Frost Engineering & Consulting partnered with Hebard & Hebard Architects, Inc. to provide structural engineering services in the construction of Main Barrack building at Culver Academies. The historic Main Barrack was rebuilt as a near replica of the venerated original – matching the collegiate, gothic-style architecture consistent with the rest of the campus. A major design goal for this project was that the appearance of the barrack exterior remain essentially unchanged in order to maintain the iconic look and feel of the campus that almuni love.

Construction crews dismantling the original building preserved some of the quintessential stone pieces, the cornerstone and additional distinctive elements like light fixtures to be incorporated into the new building to the maintain the characteristically iconic appearance. The new barrack design aimed to embrace the history of Culver Academies while meeting the need of students today and in the future. 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. The Main Barrack estimated total all-in project cost was approximately $25 million. This building houses 176 cadets, three apartments for resident directors and housing for fellows. In addition to rooms, the barrack includes lounge areas, technology and meeting areas.

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 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 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.