Amelia Earhart

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

On the west side of the industrial section of Salt Lake City lies a tilt-up building that is unlike the rest. It's the Amelia Earhart Building. Just like the empowered woman that it's named after, the Amelia Earhart Building breaks barriers with its distinct features and unmatched design.

The prominent black metal siding on the canopies as well as along the overbuilds at the top of the parapet walls highlight the architectural individuality of the building. The heavy contrast from black to white and the distinct variation from vertical to horizontal reveals leave any viewer of the building in an irreplicable state of illusion.

The Amelia Earhart Building features a distinct layout with its unique shape and jogs. A vast array of architectural features are showcased in the Amelia Earhart Building. This distinctive tilt-up building has the highest level of craftsmanship in every aspect and from every subcontractor associated with its construction.

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

This project was heavily delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We began forming interior spot footings in April of 2020. We then came to an abrupt halt when we were informed that the job was indefinitely on hold.Seven months later the project resumed with a plethora of new challenges that caused major pivoting on our part.

Much of the material that sat on site from April was either warped, stolen, or vandalized. Material not already on site now cost exponentially more; major delays were associated with any new materials for the job. We went from starting the project in beautiful spring weather, to commencing right before the heart of a harsh Utah winter. We had to deal with the cold, wind, snow, frost and concrete blankets just to name a few.

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

The Amelia Earhart Project had several interesting structural changes that occurred midway through construction. The first change that we began preparing for that never ended up happening was on account of a tenant . The initial plans called for a 6" slab on grade. We were told that a new tenant was going to be leasing the building and in order to accommodate their heavy-duty machinery, the floor was going be switched from 6" to 4'-0" in thickness. We began making all of the necessary changes to handle and adapt to this major adjustment, but this tenant never ended up leasing the building and all of our modifications ended up being in vain.

Another adjustment that happened in the middle of construction also came as a result of a tenant. The tenant needed two new overhead doors; one on the east side of the building and one on the west. Seven of the concrete tilt-up panels were modified in order to accommodate this change. These doors were not in the initial plan in any way. Our shop drawings, submittals and tilt-up layout significantly changed because of these new overhead doors.

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

During construction of this project, only reusable forms were used for all concrete poured. We sorted trash from recyclable materials at the end of every day to ensure that any recyclable items were not wasted. Whenever possible, we went out of our way to only buy and use reusable items and materials to do our part to help mitigate the negative effect of construction on the environment. We lined all of our concrete forms with Visqueen to prevent any excess concrete from being spilled or wasted. We heavily encouraged employee carpooling so that the amount of gas and fuel was lessened.