Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans

The Louisiana Artworks project involved the challenge of sandwiching five stories of post-tensioned concrete and one additional story of conventional reinforced concrete between two century-old structures. The existing buildings were originally the Bradford Furniture store and the Bradford Furniture warehouse.

The store was built in 1911 and the warehouse was constructed in 1921.

Gibbs Construction's scope of work consisted of 63,621 sq. ft. of new floor space between two existing buildings, in addition to the interior renovation of 58,480 sq. ft. of the existing space, to create a total building square footage of 115,101 sq. ft.

Additional work was added throughout the project, specifically the construction of individual studios on the second and third floors of the warehouse and the third floor of the store, which will be leased to artists for workspace.

Other work requested by the owner, which is not included in the contract value, is for building out the fourth floor of all three structures to accommodate the offices of the Arts Council of New Orleans. The work is being performed on a design-build basis.

Other work includes the construction of the Arts Council of New Orleans boardroom on the fifth floor of the store and the banquet space on the fifth floor of the new structure.

The project's challenges included performing the work on a very restricted site bounded on two sides by streetcar tracks. There was minimal laydown area, which meant material had to be delivered in sequence and only as needed. Property had to be leased from neighboring property owners and Gibbs had to apply to the city for the use of the entire parking lane on three sides of the building.

Of course, the continued operation of America's oldest continually operated streetcar line was required as well.

The existing building's corbelled brick exterior walls and footings vary in width from 12 to 60 in. The buildings also have wood timber columns and joists with wood tongue-and-groove 2 in. by 6 in. flooring. New doorways had to be created to tie the new structure to the existing structure. Bathrooms and mechanical rooms were added in the two existing buildings to service the entire facility. A mechanical yard was placed on the fifth floor area of the new structure.

The formwork for the cast-in-place concrete structure was extensive and complex because no floor above the ground floor is continuous or at the same elevation (until the fourth floor). Numerous offsets and elevation changes occurred, as well as the creation of large open areas to obtain a wide, industrial and expansive feel inside the building.

Other specific obstacles overcome included the installation of an elevator with the Bradford warehouse due to the varying conditions encountered on each floor of the original wood structure; and floor transitions had to be added in all buildings, depending upon the specific conditions encountered in order to meet code requirements.