Despite a rainy period early in construction, work is on schedule at both the Holly Ridge Middle and Elementary schools, each targeted to open in Holly Springs, NC, in fall 2002. The overall project includes a campus with site amenities for football, baseball, soccer, softball and track.
The general contractor of the entire development is Barnhill Contracting Company of Raleigh. Workers can be seen fashioning exterior walls and roof segments at the rambling side-by-side schools, each of which has been designed by a different architectural firm. Cherry Huffman Architects of Raleigh designed the middle school, which covers 151,000 sq. ft. (14,028 sq m) while Doggett Architects, also of Raleigh, drew the plans for the 84,000-sq.-ft. (7,804 sq m) elementary school.
The middle school is being constructed to handle 1,000 students with about 50 classrooms as well as specialty and institutional space that include an auditorium and cafeteria. Architect Louis Cherry said the building will have a brick veneer exterior, metal steel roof and an entryway formed by a metal canopy. All windows will open as per code regulations.
“An innovative construction was used,” he explained, citing the use of “tilt-up” walls. The term “tilt-up” was coined in the late 1940s to describe a method for constructing concrete walls rapidly and economically without the formwork necessary for poured-in-place walls.
Construction time is often shortened for a tilt-up building, from completion of the floor slab to completion of the building shell. Cherry said the process at Holly Ridge shortened the time by 12 weeks.
The method is most often called “tilt-up,” but it also is called “tilt-wall,” or in specifications and technical papers, “site-cast pre-cast concrete walls.” However, “tilt-up” is the preferred and generally accepted term. “Pre-cast concrete” is a generic term meaning the fabrication of concrete building components at a location other than their final position. While falling under the category “pre-cast concrete,” tilt-up refers exclusively to site-cast wall elements. The term “tilt-up building” therefore, refers to any type of building that employs the tilt-up technique for constructing the walls.
As for the design of a multi-school campus, Cherry called it a definite trend today and cited several reasons, including a savings in development costs such as “needed roadways and roadway improvements, investments in paving, parking areas, as well as installation of items like as gas, water and sewers.”
Meanwhile, workers at the elementary school, immediately adjacent to the middle school, are proceeding with conventional methods of construction, erecting the steel frame walls over which a brick veneer will be placed. Work on this building began in April.
According to Doggett Architect David Wakeford, the building will have a flat roof of standing seam metal as well as a fascia of metal wall panels. A covered canopy covers the main entryway. Windows in the structure will be fixed, with two doorways leading outdoors, he explained.
Senior Project Manager Chris Setzer, of Barnhill, said the elementary school also will include a large play area with folding doors to adjust the space from a cafeteria to an auditorium. Parking areas are now being developed at the front of the project.
Commenting on the tilt-up walls, Setzer explained that this procedure consists of a two-step process: First, slabs of concrete, which will comprise sections of the wall, are cast horizontally on the building floor slab, or separate casting slab. Then, after attaining proper strength, they are lifted or tilted with a crane and set on prepared foundations to form the exterior walls.
Other contracting firms working on the campus project include Vickers & Ruth of Raleigh, plumbing; Watco Corporation of Garner, mechanical; Wayne Griffin Electric of Cary, electrical; and Martin B Grading of Ashboro, site contractor.
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