Sunlight Ranch Equestrian Barn

Built as a hurricane-resistant, solid concrete structure, the Sunlight Ranch Equestrian Barn provides protection to its occupants in the event of a storm in the southern Florida region. During the construction of the exclusive equestrian community, the owner - a long-time homebuilder in the area - chose to use Tilt-Up to upstage the current method of construction, which uses wooden materials that would not withstand the damaging winds of a storm. The barn is an open-air structure that can be easily closed during a storm to offer optimal protection to equine occupants, which is a tremendous benefit to the horse owners.

With an aggressive construction schedule accommodating the owner’s commitment to new occupants, temporary casting beds were installed to provide an early start to the panel fabrication. They were done in two sequences due to limited casting space. The contractor was able to utilize Tilt-Up for the interior stall partitions to stabilize the structure. In addition, 3.5-inch demising walls were used between the horse stalls. The roof system utilized a truss/rafter system that rested on top of the Tilt-Up wall and was affixed using straps embedded into the concrete. To ensure the barn complemented existing structures on the campus, a panelized look was created using reveals and the facility was painted red.

The use of Tilt-Up construction offered a unique selling proposition to attract tenants to the barn, which is 100 percent occupied. Further, Tilt-Up provides the long-term durability and low maintenance features that the owner desired. As the first Tilt-Up project of this kind in the area, the Tilt-Up contractor found an additional market for Tilt-Up where the industry can gain market share in equestrian barns throughout the country using this project as an example.