With project experience ranging from mining sites to fertilizer and composting operations, warehouse and manufacturing facilities, retail stores, temporary housing, salt sheds, and more, Calhoun delivers engineered tension fabric structures solutions that meet the varied needs of businesses, public works professionals, and wholesalers across North America.

The company’s top-tier engineered fabric structures work for a host of industrial applications for more effective storage areas and production facilities while providing a stronger, longer-lasting structure that’s durable, energy-efficient, and easy to install. Additionally, because of the fabric’s natural light, clients immediately save on electricity bills compared to conventional steel or wood buildings.

Currently in its second generation of ownership, Calhoun Super Structure is a family-operated enterprise founded in 1992 and based in Canada under the direction of Jeremy Calhoun, the company’s President and CEO.

“Calhoun Super Structure began as Calhoun Agri Service Ltd. in Chesley, Ontario, founded by my father, Leonard Calhoun,” says Jeremy Calhoun. “The fabric structures were sold as hay covers to local farmers. As local farmers aged, they ran into difficulty pulling hay covers over the hay. Calhoun began building small, year-round structures up to 32 feet wide by 70 feet long and grew from there.”

After repeated requests for larger structures, Calhoun “really took off” in 2001 when it re-positioned itself as a manufacturing company that engineered custom fabric structures.

Calhoun Super Structure’s customer service is a vital part of its business and project execution. Through its customer-centric approach, the company is devoted to upholding its responsibilities and commitments in everything it does, and collaborates with all stakeholders to bring greater value to customers. Dedicated to providing satisfaction and peace of mind, Calhoun Super Structure challenges conventional thinking and takes pride in providing high-quality products and services to each client. This is particularly evident in the company’s approach to how the structures are designed and engineered.

The company’s engineers employ a rigorous, site-specific review process for every fabric structure Calhoun produces. Calhoun has demonstrated that a site-specific review is the only method to design an efficient and reliable fabric structure, so Calhoun engineers evaluate site pictures, satellite imagery, and terrain topography in relation to the orientation and location of each building to ensure that the correct building code parameters are applied. Calhoun goes well beyond the standard generally followed in tension fabric structures by using the most comprehensive analysis procedures in the industry.

Calhoun utilizes proprietary 3D Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis to simulate the behaviour of its structures. A nonlinear analysis is required to simulate the behaviour of tension-only bracing and deflections of the fabric membrane. Calhoun uses this advanced simulation to validate compliance with the relevant building code for each structure. Calhoun also uses the output of the simulation to provide accurate, detailed base reactions for the foundation designer.

Calhoun has developed its procedures over decades, in partnership with a team of industry expert designers and engineers. Finally, every Calhoun structure is reviewed by an independent, third-party engineer to ensure the impartiality of the design work.

“Calhoun’s own proprietary engineering methods set us apart from the competition and are our key competitive advantage,” says Dan Dalzell, Director of Sales & Operations. “We model the true behaviour of fabric relative to environmental factors using our unique 3D Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis. And our method produces the most reliable fabric structures to meet customers’ precise location requirements, resulting in a quicker return on investment and the longest-standing structure in the industry.”

Determined to maintain its position at the cutting edge of development and customer satisfaction, Calhoun’s new Compression Coupler Plus (CC+) Series was recently developed to provide even more cost-effective building solutions.

“Calhoun’s new Compression Coupler Plus (CC+) Series was built on similar principals to Calhoun’s popular Compression Coupler (CC) Series but engineered to take on larger widths and heavier loads in an economical manner,” says Dalzell.

Consisting of three profiles ranging from 80 to 100 feet wide and with different leg heights for applications where the adaptability of Calhoun’s VP Series isn’t required, this new line comes standard with 4-foot-deep trusses, 4-inch round chords, a classic rounded arch, hot-dipped galvanized steel frames, and 12 oz. high-density polyethylene keder-panel fabric cover.

“Optional 2- to 5-foot eave bunker covers and roof vent support systems can be added to the structure, and installed on I-beam legs, helical anchors, or various concrete mounts,” Dalzell adds. “The CC+ line is most suitable for customers looking for a robust yet cost-efficient option.”

