From schools to churches, YMCAs to hospitals, ice arenas to community centers or anything in between, the right building can bring people together. Our experience has shown that projects like these share common themes; budgets run tight, and timelines run even tighter.
Both of these criteria put Fabcon precast panels in the sweet spot for these types of projects.
Fabcon Sales Engineer Dick Duckstad has been a part of hundreds of planning meetings. While there’s often a desire to do something flashy, community projects tend to keep an eye on the larger prize—the building’s impact on the people and the community. Duckstad notes, “The mindset eventually becomes, ‘Let’s get real with this. Let’s spend more on panels on the front and be selective in other spots.”
That’s where Fabcon precast panels can help.
“While we’re not a custom precaster like some out there, ours is very much a system. We’re fast, and our panels are really efficient. That makes them a very economical choice,” Duckstad continues.
This can be attributed to the design of the panels and the ease in which they’re delivered to the build site.
“The insulation makes our product lighter so you can get incrementally more on a truck, and that’s where the economies come in,” says Duckstad. “Plus, we can achieve r-values a lot of other precasters can’t.” These are all reasons why many builders rely on our 12-inch VersaCore+Green™ sandwich panels and their impressive r-value of 28.2.
Modular by nature, buildings made with Fabcon precast panels can be reimagined down the road.
REIMAGINING PRECAST
While specs like r-values and weights certainly matter, it’s important to keep an eye on the bigger picture. What happens if you outgrow a property? Or need to consider a sale?
Fabcon buildings tend to have multifunctional appeal. What may originally have been built as a church can easily be reconfigured to be a showroom. This creates clear advantages at resale. If you’re a school and enrollment swells, or if you need to add another sheet at the ice arena, it’s possible to expand the footprint of a building or make adjustments to the original functionality with new doors and windows.
“We’re getting more and more calls to come in and revamp buildings we helped build 20 years ago,” said Fabcon’s Dave Stanton. “Called ‘remove and relocate’ projects, we can actually grow the building using a combination of new and existing panels. We’ll remove a section of wall, move it 100 feet down and install new panels to expand the footprint of the building.”
While the overall structure of a building is a consideration, aesthetics are a major focus when renovating. Fabcon’s commitment to Functional Aesthetics™ means you never have to compromise on performance or design.
“Steel form panels, of course, can be painted any color,” said Stanton. “But we can also incorporate pigment and colored aggregate that’s specific to the region it’s pulled from.”
Whether you’re building from scratch or repurposing an existing structure, Fabcon Precast brings value to community projects. Making a difference in your community has never been faster, more efficient or more customizable.
Related Stories
| Sep 13, 2010
China's largest single-phase hospital planned for Shanghai
RTKL's Los Angles office is designing the Shanghai Changzheng New Pudong Hospital, which will be the largest new hospital built in China in a single phase.
| Sep 13, 2010
Data Centers Keeping Energy, Security in Check
Power consumption for data centers doubled from 2000 and 2006, and it is anticipated to double again by 2011, making these mission-critical facilities the nation's largest commercial user of electric power. With major technology companies investing heavily in new data centers, it's no wonder Building Teams see these mission-critical facilities as a golden opportunity, and why they are working hard to keep energy costs at data centers in check.
| Aug 11, 2010
Average annual pay increases at A/E/P firms continue to rise in 2010
Despite the economic challenges that many architecture, engineering, planning(A/E/P) & environmental consulting firms have faced in recent years, a large majority of firms continue to include pay increases for their staff in their annual budgets, according to a new report released by ZweigWhite. According to ZweigWhite's 2010 Policies, Procedures, and Benefits Survey of Architecture, Engineering, Planning & Environmental Consulting Firms, the average pay increase that A/E/P firms project that they will provide in 2010 has increased from 2009. ZweigWhite, March 2
| Aug 11, 2010
ASHRAE Receives NIST Grant to Study IAQ in Retail Stores
The American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has been awarded $1.5 million dollars in grant money from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct a three-year research project on ventilation and indoor air quality in retail stores.
| Aug 11, 2010
Georgia Tech requires LEED Gold for all new buildings and renovations
The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta is currently updating its facilities design standards to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold as set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Energy Ace, Inc., an Atlanta-based sustainability consulting firm is assisting Georgia Tech in preparing the Standards upgrade.
| Aug 11, 2010
UC Merced researchers receive $568,000 grant to develop solar sensing, tracking system
Alberto Cerpa, an engineering professor at the University of California Merced, has received a $568,202 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a system that will measure and track the amount of sunlight that reaches ground level where photovoltaic panels and solar concentrators used in solar energy systems collect light and heat to turn into electricity.
| Aug 11, 2010
Mark McCracken named chair-elect of USGBC Board of Directors
Mark MacCracken, CEO of CALMAC, Inc., a producer of cold storage energy solutions, has been selected as Chair-elect of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Board of Directors for the 2010 calendar year. The USGBC Board of Directors is responsible for articulating and upholding the vision, values and mission of USGBC. In 2009, MacCracken was elected to serve a second 3-year term as Director in the Energy Services Seat.
| Aug 11, 2010
Only four out of 337 cities added construction jobs in 2009
Construction employment grew in only four out of 337 metropolitan areas in 2009 as spending on construction projects dropped by $100 billion in December to a six-year low of $903 billion, according to a new analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of federal figures released recently.
| Aug 11, 2010
ULI: 'Old Normal' will not be a part of the housing recovery
As the U.S. economy recovers, emerging trends in demographics and consumer behavior will become major drivers of new housing opportunities, resulting in a residential market vastly different from the one that existed prior to the recession, according to Housing in America: The Next Decade, a new research paper authored by John K. McIlwain, senior resident fellow, Urban Land Institute/J. Ronald Terwilliger Chair for Housing.
| Aug 11, 2010
Zero Energy Buildings + Homes' Call for Editorial Contributions & Contributors
BD+C will publish its 8th Annual White Paper on Green Buildings, "Zero Energy Buildings + Homes," in November-and you can contribute to it. We're looking for highly qualified experts (or teams of experts) to write individual chapters (about 2,000-3,000 words). We've started the outline here, but we'd like your suggestions about additional chapters. What did we miss? Help us shape this important report.