Methods to Measure Sustainability

The growing demand for green buildings has been invigorated by green building programs such as the LEED rating system.  With new construction projects, owners and builders alike are looking for materials that offer reduced operating costs, improved health benefits, and perform better environmentally throughout the life-cycle of the products. 

Although this can result in some confusion in assessing the impact of such materials on all of these aspects, there are many good resources being developed to assist in making informed decisions.  Experts working in the field of sustainable design are improving the methods that are used to more accurately measure the value of the return on the green investment. 

One of these tools is called a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and is used in determining the actual performance of green building materials.  This cradle-to-grave assessment starts with a product evaluated by the impact of extracting the raw material, to the manufacturing process and distribution, to the durability and performance.  Additionally the ease of reusing or recycling the material is judged and taken into account. 

When considered early in the planning and design stages, sustainable criteria offer the greatest cost-efficiency as well as the best ability to influence design. Therefore, it is important that architects and owners have the most up-to-date information available right from the start of a project. 

Green products are typically made from reused or recycled-content or from renewable resources.  The EPA says the goal should be to promote clean air and reduce the emissions of VOC (volatile organic compounds) and formaldehyde.  They should not contain CFCs, HCFCs or other toxic substances and need to promote practices that conserve energy and water.  Furthermore they should offer good durability and ease of maintenance, and aid in reducing a building’s overall operating cost.   

The EPA concludes that green buildings should be designed to reduce the environmental impact on human health and the natural environment by:

·         “Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources

·         Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity

·         Reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation”

 

 

 

 

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States.  As one of the leading commercial concrete contractors in the San Jose area, we have been involved with large-scale projects in the area including the Mineta Airport.  Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects.

 

 

 

Since Conco is hard at work on the Wilshire Grand Center in L.A., which will be the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, we thought it only fitting to do a blog series on “super tall buildings.”  Keep in mind that skyscrapers are ranked by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and they use set criteria to designate the official height for each building.  According to the Council, “measurements are from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building.  This includes spires, but does not include antennae, signage, flagpoles or other functional-technical equipment.”  

For the new blog post in our series on tallest buildings in the world, we come to the fourth one, which is right here in the U.S.  The ultra-modern One World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan was designed by the renowned architect David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP.  The building has received the designation as the tallest building in the U.S. and the fourth tallest in the world after some controversy regarding its height.  Recently the CTBUH declared that the mast on top of the building is a spire since it is a permanent part of the skyscraper’s architecture, which means the One World Trade Center is officially 1,776 ft. tall. 

The skyscraper is built with safety in mind as well as sustainability and has received LEEDS Gold certification.  According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who own the building, “Its structure is designed around a strong, redundant steel frame, consisting of beams and columns. Paired with a concrete-core shear wall the redundant steel frame lends substantial rigidity and redundancy to the overall building structure while providing column-free interior spans for maximum flexibility.”  The One World Trade Center is expected to open later this year.  

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States and is once again involved in doing concrete work for a major landmark project. The new Wilshire Grand Center will reshape the Los Angeles skyline as the tallest building west of the Mississippi.  As a part of the project, Conco successfully poured the largest continuous mat foundation ever done in the U.S. on February 15, 2014.

 

Some of the Largest Concrete Pours

Conco’s regional office in Washington completed a 2,880 cubic yard mat pour using 275 tons of rebar for The Martin, a 24-story luxury apartment tower for general contractor Exxel Pacific.  The Martin is located in Seattle’s downtown area known as Belltown, adjacent to the Monorail, which made access and time constraints a concern.  

A total of three pumps were used - a 36 meter, 47 meter & 58 meter to complete the mat pour pumping 450 cubic yards per hour at peak times. Cadman, Inc. delivered the ready-mix with trucks arriving approximately every 80 seconds to fill the mat which measures 7′-6″ at the deepest point.

While we are proud of our accomplishment at The Martin, we are in awe of some of the world records set for concrete pours.  According to the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), the largest mat pour in the U.S. was for the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  It was a 22,000 cubic yard pour. 

BAC states the second largest pour in the U.S. was for the luxurious Trump Royale condominium, a 22-story, 386-unit building in Southern Florida that was done in 2007.  At the end of a very busy 24 hours, utilizing 190 trucks in constant rotation, and a 1500 man crew, 13,500 cubic yards of concrete were poured and 1,600 tons of rebar used. 

The world record for the largest concrete pour on a single project took a period of 17 years to complete.  The Three Gorges Dam in Hubei Province, China used an estimated 21 million cubic yards of concrete. 

There even stands a record for the largest continuous underwater concrete pour that was done in New Orleans in 2010.  It was for 10,251 cubic yards of concrete pumped over a period of 58 hours.   

As one of the leading commercial concrete contractors in the San Jose area, Conco has been involved with large-scale projects in the area including the Mineta Airport.  Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.