A repeat customer
base makes a very strong statement for any company. A client's
desire to return with new projects, because of their satisfaction
with past performances, gives a company great pride in their people
and products. Prestressed Casting Co. maintains a large repeat
customer base, by striving to give our customers the very best
service and products. One example of this would be the showroom
and warehouse facilities for Grizzly Industrial Products.
The Grizzly
Industrial Products 150,000 square foot showroom facility has
over 20,000 square feet of showroom space and displays over 8,000
tools from Grizzly's line of products. It is proudly suggested
on their website that you "Visit the largest machinery showroom
in the world." This "largest in the world" showroom was made possible
in part by the use of prestressed concrete wall panels. Butler
Rosenbury & Partners was contracted to design the new showroom
for Grizzly. At an early phase in the design process, prestressed
concrete was chosen for the exterior walls of the structure. Prestressed
Casting Co. was then contacted to help with design details that
would give quality while maintaining maximum economy.
One aspect
that made this possible was using the wall panels as load bearing
elements. By using the walls structurally, the designer was able
to eliminate a large amount of structural steel, which provided
economy through a lower piece count as well as faster construction.
The construction phase went equally well, with prestressed panels
being ready as soon as the foundations were complete. The precast
walls went up smoothly, actually beating our schedule for the
project.
The key element
in using precast products on the warehouse project was speed.
For the new 300,000 square foot distribution center, which is
across the street from the showroom, the owner wanted the same
quality as the previous structure, but with a much more aggressive
schedule.
Wirt Development,
and Butler Rosenbury & Partners once again teamed up to design
and construct the warehouse, using a similar framing system as
the showroom. The previous project was so successful that Prestressed
Casting Co. was selected once again to produce the walls. They
also knew from previous experience that our company could deliver
the schedule required.
We were placed
on the team early and the project was set in motion. We worked
on our design in conjunction with Butler Rosenbury, and very quickly
mobilized to produce the wall panels, even before the site work
was completed. By using our own shoring system we were able to
start erecting walls as soon as footings were available, ahead
of the delivery of the steel components.
The 37' tall
by 10' wide wall panel system could be set at about 5000 sq. ft.
of wall per day. These items allowed us to complete the precast
concrete portion of the project within 90 days from the first
contact with our sales manager, while using a strong, attractive
wall system that will perform effectively for years to come.