Project data

Location: St. Louis, MO, United States

New BJC Health Tower Breaks Ground in St. Louis 

PERI USA Delivers Custom Solutions for 16-Story Healthcare Facility

In response to the growing healthcare needs of the greater St. Louis area, Barnes-Jewish Health Systems (BJC) undertook a long-term, campus-wide renewal project. The renovations and improvements ultimately called for the demolition of Queeny Tower and the construction of a new in-patient center to take its place. Queeny Tower, which once housed hotel rooms, doctors’ offices, a restaurant, and a pool, has made way for a new era in healthcare architecture. 

Because of the ever-evolving expectations for new healthcare facilities to provide visitors and patients with optimal comfort, the plans for the new tower included unique yet challenging design elements.  

“The floors change throughout the first five floors, both geometrically in the floor plates and structurally,” said Joe Galli, national accounts manager, PERI USA. “Some of the structural beams had dropheads, so it made it very challenging to complete something modular like this in one pass.”

A key architectural element of the building was on the west projection, which featured a cantilever piece that stemmed out 25 feet beginning on the fifth floor. PERI USA was selected as the sole provider for formwork systems and shoring towers to accommodate the unique design requirements. 

Customizable Formwork Supports Balanced Cantilever

To support the structural changes across the building, the formwork solution needed to be modular to accommodate the multiple facets of the building, with the main component being a cantilever piece on the west projection of the building.

For the west projection of the building, the project team turned to a suite of PERI USA solutions, including SKYDECK, VARIOKIT Pier System(VPS), VARIOKIT VST Heavy-Duty Towers, PD5 Shoring Systems, and MULTIPROP.

SKYDECK has low on-site material requirements due to early striking capabilities with the drophead and fast deployment of panels and beams. The small prop requirements ensure more freedom of movement under the slab formwork and simplify the horizontal transportation of materials.

VPS is a high-performance system that provides the advantages of self-spanning formwork along with the traditional dancefloor formwork. The complete platform and access safety is pre-assembled on the ground before lifting and installation of the cap system, thus providing a wide and safe workspace for rebar and cap formwork installation. VARIOKIT Shoring Towers are used in projects that require the central transfer of large loads, with the ability to be used as either an individual tower or main beam support.

PD5 Shoring Systems are lightweight systems with a small number of individual components to ensure optimal site performance. With quick assembly and a sophisticated frame design, PD5 Shoring Systems ensure safe and suitable working conditions. PD5 shoring systems spanned up to 40 feet.

MULTIPROP can be used as shoring towers or load towers under tables to carry significantly higher loads while carrying a low dead weight. With different frame sizes, square or rectangular shoring towers can be optimally adapted to suit individual construction site conditions.

The PERI team collaborated closely with project managers to take these PERI products and construct an integrated formwork system that drove efficiency and elevated safety.

“With the cantilever shoring design, we eliminated the need to go all the way down to the ground, which helped other areas of the product progress seamlessly”, said Galli, national accounts manager, PERI USA. “Where the projection spans out is the main artery to get material into the basement and the lower levels so that interior work can continue. That was a huge component to keeping everything on schedule.” 

MAXIMO Panel Formwork was utilized for the foundation walls of the building. Due to MAXIMO’s innovative tie technology and optimized number of tie points, working time values for the system are verifiably 50% less.

Additional PERI USA solutions for the project included the use of ACS Core 400, RCS CL, and PERI UP Stair 100.  

Transformation Time

Construction began on the new building in October 2022 with an anticipated completion date of May 2024.  

Requirements

Formwork systems and shoring towers to accommodate the unique design requirements, including a cantilever piece on the west projection.

Customer

Architect: CannonDesign

Engineer: Thorton Tomasetti