Contractor Builds 7-story Residence Hall with Tilt-Up Concrete Constructed in Three Pieces

The challenge:

Build a seven-story student housing building for Florida Atlantic University with an attached single-story restaurant and mechanical building.

The players:

Woodland Construction Company
Johnson Structural Group Inc.

The process:

To build a new seven-story Florida Atlantic University 600-bed residence hall with an attached single story restaurant and mechanical building, contractor Woodland Construction Company used a combination of conventional tilt-up walls and cast-in-place interior columns and shearwalls.

The single story area was constructed with conventional load-bearing tilt-up walls and a bar joist roof.

The high-rise portion had cast-in-place interior columns and shearwalls and 9-inch-thick post-tensioned slabs.

The tilt-up walls of the high rise were constructed in three pieces - two stories, three stories and two stories high – stacked atop each other and designed as cladding. These walls were supported by a continuous footing isolated from the building structure.

They were attached to the post-tensioned slabs with a connection that allowed differential settling between the walls and the building.

A vertically slotted insert was cast into the panels with a strap anchor connecting to embed cast into the slabs.

The majority of the residence building had punched window openings and multiple horizontal reveals.

This project achieved LEED Silver Certification, utilizing regional materials with a value of $404,000 and recycled materials with a value of $203,000.

The means and methods along with thoughtful scheduling and planning allowed the building to be constructed in record time to house 600 students.

Project specifics

• Project wall area: 96,096 sq. ft.
• Project floor area: 202,677 sq. ft.
• Project footprint: 41,571 sq. ft.
• Tallest panel: 28 ft. 8 in.
• Widest panel: 38 ft. 10 in.
• Largest panel: 1 sq. ft.
• Heaviest panel: 111,507 lbs.
• Longest spandrel panel: 11 ft. 8 in.