CE 431 – CONCRETE

TECHNOLOGY PROJECT

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM

- D. Sri Ramya
CE02B013
 Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM)
• It is located in the downtown of
Milwaukee on the west shore of the
Lake Michigan.
• A $100-million project was taken up
to expand the existing museum from
160,000 sq feet to over 285,000 sq
feet to accommodate more art works.
• The Project Started in 1997
• It was completed in mid 2001
• It is the First Calatrava designed
structure in the US.
• Length: 134.0 m
• Width: 37.0 m
• Roof Height: 11.3 m
• Soleil Mast Height: 44.0 m
• The addition, named as the Quadracci Pavilion is made up of
three major components:
• a central building
• a movable, wing-like sunscreen-the Burke Brise-Soleil-
composed of 72 steel fins and resting atop a vaulted 90 ft.
high glass-enclosed reception hall
• a cable-stayed suspended pedestrian bridge
• Central building (made up of reinforced concrete) consists of
• Parking garage
• Gallery space
• Pavilion (the ring beam)
• South terrace
• Technically, the job was full of high demands with curved
walls, with changing radii as well as different floor heights and
steps in the slabs to be constructed to the highest quality.
• Some jobs are about brute strength, but this job was all in the
delicate nature of the building.
Requisites:
• Aesthetics was the most important point in the building of the structure.
• Because the building was exposed concrete, the fit and the finish were
very important. Success depends almost entirely on the ultra-smooth
finished surface which is not normally expected from concrete.
• Because the parking garage was built below the level of the Lake
Michigan, pumps were required for continuous dewatering to keep the
place dry enough for construction.
• The structure had to be durable and should last long.
Design details of the structure:
Foundation Details:
• The first task in the construction of the foundation was to drive
sheet piles to enclose the project site, because of the proximity
to Lake Michigan.
• The next step was to dewater the site and prepare for the
foundation work.
• The building foundation is of the mat type and it spans from
the foundation walls to a mildly reinforced concrete center
foundation beam. The mat foundation is a 0.6 m thick mildly
reinforced concrete slab spanning approximately 18 m.
• A mud slab was placed right below the mat slab. Between
them was an active-clay-based water proofing membrane to
keep the building water tight. This membrane was also
extended vertically to waterproof the foundation walls.
• On top of the mat slab, gravel was placed which served as
dead load against the buoyancy force, as the base course for
the topping slab and housed the plumbing lines.
Parking Garage:
• The parking garage was below the lake water level.
• The parking garage has a 152 mm thick mildly reinforced
concrete floor slab.
• Most of the garage level elements are mildly reinforced semi arches.
• Post-tensioned reinforcement is introduced in the element to resist the
lateral thrust force produced by the arching action.
• The arches have a hexagonal cross section.
• Above the semi arches is the galleria floor’s 203 mm thick
concrete slab.
Gallery Space:
• The new gallery space is a low-slung mildly reinforced concrete arched
structure.
• The arches are variable-depth hexagons, narrow at the base and deeper near
the crown.
• Few arch segments have a trapezoidal cross section of variable width and
depth.
• All the arches have a pin joint at the bottom to allow small amounts of
shifting which would otherwise lead to cracking.
• Pin joints are just massive steel hinges, each cast into the concrete while it is
formed.
• One half of the pin joint is cast into the base of each arch, with the
corresponding other half cast into the top of the basement wall.
Pavilion (the ring beam):
• Towards the south end of the gallery space is the unique
towering pavilion.
• The pavilion is the support for the frames that in turn
support the movable Burke Brise-Soleil.
• The pavilion also supports the back stay beam and the
cable-stayed east pier for the pedestrian crossing.
• There is an oval shaped
ring beam made of post
tensioned reinforced
concrete, 600 feet in
circumference, cantilevered
90 feet over the lake, resting
on just four support points.
South Terrace:
• The terrace, south of the pavilion is constructed of two
mildly reinforced concrete elements which form a radial
grid.
• One element is a two storey high frame composed of wide
upper and lower beams of variable depth that are
supported by a leaning column and a concrete truss at the
south and east ends, respectively.
• The other element consists of semi arch T-shaped segments
of variable lengths and depths of rectangular cross section.

