Collman & Karsky does much of its work in coastal Florida, designing mission-critical facilities that are hurricane-hardened, meaning they’re resistant to high winds, flooding, and the impact of large airborne missile debris—flying chunks of wood and metal, even whole pieces of rooftop HVAC equipment. For one recent project, a renovation of the Sarasota Emergency Data Center, Collman & Karsky used Wellbilt’s Sure-Board Wall Panel, a modular, panelized wall system, to create a bunker able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.
Karsky says the product was very clean and easy to install and required no cutting of floor slabs. “We were on an extremely tight time frame, and because it was modular, the walls could be set up quickly, allowing the other trades to come in and start working.” The modular system also cost “a little bit less” compared to concrete block or poured-in-place concrete, he says.
Hasan S. Arouri, PE, principal and senior structural project engineer for TLC Engineering for Architecture in Orlando, also attests to the benefits of the Wellbilt system: “The panels are tested and certified as hurricane-resistant, impact-resistant, and blast-resistant products, adequate and cost-effective to provide additional protection and strength for buildings located in high-velocity hurricane zones.”
TLC used them to harden the walls of the Florida Supreme Court Building in Tallahassee. Arouri says the technology provided a lightweight solution that strengthened the existing walls, enhancing their capacity to resist lateral hurricane wind pressures and providing blast-wall protection without the need for a lot of additional footings. The panels also allowed the building’s historic façade to be preserved.
Related Stories
Multifamily Housing | Jul 12, 2017
7 noteworthy multifamily projects: posh amenities, healthy living, plugged-in lifestyle
Zen meditation gardens, bocce courts, saltwater pools, and free drinks highlight the niceties at these new multifamily developments.
Accelerate Live! | Jul 6, 2017
Watch all 20 Accelerate Live! talks on demand
BD+C’s inaugural AEC innovation conference, Accelerate Live! (May 11, Chicago), featured talks on machine learning, AI, gaming in construction, maker culture, and health-generating buildings.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 29, 2017
Uniting healthcare and community
Out of the many insights that night, everyone agreed that the healthcare industry is ripe for disruption and that communities contribute immensely to our health and wellness.
Architects | Jun 25, 2017
Stantec adds RNL Design to its stable, fortifying several of its business units
The engineering giant also names successor to CEO who will retire at the end of this year.
Building Team | Jun 22, 2017
Seven lessons learned on commissioning projects
Commissioning is where the rubber meets the road in terms of building design.
Sponsored | Building Team | Jun 20, 2017
Plan ahead when building in the west
Getting a project through plan review can be an unusually long process, anywhere from six months to two years.
Architects | Jun 19, 2017
Preparing to negotiate: Get your head in the game
Logical and well-planned steps to effective negotiation.
| Jun 13, 2017
Accelerate Live! talk: Is the road to the future the path of least resistance? Sasha Reed, Bluebeam (sponsored)
Bluebeam’s Sasha Reed discusses why AEC leaders should give their teams permission to responsibly break things and create ecosystems of people, process, and technology.
| Jun 13, 2017
Accelerate Live! talk: Incubating innovation through R&D and product development, Jonatan Schumacher, Thornton Tomasetti
Thornton Tomasetti’s Jonatan Schumacher presents the firm’s business model for developing, incubating, and delivering cutting-edge tools and solutions for the firm, and the greater AEC market.
| Jun 13, 2017
Accelerate Live! talk: The future of computational design, Ben Juckes, Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign
Yazdani’s Ben Juckes discusses the firm’s tech-centric culture, where scripting has become an every-project occurrence and each designer regularly works with computational tools as part of their basic toolset.