From pre-pandemic labor and material shortages to COVID precautions and social unrest concerns, the design and construction team on the Commonwealth of Virginia’s new General Assembly Building (GAB) project in Richmond has navigated the breadth of recent industry challenges. Set on Capitol Square and neighboring the Virginia State Capitol, the site of the new 414,000-sq-ft GAB is as high profile of a location as you can find in the state.

“That really separated this from the average job,” says Brett Thompson, senior project manager with Gilbane Building Co., which is serving as construction manager at-risk. “If you took this job and set it somewhere else on 10 acres, it’s a totally different ballgame.”

新的GAB - 目前的建筑预算为1.91亿美元 - 在以前的结构的网站上设定。在拆迁之前，若干有利项目旨在暂时重新安置居住者，包括大会成员和工作人员。18luck官网

Client advocate

在建设开始于2018年之前，吉尔班队参与了近两年的前置预设工作，与设计团队领导的设计团队由录音罗伯特·罗伯特Stern Architects（Ramsa） - 并由所有者的团队由弗吉尼亚州一般服务部（DGS）管理。Jim Pearson在Ramsa助理说，其中一些步伐由大会成员和工作人员的时间表决定，包括一些只能在立法会议期间会面的一些速度。他说，最终，职员被授权制定有关项目的决定。

“We had to make sure that everything was well organized and documented, and proceeded in an orderly way,” he says. “Our ability to meet with them had to be tailored to when they were available.”

由于延长了早期时间表，汤普森说吉尔班有利于听到早期编程呼叫的好处。“我们不需要参与其中，但我们在这里，我们达成了一些会议，以了解有关建设性，成本和调度影响的见解，”他说。18luck.cub“自早期以来，我们一直作为客户倡导者。”

The project team completed precast erection and restored the historic facade by July and installed 80% of the windows.
照片由Multivista，Gilbane Building Co.提供

Blending old and new

在2022年秋季完成时，新的GAB将为议员，员工和公众提供当代空间，也尊重国会大通广场的历史背景。Pearson说，之前的GAB围绕建筑物的积累，包括弗吉尼亚大厦的人寿保险公司。保险大楼建于1912年，被视为历史，因此Ramsa与大会的DGS和代表合作，将其纳入新建筑。该团队选择保留了建筑的四层石灰石门面，将其整合在新建筑的整体群众，美学和着色中。

The facade helped the design team establish a podium level of the building with a tower section that is slightly set back, rising up to the 14th floor. “On the square itself, there are some very low buildings,” he says. “We wanted to be able to establish that as a datum and respect that as much as possible.”

在建设开始于2018年之前，吉尔班队参与了近两年的前置预设工作与设计团队合作。
莫克尔McCann为罗伯特渲染斯特恩建筑师

批判拆除

在2017年底拆除现有的GAB之前，该团队在历史悠久的外观周围竖立了一座支撑塔，将地震涂抹在其中，以监测石灰石的微妙性质。吉尔贝尼的一般主管克里斯·惠特利表示，这是一个敏感的过程，鉴于需要保留历史性门面。“这是一个非常批判的拆迁过程，在那里，我们手动移除了几个故事，以便将其缩小到挖掘机可以安全地将其拿下来，”他说。

With the building down and the facade secured, crews excavated down 25 ft and used a combination of soldier piles and lagging, underpinning and tiebacks through the existing GAB’s foundation walls. The foundation is an undulating concrete mat with thicknesses varying from roughly 4 ft to 8 ft. “It was almost like a crumpling up a piece of paper and saying, ‘that’s your mat,’” Thompson says.

虽然最初被认为将垫子放入三个大倾倒的团队，但它的复杂性需要将其分成10次浇注，平均约1,000杯YD，最大的倒入近2,000铜yd。“最大的约束是具体的供应，”惠特利说。“但也具有混凝土的质量和厚度，我们需要将其倒入较小的块，因此我们可以更好地管理。”

After the demolition was completed on the site, the historic facade remained braced until it could be tied in with the new structure.
照片由Multivista，Gilbane Building Co.提供

hard

Whitley notes that the design’s numerous column-free spaces required installation of several large trusses through the podium, including a four-story hanging truss. The largest steel piece installed in the podium was an 80-ft-long plate girder that weighs 138,000 lb. In total, crews installed roughly 9,900 pieces of structural steel in the podium and tower combined.

在讲台上方，五到14楼主要是房屋办公室，汤普森通常如同传统的办公楼更像。附加的小组委员会和会议空间位于顶层三层。

As the elevator core went up, Whitley says the team took the additional step of laser-scanning the work as part of its quality control efforts.

