St. John’s, Antigua
State Insurance Corp. Government Treasury Headquarters
- Architect
- OBMI Architecture
- General Contractor
- Griffith & Sons Design & Construction Enterprise
- Size
- 32,000 Sq. Ft. 3 stories
- Project Type
- Government Building
Challenge
Multi-story State Insurance Corp. owned facility for Antigua Treasury.
Reduce the construction time and the amount of concrete used which is expensive and time consuming. Building must be able to withstand the highest of hurricane wind criteria. Achieve energy efficiency, significantly reducing the cost of HVAC equipment and operating costs.
Solution
Using the SHIELD™ 6-inch R-24 curtain walls attached to steel moment resisting frames.
Result
Facility was opened to occupants much sooner that anticipated.
Survived Hurricane Irma a powerful CAT5 without damage to the building.
Why this approach fit
Commentary from our editorial team. The challenge, solution and result above are the project record as reported by Guardian Structural.
Island construction economics are unlike mainland ones. Concrete, reinforcing steel and skilled labour are expensive on Antigua, and a schedule is hostage to shipping. Anything that reduces the volume of wet trades on site and arrives as a defined kit of parts is worth more there than it would be in Ohio.
That is the stated reason for the approach here: cut construction time and cut the amount of concrete, while still meeting the highest hurricane wind criteria in the region. Six-inch panels at R-24 hang on steel moment-resisting frames, so the frame resists the wind load and the panels close the building.
Hurricane performance is mostly a question of the envelope staying attached and the openings staying intact. Once a window or a door fails, the building pressurises internally and the load on the roof and the leeward walls jumps, which is how a cladding failure becomes a structural one. The connection detail between panel and frame is doing the real work in that scenario.
Hurricane Irma passed over Antigua and Barbuda in September 2017 as a Category 5 storm, and Guardian reports the building came through without damage. As with any single-storm result, the honest reading is that the assembly performed in the one event that tested it.
