Greenville Schools go to head of the class with high performance precast wall system
- Project Greenville County Schools
- Location Greenville, South Carolina
- Type of Precast CarbonCast High Performance Insulated Wall Panels
- CarbonCast Surface Area 1,082,000 sq. ft.
- Architect Arcadis/Facility Group; McMillan Smith and Partners; Durrant; Craig Gaulden Davis, Michael Keesheem and Associates; Neal Prince and Partners
- Contractor Turner Construction Company; Suitt Construction Company; Melloul-Blamey, Ltd.; Brantley Construction Company; BCE, Inc.; Oscar J. Boldt Company
- Construction Manager Institutional Resources
- Precaster Metromont Corporation
Greenville County’s (SC) massive school program, valued at $910 million, includes some 70+ schools that are being built, renovated, or expanded in a period of five years. It will provide new or renovated facilities with a capacity of 71,096 students and will lower the average age of the Greenville County schools in the program from 38 years to 9 years.
With a program this dynamic, it was clear that conventional thinking would not get the job done. Of the new schools, 10 have used CarbonCast® High Performance Insulated Wall Panels reinforced with C-GRID® carbon fiber grid.
For most of the schools’ insulated wall panels, carbon fiber grid was used for shear transfer, connecting the inner and outer wythes to yield a fully structurally composite panel. And because carbon fiber has low thermal conductivity, the panels provide an even insulation profile; they do not have problems with hot spots or cold spots creating a more comfortable and energy efficient school.
Add speed of installation, improved fire and safety performance, reduction of moisture penetration and increased security, and it is easy to see why the designers CarbonCast High Performance Insulated Wall Panels reinforced precast for many of the Greenville Schools.
The vertically installed wall panels were used for load-bearing and non-load-bearing applications, with heights up to 45’ and widths up to 13′. The panels typically have 2-1/2” inner and outer wythes which encase continuous foam insulation for R-11 performance.
The panels further provided a beautiful façade with the use of integrally cast thin-set brick, sandblasted finishes, reveals, medallions and colored concrete mixes.
CarbonCast panels can be considered as an alternative to conventional precast, tilt-up or masonry construction.
The CarbonCast panels were fabricated and installed by AltusGroup founding member Metromont Corporation.
