44 million pounds of concrete makes a positive impact at Crosstown Concourse

No visit to Crosstown Concourse is complete without taking a moment to marvel at its architectural centerpiece: the colossal atrium overlooked by nine stories of cascading balconies.

Where once employees and customers of the towering Sears, Roebuck and Company distribution center and retail store bustled about in cramped, crowded spaces, the visionary architects at LRK of Memphis and Dialog Design of Canada saw the potential to create a welcoming, light-drenched modern space — a wow moment, if you will.

The only thing that stood between the building as it existed and the vision of what it would become was 44 million pounds of concrete stacked nine stories high.

The strategy we developed at Grinder, Taber & Grinder to demolish those layers of concrete, maintain the structural integrity of the building, and remove all the resulting rubble is a story that only a few have heard.

FIRST, WE CUT A HOLE. THEN WE CUT A BIGGER HOLE.

For a number of reasons, we decided to start at the top and work our way down. That meant a chunk of the exterior wall had to be removed, creating a space large enough for a crane to fly in heavy machinery to places where heavy machinery was not designed to go. To ensure that vibrations from operating those machines would not cause unintended damage to the building, it was necessary to position them directly above an original support column — the same columns still standing as part of the building’s iconic aesthetic.

That technique provided only part of the solution. Equipped with breakers reaching 12 to 15 feet — half the distance between columns — crews then played demolition leapfrog, cutting around the remaining columns and smashing the concrete until only a four-foot perimeter remained. After cutting the moderately sized hole that would become the main atrium, the rest of the concrete was removed using more precise methods, trimming each floor into a perfect quadrilateral to accommodate the metal railings of the balconies.

BUT WHERE DID ALL THAT CONCRETE GO?

Demolition is one thing. But removing 44 million pounds of concrete made traditional methods impractical. The solution? Let gravity do the work.

Because we started at the top, each level that was demolished fell onto the level directly below. From there, crews pushed the debris to the side, where it was dropped down a hole spanning all nine floors. The process was repeated floor by floor.

If you envisioned conventional demolition crews chipping away at each level, you’re not entirely mistaken — but this project required anything but a conventional approach.

For six months, the rumble of crashing concrete filled each day until the space was cleared for all six atria. The resulting mass was so large that crews were able to drive their Bobcats straight up the pile and into a second-story window.

CROSSTOWN LIGHTS THE WAY.

Eventually, all 44 million pounds of concrete was diverted off-site and recycled, clearing the way for the magnificent space that now welcomes 3,000 visitors a day. As Memphians, we couldn’t be prouder of the role Grinder, Taber & Grinder played in the building’s transformation and the renewed vitality it brought to an important Memphis neighborhood.

Grinder, Taber & Grinder, Inc. served as the general contractor for the Crosstown Concourse project, totaling over $225 million in construction costs and involving demolition, historic renovation, tenant infill, and new construction. We are a full-service commercial and industrial construction firm in our sixth decade of continuous operations in the Mid-South.