Goal Zero Office and Warehouse

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

Goal Zero is a business created by people who live life to the fullest. Inspired by passion for adventure, respect for the planet, and a humanitarian heart - they take both their work and their play seriously and are proud to provide the most innovative solar products on the market. Goal Zero provides portable, renewable energy sources. They've prioritized disaster relief, community empowerment, and humanitarian missions for over 12 years.

The Goal Zero Corporate Office and Warehouse facility consists of two buildings with a total area of 132,730 square feet. Because the site narrows on one end, one of the buildings has a series of walls that step back three times, creating a saw-tooth footprint. This helped to break up the massing of the building. The wall panels also overlap with each other and vary in height. The single-story buildings are constructed using tilt-up concrete panels. The walls are as much as 45 feet tall. Goal Zero's corporate color is lime green. The developer also always includes the color red on all of his buildings. Each of these were included into the color pallet for the building. A truck court is located between the buildings separating truck traffic from automobile traffic. All automobile parking is located around the perimeter of the buildings.

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

As with most projects, time, money, future maintenance and durability were a concern, for those reasons tilt-up concrete was chosen for this project. This project is adjacent to other commercial buildings. The aesthetics / design elements for this building consists of the tilt-up concrete wall elements themselves. The top of every other wall panel steps up. Every other wall panel also steps out the thickness of the wall and overlaps the adjacent panel. This creates a layered look as well as also creating a vertical shadow lines. Because the site narrows on one end, one of the buildings has a series of walls that step back three times, creating a saw-tooth footprint. This helped to break up the massing of the building, while also creating an interesting repeating design effect. The corners of these stepping elements are painted lime green which also helps emphasize the effect. The sawtooth steps of the building creates a dramatic effect which is interesting at any angle and greatly changes the feel and appearance of the building as you walk or drive around it. The building colors and color scheme are also a design element, incorporating the logo colors of the developer and tenant.

Please communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project?

The tilt-up walls act as the structural system for the building acting as both bearing walls to support gravity loads and shear walls to withstand lateral loads (from wind and seismic forces). The walls are also durable, fire-resistant, mold-resistant, have great sound properties, thermal properties and are cost effective. The walls were able to be erected quickly, greatly reducing the construction schedule when compared to conventional construction. Because most of the work can be done while the walls are still on the ground, they are much safer to construct.

With special reinforcing details, the size of the punched windows was able to be increased in some panels. Where the large windows occur, there is an increase of natural light, thus reducing the lighting load I those areas. A dark tint was used for contrast in the white panels as well as to provide a more energy efficient design.

The exterior wall panels are 9.25" thick, with ¾" thick reveals. Effectively the wall thickness is only 8.5" thick. The tallest wall panels are 45 feet tall. The recommended height to thickness ratio for tilt-up walls historically has been 48. The height to thickness ratio for this building is 63.53. That is a 32% increase! To accomplish this, vertical reinforcing was increased in order to eliminate the need for strong backs. Once the walls are in place and braced at the roof level the effective height is reduced to 41 feet and a height to thickness ratio of 57.88.

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

This is an example of an office warehouse facility that is neighborhood friendly. The truck court is located between the buildings partially concealing it from the neighborhood, while the auto mobile parking is located around the exterior perimeter of the buildings. The large shipping trucks are separated from the automobile traffic improving the overall safety. The building has more windows and canopies around the exterior perimeter which greatly improves the curb appeal of the buildings and overall facility. Site lighting is also controlled to minimize lighting pollution but still providing a safe environment for employees. The tilt-up buildings are resilient and require very little maintenance.

Safety was a top concern and priority for the building, and all involved in the project. By building this building using tilt-up concrete construction, safety was greatly enhanced. This construction method is considered to be much safer than conventional construction since most of the work can be done while the panels are still on the ground. The quality and craftsmanship of this building are also noticeable.