Motion Picture Association of America Headquarters

Project Details

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Scope

Install and maintain two 5,000 lb material hoists with landing decks to access full 8 floors plus roof for material handling and disposal

Full exterior systems scaffold access to existing 8 story façade for new stone and metal panel features, cantilevered scaffold system in tight alley locale
Two temporary stair towers (full 8 stories each) for trade access to the façade
Debris containment mesh and vinyl sheeting system wrapped around full scaffold system for public protection & safety

Project Narrative

Scaffold Resource took on the massive renovation of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Headquarters in Washinton, D.C. with Clark Construction and Trammell Crow. While the MPAA will retain a large portion of the space, the newly renovated building will also be subdivided and leased for high end office and retail use.

Clark Construction was responsible for the core and shell aspect of the renovation. They turned to Scaffold Resource for the exterior work, which included the repair and removal of portions of the existing façade, as well as application of new stone and metal panel features. Our systems scaffolding was erected around the entire 8 story building for use during all aspects of the façade work and full access to all trades.

Project Profile

The majority of the scaffolding on the North, East, and West sides of the façade was conventionally built with a team of trained scaffold builders. The South and Southern portion of the West elevation on the other hand were directly adjacent to an active alley and the Hay-Adams Hotel. This led our in-house engineers to designing a cantilevered system to be installed to act as a base for a beam system that was set at the appropriate height to allow trucks passage through and for the continuous alley access without interruption. The overall scaffold dimensions measured 600 ft in length and 90 ft high which equated to 54,000 square feet of scaffold coverage.

Primary personnel on site obtained access from 2 full height (8 floors) stair towers. These stairs were located near the Southeast and Northwest corners of the scaffolding system. Additionally, protection to the public and safety were taken in account with the wrapping of a full height debris containment mesh to the scaffolding on the North, East, and West sides. Due to the South side overlooking the Hay Adams Hotel, the containment system was made of solid vinyl sheeting as to not obstruct the view of ongoing construction work from the hotel patrons.

The scaffold deck levels that were installed had to be divided into inside and outside layers. The outside layer allowed for primary material and personnel passage. The inside layer, which was partially supported from the suspended scaffold legs, served as the primary façade access. The scaffold layout had been configured to allow exterior finish material and stone transport around the entire building with limited obstructions. The overall scaffold area provided eight vertical decks levels which aligned with the existing building levels.

Two 5,000 lb capacity material only hoists were utilized on the project; one on the Southeast corner and one at the Northwest corner. The Southeast hoist was setup to feed material into the building while the Northwest hoist fed the scaffold deck levels. Because of the size and complexity of this project, as well as the aggressive schedule, the scaffold and hoisting systems both were a challenging task that were undertook by our highly skilled operations and field personnel.