This 80,000 square foot, 4-story structure was originally constructed in 1920 with wood framed floors and concrete exterior walls.  The owner of the building has elected to renovate this old structure into a modern storage facility.  To achieve the vision and goals for this project set out by our client required strengthening measures be performed for the earthquake resisting elements, and the gravity load resisting elements.

Many of the wood and concrete structural systems within the building had significant deterioration present, impacting the structural integrity of the building. Miller Consulting Engineers, Inc. (MCE) provided the structural design, analysis and full construction documents to strengthen the seismic and gravity force resisting systems. Due to the layout of the storage walls, we were able to work with both the Owner and Architect to utilize an economic solution that involved adding concrete and masonry shear walls as well as light framed wood shear walls for several areas in the building.   This use of light framed shear walls as well as masonry and concrete shear walls allowed our design team to fully utilize the existing structural systems, and add strengthening measures precisely where they are needed for a safe design.  The result for our client includes an efficient and cost effective structural solution.

Within the structural design, existing timber piling and new grouted micropiles were used to strengthen the foundation elements supporting new shear walls.  This feature represents a low cost method of strengthening the foundation elements for the soil conditions beneath this structure.

As part of the structural design, additional amenities were added to the building including doubling the size of an existing concrete loading dock. The new loading dock area was designed utilizing structural steel beams and a composite concrete deck. Miller Consulting also designed and detailed repairs to several concrete beams, columns, and corbels within the structure using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) and repair mortars.

Our versitility and experience in the use of a wide variety of materials and construction techniques such as FRP reinforcing, use of micropiles as well as more conventional materials such as concrete, masonry, steel, and light framed construction techniques allowed this project to be constructed in an efficient manner, and minimize construction costs.

MCE was also involved in construction administration services for this project, which included designing and detailing temporary shoring and stability bracing. The temporary shoring allowed large areas of the floor diaphragms to be removed at one time, as well as permitted construction of the new concrete and masonry shear walls to proceed. Our involvement in this part of the project allowed the contractor to proceed with construction in a manner that has reduced the costs, and maintained an efficient construction schedule.