DETROIT’S NEWLY CONSTRUCTED Exchange building stands out in its neighborhood.
The steel-framed residential tower, located in the city’s Greek Town neighborhood, rises16 stories and 207 ft high, an eye-catching structure compared to the surrounding low-risebuildings. The new tower, which opened in June, is also notable for another reason: It’sthe first project in the U.S. to be built using the LIFTbuild delivery method.
What is LIFTbuild? It’s a new process that focuses on completing most of the construction at ground level and then using strand jack lifting technology to raise each completed floor to its final elevation. Simply put, building assembly is completed from top to bottom.After the vertical cores are constructed, the roof floor plate, followed by each consecutive floor below it, is assembled on the ground and raised into place. Because the curtain wall is installed at ground level, each floor is fully enclosed when lifted and permanently locked into position. This affords the builder the opportunity to begin the final fit-out ofthe interior spaces while the subsequent lower floors are still being assembled. The Exchange project, constructed by Barton Malow subsidiary, LIFTbuild, Inc., and engineered by Thornton Tomasetti, Inc., implemented the LIFTbuild methodology for 14 floors and the roof level, followed by constructing a conventional steel-framed podium with a larger footprint.
Click here to read the full article published by Modern Steel Construction.
