Was Owner Familiar with Tilt-Up? No
Why Did the Owner Select Tilt-Up?
The tilt-up method was brought in as a cost-savings procedure. It was also thought to bring more durability to the building.
What was the Overall Complexity of the project?
The development of the new Mechanical Engineering
Research Laboratory (MERL) resulted from a necessity to conform to life safety
requirements, increasingly stringent building
codes and a historical Stanford site context.
The new research laboratory project will solve
each of these critical issues and will allow the
department to continue as a leader in its field.
The first challenge of this project was the complex program. This mechanical engineering building was to combine many different kinds of research into one building . Prior to the construction of this building, research within the department was housed in multiple locations making communication difficult. The multiple locations also caused space utilization to be inefficient, made materials handling difficult, and impacted the monitoring of necessary toxic and flammable gases. The Laboratory was built to meet the special needs of mechanical engineers and the varying research they perform – from measuring the adhesive force of a gecko’s foot hair to combustion and propulsion studies.
Tilt-up Concrete was a very sound choice in solving this challenge. It is such a massive, stiff structure, that it provides a safer seismic component, as well as keeping in vibration and noise. The labs were designed with nearly a foot-thick panels.
Another challenge for this project was the extremely tight site into which the facility was placed. The existing structure contained a telecommunications hub for the entire Stanford campus. Since demolition of this hub was impossible, MBT designed the new facility around the existing hub. This was a brown field site and was a very tight footprint, which is not usually an ideal situation for Tilt-Up. There was a logistical complexity about deciding which panel to lift first and the crane lifted the panels from the deck. It demanded many pours to finally achieve the final outcome.
This building is the first academic building on the Stanford
University campus that employed tilt-up concrete.
What was the Project Mission? The goal for
this project was focused on the multiple needs of Stanford University’s
Mechanical Engineering Department. The MERL (Mechanical Engineering Research
Laboratory) building primarily houses research programs to position the
Department for leadership in critical emerging fields of mechanical
engineering including; Advanced Manufacturing and Design, Bio-mechanical
Engineering, Combustion Science and Engineering, Micro-scale Engineering and
other interdisciplinary topics requiring a collaborative approach. Related
space needs for project-based instruction and undergraduate research are also
be met with this building. The MERL Building will help give the Department of
Mechanical Engineering its own identity on the campus. The new facility
provides a more appropriate building for the hazardous research that is done
by the department.
As with most organizations, Stanford also had cost savings and durability as
high priority goals. The project was brought in on-time and on-budget and was
created to comply to Stanford’s very stringent design goals.
What were the special architectural treatments? The design team looked
at many color samples, as it was very important to match the adjacent
buildings in color, as well as in texture. The University wanted a building
that would fit into the historical context of the surrounding campus. Each
panel was designed with reveals and raised panels to articulate a structural
pattern that responded to the existing historical buildings.
What were the outstanding features? The design team wanted to push the
limits of how “open” the panels could be. In order to achieve a more
transparent look and feel of the panels, they lightened the tilt-up to a
framework which framed the window wall for public spaces. In the North and
South lobbies, this was done in order to maximize daylight. In this way, the
design highlighted a clear and identifiable entry into the building. The
panels were designed with ‘punched’ openings to leave an expression of
structure. This design was intended to relate to the context of the historical
stucco buildings that surround the MERL building. Used the sheer walls on the
inside as decorative features – same texture as the panels.
What
was the success of the project? The project came in on-time and on-budget,
which is an accomplishment for all involved. The user group in the Department
of Mechanical Engineering was extremely pleased with the facility.
What additional features or comments should be made? This was the first
academic building on Stanford University’s campus which employed the tilt-up
concrete method. It met challenges of a very complex program, tight site
constraints and rigorous design criteria by the campus, while still achieving
architectural character and quality.
