SFC Engineer Works on Unique Abandoned Armory Project
An abandoned armory in downtown Plymouth, MA has recently been renovated into apartments. SFC Engineering Partnership’s Jeffery Benway, P.E and Retaining Wall Specialist, provided retaining wall services for The Residence at the Armory, and found the job quite interesting. The Armory building was built in 1906 and has been a local landmark for over a century. The Armory was an active barracks and training facility for our Armed Services for decades. More recently, the facility has been used for meetings, gatherings and sporting events. Prior to the commencement of this project, the Armory stood as an unoccupied eyesore in the community. This renovation marks not only the revitalization of a beloved part of the community, but also, a key part of the return to active residential life in downtown Plymouth.
Benway explained, “The site is on the side of a hill and in order to create enough room for parking it was necessary to construct several retaining walls. Some of the walls have parking above and below them. The retaining walls were constructed from large concrete blocks. The contractor selected these blocks because no reinforcing grid would be required and the blocks go up quickly, thereby not impacting neighboring properties and reducing the time that the excavation needed to be open to the elements.”
The project was completed in 2014, and was one of the more unique projects Jeff had worked on. He explained; “A lot of my projects typically entail taking an undeveloped site and leveling it to create parking for the proposed development. This site was different because it was an existing building in the downtown of an old New England town. The site was fairly steep and it took several retaining walls to create three levels of parking. The other thing I liked is that the walls have numerous corners and curves”.
To find out more about the residences, take a look at their website:
http://resarmory.com/about.php