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Sears Building — existing building renovation

Location: Butte, MT
Owner: Kujawa Development LLC
Architect: Casimir Kujawa Architecture
Budget: $3.5 million

The Sears Building is a five story unreinforced masonry building with two below grade stories on Granite St. It is currently abandoned with plans to be renovated into condos and main level retail. With BCE’s help, the building owners have developed full construction documents for complete renovation including structural upgrade for seismic and gravity loading.

BCE worked with the architect to provide historically appropriate and cost effective solutions. BCE performed strength tests on the exterior brick walls to determine the load carrying capacity that they could contribute to the lateral system. The lateral system combines wood shear walls on the upper levels and steel braced frames on the main and below grade levels to supplement the exterior masonry walls. Placement of the braced frames had to align with the future architectural needs of the building, maintain the historic character of the building, and provide adequate lateral resistance. The storefront needed to be rebuilt due to the inadequacies of the original structure. Additional structural materials were introduced to provide adequate strength, but had to be hidden to maintain the visual aspects of the original façade. Rear decks were designed to maintain historic relevance with relation to the existing rear stairs and provide exterior space for future tenants. BCE worked closely with the architect which provided a structurally adequate, aesthetically pleasing, and historically accurate design for the Sears Building.

Archives Photo 1
Architectural Drawing

Archives Photo 2
Architectural Drawing

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Architectural Drawing

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Architectural Drawing

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Architectural Drawing

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Architectural Drawing

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Architectural Drawing

BUTTE-SILVERBOW ARCHIVES

Location: Butte, MT

The Butte-Silverbow Archives building project consists of the renovation of the historic 1900 original firestation  and the addition of new entry and vault space for the archives. The original building is a two story unreinforced brick building with wood framed floor and roof.  A tall wood framed hose drying tower extends above the building and will be stabilized to remain.  The building will be renovated to meet the seismic and snow loads for Butte, MT, including brick shear testing and new lateral elements and connections.  The new portion of the building is constructed with concrete precast wall panels and steel floor and roof joists.

UM Main Photo 1

UM Main hall

Client: University of Montana
Location: Missoula, MT
Architect: A & E Architects
Budjet: $1.2 million

The 110 year old Main Hall at the University of Montana is the most recognized and historically significant building on campus. The tower structure, however, is very susceptible to seismic forces. BCE is currently working on seismic stabilization drawings for the tower structure and also the entire Main Hall roof. In conjunction with the remedial seismic work, BCE will address the gravity load capacity of the roof. This renovation project will insure that the Main Hall at U of M will be stable and strong for another 100 years.

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Hamilton hall

Client: Montana State University
Location: Bozeman, MT

BCE was involved in the development of a renovation project for Hamilton Hall on the MSU campus for five years until it’s completion in 2010. BCE consulted throughout the process to assess the structural integrity of the building, investigate the building code deficiencies of the building, and to prioritize the necessary structural upgrades to accommodate available state funding. BCE was integral in coordination with the State Architect’s Office and MSU officials in balancing the needs of building occupants and building code requirements within the confines of the available budget of $3 million.

The Project consisted of the complete renovation of the first and second floors, and the removal and replacement of the north entry stairs. Structural upgrades included the shoring and leveling of the second, third and fourth floors of the building, and removing the entire interior first floor framing and concrete foundations. A new steel frame gravity system was installed at the first and second floors supported by a new concrete foundation system, and seismic upgrades included attachments of the floor structure to the exterior brick walls. The north stairs were mostly removed and replaced with new structure to match the original north entry that had been removed at some time in the building’s history.

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