High Concrete Group services its fleet in its new LEED Silver maintenance facility, which burns waste oil for in-floor radiant heating.
A 16,200-square-foot LEED Silver maintenance building constructed on the campus of precast fabricator High Concrete Group LLC in Denver, Pa., has been selected as the winner of the Industrial category in the GreenSite Project of the Year 2009 contest. Sponsored by Concrete Construction and The Concrete Producer magazines, the GreenSite award recognizes concrete buildings that are built using sustainable design practices.
Project participants included High Concrete Group of Denver, Pa. (owner and concrete contractor), Greenfield Architects Ltd. of Lancaster, Pa. (architect/designer), and High Construction Company of Lancaster, Pa. (general contractor).
Winners were selected based on such factors as innovative techniques, use of innovative materials or products, cost- or time-saving methods, innovative engineering design, workmanship and creativity. Completed in June 2008, the 16,200-square-foot Denver facility was built with 40 thermally efficient CarbonCast® carbon fiber-reinforced precast concrete wall panels and was topped with 18 CarbonCast double tee roofing members.
GreenSite features a slideshow with full descriptions and photos of the project and other winners at www.theconcreteproducer.com. The project will also be on display in the GreenSite exhibit at the World of Concrete Convention in Las Vegas, Nev., Feb. 2-5, 2010.
Thermally Efficient Facade
The overall projected energy costs of the building have been reduced by 24.5 percent over a typical code-compliant structure through use of:
1. Thermally efficient wall panels reinforced with innovative carbon fiber to provide structurally composite performance for thinner, lighter wall sections
2. A highly insulated building envelope with a rating of R-24
3. Carbon fiber grid reinforced double tees that are lighter in weight and non-corrosive
4. Eight inches of insulation on precast concrete roof double T’s for a rating of R-40
5. Highly efficient doors and windows
6. A heating system consisting of a water-based radiant heat floor system (to provide uniform distribution of heat and comfort where technicians will work) and a boiler that will use waste oil from fleet vehicles
7. Highly efficient dimmable fluorescent lighting interconnected to photo sensors that determine foot-candle levels from natural light through skylights and dim or turn off fixtures as necessary
Headquartered in Denver, Pa., High Concrete Group is a recognized leader in producing sustainable buildings with architectural facades and structural precast components. In 2007 the firm won the PCI’s top design award for the LEED-Certified Varsity Village Lindner Center on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. The company is currently fabricating thermally efficient facades for the New Dash Facility in Alexandria, Va., and the Gill-Simpson Headquarters in Owings Mills, Md., both of which are also expected to achieve LEED Silver.
High Concrete Group’s products include architectural facades, insulated and structural enclosure systems, parking garages, stadiums, other precast structures, and hollowcore planks for commercial, institutional and multi-unit residential applications. Employing more than 500 co-workers, the group has provided precast components for more than 5,000 projects since 1957, and is found on Engineering News Record’s list of the Top 600 Specialty Contractors. High Concrete Group operates plants in Denver, Pa., Buena, N.J., Springboro, Ohio, and Paxton, Ill; and High Concrete Accessories, a Denver, Pa.-based national precasting embedment supplier. For more information on High Concrete Group, including employment opportunities, visit www.highconcrete.com or e-mail to concrete.answers@high.net.
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