Masonry Magazine May 1970 Page. 23
Portland Architects Hear Higgins
Over 150 Oregon architects, engineers and mason contractors devoted an evening recently in Portland to listen to Robert F. Higgins, marketing manager for Hazard Products, Inc., San Diego, Calif., develop a presentation on the use of masonry on hi-rise contemporary wall load-bearing construction. His talk was titled "Up With Masonry."
Using 16mm film and 35mm slides, Higgins showed how 8 to 12-story motels and apartments in Southern California had used masonry to build the walls and floor systems in record construction time in several instances constructing a floor every five working days.
Complete buildings are built without the use of a structural frame of either steel or concrete, with a cost of $4.00 per square foot, including foundation, masonry walls, core slabs and roof slabs, the masonry becoming the structural frame made of either brick or block. This is using a masonry system of load-bearing grouted and reinforced masonry walls to meet seismic zone 3 requirements.
The Travelodge Motel chain recently built a 9-story project in San Diego and in other cities using this system. Presently there is a Travelodge under construction in Portland using this masonry system.
Pre-stressed masonry planks or core floors have proven very economical with a topping slab poured in place to incorporate the utilities into the floor system. New precast slabs are being designed to eliminate the delay in waiting for the pour floors to cure.
In San Diego, buildings 8 to 12 stories are being completed in four to five months using this system. Other crafts can follow the installation of the floor systems working from one to two floors below, including the painters and carpenters.
Concrete block no longer are classified as a basement product, but new colors and textures are being made to enhance the beauty in very modern sophisticated buildings. Engineered masonry has taken its place in designed masonry walls, by both the structural engineer and architect, using these test results rather than referring to a printed code book.
This was the second appearance in Portland by Higgins, and many were present for his second masonry seminar.
Medusa Acquires Drew
Medusa Portland Cement Company and James H. Drew Corporation today jointly announced that all the outstanding shares of Drew had been acquired in exchange for 80,000 common shares of Medusa.
The agreement between the parties also provides for the contingent issuance of additional shares based upon the future market value of Medusa stock and the future earnings of Drew.
Felker Names Reed
James R. Reed has been named assistant general manager of Felker Manufacturing Company, it is announced by Fred C. Stockinger, vice president and general manager.
Felker Manufacturing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Avco Bay State Abrasives Division located in Westboro, Massachusetts.
Mr. Reed will direct all aspects of the firm's manufacturing operations and will be responsible, as well, for the company's research and development activities.
His duties cover the range of Felker's products which include diamond blades, tools, core drills, cut-off machines and accessories.
Mr. Reed originally joined Felker's parent operation, Avco Bay State Abrasives Division, as a sales engineer in 1953. He was made manager of Avco Bay State's special products department in 1958. Two years later, he was appointed quality control engineer.
He is married to the former Barbara Anne Schroder of Bronx, New York. The Reeds have three children.
SUPERLITE AWARD
U.S. Industries, Inc., one of the nation's largest diversified corporations with 110 operating companies, has announced that Superlite Builders Supply, Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona, was one of five of USI's world-wide companies that achieved a perfect record for growth and operating performance during the first quarter of 1970.
The Phoenix producer of concrete masonry units and aluminum windows and doors, also was rated as the top performing USI company in the organization's Western group of eleven firms.
In recognition of this achievement Walter W. Zeigler. Superlite president, received an "Excellence Award" from Richard D. O'Brien, vice president and USI-Western executive group chairman at a meeting of presidents of the organization's western companies at the Western Home Office in Los Angeles this week.
Three out of four people killed in highway accidents in 1969 were on dry roads in clear weather, according to annual figures compiled by The Travelers Insurance Companies.