Concrete Arches
Selection of concrete type:
• Medium Strength High Performance concrete
• Characteristic compressive strength of 50MPa.
(This is a value that I have assumed because the structure does not have to take
any high loads and is a building with just 3 floors of reinforced concrete)

Choice of Material components:

• Portland cement
• Natural or Crushed aggregates.
• Super Plasticizer, for a good workability and high slump.
• Accelerator, to decrease the setting time.
Guidelines for mix design:

• Water/cement ratio < 0.35 (Durability

restriction)
• Central Ready Mix Pours developed a high
slump, rapid setting, high performance
concrete mix that would allow a very high
degree of workability.
• A finer 65-35 fine to coarse aggregate was
used because of the congested rebar within the
forms.
Fabrication and Transportation:

• The project consumed 83million pounds of concrete.

• Central Ready Mixed Pours of Milwaukee, a Prairie Materials
subsidiary, provided all the concrete.
• The concrete was transported in ready mix trucks from the
plant to the site.
Quality Control:
• Critical consolidation procedures were used during each lift to
prevent bug holes and honeycombing.
• Specific form release agents were developed to minimize
discoloration and to prevent unsightly surface problems.
• Quality was given so much of importance that a few
substandard pours were demolished immediately after
stripping the concrete.
• For every pour, concrete cubes were cast to test their
compressive strength.
• On the site fresh concrete was tested for slump, the mix should
have a high slump value.
Formwork:
• The combination of standard PERI formwork parts, SGB
formworks and some special solutions, individually adjusted
to the required geometry of the building were used.
• The unusually shaped arches
were constructed using
custom formwork, which
was built by craftsmen in an
on-site carpentry shop.
• The formwork was of wood,
and the components were
coated with epoxy paint to
achieve the desired surface
smoothness for the concrete
elements. Fig: Carpenters create formwork for
concrete to be poured into
Formwork (continued):
• To build formworks and shoring for the main beams also
known as the keel beams, which were 30 feet off the ground,
was slow and inefficient to erect the formwork, fill it, knock it
all down (including the shoring) and erect it again.
• So the carpenters welded a 30-foot by 60-foot rolling form
cart, moved along the ground with push-bottom control by
electric winches.
• Gliding on 6 inch steel casters, the cart held forms and shoring
for the keel beam, allowing everything to be moved easily
without tear-down, after each of the 30, 100-cubic-yard pours.
• Once in position, the form and the shoring was jacked up a
few inches to the correct height, braced, and then filled.
• After the concrete was set for few days, the forms were
released, lowered, the cart rolled forward, then the forms were
re-jacked and filled again.
Formwork (continued):

To build the secondary forms Fig: The construction of

for curved elements like the wood forms and
placement of
ring beam, laser-cut reinforcing steel into
plywood gussets were used. the roof.
Placing of the concrete:
• Reinforcement cages are
prepared and placed between
the formwork.
• A 6-inch-diameter stainless
steel tube is used to inject
concrete from the trucks to the
bottom of the forms, pulling
out the tube as the form is
filled.
• The injection tube is threaded
too, so sections can be
removed as the pipe rises.
• All the while this is happening
external vibrators are applied Fig: The floor of the
to the outside of the forms, and
moved up as the pour Addition was poured by
progresses. utilizing a concrete pump
• Special precautions were taken truck with an arm
to completely fill the forms
and avoid honey combing
Removal of formwork and curing:
• The formwork is removed
after the concrete hardens.
• It is cured for 7 days from
the day of de-molding.
• Now the exposed walls are
rubbed and painted glossy
white which gives it a shiny
and a smooth surface Fig: Removal of
wooden frames

Fig: The exposed surface of the

elements after removing the
formwork
Final Acceptance Criteria:
• The structure has to be durable.
• The structure should be crack free.
• The surface finish should be very good.
Awards won by MAM:
• Time magazine named the Museum “Best Design of 2001”.
• The Sunday newspaper magazine USA Weekend named
the MAM as one of the five most important buildings of the
21st century
• The Conde Nast Traveler magazine named the Museum
one among the “New Wonders of the World”
• MAM was named fourth top art museum by Home & Away
magazine readers.
• In November 2003, People magazine named the Milwaukee
Art Museum among three “New American Beauties “
References:
• The Milwaukee Art Museum site : http://www.mam.org/
• Civil Engineering Magazine - January 2001 - ASCE
publication
• Carpenters magazine:
http://www.carpenters.org/carpentermag/Museum34_02.pdf
• Official PERI formwork site-Cultural Buildings:
http://www.peri.ro/ro/ro/pub/projects.cfm/fuseaction/showrefer
ence/referenceID/20/referencecategory_ID/17.cfm
• Ready mix concrete:
http://www.prairiegroup.com/successmilw.asp
• For general information:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=219685
• cgschmidt.com/art_museum/south_end.html
• http://www.arcspace.com/architects/calatrava/milwaukee_art_
museum/
THANK YOU