b'16 17THE ZIPPER SUSPENDED WALLHISTORIC FAADEWhen constructing large institutional buildings that meetFor this new 17-storey apartment, the heritage rotunda and post-disaster criteria, conventional practice dictates the usebank faade was retained within the new construction.of an expansion joint through the centre of the building,This project involved suspending the wall of an historic bank necessary due to the length of the building.building above the five-storey excavation with a combined In circumstances such as Brampton Civic Hospital where theshoring and suspension system.It permitted construction of design called for a 600 foot long Inpatient Building, the pro- the parking garage on a tight site to maximize the parking posed traditional expansion joint would have been approx- count. It also permitted the retention of the declared historic imately eight inches wide in all floors, walls and ceilings, asfaade. Complex steel framework and hydraulic flat jack tech-well as in pipes, ducts, conduits and gas lines.nology allowed the construction of six levels of underground Stephenson Engineering set a goal to determine a methodparking directly under the eleven meter tall heritage faade.that would eliminate this costly and unsightly requirement. Our team-based approach to problem solving led to the development of what we have traditionally referred to as the zipper, whereby the building is constructed in two halves which are connected or zipped together once the building has reached temperature equilibrium. This innovative design brought construction cost savings on the Brampton Civic Hospital project of several millions of dollars and allowed for greater architectural freedom, resulted in a superior final structure.STEPHENSON ENGINEERINGCREATIVE SOLUTIONS 02'