DESCRIPTION:

The Fort Bend Veteran's Memorial is an iconic addition to the Fort Bend parks system. Designed in conjunction with the 2013 Tilt-Up Concrete convention in Sugar Land, the monument rises fifty feet above the surrounding trail and lake, providing a substantial and concrete memorial to all the Fort Bend military veterans. While the scale of the pentagonal structure is striking from the outside, the interior is quiet and intimate, allowing visitors� time to contemplate the five branches of our military depicted on each wall. The trail leading to the monument travels under an impressive cantilevered concrete panel displaying our country's flag, and across a concrete panel pedestrian bridge.

The Fort Bend Veteran's Memorial was featured in the January 2014 issue of Tilt-Up Today.

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CHALLENGES:

The obelisk tower structure is unique, owing to its panels varying degrees of slope, tapering dimensions, and unobstructed slit in the front panel. The top of the structure is open, and a compression ring could not be used in order to keep the front slit open to the top. The panels were designed to span vertically between 'ring beams' at approximately 16-ft and 32-ft above the ground. These beams are hidden within the panel and consist of horizontal rebar in each 8" thick panel lapping with large embedded angles and pockets at each side. Each angle and connection pocket is moment connected to the adjacent panel using a bent HSS connecting element. In this fashion, each panel is moment connected to each adjacent panel to create a self-supporting, rigid shell. The top of the structure is supported with a 5-sided, C-shaped HSS beam, welded to top-mounted embed plates, to form the final moment connection. All these connections are hidden within the panels, for a clean finished face on both sides of the 8" panels.

CONSTRUCTION TYPE:

The elements of the monument, flag, and bridge serve not only to memorialize our veterans, but also to demonstrate the diversity of tilt-up concrete construction. This type of construction, used for years as boring warehouse and 'big box' store construction only is entering a renaissance. Each element in this memorial was cast on site using casting beds, wood formwork, and lifted and braced using typical crane and bracing techniques. Both structures and the bridge were erected in less than three days.

*2014 Tilt-Up Construction Association (TCA) Achievement Award winner

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*2014 AIA Northern Virginia Design Award winner

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*2014 ABC Greater Houston ICE Award winner