Masonry Magazine June 1978 Page. 8
Digital Equipment Corporation's manufacturing plant. The 7.5-acre building is on a 90-acre site fronting Black Canyon Highway at Union Hills Drive in Phoenix, Arizona.
$12 Million Phoenix Project
Architect Selects Masonry Over Tilt-up
For Digital Equipment Corp. Plant
Architect: Peter A. Lendrum Associates, Architects, Inc.
General Contractor: Kitchell Contractors, Inc.
Structural Engineer: Caruso-Parke Structural Engineers
Mason Contractor: Action Masonry
When the chips were down and Peter A. Lendrum Associates, Architects, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona had to chose between concrete tilt-up panels and masonry for the massive 7.5-acre Digital Equipment Corporation manufacturing plant, Lendrum chose masonry.
Why? "Because of the insulating value that potentially was available with the masonry units," said Lendrum. "Due to their hollow core type structure, it was possible to fill the cores with the expanded vermiculite insulation material which resulted in a much better wall for the exterior of the completed project.
"And the more we thought about it, if there was a minute difference insulation-wise, with the cost of energy spiraling upward, the additional $250,000 investment on Digital's part really will pay for itself in a very short span of time," Lendrum said. Total cost of the plant was $12 million.
8 MASONRY/JUNE, 1978
Factors including maintenance, exterior appearance and initial cost also played a key role in the masonry decision. While a concrete tilt-panel wall would have been cheaper, it obviously required more maintenance because it had a painted finish.
"The masonry exterior was roughly $250,000 more, but it provided a permanent exterior finish which required no maintenance. This was a real plus in evaluating the entire system. It also allowed the interior to reflect the character of the exterior of the building by exposing the masonry units to the interior manufacturing areas," Lendrum said.
Environment was another concern. How do you design a 900-foot-long wall without it looking like the Great Wall of China? Particularly when existing residences are not more than several blocks away.
"We wanted the exterior material to have a scale and feeling more of a residential quality than the giant factory it really is," Lendrum said. "The decision by the president of Digital allowed us to proceed with the pseudo-Indian design in the masonry units. The units themselves were 8 x 4 x 16 inch jumbo clay-fired brick materials. The units on the corners were specially made with the radius," he explained.