Construction on the MFCU corporate facility started in the spring of 2009. Light gauge steel studs support the perimeter bearing walls and steel bar joists support a concrete floor system. A tremendous amount of natural light enters the building through theclerestory structure which is supported by exposed structural steel braces. The owner, contractor, and the entire design team (CTA Architects Engineers) worked closely during the design phase to assure the best possible product.

Discovery Park Lodge, designed by GGL Architecture, consists of a 3-story wood framed apartment complex over a full basement parking garage. The main floor is “framed” with a post-tensioned concrete slab to allow for the parking garage below. The wood framed structure above consisted of bearing walls, wood sheathed lateral system, I-joist floor system, and a combination of stick frame and pre-engineered wood trusses. The building will be used for low income elderly housing with options to buy or lease each unit. The building has kitchen facilities and is fully equipped for elderly services.

The ISB is a laboratory building used by various scientists and researchers. The floors are steel and concrete composite framing, the roof is heavy steel, the entry canopies are glue-laminated timer, and the foundation is 12-inch thick conventional cast-in-place concrete on spread/strip footings. Allowable soil bearing pressure is 8,000 psf. About 100 tons of mechanical equipment is housed in the mechanical penthouse which is efficiently located under the tallest portion of the roof. Two heavy steel trusses support the roof and four levels of concrete floors over the extra-large lecture room on the first floor. Seismic and wind forces are resisted with steel seismic towers anchored to the foundation with 2 ½-inch diameter steel rods.

The project consisted of adding several structures to update the wastewater treatment plant. The engineers at Peccia and Associates determined the size of the structures and Eclipse had to make it happen structurally. Most of the structures had cast-in-place concrete foundation walls, slabs and walkways. Some had steel floor, wall and roof framing. The water table at the site was high (design for 5-feet below grade) and some of the structures were 14-feet deep, so buoyancy forces had to be taken in to account so that the buildings would not be pushed up out of the ground. We used extra wide footings that would be weighted down by backfill and on the Oxidation Ditch we specified over 70 screw piles to resist uplift. The crane rail systems and hoists under the floors and roofs were designed to transport equipment, miscellaneous manholes and retaining walls, aluminum chutes, walkways, gratings, guardrails and stairs.

As part of the water distribution system improvements for the town of Clyde Park, Eclipse designed a 700,000 gallon water tank for potable water storage. Due to restrictions in budget the tank was subsequently reduced to 350,000 which amounted to a small revision in the footprint of the tank. The tank is constructed of cast-in-place concrete walls and slab with pre-cast concrete columns, beams, and hollow core planks. A crystalline waterproofing system was incorporated into the mix design to help reduce the permeability of the concrete and to limit the leakage of the potable water.

The building requirements of multiple roof levels and large open rooms interspersed with typical smaller classroom layouts required that the structural design accommodate large spans at the roof and an open floor plan at the meeting room/lobby/gallery. Both the upper and lower roof is constructed of steel bar joists spanning up to 48-feet and supporting the suspended catwalk over the theater. Steel braced frames throughout the building supplement concrete shear walls for lateral loads. A large site built truss along the gallery and open lobby supports both the roof break and suspends the upper gallery over the meeting room. The full truss is 15-feet deep and 108-feet long, with a longest open span of 62-feet and cantilevers of 6 & 20-feet on either end. In order to better integrate the truss with the construction timeline and reduce the costs associated with craning and bracing a large truss, columns were installed at the lower level and the truss was built in place.

This building is new construction of a five-story office building with a foundation footprint of 80 feet x 130 feet. It provides over 62,000 square feet of office space (including the basement). The main level is 15 feet tall and the remaining floors are 13.5 feet tall each. The floor framing is steel and concrete composite beams and girders. The roof framing is steel joists with a steel roof deck. The lateral load resisting system is concrete shear walls. The exterior walls are light gage steel stud framing. Brick veneer clads the main level, dryvit is used on the next three floors, and curtain walls are used on the fifth floor. The main level is a commercial bank, so assembly load is used in design.