Parking Garage

The new Chemonics International headquarters is housed in an 11-story, Class “A” office building at The Yards mixed-use development.  Located at the corner of New Jersey Avenue and N Street, SE, the building includes 315,000 sf of office space and ground floor retail, amenities and lobbies, plus two levels of below-grade parking totaling 78,000 sf (167 parking spaces).  The Chemonics tenant space includes a monumental stair between levels one and two and the build-up plinth below the stair consists of metal stud support walls and a plywood subfloor.  

The building massing consists of two overlapping curved bars placed over a “full-site” base with retail and amenity spaces.  The façade’s curvilinear design allows for unobstructed views down New Jersey Avenue and N Street.  The building also features several roof terraces, located on levels three, ten and the main roof/penthouse level.  

The parking garage facility at the Arlington Plaza office building is a four-story below grade, cast-in-place concrete parking structure with the elevated slabs consisting of two-way, flat slab conventionally reinforced cast-in-place concrete decks and a mat slab foundation.  The garage was originally constructed around 1984 and has a total area of approximately 135,500-sf with over 117,000 sf being elevated slab and 18,500 sf being mat slab.  An initial due diligence condition assessment of the garage facility indicated that the structural concrete slabs, beams, walls, and columns of the garage had experienced significant concrete deterioration due to corrosion of embedded reinforcing steel from over 30 years of exposure to salt laden moisture from vehicles. Unsealed cracks and the lack of global waterproofing of the structural slabs also contributed to the ongoing deterioration.

A detailed condition assessment, to include chloride ion testing, was completed and a comprehensive garage restoration program was developed in conjunction with the Ownership.  The project was designed, bid, and executed by a qualified local contractor with the work completed in phases while the building remained occupied and the garage partially open for use.  Extensive partial and full depth concrete slab repairs and vertical/overhead repairs to beams, walls, and columns were completed on a unit price basis.  Wall-to-wall top surface concrete repairs were also completed for select ramp areas experiencing extensive corrosion-related deterioration.  Isolated drain body and piping repairs were completed in conjunction with the concrete repairs as well.  

SK&A provided structural engineering services for the Silva, a new 10-story, residential building in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of northwest DC.  The building features 172 luxury apartment units and amenities such as a rooftop pool, café/lounge, courtyard with fire pits, fitness center, and pet spa.  Below grade are two levels for parking along with bike storage and electric vehicle charging stations.  The building also provides an internal connection to the existing Scottish Rite Temple building. 

The Silva is a multi-story concrete frame structure.  The slabs are post-tensioned at upper levels and conventionally reinforced slabs at ground and underground floors.  Lateral resisting system consists of concrete shear walls in combination with moment frames.

Built in the 1970’s, 200 Stovall was your typical 13-story, cast-in-place, conventionally reinforced, office building with a bland metal panel exterior skin and an interior forest of columns spaced 20’-0” on center.  Succumbed by the lackluster office market, the building was converted into a high-class residential tower (810,000 sf), fitting 525 residential units and 236 parking spaces with minimal demolition, foundation work, or column removal.

Using structural steel, an additional four floors were added to the existing concrete-framed building.  The vertical addition increased the lateral load on the existing concrete moment framed structure.  Vertical concrete shear walls and steel moment framed were post-installed at the lower floors to resist these additional lateral loads.  New openings in the second, third, and fourth floors were required for a new parking ramp.  To reduce weight, structural steel was used for the framing of these elements.  To modernize the exterior, the existing office-style metal panel façade was removed and replaced with a precast concrete panelized system with thin-set brick. 

Situated directly across from the new Washington Nationals Stadium, West Half Street is a 13-story residential building featuring a modern, high-end, canti-levered design with gradually alternating and descending outdoor terraces.  The building includes 465 apartments in studio, one- and two-bedroom layouts, 61,000 sf of retail on two floors, and multiple amenities such as a rooftop pool, penthouse lounge areas/clubrooms, and a central courtyard.  The aboveground structure sits atop a three-story underground garage with 329 parking spaces.  

The building was designed to be the crown jewel of the surrounding development area providing residents with unobstructed views of the baseball stadium and surrounding Navy Yard waterfront neighborhood.  SK&A worked with the architect to design a building that continuously rotated and twisted which allowed for these views.  To support the large cantilevers from the building face, Y-branch columns with tie-beams were utilized.  Strategically placed concrete shear walls resist the building’s natural tendency to twist and rotate under its own self-weight.  The Y-branch columns were also designed to support the ends of the ever-increasing cantilevers.

