A tilt-up concrete structural system was employed to create the appearance of 60 unique storefronts for the 425,000-sq.-ft. Mount Pleasant Towne Center near Charleston, S.C., a rural fishing village and summer retreat. The resulting look is that of historic storefronts of brick, plaster and other traditional materials on a classic American Main Street-a look that satisfied a finicky local design review board.
Konover Property Trust, a Cary, N.C.-based shopping mall developer, retained Richard L. Bowen & Associates, Cleveland, Ohio, as project architect and VanderPloeg & Associates, Boca Raton, Fla., as design architect, to develop a scheme that called for on-street parking and pedestrian amenities to fill the streets with shoppers. The building team varied the massing, fenestration, roof lines, ornamentation, signage and finishes along the street, and veneer facades were detailed so that windows are set back from the wall plane with false sills and lintels. The walls have deep recesses, projections and corbels to give visual depth, and the panels were painted, textured with form liners, clad with ceramic tile and coated with synthetic stuccos and exterior insulation and finish systems.
Tilt-up was also specified as a substitute for drywall and masonry demising walls, for steel structures on the site and for a 16-screen precast-concrete movie theater. Eventually, tilt-up was used for all 17 buildings on the site and resulted in estimated cost savings of nearly $500,000.
Tilt-Up Concrete Association.
Reader service no. 374
