Month: December 2016

Stillwater Mills is a new residential condominium complex nestled in the heart of historic Downtown Stillwater with retail shops on the ground floor. To make the building work, a retaining wall was constructed along the west property line at over 20′ tall. This was a cut excavation that require many safety measures to preserve an existing road and sidewalk at the top of the wall. Ultimately the Recon blocks were selected to build a massive gravity wall structure that didn’t require geogrid reinforcement. The blocks on the bottom of the wall weigh over two tons each and had to be set with a large excavator. In the end the wall construction was a solid solution for the City of Stillwater with both quality aesthetics and high performance requirements.

Job Name: Stillwater Mills
City: Stillwater, Minnesota
General Contractor: Weis Builders
Product: Recon

When the City of Bluefield decided to add a parking lot to their small city on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the project would require an over 40′ grade break. An existing cast-in-place wall remained during construction while the new three tiered Anchor Diamond Pro wall was constructed. The bottom two tiers were backfilled with recycled concrete to strengthen the structure. The project achieved the landscape aesthetics the City was looking for while achieving structural performances as well with a new road that was put in on the high side of the wall.

Job Name: Scott Street Parking Building
City: Bluefield, West Virginia
General Contractor: Swope Construction Company, Inc.
Product: Anchor Diamond Pro

Bluestone Flats is a student housing facility at the University of Minnesota-Duluth that wanted to add more outdoor space to their Phase 2 building. Structures started the project by installing six stone wall planting beds on top of building insulation pads prior to any concrete curbs being poured or pedestals being set. Two different colors of Wausau Tile pavers were used to designate private patio and public meeting areas. The Bison decking provides a modern architectural feel to the new outdoor space. The pedestal system allowed flexibility in the elevations of the patios and walkways while standing on the same concrete sub-slab elevation. The rock gardens were set at the end of the construction with the use of onsite rock blasted from the building’s excavation.

Job Name: Bluestone Flats Phase 2
City: Duluth, Minnesota
General Contractor: Doran Construction
Product(s): Tectura Design (Wausau Tile) and Bison Decking

Structures was contracted for the demolition and new installation of the paver driveway and walkways including new concrete curbs and storm water drainage systems. First, the existing driveway, walkways, curbs, and brick planter walls were demolished and removed. The new driveway structure includes a 6″ aggregate sub-base, a 4″ concrete slab base, and a sand setting bed all under the 80mm Holland Plus Vehicular Pavers. Four different colors were used to distinguish pedestrian areas from vehicular areas as well as the circle drop off area.

Job Name: Loring Green Rehabilitation
City: Minneapolis, Minnesota
General Contractor: Structures was the GC working for the HOA (Loring Green West Condominium Association, Inc.)
Product: Anchor Holland Plus

This project took an existing BMW Dealership and expanded the South parking lot to add a sales and services building while also increasing parking space to account for new Mini inventory. To achieve this, the site needed eight new retaining walls to break grade. The walls were designed to withstand heavy vehicular loading while using Sleeve-Its fencing system to maximize the parking space between walls. In the end, the Cincinnati Mini Dealership stands as the largest Redi-Scapes retaining wall project in the United States at nearly 10,000 SF.

Job Name: Cincinnati Mini Dealership
City: Cincinnati, Ohio
General Contractor: Burns-Gutzwiller, Inc.
Product: Redi-Rock; Redi-Scapes

Structures was originally selected to install the base bid paver scope of about 50,000 SF. When the walkway schedule pushed into the winter season, and schedule became imminent, the Project Manager at Ryan Companies turned to Structures for a feasible solution to installing paver walkways during peak Minnesota winter conditions. Structures proposed to install all the interior walkways of the mall using interlocking pavers while exercising techniques to dodge the complications of the winter season. Ultimately, Structures installed over 110,000 SF of pavers while saving the project on money and time.

Job Name: Twin Cities Outlet Mall (Paragon)
City: Eagan, MN
General Contractor: Ryan Companies
Product: Borgert Cobble and Holland