The 61-foot high, four-story structure is one of the tallest completed Tilt-Up buildings on Florida's west coast, in a state where only a handful of 4-story Tilt-Up buildings now exist. Multi-story buildings is an area of great potential for the Tilt-Up industry.

The purpose of this building is to hold the professional development center for Price Waterhouse Cooper's management consulting service. Similar to a high-tech university, students from around the world receive PWC training here. The building is part of a $52 million global training center located near the Tampa International Airport.

Construction began in late May, 1998 and was completed by mid-December of that year. The Tilt-Up portion of the work was completed in just eight weeks, with Tilt-Up crews working in a 90-degree-plus Florida summer heat wave.

Tilt-Up subcontractor was KHS&S Contractors of Tampa. General contractor was Hardin Construction Company; architects were Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, all of Tampa.

Burton Braswell & Middlebrooks of Boca Raton, Florida, served as engineers. The owner of the building is Carter & Associates of Atlanta, Georgia.

The exterior of the building consists of load-bearing Tilt-Up concrete panels with punched window openings. There is a dark glass curtain wall above the entrance and dynamic glass curtain wall corners to the building.

The largest of the 61 ft. high Tilt-Up walls is 40 ft. wide. The majority of the walls are 30 ft. wide. Panel thickness is 9 1/4 in. with some 11 1/4 in. sections at girder bearing panel legs on the ends of the building. Fenestration is provided on the facades by means of a pattern of 3/4 in. reveals.

The size and design of this project posed several challenges to KHS&S. Obviously, panel height and weight required special engineering and handling. Currently, industry-bracing guidelines are developed for buildings up to only 52 feet in height. In addition, due to the project's exterior encompassing about 47 percent glass, additional reinforcement of the wall partitions was called for.

Over 1,500 cubic yards of concrete were poured for the slab on grade. Casting beds that would eventually support the Tilt-Up panels were constructed. All exterior panels are actual load-bearing walls.

Erecting the 24, 61-foot panels required that KHS&S use a crane large enough to handle concrete panels that weighed up to 166,000 pounds. A secondary crane was used to place the braces and rigging. A labor force of 14 was required, but the Tilt-Up work was completed quickly.

Completed cost of this beautiful, quality building was just $58 sq. ft.