New InterContinental Hotel Soars Near O'Hare

The latest addition to the Rosemont hospitality market is the four-star InterContinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel located on River Road. The 12-story, 556-room, tee-shaped hotel has approximately 500,000 gross square feet and roughly 23,000 net square feet of banquet and meeting space. Featuring an engaging architectural design, world-class facilities and impeccable services, the new facility has quickly become one of the more popular hotels in the Chicagoland area.

Cast-in-place reinforced concrete was chosen for the structural framing system—a common system for hotels. The building tops out at 147 feet and the typical story height is 9 ft.-8 in. The planning team realized early in the design stages that a conventionally reinforced concrete floor system would economically achieve the programming requirements of the project and keep the building height below the FAA-restricted level for buildings in the flight path of O’Hare Airport. An 8-in.-thick flat plate was used to help minimize the floor-to-floor heights. More on the InterContinental.

Testing Concrete Building Systems at University of Michigan

A new technique for bracing high-rise concrete buildings recently withstood more movement than an earthquake would typically demand.

Coupling beams require intricate reinforcement detailing which makes the construction of such beams very difficult. At the University of Michigan coupling beams with steel-fiber-reinforced concrete and less conventional reinforcement were developed. A replica of a 4-story building using the new technique was tested under a simulated earthquake. The tested building withstood more drift than expected under earthquake conditions. More on the U-M test.

Newly Released - ACI 318-08 and PCA Notes on CD

The ACI 318-08 Building Code (LT311) and PCA Notes (EB708) are electronically linked to help designers apply code provisions. Code requirements and equations used in design examples and explanations in the Notes are linked to the corresponding Code sections.

This CD is a valuable aid to engineers, architects, educators, contractors, building code authorities, inspectors, and others involved in the design, construction, and regulation of concrete structures. Use Adobe Acrobat to search, find, and print information. More information and purchase.

DVD Provides Easy Way to Earn PDHs

Refresh your knowledge of the analysis and design of reinforced concrete and earn 13 Professional Development Hours without leaving your desk. Along with reinforced concrete fundamentals, this educational DVD includes narrated presentations on beams and one-way slabs, two-way slabs, columns, walls. and foundations.More information and purchase.

Simplified Design: Reinforced Concrete Buildings of Moderate Size and Height

The publication presents timesaving analysis, design, and detailing methods for reinforced concrete buildings, particularly economical for buildings with one- to seven-stories. More information and purchase.

Seismic Detailing of Concrete Buildings

This publication contains a comprehensive summary of the seismic detailing requirements contained in Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (318-05) and Commentary (318R-05), which is adopted by reference in the 2006 International Building Code. A supplemental CD is included with reinforcement details for beams, columns, two-way slabs, walls and foundations. More information and purchase.

PCA/ACI ACI 318-08 Code Seminars

These one-day seminars are intended to assist engineers, architects, specifiers, building officials, and other code users in understanding the background of the latest code changes. Each seminar participant will receive a copy of the PCA Notes, ACI 318-08 Building Code, and Seminar Lecture Notes. More on the seminars

Reinforced Concrete

Concrete is reinforced to give it extra strength; without reinforcement, many concrete buildings wouldn’t be possible. Reinforced concrete can encompass many types of structures and components, including slabs, walls, beams, columns, mats, frames and more. There are multiple ways of reinforcing concrete but the two main methods are conventional reinforcement (nonprestressed) and prestressing. More on reinforced concrete.

Concrete Engineering on Full Display During Engineering Week Expo

The DuPage Area Engineers Week Expo, held February 21 at the Illinois Institute of Technology Wheaton, Ill., campus, drew more than 1,200 attendees interested in learning more about the science behind building. More on the Expo.

PCA Hosts Architecture Docents

PCA and CTLGroup co-hosted a docent-enrichment event for the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) on March 7. PCA's Director of Engineered Buildings Larry Novak presented a discussion of the height and building of skyscrapers for the last hundred years and a demonstration on "breaking concrete" and concrete construction.

PCA's program,"From Gray Powder to the Burj Dubai" also included a tour and narrative of the CTLGroup.  The attendees toured the freeze/thaw lab, the microscopy lab, the structures laboratory, and CTLGroup's compression testing equipment.

Nominations Open for 2009 Sustainable Leadership Awards

PCA is encouraging all members of the construction industry to submit nominations for the 2009 Sustainable Leadership Awards. This annual initiative identifies and honors government leaders who advance sustainable development in their communities through the use of concrete and cement-based products.

The competition includes four categories: (1) Leadership in Sustainability Policy, (2) Homes and Residential Building, (3) Non-Residential Building, and (4) Infrastructure. More information and to access the nomination form.

More about StructurePoint’s suite of reinforced concrete analysis and design software.

Free IBC 2009 Code Change Overview Webinars.

• University of Illinois 10th Annual Structural Engineering Conference
April 16, Urbana Champaign, Ill.

• Structures Congress
April 30 – May 2, Austin, Texas