City of Arlington Public Works Administration and Assembly Building

Additional Info

Award Winner : Pacific Mobile Structures, Inc.

Architectural Excellence : From 2004–2011 the Arlington Public Works Department (PW) utilized a five-module, 3,360 sq. ft. temporary modular building as their administration office. Looking to expand, the PW Department began evaluating whether to utilize conventional construction methods, or to consider a permanent modular solution. When faced with the overwhelming task of trying to assemble a design, engineering, and construction team, they became frustrated with the process and the original cost estimate for conventional construction far exceeded their budget. Pacific’s approach was to be the single source contractor to design, engineer and construct the building and they were successful in presenting an attractive design to the owners. These features included log entry columns, custom timber frame canopies, stamped and stained concrete entry slabs and river rock wainscot around the perimeter of the building as well as a 6:12 site installed roof.

Cost Energy Effectiveness : The speed of the construction schedule allowed the client to move into the new building 60 days sooner than had they chose to utilize conventional construction methods. This eliminated several thousands of dollars in rental expense on the temporary office that was being utilized. The HVAC design utilized five separate split system units to control heating and cooling in specific zones throughout the building. Built to 2009 Energy Code, low-flow toilets and urinals were installed along with automatic room occupancy sensors throughout. Large exterior windows and skylights were used to harvest the natural light.

Occupied Date : 12/18/2011

Production Start Date : 9/15/2011

Project Location City : Arlington

Project Location State Name : WA

Technical Innovation : Pacific used an innovative construction approach to further accelerate the project schedule. The design of the building required a site installed roof due to the shipping constraints of the modules. Instead of waiting to build the roof on-site after the building arrived, Pacific constructed the roof on top of the foundation while the building was still being completed at the factory. The foundation dimensions provided the perfect template in which to construct the roof. As the building modules were shipped to site, each roof module was then craned off the foundation to allow the building module to be craned onto the foundation. Then the roof mods were immediately lifted onto the building. The result was 7,489 sq. ft. of completely dried-in building space and power connected within five days from the first module arriving on site. The result was a structure that had a finished roof height of 28 feet from grade.

Total Square Feet : 7489

Category : Permanent: Office: under 10,000 sq. ft.