A new oceanfront residential complex was awarded a top industry award from the New Jersey Concrete Association during its 56th annual competition sponsored by the NJ Concrete and Aggregate Association and the NJ Chapter of The American Concrete Institute, which recognizes the outstanding concrete projects of 2018.
The property, consisting of 47 unique residences in two buildings, earned this year’s Top Industry Award in the Low Rise Category, which recognizes concrete projects at the forefront of innovation and technology. South Beach at Long Branch was selected from roughly 90 projects nominated statewide.
“It’s an honor to receive this award and to be recognized as part of this exceptional group of projects in New Jersey,” says CEO Mimi Feliciano of FEM South Beach Urban Renewal LLC. “I am so proud of our team for designing and building South Beach at Long Branch to meet the highest standards for oceanfront construction.”
“The craftsmanship of the concrete is at the very heart of South Beach at Long Branch. It sets the framework for an iconic structure where a close collaboration between engineers, architects, contractors and consultants has brought this unique design to life,” adds Angelica Arent, senior project manager at Shore Point Architecture in Ocean Grove, N.J.
Standing eight-stories tall and constructed of cast-in place concrete, the pair of luxury buildings were molded to fit on a 1.7-acre site. At their core, the buildings are reinforced with concrete columns embedded with steel frames, and the exteriors are covered in precast concrete panels with a decorative finish. The use of concrete and other durable materials such as steel and high-quality glass produce an industrial-strength energy-efficient structure that can withstand the harsh coastal environment.
“This type of cast-in place construction is quite common in New York high-rises, but I have not seen a project like this at the Jersey Shore,” notes David Ulassin, owner of Cornerstone Construction Services LLC in Somerville, N.J., which is the construction manager for this exceptional project. “Concrete is resistant to the elements—fire, wind, salt corrosion—which makes it practical and strong enough to literally last for hundreds of years.”
He adds that concrete also lends itself to flexibility and creativity.
“In a luxury residential building like South Beach at Long Branch, the use of two-way concrete slabs allows us to achieve the wide open interior spaces that the developers envisioned,” Ulassin says. “To implement that design we used high strength concrete, which allowed us to minimize obstructions within each residence.”
There are no 90-degree angles within the residences, and no center corridors in either of the north or south towers, explains Ulassin. The interior units span from the front of the building to the back. This design also makes it possible to offer semi-private and private elevators to have direct access into each home.
“As a result, every single residence at South Beach has beautiful, unobstructed ocean views, and that’s one thing that I have not seen anywhere, up and down the coast,” he says.
