Smith-Midland Corporation Earns 1st Place in Two National Competitions

February 13, 2014 | Architectural Products

INDIANAPOLIS – Smith-Midland Corporation of Midland, Va. earned first place honors in the annual Creative Use of Precast (CUP) Awards competition and the Sustainability Awards competition, both sponsored by the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA). The awards were presented to the company at The Precast Show 2014 on February 13 in Houston.

Smith-Midland’s first place CUP Award was earned for work on The Alexander, a 9-story apartment complex in Edgewater, N.J. Tasked with replicating the architecture of New York City’s Park Avenue circa 1945, the company manufactured precast concrete wall cladding with historical details such as cornices, reveals and bull noses. Each of the panels for the building was manufactured with a buff color and acid etched finish. The project featured 1,024 LEED-friendly exterior panels, combining Easi-Set® Worldwide, licensed proprietary SLENDERWALL® precast concrete and steel-stud building panels with traditional architectural precast totaling nearly 100,000 sq ft. Thanks to the design of the panels, the building facade will remain virtually maintenance free for many years to come.

The company also earned first place in the project category of NPCA’s Sustainability Awards. After decades of wear, the hand-laid brick envelope of the 9-story Nelson Harvey facility on the Johns Hopkins Medicine Campus in Baltimore began failing. The architects needed a solution that met two criteria: one, a system lightweight enough to prevent any need for additional superstructure or foundation costs; and two, that the facility would be able to stay operational during the exterior renovation. The Easi-Set® SLENDERWALL® system met both requirements. Its 28 lbs. per square foot specification and unique composite construction allowed for the re-cladding to take place without the removal of the old fascia. The benefits of SLENDERWALL will also help the project to be certified under Baltimore City’s Green Stars program, which is equivalent to LEED Silver certification.