Tilt-Up Construction

I have been passing this construction site for as long as I have been doing flight training.  I don't remember the early stages but what caught my eye was all the rusty supports holding up the walls.  That got my attention.  I kept meaning to stop and photograph the construction, but I never did - well, until last Wednesday after flying.  The process is called "Tilt-Up Construction."  First they come in and pour a foundation - a floor slab.  Then they put down some material like plastic and then build wooden forms on the floor slab and then they put rebar - the metal rods for support within the concrete - in the forms and then they pour concrete and fill up the forms.  These will be the walls of the building.  Then they have to let the concrete cure in order to have the proper amount of strength.  What I didn't know was how they lifted these wall slabs into place.  Well, I looked it up on YouTube and saw the whole process.  They use a crane to hoist the wall slabs into position, and then use these rusty steel braces to hold the walls in place until everything can be connected together.  What a fascinating process and apparently they save a ton of money building this way.  How it's Done

I had some fun walking around the outside of the fence that surrounds the property and looking for some interesting photographs.  The empty windows were an interesting compositional element I could play with.

The nice thing is how pretty the building is when it is finished!  As if.  This building is enormous - it is 600 feet long and 200 feet wide!  Yikes!  I will include further updates if they do something that will make the exterior prettier than this!