perimeter and interior beams to form a type of truss. Hundreds of bars placed in the slab of the fourth floor will resist the horizontal pull of the diagonal forces.
The heavily reinforced shear walls required Cadweld joints, a patented method of fusing together the butt ends of the rebars. This allowed more space for concrete. Some 500 tons of steel was used to reinforce the struc- tural floor, which took 1,400 cuyd. of
concrete.
In order to lessen the loads on the beams and yet provide an economical framing system, prestressed concrete joists were adopted in the design of the upper floors. These joists, originally developed in Hawaii, are being used in a number of new buildings in Manila and its suburbs.
During the construction of the struc- tural level, extra care and attention was given to the formwork to meet the architectural requirements. Construc- tion joints between the concrete pours were selected to maintain structural integrity, yet remain inconspicuous.
Finishes
The exterior cladding of the tower, with more than 10,000 sq. metres of light tuscan travertine, required special techniques for securely anchoring the 3⁄4 in. thick slabs. To make this possible and to speed up the erection of the building, it was decided to precast all the spandrels on site, using the finished travertine slab as the bottom form for the precast spandrel.
Stainless steel clips were attached to the travertine to provide a physical bond with the precast concrete. Lati- crete, a special bonding compound, was then poured over the travertine, follow- ed by a stiff concrete mix of 3,000 p.s.i. These precast spandrels were then lifted and positioned at the rate of about 20 units a day.
The light buff-coloured travertine is used to clad both the spandrels and the peripheral columns of the tower. Elsewhere externally a darker coloured travertine slab is used on the podium wall, the fascia of the low structure, ground floor columns of the tower and central core, and the L-shaped columns and corner columns of the memorial hall and memorabilia.
As a textural contrast to the marble, bush-hammered concrete is used on the exterior walls of the memorial hall, the exterior walls of the foundation office flooring and the plaza.
Permanodic aluminium frames the large expanses of solar-bronze glass in the tower and extruded bronze-colour-
Memorial hall showing marble floors and waffle-grid ceiling
ed aluminium sections with solar-grey glass are used for all glass walls and doors of the ground floor.
Internally, the tower offices have movable fireproof partitions. Ceilings comprise mineral acoustic tiles suspend- ed from aluminium sections. The waffle grid ceiling of the two-storey struc- ture has a ground concrete finish.
Office floors are covered in vinyl tiles except for the public areas - lift lobbies, foyer, stairs, ground floor; these like the plaza, memorial hall and entrance hall are surfaced in buff-col- oured travertine.
Recessed fluorescent lighting with diffusers is fitted in all offices, corridors and reading rooms, and luminous ceil- ings are installed over lift lobbies. There are selected fittings in the memorial hall, lecture room and cafeteria, while downlights illuminate the exterior at night and floor-mounted floodlights highlight the ground floor columns.
The building is completely air-con- ditioned by an air-cooled chilled water system with individual floor air hand- ling units.
Contractors
The general contractor was Fran- cisco Cacho & Co. Inc. Main sub-con- tractors included:
Air-conditioning U.S. Industries,
Phil., Inc.
Electrical work – PACES, Inc. Lifts Otis Elevator Co.
―
Pile driving - Agvid Construction Co.
www
Amalgamated
Travertine supply Construction & Supply Co.
Travertine installation - Oriol Mar- ble Works
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Libby-Owens-Ford
Glass Floor tiles prises, Inc.
A.V.Dionisio Enter-
Ceiling tiles Norton & Harrison Prestressed concrete piles and joists
- Phil. Prestressed Concrete Co. Inc.
Cement Amoh Trading Co.
Steel bars - C. Itoh, and USS Inter- national, Inc.
Pumps Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co., and EFEMCO Inc.
Power transformers and switchgear - Phil. Industrial Engineering Co.
Construction of the Magsaysay Cen- tre was started in March 1966 and completed in June 1968. Its cost was approximately US$3 million. A break- down of the costs is as follows:
General construction Travertine
Plumbing Electrical
US$ 1,550,000
250,000
100,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
Miscellaneous
500,000
Total 3,000,000
Air conditioning Lifts
Far East BUILDER, December 1968
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