flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Steel Joists Clean Up a Car Wash’s Carbon Footprint

Steel Joists Clean Up a Car Wash’s Carbon Footprint

Open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists give a Utah car wash architectural interest, reduce its construction costs, and help green a building type with a reputation for being wasteful.


By By Jay W. Schneider, Editor | March 10, 2011
This article first appeared in the March 2011 issue of BD+C.

The owners of the new Star Wash car wash in South Jordan, Utah, had two major requests of its Building Team:

1. Design an economical facility that fits its setting at the base of the Wasatch Range, a 160-mile-long stretch of mountains slicing through central Utah.

2. Make the car wash eco-friendly.

Nichols-Naylor Architects, Salt Lake City, gave the 11,600-sf facility (with an additional 3,400 sf of covered canopies) an organic shape with two distinctive arched roofs and open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists that mimic the mountain’s peaks and valleys—and grab the attention of passing motorists on one of the area’s busiest thoroughfares.

Open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists were also used on the interior roof to match the arched profile of the exterior canopies. “Anytime you have different arched chords or use bowstring trusses, the coordination of the job is more difficult,” says Brad Hardy, operations manager with Steel Encounters, the project’s steel detailer.

Of course, it would have been easier for Hardy’s team had the architects and BHB Consulting Engineers, South Salt Lake, designed and engineered one large arched roof spanning the entire structure, but their design instead incorporated two roof structures coming off the building at different angles and at different elevations—one roof is eight feet higher than the other. The Steel Encounters team wound up designing 9,700 sf of  arched chord trusses and joists to match the exact profiles the architect wanted. “It was definitely more of a challenge doing it this way,” says Hardy. “Each joist is different, each has to be specifically designed and engineered. You can’t pull one off a shelf and put up the building.”

Fortunately, these design complications didn’t add to construction or erection costs. The open-web steel trusses, in addition to serving an aesthetic purpose, were actually an economical alternative to more costly steel tube trusses. They also helped contribute to the owner’s request for an eco-friendly facility because they incorporated more than 99% recycled material and were fabricated by Legacy Steel, Salt Lake City, and manufactured by Vulcraft, Brigham City, Utah, two firms located within 100 miles of the job site. Steel erection was performed by C&C Steel Erectors, Springville, Utah. 

The recycled steel was just one of several green elements used in the $1.2 million project. Eighty-five percent of the wash water used in the two interior wash bays is recycled, 60 photovoltaic panels supply 15% of the building’s electricity, and the facility’s heating comes from burning waste oil from an oil-change facility on the property.

The Star Wash car wash was recently named a 2010 Design Award Winner by the Steel Joist Institute (http://steeljoist.org), which ranked the project tops in its “Unique Application” category.

Related Stories

| Apr 25, 2013

SmithGroupJJR hires Lise Newman as Workplace Studio Leader in Detroit

SmithGroupJJR, one of the nation's largest architecture, engineering and planning firms, has hired architect Lise Newman, AIA, as Workplace Studio leader at its Detroit, Mich. office.

| Apr 25, 2013

Colorado State University, DLR Group team to study 12 high-performance schools

DLR Group and the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University have collaborated on a research project to evaluate the effect of green school design on occupants and long-term building performance.

| Apr 24, 2013

More positive momentum for Architecture Billings Index

All regions and building sectors continue to report positive business conditions

| Apr 24, 2013

North Carolina bill would ban green rating systems that put state lumber industry at disadvantage

North Carolina lawmakers have introduced state legislation that would restrict the use of national green building rating programs, including LEED, on public projects.

| Apr 24, 2013

Los Angeles may add cool roofs to its building code

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants cool roofs added to the city’s building code. He is also asking the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to create incentives that make it financially attractive for homeowners to install cool roofs.

| Apr 23, 2013

Building material innovation: Concrete cloth simplifies difficult pours

Milliken recently debuted a flexible fabric that allows for concrete installations on slopes, in water, and in other hard to reach places—without the need for molds or mixing.

| Apr 23, 2013

Architects to MoMA: Don't destroy Williams/Tsien project

Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy and Robert A.M. Stern are among the prominent architects who on Monday called for the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum.

| Apr 22, 2013

Top 10 green building projects for 2013 [slideshow]

The AIA's Committee on the Environment selected its top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

| Apr 19, 2013

Is LED lighting keeping its promises?

Lighting experts debate the benefits, drawbacks, and issues related to specifying LED fixtures.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Construction Costs

Data center construction costs for 2024

Gordian’s data features more than 100 building models, including computer data centers. These localized models allow architects, engineers, and other preconstruction professionals to quickly and accurately create conceptual estimates for future builds. This table shows a five-year view of costs per square foot for one-story computer data centers. 


Sustainability

Grimshaw launches free online tool to help accelerate decarbonization of buildings

Minoro, an online platform to help accelerate the decarbonization of buildings, was recently launched by architecture firm Grimshaw, in collaboration with more than 20 supporting organizations including World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), RIBA, Architecture 2030, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and several national Green Building Councils from across the globe.



Healthcare Facilities

Watch on-demand: Key Trends in the Healthcare Facilities Market for 2024-2025

Join the Building Design+Construction editorial team for this on-demand webinar on key trends, innovations, and opportunities in the $65 billion U.S. healthcare buildings market. A panel of healthcare design and construction experts present their latest projects, trends, innovations, opportunities, and data/research on key healthcare facilities sub-sectors. A 2024-2025 U.S. healthcare facilities market outlook is also presented.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021