Masonry Magazine January 1975 Page.27
Civitillo Masonry Corporation of North Haven, Connecticut, was the masonry contractor for the Edgewater Tower, a 12-story apartment building in New Haven. Civitillo's experience with load-bearing concrete masonry construction was a factor in selecting Masonry Foremen John Pouliot and Rudy Pensiero. They worked closely with Dwight's Project Manager Robert Elia and Superintendent George Smith, to mentally keep ahead of the job and foresee problems that might otherwise create manpower or material delays.
Another economy practiced by Civitillo is in ordering the standard concrete masonry units stacked, bound, and covered but not on pallets. This saved the expense of removing 4,000 wooden pallets from upper floors and returning them to the block plant. In addition a deposit of $4.50 for each pallet was avoided. The complex used an impressive amount of concrete masonry.
75,747 white split-ribbed units with marble chip aggregate
14,536 matching white ground-faced units
35,042 regular 8 x 8 x 16 units
In addition 162,270 square feet of preassembled concrete block floor system.
Mason Contractor Civitillo prefers that the floor system does not rest on parallel non-bearing walls. The firm believes this prevents any possibility of exterior wall damage that might result from expansion and contraction, and thus any possibility of later leakage. Civitillo therefore has the interior cross-bearing masonry walls carry all of the weight of the floor system. Thermal insulation is used to close the 2-inch gaps left between the edge of the Celdex floor planks and the exterior masonry walls.
To achieve the loadbearing capacity in this Seismic Zone 1, reinforcing rods were used at two points in each wall. The top course of block in each bearing wall was grouted and from floors one through four, 75% solid block at 3,500-lbs. decreased the need for extensive grouting. All mortar and materials were pre-tested prior to use. Spiegel and Zamecnik, Inc., of New Haven, were Inspection Engineers.
Extensive use of concrete masonry is also seen in garden walls which screen street-level picture windows, in a privacy screen-wall around the swimming pool, in the entrance signage, light standards, and two-level steel-structure parking garage for 204 cars. The two-story high lobby of Edgewater Tower is enhanced by a wall of exposed split-rib block.
The most remarkable aspect of the Edgewater Tower track record is the fact that the first concrete block was laid on April 22, 1974, and the precast concrete floor panels topped off the 12th floor on September 20th, 1974. This is a total of 150 days, but eliminating Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and 14 rain days, the superstructure was erected in just 92 working days. Even more remarkable is the $6.60 per gross sq. ft. cost which included the exterior and interior walls, stairways, balconies, floors along with the firesafe, soundproof, energy conserving, low maintenance qualities of masonry construction.
Speaking about this track record, Peter Kosinski said: "My office checked our load bearing block design with many other structural systems, but none could compete in price with this masonry wall bearing concept. It is great to have arrived at such a sound building with so many rich characteristics for a total cost of approximately $21 per square foot (complete building cost) and see the shell erected so quickly."
Split-ribbed concrete masonry was continued into the interior giving a continuity of design and materials.
masonry • Nov./Dec., 1975
27