Foothill High School Auxiliary Gymnasium
Radius serpentine concrete walls improve design of gymnasium: Doka's framed formwork Frami allows for quick, easy construction at varying heights and slopes.
The Foothill High School Auxiliary Gymnasium serves as a location for sports practices and for many other events, including parent meetings and AP testing. Using traditional wood forms in the past, the challenge was to find a new formwork system to construct the north and south retaining walls, leading into radium walls with serpentine
shaped construction. The walls were running parallel at different heights, slopes, stepping conditions and intersection transitions. Many areas of the wall required an architectural finish that would be visible. Traditional lumber-built radius forms typically involve excessive and experienced labor in addition to costly lumber for the jobs specific built forming requirement. Therefore, an innovative and fast radius system was required.
In order to accomplish this goal, Frami formwork panels were selected as the best solution for inside and outside wall forms. The system adapted to all steps, height changes, transitions and sloping conditions on the project. The Frami panels are lightweight and easy to handle, so they can be erected very quickly by hand. The Frami Corded Radius System was very efficient for the serpentine radius changes as it incorporated fillers for the gain of the outside panels. The Frami panels were united with Circular formwork H20 radius forms by standard profile adapters for clamp connections on the tighter radius scope.
Overall, 1,500 lf of formwork were used on the entire project for walls and pilasters ranging from 6 feet to 42 feet high. For the concrete contractor, the biggest benefit was the savings they realized on labor, schedule and materials.
