Soil removal nearly complete for building subgrade.

Site set to subgrade. Once dried-out, soil will be compacted and covered with stone for new warehouse slab.

Concrete reinforcing wall form work underway.

Concrete retaining wall form work and temporary catwalk underway.

Tank form pad reinforcing steel. When complete, three layers of #8 reinforcing steel on 8" centers in a 30" thick concrete slab supporting fourteen tanks.

Concrete retaining wall, form work recently removed. Awaiting seven day cure period and waterproofing before backfill.

Spring Avenue, Ardmore – With the footings and foundations complete, the pre-fab steel building structure has been erected. Work is underway on installing the purlins, roof decking, insulation, and gable windows.

At the rear entrance we are prepping for the new concrete pad. The window facing the street will become the loading dock with a lift gate and roll up door.

The loading dock will open right up to the cold storage room. Here we can see that the drywall stage is in progress.

The prep kitchen has been dry-walled also. All the electrical, HVAC and plumbing has been done behind the scenes.

Workers repair the wall surface in the main retail area.

Thanks to places like Richard S. Burns and Company only about 10% of that stuff actually ends up in a landfill. Burns is a container service and material recovery facility that receives and processes all types of demolition and construction materials.

Burns’ 10 acre facility located in northeast Philadelphia is capable of handling 1500 tons of waste per day. When a container arrives at the facility, it is photographed, weighed, and given and identification number. Then it’s dumped into a numbered slot and photographed again.

Workers and machines sort the contents on a magnetic conveyor belt. Metal, gypsum, stone and plastic materials are removed and recycled. Wood is chipped into mulch or sold to landfills as a proprietary barrier system. The process is amazingly efficient and the site surprisingly clean. An automated sprinkler system that keeps dust and particles from floating around is so effective that workers are not required to wear dust masks.

The Richard S Burns Company is Philadelphia’s only fully permitted and LEED staffed materials and waste recycling facility.

Gardner/Fox will provide construction management services to build a new warehouse within the existing footprint. New finishes will freshen up the exterior and visually connect the new with the old. When we’re done there, Bullen can focus on what they do best – formulating liquid products from dog shampoo to aircraft cleaners to materials customized to client specifications.

Architectural rendering and architectural services provided by Architectural Concepts PC. www.arconcepts.com

Stop by one of their three area locations for a free 12 0z cup of House Blend on Thursday September 29th.

Pam Seida browses the aisle at Mariposa Food Co-op in West Philadelphia, looking for tempeh bacon, which she insists is “yummy.”

The space is cramped, but Seida, 44, has shopped here for a decade, since moving from Rosemont. And yes, she is delighted that a new building is under construction just one block away.

The $2.6 million structure, to open in January, will be five times bigger, with vertical farming, bee hives, and a demonstration kitchen on the roof; dry-goods storage and cisterns for harvesting rainwater in the basement; a cafe and a classroom on the mezzanine; and, on the ground floor, aisles and aisles of locally grown produce, dairy, beef, and Seida’s favorite, tempeh bacon.

Even as the economy bleeds jobs, the number of member-owned food co-ops is doubling – in this region and across the country.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dianna_marder/130323288.html?page=1&c=y#ixzz1YgWLbTCG

Gardner/Fox provided construction management services to fit-out the restaurant in a vacated KFC facility.

On June 27th, Mariposa Food Co-Op broke ground at the site of their new store along with Mayor Michael Nutter and over 160 co-op members and supporters. (Click the photo above to see more photos from the event.) The new store at 4824 Baltimore Avenue will offer five times as much space as their original location and will provide greater access to healthy, locally-grown and sustainably-produced food. The new store will be able to accommodate a larger membership and be open to non-member shoppers also.

The scope includes the renovation of a former 2-story bank building of approximately 4,000 square feet. While much of the original structure will remain, the new plan will include a large clearstory space for retail, a gathering area for members and their children, and a new kitchen for prepared foods. The work includes new electrical service and distribution, mechanical upgrades, structural enhancements, skylights, ornamental railings, retail displays  and refrigeration, and new finishes throughout.

Mariposa Food Co-op is a member owned and operated retail food cooperative that has maintained a storefront in West Philadelphia since the early 1970s.