The residents of the Wright & Wagner Lofts Riverfront Building have celebrated their first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year in their new homes. And to get them there, the project team started planning the project years prior.

“When you go through how we started and why and how and where we got to and how everything played out and how it was all kind of anticipated – we’re really, really happy with it,” said Marc Ott, Vice President | Director of Quality Control, with JLA Architects, the architectural firm for the project. “It was really exciting to do something unique and work through unique things and solve problems.”

Located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Broad Street in the heart of downtown Beloit, Wisc., Wright & Wagner is a former dairy turned luxury apartment community. It pays homage to the city of Beloit’s blue-collar industrial roots and celebrates its recent revitalization.

The Wright & Wagner Lofts Riverfront property, which opened to tenants in August 2023, encompasses 108,240 square feet containing 83 total units – 12 studio units, 41 one-bedroom units, and 30 two-bedroom units. On the property is also the Wright & Wagner Lofts Grand Building, opened in May 2021, encompassing 74,598 square feet containing 54 loft units.

“When we had started to discuss (the Riverfront Building) with the ownership and general contractor, we did a lessons learned session,” Ott said. “The general contractor was looking for a structural system that would go up easier and faster than the light gauge steel stud system that was used on (the Grand Building). Discussions were then had with Mid-States to assess the pros and cons of using a precast structure up to the 6th floor.”

The design of the Riverfront Building began when many building materials began to see substantial increases in pricing. During the preconstruction phase, discussions were had among the project team regarding what they learned from building the first building, where schedule had been a challenge.  Anyone who has worked within the construction industry knows that when it comes to construction, money is money, but time is also money. Enter precast concrete.

“We have had a great relationship with CCI, Hendrick’s Development, and with JLA,” said Jeremy Olivotti, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mid-States Concrete Industries. “We worked with the team on the first building at Wright and Wagner also. Aaron Combs (project manager with Corporate Contractors Inc., the general contractor on the project) and I had previous conversations regarding the DELTABEAM® and hollow core solution for specific buildings. As this project began to develop, Aaron reached out and we started to discuss the possibility of that being a solution for this project.”

Both JLA and Corporate Contractors Inc. found precast would fit the budget, reduce the construction schedule, and fulfill the owner’s desire for an industrial look on the interior. Precast concrete was also used to build the indoor parking for the building.

“(Budget and time savings) is really what drove it,” said Aaron Combs, Project Manager with CCI. “The things we’ve seen since then, obviously it went up a lot quicker, the ability to use scissor lifts on the floors increased speed to build. At the end of the day, it performed well and the other part of it is it gave the flexibility for us to have the owner’s branding on that and by having the exposed concrete ceiling and exposed conduit really fits into their branding nicely.”

For the Riverfront Building, Mid-States Concrete Industries provided nearly 75,000 square feet of hollow core and solid slabs, 115 beams, 164 columns, 56 wall panels with a wood grain form liner, and 76 Peikko DELTABEAMS for five floors. Mid-States Concrete Industries also provided nearly 13,000 square feet of hollow core and solid slabs, 14 beams, 19 columns, and 85 wall panels with a wood grain form liner for the first floor of the Grand Building.

Precast hollow core plank is the most versatile of all Mid-States Concrete products. It can be sized and shaped to meet virtually any need, offering true design flexibility. Ideal for flooring and roof systems, hollow core offers the strength and durability to support heavy loads and is resistant to extreme weather and fire. Hollow core also offers long span capabilities.

Precast beams and columns are available in various sizes for virtually any structural or architectural requirement, as well as design flexibility. They have the strength necessary for heavy loads and allow for fast installation and vibration resistant stability.

Precast wall panels offer a large variety of finishes and applications to choose from. They can be designed as non-loadbearing or loadbearing, carrying floor and roof loads, as well as lateral loads. Panels may be solid, composite, non-composite, or composite with continuous insulation.

“It’s an excellent project,” Combs said. “The look of it is amazing and you’re able to walk inside and kind of have that industrial feel that Hendricks is known for and it’s kind of accomplished a lot of things. I wouldn’t do it any different.”

