Peninsula Town Center

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements.

Peninsula Town Center 100k is a two-tenant, 97,477 sf facility situated along I-64 and at the primary entrance of the area's premier go-to plaza. The building's exterior is designed with several different materials and finishes to dress up the 32' to 36' tall insulated composite sandwich panels at this prominent location. The entire backside of the building, pressed against the city's busy Cunningham Drive, features fluted formliner “squares” that are oriented four different ways (vertical, horizontal, diagonal up, diagonal down) to create a fascinating facade. Embedded thin brick is prominent throughout the exterior and uses three different bond patterns and three colors, including a unique glazed cobalt blue brick. At the tenant entry, cantilevered panels were also cast with a vertical sine wave formliner to provide additional texture.

What obstacles were overcome related to the schedule, budget, program, specification, site, etc. on this project?

Communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project.

Valuing Tilt-Up's durability and low-maintenance qualities, the developer turned to concrete everywhere they could. Along with the insulated main building panels, the exterior featured solid Tilt-Up panels set proud on three sides. These 34 panels ranged in size from the smallest at 3'-4” w x 9'-3” h to the largest at 23'-4” w x 24'-0” h while still including openings, embedded thin brick, deep recesses, and formliner. Securing these to the insulated main building panels required a blind sleeve and dowel connection that the engineer and construction team collaborated on to discover the best solution. A concrete band, or beltline as the architect referred to it, was added using 80 Tilt-Up panels that were 6”x6” with a sloped top and cast in drip edge. These panels, varying in length from 1'-10” to 10'-10”, were lifted into place with a forklift and secured using expansion anchors.

What is the potential for this project's impact on the community and/or environment?

With the developer being a first-time client, Tilt-Up really demonstrated its added value over other construction types and has changed their future decisions. Not only did they see and use concrete's abilities as a versatile building material, but also they felt the Tilt-Up advantage while dealing with winter weather in coastal Virginia. There were many severe weather days during the project, including rainstorms and heavy snowfall. However, there was very little slow down in construction, with the project finishing ahead of schedule. Peninsula Town Center 100k was a great success for the project team and an asset for the district's growing plaza.