Robins & Morton and COPT Defense Properties completed two build-to-suit facilities and a parking deck in Huntsville, Alabama, which have been leased by Northrop Grumman, one of the largest defense contractors in the world.
The two Class A tilt-wall buildings, located in the Redstone Gateway development, total approximately 260,000 square feet and each stand five stories tall.
Sitework and construction began in February 2021, and the use of tilt-wall construction allowed the project to be completed ahead of an aggressive schedule. The method involves pouring multi-story concrete panels within 50 feet of their final location and then tilting them upright with a large crane. Tilt-wall construction requires more space than other methods, and it took detailed coordination and execution.
Panel sequencing proved to be one of the most complex aspects of the project, as the team dealt with unique site orientation and placement of the buildings on the site – both positioned on a 30-degree angle but 90 degrees from each other, leaving little room for casting beds or bracing panels between buildings during construction. Thus, the design took more planning than usual from the project’s superintendents, who worked through numerous scenarios of panel sequencing to refine the casting, movement, placement, and erection of the buildings.
The campus features executive office space, program management and engineering design space, a 15,000-square-foot hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration lab, a 16,000-square-foot data center, a 350-person auditorium to facilitate classified program meetings, and a 144,000-square-foot parking deck with nearly 400 spaces.
At the time of completion, Redstone Gateway 8200 and 8300 were the first five-story, stacked-panel, tilt-wall buildings in the Redstone Gateway development, and likely the first in North Alabama.
Architect
Powers Brown Architecture
Location
Huntsville, Alabama
Owner
Corporate Office Properties Trust
Size
260,000 SF
