Houston, Texas, USA
Houston’s prestigious River Oaks neighbourhood, one of the United States’ most coveted and wealthy residential communities, was the location for the latest partnership between Southern Pan Structures and luxury residential real-estate provider, SkyHouse Downtown.
The 25-storey development features 352 separate studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with a range of luxurious features that include two rooftop pools. Even the location of the project is at a premium. Sited between the Downtown and Uptown areas of River Oaks, the complex offers easy access to the upmarket Galleria Mall, Texas’ largest and most luxurious shopping destination, which features a range of high-end eateries alongside a number of designer clothing outlets, including Versace, Chanel and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Southern Pan Structures (SPS), specialists in concrete formwork, commenced work with RMD Kwikform on a range of SkyHouse developments in Texas, commencing with SkyHouse Dallas in 2013; this first project was then followed by SkyHouse River Oaks in 2014 and rounded off with SkyHouse Main in 2015. Each of the SkyHouse developments were concrete frame projects and were all part of a major residential investment following the launch of a downtown residential incentive program.
As well as the logistical challenges, SPS required a solution that would meet its targeted three-day, 16,000 sq. ft pour rates for each floor.
In order to achieve this, RMD Kwikform engineers designed a solution that combined lightweight Alshor Plus aluminium shoring with Anthes steel shoring trusses.
In addition to the shoring solution, to support the fast striking of each floor the team utilized Meva ME350 steel post shores for reshoring. This allowed the team to move the main shoring onto the next level, knowing that the previous floor was adequately supported whilst erecting the next set of shoring.
When it came to supporting the construction of the shear walls and columns, the Meva Imperial system was crane handled, allowing the site team to quickly strike and move panel sections from one pour to the next, ensuring the column formwork adhered to the overall cycle time.
With the Skyhouse projects joining more high-rise buildings planned in Texas, the RMD Kwikform team will continue to collaborate with, and provide support to SPS.
Supplying a range of formwork and shoring to each of the projects, Skyhouse River Oaks was highlighted as the most challenging of the Skyhouse developments.
Location
Application
Slab, wall and column formwork for a high-rise luxury complex
Challenge
Due to the project’s location, the SkyHouse River Oaks site had a small laydown area. This required an expertly planned logistical solution to ensure that all formwork and shoring equipment arrived on-site ‘just in time’, to prevent any overloading in the work area. The formwork and shoring solution also needed to meet the projects high productivity targets, namely a three-day, 16,000 sq. ft pour rate for each of its 25 floors.
Solution
Formwork and shoring
Products used
RMD Kwikform project manager, Nick Graves, explained:
For Skyhouse River Oaks, the main challenge was how to get the large amounts of formwork and shoring equipment onto the site, as SPS only had a very small laydown area. This meant we had to coordinate deliveries on a ‘just in time’ basis to prevent overloading of the work area, whilst ensuring the SPS team was able to stick to its detailed forming schedule.