Masonry Magazine October 1976 Page. 6
10 Years Of Progress In...
Modern Loadbearing Masonry Construction
BY JOHN R. MOCK
Part II
Case Studies Continued
Town & Country Hotel, San Diego, California
The 10-story, 324-room tower is the largest single concrete masonry building ever constructed in California. Each floor is over 20,000 square feet in area. The use of the pick-up floor and roof slab system is identical to the Hanalei except for the special balcony edge treatment. The following points should be considered when designing for this pick-up type of slab construction:
(1) Sufficient spaces for casting beds.
(2) Sufficient areas and access to the building for erection of slabs.
(3) Repetition of units so that economical precasting of units can be made.
(4) Availability of handling equipment.
(5) Simple connections.
(6) Sufficient slab thickness to control deflections.
(7) Supervision, inspection and testing of all structural materials.
The tower contains 234,000 concrete blocks, mostly 8" x 8" x 16", but including several special shapes and textures manufactured for the first time. The 8-inch high combed face block used on the exterior and exposed on one wall in each hotel room was made specially for the project. The combed face masonry units were designed to give the building a rich texture and contrast effectively with the smooth white finish of the precast concrete roof fascia and clean cut lines of the balcony slabs. A special hexagonal shaped concrete block (actually more shaped like a keyhole), is used as an architectural design element at the end of all balcony walls. It is also used for closely spaced columns at open walkways and at stair towers to provide both a visual and safety barrier for guests.
The building is one unit deep with an exterior corridor which gave rise to problems of height to width ratio, and in turn created critical stresses in the loadbearing block walls. The use of these decorative hexagonal pilaster and columns also allowed the structural engineer to increase the amount of grouted steel incorporated into the structure without bulky and unattractive square or rectangular projections within the bearing walls. When the hotel won a Portland Cement Association Design Award in 1970, it was the only privately funded project out of 10 winners. It also was the least expensive.
Barracks, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, Calif.
The P-005, Naval Amphilbious Base, Coronado, California accommodates 1,050 enlisted personnel.
The barracks complex in Coronado, California, consists of four identical L-shaped four story towers, clustered around a landscaped central core area consisting of a one story central lounge building, mechanical equipment building and overhead pipe chase. The complex accommodates 1.050 enlisted men in two-and four-men rooms.
Concrete blocks used in the wall system were high stress 4" x 8" x 16" units laid in common bond (350,000 units were used). Floor slabs were precast on the site and then lifted into place as the masonry walls were laid up. This system of construction was adopted for the following reasons:
(a) Proven economy of construction.
(b) Proven ease of construction.
(c) Short construction period before occupancy for intended use.