From schools to churches, YMCAs to hospitals, ice arenas to community centers or anything in between, the right building can bring people together. Our experience has shown that projects like these share common themes; budgets run tight, and timelines run even tighter.
Both of these criteria put Fabcon precast panels in the sweet spot for these types of projects.
Fabcon Sales Engineer Dick Duckstad has been a part of hundreds of planning meetings. While there’s often a desire to do something flashy, community projects tend to keep an eye on the larger prize—the building’s impact on the people and the community. Duckstad notes, “The mindset eventually becomes, ‘Let’s get real with this. Let’s spend more on panels on the front and be selective in other spots.”
That’s where Fabcon precast panels can help.
“While we’re not a custom precaster like some out there, ours is very much a system. We’re fast, and our panels are really efficient. That makes them a very economical choice,” Duckstad continues.
This can be attributed to the design of the panels and the ease in which they’re delivered to the build site.
“The insulation makes our product lighter so you can get incrementally more on a truck, and that’s where the economies come in,” says Duckstad. “Plus, we can achieve r-values a lot of other precasters can’t.” These are all reasons why many builders rely on our 12-inch VersaCore+Green™ sandwich panels and their impressive r-value of 28.2.
Modular by nature, buildings made with Fabcon precast panels can be reimagined down the road.
REIMAGINING PRECAST
While specs like r-values and weights certainly matter, it’s important to keep an eye on the bigger picture. What happens if you outgrow a property? Or need to consider a sale?
Fabcon buildings tend to have multifunctional appeal. What may originally have been built as a church can easily be reconfigured to be a showroom. This creates clear advantages at resale. If you’re a school and enrollment swells, or if you need to add another sheet at the ice arena, it’s possible to expand the footprint of a building or make adjustments to the original functionality with new doors and windows.
“We’re getting more and more calls to come in and revamp buildings we helped build 20 years ago,” said Fabcon’s Dave Stanton. “Called ‘remove and relocate’ projects, we can actually grow the building using a combination of new and existing panels. We’ll remove a section of wall, move it 100 feet down and install new panels to expand the footprint of the building.”
While the overall structure of a building is a consideration, aesthetics are a major focus when renovating. Fabcon’s commitment to Functional Aesthetics™ means you never have to compromise on performance or design.
“Steel form panels, of course, can be painted any color,” said Stanton. “But we can also incorporate pigment and colored aggregate that’s specific to the region it’s pulled from.”
Whether you’re building from scratch or repurposing an existing structure, Fabcon Precast brings value to community projects. Making a difference in your community has never been faster, more efficient or more customizable.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
ICC launches green construction code initiative for commercial buildings
The International Code Council has launched its International Green Construction Code (IGCC) initiative, which will aim to reduce energy usage and the carbon footprint of commercial buildings.Entitled “IGCC: Safe and Sustainable By the Book,” the initiative is committed to develop a model code focused on new and existing commercial buildings. It will focus on building design and performance.
| Aug 11, 2010
VA San Diego Healthcare System Building 1 Seismic Correction
San Diego, Calif.
Three decades after its original construction in the early 1970s, the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System Building 1 fell far short of current seismic codes. This not only put the building and its occupants—patients, doctors, nurses, visitors, and administrative staff—at risk in the event of a major earthquake, it violated a California state mandate requiring all hospitals to either retrofit or rebuild.
| Aug 11, 2010
Green Building Initiative launches two certification programs for green building professionals
The Green Building Initiative® (GBI), one of the nation’s leading green building organizations and exclusive provider of the Green Globes green building certification in the United States, today announced the availability of two new personnel certification programs for green building practitioners: Green Globes Professional (GGP) and Green Globes Assessor (GGA).
| Aug 11, 2010
Potomac Valley Brick launches brick design competition with $10,000 grand prize
Potomac Valley Brick presents Brick-stainable: Re-Thinking Brick a design competition seeking integrative solutions for a building using clay masonry units (brick) as a primary material.
| Aug 11, 2010
AGC: No recovery yet for construction industry as latest figures show double-digit drops in spending compared to last year
The construction industry continues to suffer from significant declines in privately-funded construction investments, with new federal figures showing private construction investments declined by 20.6 percent between September 2008 and September 2009. The new Census Bureau figures show there’s no sign of an economic recovery yet for the nation’s construction industry, the Associated General Contractors of America noted today.
| Aug 11, 2010
HDR, Perkins+Will top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 100 largest healthcare design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Healthcare Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Steel Joist Institute announces 2009 Design Awards
The Steel Joist Institute is now accepting entries for its 2009 Design Awards. The winning entries will be announced in November 2009 and the company with the winning project in each category will be awarded a $2,000 scholarship in its name to a school of its choice for an engineering student.
| Aug 11, 2010
Southern Pine Council releases certification survey results
Recent surveys conducted by the Southern Forest Products Association (SFPA) and Random Lengths assessed the use of forest certification programs in the wood products industry and uncovered interesting results, including the fact that approximately 61% do not use a certification system and that about 60% of southern pine producers receive regular requests for certified products.