“On a job like this, we couldn’t wait for the elevator contractor to come on site to tell us if we had a major issue,” he says. “We laser-scanned the inside and outside of that shaft. We were able to then turn over those scans to the structural steel fabricator to verify connections and make sure nothing needed to be modified. We then turned those over to the elevator contractor as well. It was a great use of that technology to make sure we were getting what we were paying for.”

To help retain the palette of the historic facade while keeping budget and constructibility concerns in mind, the team chose to clad the facade in concrete precast panels. RAMSA met with Gilbane and Gate Precast on a weekly basis for more than a year on the precast panel portion of the project. “We’d go through the challenges so we could talk as a team and reach resolution in a way that allowed them to manufacture the panels as they needed to and preserve the design intent,” Pearson says. “That was a key part of the success of this project.”

起重机手表

总的来说，船员安装了1,281个预制面板，具有最重的面板重29,000磅。

Given the amount of steel and precast panels installed, Whitley says the crane plan was a critical component of the project. Initially, the team wanted to bring in two tower cranes, but early discussions with the steel fabricator steered the plan toward using one Liebherr 630 with a freestanding height of 270 ft, along with mobile cranes. The mobile cranes were used for the lower podium section, where the heaviest steel pieces were located. The tower crane was then used for the upper tower portion.

Versatile’s belowthe- hook crane sensor has been deployed on other projects before, but the General Assembly Building is one of the first major projects to employ it from start to finish.
Photo courtesy of Gilbane Building Co.

“从以前的经验中，我想把起重机放在大楼的足迹中，”惠特利说。“所以我们共同努力，确保我们可以为预制工作制定小组化。我们能够在起重机的重叠下面竖立几件作品。我们只有七件休假。“
作为其起重机计划的一部分，该团队还利用了钩子起重机传感器下面的Craneview，以帮助收集数据，可以分析，以查看序列是否滞后或早期识别其他问题。

Throughout steel and precast erection, the team needed lane closures around the building—often a daunting task on downtown sites. Since it was not a residential area and the government kept standard hours, the team was able to regularly secure nighttime closures. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and the state instituted stay-at-home orders, not only was the team able to continue working, but traffic became much less of an issue.

“They would tell us to take the lane at 9 a.m. after rush hour and reopen by 3:30 p.m.,” Whitley recalls. “We’d take it again after evening rush hour and could leave it open until 5 a.m. There were quite a bit of challenges during the pandemic, but I’d say it helped in that we saw a smaller traffic pattern and flow.”

covid care

Once COVID protocols went into effect, the team had to make numerous adjustments, including staggered starts for its crews, which hit a maximum manpower of 350 during the pandemic. The team also pivoted to virtual inspections, including remote meetings with owner representatives and the design team. Thompson says WiFi was added to the building to help with remote connectivity. Webcams were also added throughout the project to help monitor overall progress.

“It was a lifeline in the midst of the pandemic,” Pearson says. “It changed what is possible and how we can work with contractors on sites if we’re not able to be there. We used to trade marked-up drawings. Now we can see video and ask questions.”

COVID also prompted some late design changes. Pearson says the team was able to make some adjustments at the client’s request, including updating and reconfiguring the mechanical systems to allow for more fresh air exchanges.

除Covid问题外，2020年还在全国各地看到了大量的社会和政治骚乱，特别是政府复合体。国会大厦广场担任抗议留在家庭订单和其他政治收费问题的抗议场所。鉴于这些开发，吉尔邦内提出了额外的安全措施，以防止其设备和材料安全。Live网络摄像头可以检测侵入者并通过扬声器通过扬声器提醒他们，即安全已被通知其存在。吉尔班报告在抗议活动中没有大幅度破坏事件。

聚光灯

1月6日在美国国会大厦骚乱，为弗吉尼亚立法者掀起了闹钟。Pearson表示，大会要求将额外的安全措施添加到建筑物中，这已经很好地进入钢铁勃起。“在1月6日之前，在1月6日之前已经在不断发展的担忧。

With the project topped out and mostly framed, crews are focused on closing walls and transitioning to tenant work. Richmond-based Glavé & Holmes Architecture, which serves as associate architect, is heading up efforts on the office tower portion of the project.

Thompson says the team continues to reap the benefits of its early involvement and extensive preconstruction efforts.

“On a lot of jobs, the owner is champing at the bit and they tend to go a little too fast,” Thompson says. “For this, there was good time to make sure the design was right and the price was right before we went full bore.”