Daikin Industries, Ltd., a manufacturer in heating, cooling and refrigerant products, is expanding its Goodman operations in the United States by constructing a new state-of-the-art business campus outside of Houston, Texas. The new $417-million campus, designed by Powers Brown Architecture (architect) and LJB Inc. (engineer), is currently projected to be operational mid-2016 and will feature an over 4-million-square-foot tilt-up concrete building, the world’s largest according to the Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA).
“We track project accomplishments or records in a variety of categories to demonstrate the broad variety of application and overall achievement of tilt-up professionals,” says James Baty, technical director for the Tilt-Up Concrete Association. “This includes statistics like largest buildings (footprint and total floor area), tallest panels, heaviest panels, widest panels, largest wall area and more.” The current record holders in the largest building categories are Target’s Import Warehouse in Savannah, Ga. at 2,029,554 square feet (footprint) and the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Umhlunga Rocks, South Africa at 3,420,000 square feet (floor area). “At 4,130,698 square feet, this new project breaks multiple records.”
“The owner requested that all functions be housed in the same structure,” says A.J. Breneman, senior designer for Powers Brown Architecture. “The building will incorporate a 1.8-million-square-foot distribution center, 1.7 million square feet of manufacturing space (plus 196,500 square feet of mezzanine), 231,598 square feet of lab space and a 202,600-square-foot office.” The massive 497-acre site will also feature parking for approximately 5,000 vehicles.
“Tilt-up has consistently shown that it is the most economical method of construction for ‘big box’ applications,” notes Jeff Griffin, principal of LJB Inc. “On a project of this size, being able to use load-bearing tilt-up panels and eliminate perimeter steel magnifies those cost savings. In a mature tilt-up market like Houston, the speed at which tilt-up can be achieved amplifies these material savings.” The project incorporates more than 2 miles of panel length, with approximately 370 wall panels.
According to David Brown, senior project manager at D.E. Harvey Builders (general contractor), the project will incorporate approximately 360,000 cubic yards of concrete and 29,000 tons of steel.
“The new business campus will provide many outstanding benefits to our customers,” states Mr. Takeshi Ebisu, president and CEO of Goodman Manufacturing Company, L.P. “The operational efficiencies we achieve will be reflected in the superb quality of our high-efficiency, energy-saving heating and cooling systems. As a leading global manufacturer, Daikin is expressing a strong, long-term commitment to its customers in North America by constructing this new business campus.”
The new facility, when finished, will include one of the largest and most technologically advanced HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) manufacturing facilities in the country.