The completed design culminated into a graceful, functional, and exceptional residential structure that adds to the diverse architectural fabric of the Navy Yard waterfront neighborhood.  The building’s new residents will enjoy prime views of game-day action with personalized experiences of the surrounding ballpark atmosphere.   

Part of a 3.3 million sf mixed-use development situated along Washington DC’s Southwest Waterfront, The Wharf Parcel 3A also known as 800 Maine, is an 11-story, 233,000 sf Class “A” office building.  The office building is constructed atop a shared two-level underground garage occupying the entire project site.  The superstructure and underground garage are concrete-frame with conventionally reinforced floor slabs, reinforced concrete columns (typically 30-ft. apart), concrete shear walls, and select post-tensioned concrete components.

The building is also located in a section of the site where WMATA’s Yellow Line metro tunnel and air intake shaft conflict with the western side of the building’s columns and foundations.  To bridge over the existing WMATA structures, a solution was executed using underground concrete transfer girders over the tunnel and a two-story elevated steel truss between levels 2 to 4, which spans 90 feet. 

The SK&A team’s structural ingenuity and close collaboration with the owner, architect, and design builder ultimately delivered a visually appealing and structurally sound building, with WMATA’s structures intact and operational during construction.

Two nine-story residential buildings with underground parking.  One building contains 108 rental units, and the other building has 99 condominium units.  There is a canopy structure between the two buildings at street-level, serving a common drop-off area.  Structured parking is provided for 303 cars in three underground levels.  Gross floor area of residential construction is 270,900 sf including lobby-level office, community and retail space.  Gross floor area of parking is approximately 121,500 sf.

SK&A provided structural design services as well as testing and inspection services for the condominium building. The superstructure for the building consists of conventionally reinforced, cast-in-place concrete, with masonry brick veneer.

An 18-story, luxury apartment building, The Palisades of Towson features studio, one and two-bedroom units as well as multiple amenities, such as a heated rooftop pool with sundeck, outdoor fireplace with seating area and state-of-the-art fitness center. The high-rise building also includes two levels of parking below grade. 

The building’s substructure and superstructure consist of cast-in-place concrete footings and walls with conventionally reinforced slabs in the garage, and post-tensioned slabs in the tower.

SK&A provided structural design services and a variety of structural inspection and testing services, including inspections of reinforcing steel, post-tensioned steel, formwork, shoring and reshoring, and concrete placement as well as concrete laboratory testing and monitoring of concrete quality.

Located in Hanover, MD on the Baltimore-Washington Corridor, the Arundel Town Center is a component of the Arundel Preserve, a 268 acre, smart-growth mixed-use community within the larger 1,100 acre Arundel Mills development. Developed in multiple phases, the project includes a hotel, residential and retail structures.

The hotel phase of this project involved the construction of a seven-story above-grade, 150-room hotel building that included retail space at the ground floor level.  The building’s substructure and superstructure consist of cast-in-place concrete footings and walls with conventionally reinforced slabs and post-tensioned slabs in the tower.

The residential phase of the project involved the construction of a multi-family residential structure consisting of five to six levels, as well as three stories of retail space with an attached five level parking garage. The project also includes a clubhouse with a swimming pool in the courtyard.  The building’s substructure and superstructure consist of cast-in-place concrete footings and walls with Hambro system floor joist slabs and the precast concrete parking structure.

The parking garage phase of this project involved the construction of a seven-level above-grade cast-in-place concrete parking structure, consisting of footings, columns and walls with post-tensioned reinforced slabs.

SK&A provided structrual design services as well as testing and inspection services including concrete, masonry, and structural steel construction, EIFS observations, field testing, and visual weld inspections.

Located at First and M Streets, NE, in the vibrant NoMa neighborhood, Constitution Square is a 3.1 million-square-foot, multi-phased, urban mixed-use complex featuring multiple office, residential, hotel, and retail buildings. SK&A was selected to provide structural engineering services for the Class “A”office buildings, Three Constitution Square (OB3) and Four Constitution Square (OB4), as well as Residential Building Two (RB2), a 13-story apartment building.  SK&A also provided special inspection services for construction of a 12-story office building (OB3) over a two-level parking garage.  The construction of the building is a conventionally reinforced slab in the substructure and post-tensioned reinforced slabs in the superstructure levels above. 

Special inspection services were also provided for construction of a 13-story residential building (RB2) over a three-level below grade parking garage.  The substructure of the building (mat foundation, foundation walls, slabs, and columns) consists of conventionally reinforced concrete and the superstructure consists of post-tensioned reinforced concrete slabs above grade.