Photo courtesy NAC ARchitecture

Malibu High School

Malibu, Calif.

Award of Merit

Submitted by: Largo Concrete

Owner: Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

Lead Design Firm: NAC Architecture

General Contractor: C.W. Driver

Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti

Concrete Contractor: Largo Concrete

Largo Concrete’s scope on the new Malibu High School included placing thirty 14-in.-thick exposed concrete walls, the tallest at around 40 ft. Forms this tall needed engineered bracing to stand through Santa Ana winds, and they were prefabricated off site and delivered ready to erect.

Installing these walls during an excessively wet winter drove several solutions, as more than three weeks of rain delays had landed inside a 30-day window allowed by the schedule. Instead of using formwork for each wall, the team used a cycling sequence, running 15,000 sq ft of typical panels through 10 separate pours, then placing each wall in multiple lifts.…