate fuel firing strategies is recognized throughout the world.
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