Town Center Block 9

In the heart of Virginia Beach Town Center, Block 9 is the newest development in this bustling live/work community.

Speight Marshall Francis served as Structural Engineer of Record and Agent 1 Special Inspector for this stunning mixed-use development in the Town Center area of Virginia Beach which houses ground floor retail, restaurants, a performance arts theater, and an 8-story apartment complex tower. The ground floor level consists of retail floor space and rests below a 45,000 square foot second-floor concrete podium. The concrete podium supports a 17,000 square foot 320-seat main theatre and studio theatre-Zeiders American Dream Theater. The theater structure is a single-story high bay structural steel frame with an extensive curtainwall and cold-formed metal framing cladding system. The second-floor podium also supports 7,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space. Above the restaurant and retail space is enclosed by an additional 15,000 square foot third-floor concrete podium. This podium supports an 8-story apartment complex called Premier Apartments. The apartment complex floors utilize the Ecospan™ steel joist system supported by a panelized load-bearing cold-formed metal stud wall system.  The panelized wall system allowed for rapid construction of the apartment complex and advanced coordination of the other trades that interfaced with the structural components. The apartment complex roof consists of sloped open web steel roof joists supporting the steel roof deck which are also supported by the panelized load-bearing cold-formed metal stud wall system.