Photo courtesy Davis Construction

Designing and building the $18.3-million headquarters for a think tank that advances U.S. leadership and international cooperation and host dignitaries, delegates and top-tier speakers required extraordinary structural intervention and precise coordination. The five-floor, 75,000-sq-ft phased fit-out involved building a two-story multipurpose room—the heart of the organization’s event programming—and an exterior terrace for receptions and diplomatic gatherings. A custom-built interconnecting stair joins the multipurpose room floor to the level above it, where a sky lounge terrace is located.

Creating the two-story, 3,000-sq-ft multipurpose room required removing a 40-ft by 80-ft section of floor slab. To address fall protection and debris control, the project team enclosed the work area with full temporary barriers, including a custom air filtration system to mitigate silica dust and prevent elevator shaft contamination. A field engineer monitored slab deflection in real time during post-tension beam installation, ensuring structural integrity and worker safety. Four cast-in-place, post-tensioned concrete beams, each poured using a tightly orchestrated truck sequencing plan, now span that void.

Justin Rice is Editor for ENR East.