After months of battling differing opinions
and unusual permitting and design
hurdles, the Walgreens store located above
Interstate 80 in Reno is finally open for
business. The 29-year-old super-structure
floating above the freeway has been completed
as a "gateway" architectural statement
for Reno in the form of a humble
Walgreens drug store.
Constructed in 1973, the pad was
designed as the ground floor of a 15-story
hotel/parking structure. It had a short stint
as a parking lot in the 1980s, but never
became much more than severely corroded
by rain, snow and de-icing salts. By 1998,
there was a movement to demolish the pad
because it was becoming a maintenance
headache and potential liability.
But Walgreens saw an opportunity to
lease the pad and place a store on top.
After the deal was made, a very long permitting
process began. One of the first
issues was changing a Nevada law prohibiting
private signs over a freeway. Walgreens
had to lobby the Legislature to amend the
law to allow an exemption specifically for
this project. This was the first of several
potential "showstoppers" that had to
be overcome.
Blakely Johnson & Ghusn was contracted
in May of 1998 to perform a structural
review of the pad. It became obvious early
on that a standard Walgreens store would
not do. A battle quickly ensued over
whether to match the brick look of the university
to the north, or go with a bold architectural
design. This bold view prevailed,and BJG moved forward.
Built for a hotel, the existing pad
columns are large, but far apart. Although
they could carry huge loads, they were in
the wrong places for our little Walgreens.
The concrete and metal floor deck was just
that a floor and could not support the
weight of a new building. The solution was
to build structure to span column to column
and hang the building from them.
After conquering waterproofing, structural
strength and lighting concerns, the
project finally won city approval and we
moved into the design-build stage.
The architectural detailing was difficult, as
many material interfaces had to be detailed and
dimensioned. During the long design process,
value engineering often required changing materials
in the middle of detailing. Special lighting was
designed, value engineered and redesigned to light
the structure at night for dramatic effect.
Even as Walgreens twice changed the
standards for its stores, we battled a dangerous
demolition, complicated weight
restrictions on construction trucks, a sloping
floor we had to even out, as well as
transportation, more value engineering and
lighting issues.
But by November 2001 the end was in
sight and the shell was nearing completion.
The trusses had been erected, the interior
framing was nearly complete, the mechanical
units were set, and most of the exterior
was complete. Then, just before
Thanksgiving, we received word that the
building was on fire.
The fire, in the pharmacy area, was
started by a small propane-fired heater.
The heater had a 20-gallon propane tank
and a spare 20-gallon tank (full, of course)
that vented and burned their entire
contents. The wood floor burned over a
relatively small area, but the heat and
smoke damage was extensive. Steel roof
joists were melted as was the metal roof
deck. Windows at the front of the store
cracked due to the heat. Insulation melted
from the electrical wires and dripped on
the floor. Everything was black from soot.
The floor insulation became saturated with
firewater and rain water. The entire shell
had to be gutted and rebuilt. Not quite a
do-over, but awfully close.
On the positive side, the fire department
response indicated that the strategy
worked out by BJG and the chief
was sound.
Overcoming all the obstacles, the store
finally opened to widely varied opinion on
the design. But most people were happy to
just have something there, even
a Walgreens.
We would like to note that Naisbitt
Construction executed a very difficult
project with class and professionalism.
Much tribute should go to the project
superintendent who shepherded the job
from agency to agency, three Walgreens
prototype changes, a plethora of contractors,
a fire, a fussy architect and a
frustrated owner.
Now, at night, traveling at 70 mph, the
two 180-foot-long triangular trusses loom
out of the black Nevada night like a "Star
Wars" construct, setting a grid of light across
the busy freeway. The bright red Walgreens
sign shimmers against the glossy black
reflective glass of the east and west walls and
alerts travelers that an aspirin and a six-pack
of soda are not far away.
???
George Ghusn & Blakely Johnson and
Ghusn received an award for outstanding
achievement in structural civil engineering for
the project from the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
The structure could have been hidden
but architect Jim Wallis and I (I was the
structural engineer) decided to make the
structure a bold architectural statement.
Another hot topic was fire safety. We
were able to create some unique features
that satisfied the fire department, including
pull-out lanes for a fire engine, emergency
access points and direction signs for the
engines that often pointed the wrong way
on one-way streets. Little did we know we
would test this idea before the building
was complete.
