And suddenly, there were walls.......

Yesterday, over the course of a few brief hours, walls went up that formed the foundation for the building. In a move that reduced concrete use by about 75%, we installed a relatively new product called Superior Walls, a prefabricated wall product. It's less expensive than concrete foundation walls, uses much less material and has a higher "R-Value" which will give us better energy savings.

The walls came pre-made, and simply slid into place between the columns that Burkey Construction had already erected. Large bolts will hold them in place and the team from Burkey will caulk and waterseal the seams today.

This is one of those learning experiences. On the other side of town, Carolyn and Jerry Holleran are using Superior Walls for their new home. And it looks like a great choice for residential use.

Our design team probably wouldn't use them again. It seems like our building may be the first commercial use of them and there were extensive design and engineering challenges in getting them integrated into our building.

We have a great design and engineering team, and we know that the walls will ultimately serve us well, but they didn't save time on this project.

It's a lesson learned, but boy........was it cool watching them being installed.

Stop by the site at 3rd and Court Streets to check them out.