Joe Benvenuto spent four years perfecting the “top-down” superstructure construction technology of LIFTbuild before work began in 2022 on Exchange, a 207-ft-tall residential mid-rise in Detroit.
As the first residential development in Detroit’s Greektown neighborhood in more than 60 years, the 207-ft tall, 16-story building features 153 apartments and 12 condominium units.
This letter is a rebuttal to online comments posted by Michael McNally and Robert T. Williams in response to the cover story, “From the Top Down” (ENR 10/31-11/7/22, p. 18), and its associated sidebar about TGE Top Down LLC, where I am chairman.
Top-down construction—assembling the floor of a building on the ground and lifting it into place—has long presented a possible alternative to the labor-intensive process of building steel frames, floors, walls and all components at height.
