What was it about?
Panda Express Corporate was looking for alternative methods that would allow them to scale up their store deliveries. Fort Worth was selected for the steel prototype.
What did I do?
For two years I worked with the design team developing the steel prototype unit to go up in Fort Worth, TX. We spent lots of hours reviewing the plans, brand specs to make sure that all of the pre prefabricated strucutre would comply with the expected performance. We utilized load bearing cold formed walls, k-joists and metal deck for the roof. The building was whatered in in 8 days. Since I was so deep into the design for this project I also functioned as the Project Manager leading the subcontractor on-site.
What did I learn?
The new energy code requirements add layers of products on cold formed steel walls to eliminate thermal bridging effects. For that reason, it is very important that the design team lead by the Architect of Record should evaluate all possibilites for the project to meet cost expectations.
