Wall and Ceiling Alliance Names Central Wolfe Campus “Project of the Year” for Exterior Design and Quality of Work
Source: Wall and Ceiling Alliance
ARCHITECT: KSH ARCHITECTS
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: LEVEL 10 CONSTRUCTION
LOCATION: SUNNYVALE
MANUFACTURER: RADIUS TRACK CORPORATION
SUPPLIER: FOUNDATION BUILDING MATERIALS
Described by Silicon Valley Business News as a “curvaceous 777,0000 SF project … like nothing else ever attempted in Silicon Valley,” this speaks to the complexity of design and quality of work performed at the Central & Wolfe Campus. The project consisted of three connected buildings. It had 750,000 square feet of office space above 445,000 square feet of parking, with a mechanical penthouse on top of each building. The project began in August 2016 with the last penthouse wall completed in September 2017.
The original material designed for the ceiling at the underside of the fourth-floor bridges was a metal panel system. During the design phase, the Anning-Johnson team worked with the general contractor to value engineer this system and changed it to a smooth finish, three-coat plaster. To accomplish this, the team built a full-size mock-up in their yard showing the smooth plaster finish along with how the reveals were to look to give the same appearance as a metal panel system. This mockup was reviewed and inspected by the owner, architect and general contractor before ultimately being accepted.
Anning-Johnson worked with the structural engineer to design and locate embeds at the underside of the fourth-floor slab to structurally attach the bridge framing to the building. A working fourth-floor concrete plan was determined through a series of meetings orchestrated by the GC using electronic overlays of each subcontractor’s required members, PT tendons, rebar, conduits and embeds. Months before the contractor mobilized for framing installation, a small crew placed their required embeds onto the concrete formwork that would create each of the fourth floor bridges. In this same timeframe, the Anning-Johnson team hired Radius Track Corporation to design, layout, and fabricate the framing needed to deliver the complex geometric design for the underside of each bridge. Outsourcing the compound curved framing design and fabrication Radius Track allowed that work to progress parallel to Anning-Johnson site mobilization, scaffold erection and penthouse preparation.
At the underside of each bridge, Anning-Johnson’s subcontractor installed a 30-foot tall, 6,600-square-foot scaffolded dance floor to provide access and lay down space for their installation team. An expansion joint at the center of each bridge divided the framing. The pre-curved Radius Track framing arrived at the site with detailed installation instructions that enabled the contracto’s install team to expedite their work. Anning-Johnson installed the first bridge half, identified efficiencies this information back to Radius Track for framing fabrication. Successive installation work progressed with greater efficiency through constant communication.
Anning-Johnson provided the interior courtyard and perimeter plaster walls at each of the three penthouses. The courtyard walls had the scaffolding starting at the level three courtyard to provide access for the level seven work. The perimeter of each penthouse was screened by a 724-foot round wall that varied in height form 17 feet to 26 feet tall. The company provided framing to receive a metal panel support system that penetrated plaster finish of each wall in 360 locations. Flashing details at each of the penetrations were carefully coordinated between Anning-Johnson and the other subcontractors to ensure the waterproofing was installed per the project specification.
Anning-Johnson met the compressed project schedule and delivered the complex geometric design intent through a combination of proactive planning, strategic outsourcing, communication feedback loops and skilled teams working concurrently in multiple areas of the project. The framing and plasterwork delivered according to the design intent under the design-build contract with a compressed schedule demonstrates Anning-Johnson’s excellence in construction. Because of this complexity of design and process as well as the quality of work, Anning-Johnson was awarded the CEA for Project of the Year – Exterior Over $500,000.