GeoStructures, Inc.

Owner:

Brandywine Realty Trust

General Contractor:

JPC Group, Inc.

Client:

JPC Group, Inc.

Scope Of Work

This development is the second phase of Cira Centre, a series of new highrises being built along University City Schuylkill waterfront, giving it a spectacular skyline. The new tower is part of a series of student apartment buildings and will boast the title of the tallest student apartment building in the US.  Evo is specifically marketed towards graduate students and professionals, and features 33 floors rising 430 feet.  This project was was jointly developed by Brandywine Realty Trust, Campus Crest Communities, and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.

Highlights: Micropiles and design of load tests  

GeoStructures was contracted by the JPC Group to design 200 micropiles for the structure to resist 500 tons in compression, 400 tons in tension and 20 tons in shear. We were also asked to design and implement 3 load tests to verify the design loads with a minimum factor of safety of 2 for tension and shear and 2.5 for compression. Our findings indicated that the design loads have been achieved with adequate factors of safety.

The design of the lateral load test setup was in accordance with ASTM D3966 to support a lateral test load of 40 kips at the top of ground level. It consisted of 3 ft x 8 ft x 7 ft plain concrete reaction block embedded 4 ft in the ground as shown. The loading system consisted of a calibrated jack and load cell positioned coaxial with the flange of the test beam and centralized on the micropile.