Westward Expansion

Several years ago, the A.J. Brown team ventured west to establish an office in Seattle, WA. Equipped with a project manager, an office administrator, superintendent and a foreman, the Seattle office operates largely through the St. Louis office, with the assistance of area subcontractors, suppliers, architects and engineers.

In 2015, A.J. Brown served as the head contractor for the construction of Seattle’s Cascade Building, an expansive industrial-commercial tilt-up distribution warehouse. Our team collaborated with various individuals from around the country to complete the Cascade Building project, including roughly 22 Seattle-based sub-contractors, architects, a structural engineer, and mechanical and electrical engineers. The building’s concrete tilt wall systems, slab-on-grade and structural concrete were all performed by our own crews.

Overcoming Obstacles

Challenges encountered by the construction crew included poor weather and soil conditions. The state of Washington’s significant annual rainfall required our crews to drop and pick up work at a moment’s notice depending on the weather. Additionally, the site’s soil conditions proved to be challenging, though prior experience having built multiple buildings at the site allowed our crews to prepare for most soil issues in advance. This substantial project began in early 2015 and was completed in less than 10 months.

Seattle Specifications

The newly built Cascade Building features:

• 30 feet of vertical clearance
• Five available office nodes
• 106 cross-dock truck doors and eight larger roll-up truck drive-ins for easy building access
• A large 3,000 amp power supply to help tenants quickly convert their spaces and adapt to almost any industrial requirement
• Construction completed in compliance with LEED certified specifications