Continuing Ed Photo 1
Front Entry

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Continuing Education / Printing Building
(University of Montana)

Location: Missoula, MT
Architect: Place Architects

BCE provided full service Structural Engineering services for the combination department addition to the Student Union Building on the University of Montana campus. The three floor addition houses the Printing Services Department on the lower floors and the Continuing Education Department on the Upper Level. The structure consisted of utilizing precast concrete planks for the heavily loaded printing services areas and structural steel framework for the upper level and roof. The lateral force resisting system consisted of moment frames in both directions.

Native American Center 1

native american center

Location: The University of Montana - Missoula, MT

PUSHING THE DESIGN ENVELOPE: The Native American Center is the first-of-its-kind in the nation and will be the home of the Native American Studies department, Native student services, and related campus programs. Located near the oval at the center of the University of Montana’s campus, the building will become a campus icon. This LEED project consists of a two story, with full basement and utilizes a composite steel floor framing for increased performance. A dodecagonal (12 sided) gathering area is framed with exposed Parallel Strand Lumber (PSL) columns that support PSL roof members with steel cable bottom chords that connect to center tension and compression rings that extenuates the sky light in the center of the roof. The lateral system is a combination of visible and hidden steel braced frames.

Construction of the Native American Center is slated to be completed in January of 2010.

Approx. Project Cost: $6,000,000.00

Contact: Eric Simonsen, AIA, A&E Architects, 608 N. 29th St., Billings, MT 59101

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Hamilton hall

Client: Montana State University
Location: Bozeman, MT

BCE was involved in the development of a renovation project for Hamilton Hall on the MSU campus for five years until it’s completion in 2010. BCE consulted throughout the process to assess the structural integrity of the building, investigate the building code deficiencies of the building, and to prioritize the necessary structural upgrades to accommodate available state funding. BCE was integral in coordination with the State Architect’s Office and MSU officials in balancing the needs of building occupants and building code requirements within the confines of the available budget of $3 million.

The Project consisted of the complete renovation of the first and second floors, and the removal and replacement of the north entry stairs. Structural upgrades included the shoring and leveling of the second, third and fourth floors of the building, and removing the entire interior first floor framing and concrete foundations. A new steel frame gravity system was installed at the first and second floors supported by a new concrete foundation system, and seismic upgrades included attachments of the floor structure to the exterior brick walls. The north stairs were mostly removed and replaced with new structure to match the original north entry that had been removed at some time in the building’s history.

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View Fly Through

:: Construction Photos

Washington Grizzly Stadium East Expansion

Client: University of Montana — Missoula, MT
Projected Completion: August 2008
Project Construction Budget: $4.5 Million
Architect: OZ Architects — Missoula, MT
Photos and fly-through, courtesy of: OZ Architects

Printed Articles & News Releases:
Missoulian.com Article 1
Missoulian.com Article 2

The University of Montana Grizzly football program has enjoyed over a decade of top ranked status in college D-IAA. With this success has come overwhelming demand for football tickets to home games. In 2003 BCE designed a 4,000 seat addition to the north end of the stadium to bring the number of seats to around 24,000. This was not enough though. In 2007 BCE was brought on board once again to add 2,000 more seats to the east side of the stadium. As the stadium grows, the problem and logistics of adding these seats becomes more difficult. The east side addition will perch over existing enclosed boxed seating with the structural steel frame cantilevering over 24 feet above the existing facilities. The new addition will also include a 4,000 square foot club room facility at the top for exclusive game viewing entertainment for the select ticket holders. The structural steel frame includes main frames that serve as both gravity and lateral load transfer mechanisms. The frames are put together to economically support the cantilevered section while limiting deflections to acceptable values.

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