A mixed-use affordable housing development in Ithaca, New York, is bringing a conference center, public parking, and 181 housing units to the city’s downtown area. To accommodate the anticipated increase in parking demand from new residents and visitors, the development’s existing Green Street Garage also was expanded by adding four levels on top.
Ceco provided full formwork services plus hoisting and placement of vertical concrete for the garage expansion. What’s more, the Ceco team brought decades of garage construction experience and expertise needed to build the vertical addition safely and on schedule.
Project background The original Green Street Garage included three independent structures. The western and eastern structures were demolished to make way for the conference center and towers. The center structure remained standing, structurally sound and self-contained.
To match the existing center portion’s beam-and-slab structural system and build up from there, the Ceco team used 22-foot-wide bays spanning 56 feet and a 32-inch-deep spandrel beam around the perimeter. Formwork systems used include Ceco Steel Beamforms, P-1 panels between the beamforms and perimeter tables beneath the perimeter spandrel beam.
Working around ground-level business While work was being performed, a nonprofit movie theater at the garage structure’s ground level needed to remain open. This meant that while the existing structure needed to be reshored, the Ceco team could not shore inside the theater due to ongoing operations.
Beams at the top level of the existing garage were carbon-wrapped to strengthen them for the added loads during construction. However, the beams inside the theater couldn’t be carbon-wrapped without disrupting theater operations. Instead, the Ceco team used a W40 x 167 steel beam on top of the existing concrete beam above the theater. The supplemental steel beam and the concrete beam worked in tandem to transfer the reshore loads needed during construction.
The garage expansion is part of a critical economic development effort to bring affordable housing and long-term parking congestion relief to downtown Ithaca.
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