BRAZILIAN EMBASSY
washington, dc
The Brazilian Embassy is shown above.
By: Geoff Shanks, Superintendent
Grunley Construction is renovating the Brazilian Embassy's Chancery Building along Embassy Row in Northwest Washington.
Current Status
Grunley hit the ground running December 3rd, 2008 with site mobilization. We assembled the teams that were going to be part of the demo and fit-out. By the end of December, abatement began on the ground floor and in the basement areas, and all cut, cap and “make-safes” were completed throughout the building.
By mid-January 2009 all abatement activities were completed and cleared; the 3rd floor was completely demolished and made available for immediate trade coordination. Demolition began on the 2nd floor as well as the ground floor lobby area. Shortly thereafter, the extensive demo process began in the main mechanical room in the basement - just about everything in the space was removed (i.e., the boilers, chillers, pumps, wiring and piping) making way for the subsequent installation of new heating and cooling systems.
A demolition worker cleans up the last of the debris from the exterior soffit removal. The glass wall at the ground floor lobby is foam board protected.
By early February, demolition was underway on the first floor, allowing for the follow on trades to continue with their coordination and installation of the new systems. Since then, most of the 1st floor has been demolished, the mechanical room in the basement stripped clean of its old components and temporary protection for the duration of the project set-up.
What's Next?
Work continues with the exterior demo, where a continuous soffit that wraps the Embassy will be removed. The remaining interior demo will soon be completed, leaving the roof as one of the last remaining demo activities to take place mid-spring. The trades will continue to coordinate and install their systems from the 3rd floor down to the basement. More temporary protection will be installed as the areas become available from post-demo clean up.
Over the next month, the trades will continue with systems coordination and installation. Layout for the mechanical room housekeeping pads will begin and concrete infills and pad pours will follow shortly thereafter. Bracing of the demountable partitions on the 3rd and 2nd floors and rebuilding of the exterior soffit will start within this time. Activities will continue throughout the spring months.
The project is scheduled for completion in Fall 2009.
Date Posted: March 2, 2009