One of the key ways Mid-States Concrete Industries was able to help ensure the project went well was the amount of pre-planning and coordination of this project. Mid-States Concrete Industries provided lots of early design assist. There are always design challenges with any structure, and this building was no different. Some of the things addressed in advance included how to transfer loads into the garage level, how to stack columns all the way up, and how exposed columns could be incorporated into a living space.

“CCI and JLA did a wonderful job in making the exposed precast part of the units,” Olivotti said. “Everything looks on purpose and adds to the space. We also make sure that when we help design a building like this that we are looking at constructability the whole time.”

To help achieve the industrial look and feel the building owner was looking for, beams, columns and hollow core were all left exposed, as well as the MEP components. The hollow core ceilings were painted black, and the columns painted white to match the walls within the units.

“The DELTABEAM we added was a unique thing,” Ott said. “When you’re in a residential unit, you want that more smooth ceiling."

DELTABEAM and hollow core slabs work together to achieve long spans, speed of construction, and integrated fire resistance. Among the benefits of utilizing DELTABEAM with hollow core are the flat ceiling Ott spoke of, which lowers floor-to-floor heights. The underside of the DELTABEAM can be left exposed and painted for a more industrial look and feel. The long span capabilities also mean fewer columns. Plus, the DELTABEAM comes with built-in fire resistance and eliminates the need for on-site fireproofing.

“It is a solution that provides a better and cleaner height for the units,” Olivotti said. “It provides a fire-rated assembly without having to add anything to it, and the speed of installation works great on a project this size.”

One of the things JLA praised about using the Peikko DELTABEAM is that Mid-States Concrete Industries handled all of the coordination regarding these components. JLA did not have to design and figure out how the DELTABEAM would work as Mid-States Concrete Industries did all the legwork and engineering related to the DELTABEAM.

“It was our first time working with the DELTABEAM,” Combs said. “We learned a lot and I don’t think we truly understood how the DELTABEAM impacted the schedule. It was a great finished look. It is impressive. It’s held up well. Through construction and all that, it was pretty cool to see how those worked."

Sal Impellitteri, Senior Project Architect with JLA Architects, echoed the benefits of early design assistance.

“Having Jeremy Olivotti, and Tara Loomis (Senior Structural Engineer with Mid-States Concrete Industries) on the project early, they really talked point blank (regarding) the benefits and drawbacks and they were very knowledgeable,” Impellitteri said, adding that Loomis’s structural engineering expertise was especially beneficial as she knew both what the precast needed and what the engineer of record needed. “…If Mid-States could get on the project early, it would be great for the more complex projects.”

Combs said precast concrete benefitted the project in several ways. Utilizing precast eliminated the need to have space on site for casting. Rather, the pieces were made at the Mid-States Concrete Industries production facility less than two miles from the jobsite, trucked to the site and installed as they arrived. He added that he was even able to have a team pouring topping on the second floor while Mid-States was setting precast on the fifth floor.

“A floor sitting empty with no work on it is costing us money,” Combs said. “There’s a lot of supervision and managing that goes into a job like that. If you are only working on one floor or doing only one thing at a time, you are over-costing that project.”

One of the biggest benefits of precast concrete is to the tenants of the building. Most apartments are made with wood framing which have a poor sound transmission rating, meaning tenants can often hear into the units above them, whether it be the sound of their footsteps at 2 am or their television blaring.

"Precast floors block a significant amount of sound," Olivotti said. "The structural system gives you the benefits of living in an apartment building with the privacy of a house."

Combs also emphasized the importance of focusing on the partner part of working with a precast partner.

“Mid-States bought in to what CCI was trying to do and invested just as much blood, sweat, and tears,” Combs said. “… Mid-States has always grasped well the benefits and impacts we are trying to make in the community.”

And it is that impact on the community that is so important to project teams. Finding the right solutions to build the buildings that make that community a great place to live, work, learn, and play.

“I don’t want to be a builder,” Combs said. “I don’t want to be just a construction company. We want something that will be around and last for a long time. We want to impact the communities as much as we want to build a building. This impacted hundreds of local companies and employers and people living there. We have a housing crisis in Beloit and now we have the ability to have 83 more units to potentially have another company come into Beloit and bring more business. This has more of a lasting impact than I think we will ever understand. And I think that is why we strive to protect that and our legacy.”