In keeping with its commitment to ongoing expansion and innovation in the industry, Calhoun is also excited about the completion of sister company, Blue Mountain Covers’, new production facility in Dundalk, Ontario earlier this year.

“Blue Mountain Covers’ new facility has opened the doors to many possibilities,” says Sean Calhoun, owner of Blue Mountain Covers. “Our business has changed over recent years, with more covers being produced for larger-scale projects. Larger projects require larger covers which require more floor space.” The new facility allowed Blue Mountain Covers to increase its throughput by 25 percent in the first few months.

Blue Mountain Covers is also investing in a new cutting-edge machine that will support the company’s goal of producing covers three times faster while taking up less floor space, allowing the team to continue to produce standard and large covers simultaneously, improving throughput substantially.

“With the incredible gains in efficiency, the new machine will allow us to venture into different business sectors we might not have considered before,” Calhoun says. “We’re excited about how this will help grow the future of both Blue Mountain Covers and Calhoun Super Structure.”

This continued innovation and progression has been recognized within the industry as well. With impressive growth over the last three years, Calhoun continues to meet the demands of clients while serving a myriad of industries—from aviation to fertilizer.

“Since first being recognized in 2022 as one of Canada’s top growing companies, Calhoun has opened an additional 10,000-square-foot manufacturing plant to keep up with demand,” says Deanna Hope, Director of Marketing. “It’s an honour to be named as one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies by Report on Business magazine for the second year in a row. We’ve seen significant growth over the past few years, from our ever-growing dealer network to the expansion of our manufacturing plant. Calhoun earned its spot with three-year growth of 106 percent.”

To maintain this growth, the company is aiming to reach some other milestones shortly. “In the upcoming years, we aim to continue to improve the efficiency in our manufacturing, penetrate new industries, and expand our product base,” says Hope. The company also works hard to provide clients with additional value by offering flexible payment plans and a 25-year warranty on its elite fabric.

By listening to the needs of clients, establishing trust, offering superior customer service, and providing consistent quality in all products, Calhoun takes great pride in maintaining dedication to these principles.

The post Growth Driven by a Legacy of Quality and Service<p class="company">Calhoun Super Structure</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Headed up by an all-female leadership team working from the Miami headquarters in Coconut Grove, Arquitectonica also has 11 offices in far-flung locations like Manila in the Philippines; Málaga in southern Spain; Paris, France; three offices in Latin America; and others in New York and Palm Springs. With such a wide reach its design scope is not only sophisticated but also well-informed and in touch with the zeitgeist. At home in a modern 15,000-square-foot building, where it opened its doors in 2005, designers take the firm’s ethos of creating resilient design seriously, and it shows. As such, ArquitectonicaSTUDIO is synonymous with sustainability and innovative design.

Supported by ArquitectonicaGEO and ArquitectonicaINTERIORS, this forward-thinking team is known for seeking out challenging, out-of-the-ordinary projects often overlooked by other designers. The result is an overall reputation for lateral thinking and excellence, and these two attributes have afforded Arquitectonica an impressive selection of awards. Laurinda Spear—American architecture laureate, landscape architect, founder, and principal of ArquitectonicaGEO, ArquitectonicaINTERIORS, and ArquitectonicaSTUDIO—is as much a mentor as she is a leader. Perhaps best known for the design of Miami Beach’s Ballet Valet parking garage, lusciously decked in natural greenery on the corner of Collins and 7th, Spear’s visionary design of this repurposed legacy building features beautiful art deco design. Thanks to her, Miami has a proud, well-designed landmark that dazzles passersby with a purpose-specific selection of plants that mirror the waves beyond, offering a visual respite from the predominantly concrete-laden central business district.

Placing Spear amongst the region’s top architects, the building also served as a muse for Miami’s Perez Art Museum, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. While genuine humility is one of Spear’s greatest attributes, she is, without a doubt, a respected pioneer for women in Miami’s architectural landscape. ArquitectonicaSTUDIO’s boutique-style projects typically focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility, demanding the gamut of dually informed architectural, interior, and landscape design. “It’s typically not the classical type of architecture project that we go after; we are exploring other types of architecture that people tend to forget about that need attention as well,” says Juliana Touma, recently appointed Director.

As a woman in architecture, Touma considers herself fortunate to work in the Miami market, where women are well-represented in the industry. “In other parts of the U.S., you don’t find as many women. I feel very equal being within the Miami market. I don’t feel the same challenges as someone would, say 30 or 40 years ago,” she says of a profession where women generally also equal men in number on South Florida’s university campuses.

Due to its diversity, the company blends creativity and expertise into a design service that welcomes the future while leaving no stone unturned in delivering human-friendly spaces that work. This expert approach has led ArquitectonicaSTUDIO to develop a penchant for unusual projects like small-scale schools, animal shelters, and other unexpected spaces equally deserving of avant-garde design.

Since the team looks for projects where few others of its caliber care to do so, its project owners benefit from designs that not only stand the test of the elements and time but that come with modernity. “There are some really creative projects that we are looking at that people don’t even realize are out there,” Touma adds.

One such project is The Port in Port Saint Lucie. Aimed at providing quality family entertainment in Westmorland Park, The Port reimagines a formerly forgotten space by bringing five individual structures together in a single footprint, offering a selection of dining options complete with a waterfront amphitheater and a riverside mangrove boardwalk leading to play areas for children and botanical gardens.

On trend as a matter of course, the team applies technology in surprising ways. One novel way it uses artificial intelligence (AI), for instance, is by generating mood boards. Another example is reimagining buildings like an original single-story historic home currently being renovated. The process started by allowing AI to render two- and three-story images of the building.

“We are using AI to see how we can keep the historical language of the one-story home and how that would transfer into the current zoning code of a three-story structure [featuring] new materials,” Touma explains. She notes that clients and the team find the approach fun and exciting. And, while architects continue to treasure their large hardcopy architectural book collections, online resources like Pinterest, Instagram, and the like are additional creativity prompts often used in the field.

Being an integral part of the greater Arquitectonica group gives ArquitectonicaSTUDIO access to a vast human cache of knowledge and expertise. The company is a certified member of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and registered with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. With sustainability driving ideas in a big way, every morning sees the team gather to pool thoughts on improving performance. That means the team is always ready to hatch new solutions to big problems, like how to reduce single-use plastics across airports.

In return, employees do more than just benefit from the opportunity to implement great ideas. Staff keen on professional development also get to travel to the company’s foreign locations to build experience and share notes with their colleagues abroad.

“We can always call on an office to help us. We have at our disposal a worldwide system of offices,” says Spear. As its global meetings are attended by professionals from 13 offices, the opportunity to learn from and share with others is an exciting one.

A recent collaboration between the offices resulted in a powerful, five-week business strategy development initiative in which people discussed each location’s current market trends and the skills available in-house at every office. “In my experience, when you have different offices, they tend to all be independent, but here, it’s as if COVID had never happened and that was what they were always doing,” says Touma of the Zoom meetings.

That generosity of spirit is visible in other areas of the business, too. The Miami office assists the United Way of Miami to ensure that the community of Coconut Grove also benefits from its successes.

As the role of AI and software continues to grow, its presence in design continues to expand, especially as new graduates enter the workforce. Arquitectonica wholeheartedly embraces this industry change, ensuring it stays in step with the times. As it expands its capabilities, the nimble on-trend creative team continues making its mark on the Miami landscape and far beyond.

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With a history going back thousands of years, it’s a little amazing that asphalt remains one of the most widely used products for the roads of the 21^st century.

A semisolid, bituminous substance, brownish-black in colour, asphalt has always been valued for the way it sticks to surfaces—just the thing for hunters to glue arrowheads to shafts. Over time, older civilizations also used it to waterproof ships, baths, and aqueducts. Collected in its raw natural state as bitumen, it was refined in factories, mixed with aggregates, and became the product we know today.

As much as we take asphalt for granted, it’s a product that keeps developing and plays a key role every day in our lives, especially in transportation infrastructure.

As the automobile gained popularity, the need for smooth, driveable roads and fewer mud-filled potholes grew, and asphalt—first laid by hand, later by machine—became a viable, cost-effective alternative to concrete. Initially used for street paving in the United States from about 1870, about 42 million square yards of America’s streets were paved with asphalt by 1903.

Continually re-formulated, asphalt became even more durable, proving able to withstand the weight of military aircraft during World War II. In the boom years following the war, with the passing of the Interstate Highways Act, asphalt played a huge part in the growth of America’s roads and highways.

According to the British-based Mineral Products Association (MPA), about 70 percent of annual bitumen production today is still earmarked for road construction. When it’s mixed with aggregates like gravel as a binder, asphalt concrete is produced, usually referred to simply as asphalt. In the U.S., asphalt remains the surfacing product of choice, used for approximately 94 percent of about 2.75 million miles (4,425,696 km) of paved road.

Much like its counterpart concrete, the technology behind asphalt products keeps evolving. Unlike the asphalt of years past, today’s formulations are more durable, better for the environment, and can be easier to apply. This is especially apparent with mixes used for road construction.

A combination of about 95 percent aggregate like stone and sand mixed with asphalt cement, hot mix asphalt (HMA) has been used for traditional asphalt paving for years. Cost-effective for road surfaces and able to withstand weather changes, it is being rivalled by warm mix asphalt (WMA).

WMA holds some advantages over HMA. Produced at temperatures of 30 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (-1.11 to 48.8 degrees Celsius), WMA requires less energy consumption to create.

“Relative to HMA, WMA cools more slowly, allowing WMA to be successfully placed in lower temperatures,” says the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. “As a result, WMA extends the paving season. It also makes night paving more feasible.”

Since WMA is at lower temperatures than HMA, it can be transported greater distances, saving costs. And being compacted more easily, it requires less labour. On the manufacturing side, WMA is better for people and the planet because it produces less dust and smoke.

With global warming a growing concern, WMA can be applied “when the air quality would typically put a halt to paving,” says the Federal Highway Administration. Technologies like intelligent compaction (IC) for applications such as parking lots are incorporating sensors and GPS to make the process faster and more efficient.

Asphalt is leading the way as the world transitions from polluting, wasteful products toward newer, greener materials and application methods. This includes recycled asphalt pavement, sometimes known as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP).

Containing asphalt and aggregates, RAP refers to pavement materials that have been removed or reprocessed. Pulverized at a processing plant, or sometimes onsite, reclaimed asphalt is mixed with additives and binders.

Although the exact amount of RAP produced in the U.S. is not known, the Federal Highway Administration believes it to be up to 45 million tons (41 million metric tons) annually, while others believe it’s twice as much. Providing many benefits over using virgin materials, RAP saves money on disposal, reduces the amount of fresh crude oil needed, helps conserve natural resources, and is less expensive while still providing durable, crack-resistant paving.

In recent years, 3D concrete printing has taken off and is being used for structures from pedestrian bridges to entire buildings. Much like concrete, 3D asphalt printing is also gaining popularity.

Developing a unique 3D system for printing asphalt, researchers at University College London are exploring what this technology means for the future of construction. This includes so-called “self-repairing cities” and using unmanned drones, instead of human workers, that will fly around and identify, diagnose, and repair roads and streets before they become costly, traffic-clogging problems.

Self-contained, these drones harness a vision system to detect and digitize cracks, an asphalt heating and extruding system, and a ground mobility tracked mechanism. “Asphalt roadways deteriorate due to age and traffic loads,” says the Self Repairing Cities website. “If maintenance is not done in a timely manner distress will aggravate—cracks become potholes, and the potholes become craters. Automated systems used to monitor and repair cracks in the roadway could address the current interest in preserving road infrastructure, with minimal road obstruction.”

Since 3D printing is precise, asphalt can be laid with great accuracy. Eliminating the potential for human error means surface thickness will be consistent, with less waste generated. From onboard sensors in paving machines to computerized data analysis, asphalt pavements are destined to be laid with greater precision, resulting in uniform thickness. And automation, machine control systems, and remote monitoring will all make asphalt projects more efficient and safer for human workers.

With 3D printing, self-healing asphalt, and incorporated nanoengineering additives, the asphalt of the future will be applied faster and with greater accuracy, and will be more durable than ever before.

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