The new Main Barrack residence building at Culver Academies, a college preparatory boarding school in Indiana, was built to be a near replica of the venerated, historic original. While the exterior design of the structure remained essentially unchanged, blending seamlessly with the Collegiate Gothic style architecture of the surrounding campus, the interior included modernizations in infrastructure and amenities.

The Main Barrack building scope included the demolition of the existing building to allow construction of a four-story dormitory style structure with an estimated total floor area of approximately 55,000 sq.ft. Total all-in project cost was approximately $25 million. The building was designed to house 176 cadets and include three apartments for resident directors as well as living spaces for fellows. Updated amenities found in the new barrack include communal lounges, upgraded technology systems and air conditioning.

Construction crews dismantling the original structure preserved some of the significant stone pieces, as well as the cornerstone and additional distinctive elements like light fixtures. These historic details were incorporated into the design of the new barrack building.

The Frost team designed the building’s gravity system using structural steel and the lateral structural system using reinforced masonry shear walls and steel/concrete collectors and drag struts.

The Frost team designed the building’s gravity system using structural steel and the lateral structural system using reinforced masonry shear walls and steel/concrete collectors and drag struts. The structure design utilized hollow-core precast concrete planks on the first floor, precast concrete planks on the structural steel frame in conjunction with masonry shear walls as the building’s predominate lateral system. The team also designed the turrets at the south entry using cast-in-place concrete floor slabs/beams and load-bearing masonry wall. In addition, Frost engineers directed the layout and design of the foundation system utilizing concrete foundation walls and spread/continuous footings.