Joe Benvenuto spent four years perfecting the “top-down” superstructure construction technology of LIFTbuild before work began in late 2021 on Exchange, a 207-ft-tall residential mid-rise in Detroit. The unorthodox method relies on building completed floor levels on the ground and lifting them into place around cores, using strand jacks.
“The system is advantageous because it offers a significant reduction in labor hours and improvements in safety from building on the ground and not at height,” says Benvenuto, chief operating officer of LIFTbuild, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barton Malow. “Applying Lean Construction principles allowed us to use the advantages of just-in-time delivery, better design documents and less costly installation of building systems.”