Chico's Support Center - Building 10

The new Chico's corporate office building (Building 10) is located on the National Store Support Center (NSSC) 60-acre campus. The facility houses Chico's human resources, technology, e-commerce, store design and construction departments. The size and appearance of Building 10 stands out as the only multi-story building on the campus, which required an almost flawless finish. With this goal in mind, the owner chose tilt-up construction for its fast-track abilities and architectural flexibility.

Building 10 boasts many unique architectural features - most prominent is the exterior design. Exterior building features include cantilevered members, tapered panels and compound shapes used by the designer for appeal. The shell system and tilt-up panel finish were designed to remain unfinished and provide an exposed concrete look for the majority of the building's skin. Nearly all tilt-up panels were coated with a clear sealer, which required a flawless panel finish without any marring or scars and with minimal appearance of form lines.

A total of 113 tilt-up panels were used on the 90,466-square-foot wall-panel surface area. Tilt-up panels were as tall as 59 feet, 11 inches and as wide as 34 feet, with the largest panel weighed 171,850 pounds. Working with the client's vision, the architect included conical reveals (snap-tie cones) throughout the panels that did not have linear reveals. This required that the spacing and alignment be precise and align accordingly with all adjacent panels. Precise layout of erratic, random linear reveals was required in order to ensure the stair tower reveals aligned with adjacent panels, and close coordination among all design team members was necessary to ensure alignment.

Chico's National Store Support Center, Building 10 was praised locally for its fast-paced erection and creation of more than 400 new jobs in Lee County. The project was also applauded by the Lee County Development District and Governor Rick Scott's office. Building 10 is currently pending Silver status by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC).