North Shore Commercial

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

One of the challenges providing flexibility for a variety of future tenants. Another challenge was to design and build the industrial flex space with the curb appeal of a retail center, and to make it cost effective for the developer / owner. With the possibility of other uses co-existing with the industrial uses, it was important to hide truck courts and loading docks as well as separating automobiles from larger trucks. The buildings are flex buildings which can be used for office, warehouse, industrial and or retail, as well as accessory assembly or restaurant occupancies.

The North Shore Commerce Center project consist of 3 different tilt-up buildings totaling 337,661 square feet. The buildings are flex building which can be used for office, warehouse, industrial and or retail, as well as accessory assembly or restaurant occupancies. The buildings are single-story 41.5 feet tall structures with the flexibility of having mezzanines or second story floors. The tilt-up wall panels are 9.25 inches thick with ¾” reveals (effective thickness = 8.5”) and constructed using concrete with a compressive strength of 4,500 pounds per square inch. The maximum height to thickness ratio is 58.59 during construction. Typically, height to thickness ratios is recommended at only 48 or 50. These slender walls are reinforced with one mat of rebar in the center of the wall. The city wanted the structures to have the curb appeal of retail buildings. This was accomplished by breaking up the massing by jogging some of the walls and overlapping panels, as well as slightly increasing the height on certain panels. Using different colors also helped to break up the massing. The buildings were designed with a contemporary or modern look. The smooth concrete, or plaster looking surfaces do have wide reveals and are painted a white and a sage green. Large deep awnings cantilever off of the exterior walls creating shadow lines and protecting entries and are a dark contrasting metal. The truck courts are back-to-back on the interior of paired buildings, in order to partially conceal them and to separate the truck traffic from the car traffic. The main level has large storefront windows with matching storefront windows at the proposed mezzanine level, and smaller clearstory windows are provided in the top half of the adjacent panels, as well as in other panels. These buildings are sustainable and energy efficient. Because of the contemporary exterior finishes, the project has a feeling of a retail center, although the buildings are flex buildings and can have many different uses.

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

The North Shore Commerce Center project consist of 3 different tilt-up buildings totaling 337,661 square feet. The buildings are flex building which can be used for office, warehouse, industrial and or retail, as well as accessory assembly or restaurant occupancies. The buildings are single-story 41.5 feet tall structures with the flexibility of having mezzanines or second story floors. The tilt-up wall panels are 9.25 inches thick with ¾” reveals (effective thickness = 8.5”) and constructed using concrete with a compressive strength of 4,500 pounds per square inch. The maximum height to thickness ratio is 58.59 during construction. Typically, height to thickness ratios is recommended at only 48 or 50. These slender walls are reinforced with one mat of rebar in the center of the wall.