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Rev it Up!

 

Cherry and Blossom are at it again, and this time they are going hog wild!

The 2012 Raffle is off and running with a theme of "Rev it Up" we hope that you will rev up your dream of owning one of the coolest Harleys out there. 

Known for its perfect “fun factor” rating of 95.2 out of 100, this very special motorcycle was recently discovered in a barn in Wisconsin and donated to The PCI Foundation to be raffled off at their annual convention in Nashville on October 1st 2012. It less than under 1,700 miles on it and looks like it just came off the showroom floor.

The drawing will take place on Tuesday October 2 at the PCI Awards Dinner. 

For information on how to buy raffle tickets, visit the PCI Foundation website. 

And the winners are . . .

During the PCI Committee Days the PCI Foundation auction and raffle committee ran a raffle to raise funds to advance the work of the Foundation.

Prizes went to  Tess Ahlborn ($1000 Ponte Verda Gift Card), Carin Roberts-Wollmann (PlayStation3), and Larbi Sennour (Capitol Grille Gift Card and steak knives.)

All told, the raffle took in about $3000 which will be used by the foundation on future precast studios or other projects.

Of course, this was our "little" raffle. The big raffle is coming up during the PCI Convention when a 100th Anniversary Harley donated by JVI will be the main prize.

How are you using your auction items?

On February 11, the Concrete Chefs (Jim Voss and Chuck Magnisio of JVI) picked up their knives and aprons and headed to Denver, Colorado to cook up a gourmet dinner for PCI-past Chairman Jim Sorenson of EnCon United and friends. As winning bidder of the dinner, Sorenson and his wife Michele opened their home to past PCI Chairmen, Tom and Connie McEvoy and Bob McCormack. EnCon CFO Mark Helseth and his wife Stacey also attended along with Linda Voss and Sandy Magnesio.


Menu included a moos bouche of mushroom risotto, stone crab claw with mustard sauce (champagne), a salad of butter lettuce, fresh pear, dried cranberries, candied pecans & walnuts, cucumber slices, and dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette (chardonnay).  Intermezzo was a dollop of homemade grapefruit sorbet to cleanse the pallet.  Main course included steak au poivre…fillet mignon packed with coarse ground black pepper flamed in cognac garlic butter then finished in a hot chutney sauce, potaoes napoleon, and hors verts in a brown butter sauce and sliced almonds ( a trio of Napa cabernets during this course).  Dessert was a homemade raspberry torte made by Sandy Magnesio.  It was a magnificent creation and quite delicious.  After that, a sweet tray with three select cheeses, fresh fruit, and chocolate truffles were served with Dolce, a sweet dessert wine from Far Niente. 

The PCI Foundation wants to know how you used your auction items. Send of photos of your trips, pictures of kids playing with their new Hello Kitty toys, or the fancy Lego Building you completed. We will publish them here.

It's not too early to start thinking about what kind of items you'd like to bid on in next year's auction!

New Jersey Institute of Technology Precast Studio

The latest PCI Foundation Precast Studio has gotten underway this semester at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Matt Burgermaster, Assistant Professor at the NJIT School of Architecture is leading 15 students through a semester long study of precast.

The first project the students took on was a hands-on study of how to work with a fluid material that later becomes solid. Substituting plaster for concrete, the students made molds and cast them.
The students are working with local precasters who are members of the Mid-Atlantic Precast Association and PCI Northeast.


The students have also had a tour of Coreslab Structures (Conn).

Keep watching here for more details of the semester as it progresses.

Studio Spotlight: CalPoly

At Cal Poly, the Precast Studio takes on a distinctive and modern approach to precast concrete. Now in it’s third year, the program has branched out from being a strictly architectural studio to including engineering students and faculty. It all began when Doug Moordian, executive director of Precast/Prestressed Concrete Manufacturers of Calinforia and Bob Knonoske, vice president and general manager of Coreslab met with Axel Prichard-Schmitzberger, associate professor in Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona just over three years ago. After that initial meeting, the Schmitzberger worked with the industry to develop a studio that fit the pedagogical needs of the Cal Poly.

The members of PCMAC saw supporting a precast studio would fit perfectly with their mission of education about precast topics and establishing long-lasting relationships. “The members at PCMAC think education is important. In the end, we want the students to be comfortable specifying and designing with precast,” says Moorodian. “Part of our job as an industry is to bring to the students attention what can be done with the product, and what shouldn’t be done. So we are not looking at one project or one studio, we want to create a long term relationship.”

The first studio used a multi-modal transit station that dealt with issues faced by the commuter university. “The students worked in teams of 2 and designed their version of a metro link station, that was a multi-modal station,” says Schmitzberger.

The next year Schmitzberger followed up on a call of the university president to demolish one of the iconic buildings on campus. “It gave us the chance to focus on again on the issues of a commuter college in an environmentally sensitive area, and perhaps provide faculty and student housing on campus,” says Schmitzberger. “Again, the students worked in teams of 2, and then joined larger teams. Then we selected three for a scholarship at the end of the year.”

During the third year, the studio added an engineering component to the studio. Mikhail Gershfeld, SE of the Civil Engineering department was brought on to co-teach the course. “This year, with the joint agenda of engineering, we could look at current events. We realized there is a niche for precast concrete as tsunami relief facilities. We have chosen the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington which are impact zones for tsunami,” says Schmitzberger. The students are designing tsunami facilities that will have dual uses of recreation facilities.

The bond between the local industry and the studio has been tight during all three programs. “We’ve had break out sections with some of the engineers who have sat down with our students and gone through fundamental thinking of precast. There has been a very close, tight collaboration between the industry and us,” says Schmitzberger. “We have also allowed the industry to have input on how we write our syllabus so we can understand their concerns and interest much better.”

When the studio first started, Bob Knosoke not only opened up the Coreslab Plant for tours, but also assigned each team of students a Coreslab engineer. Because the studio is a dual program this year, the precast engineers are in more of a consulting role.

Student reaction to the studio has been very favorable – especially with the new twist of adding engineering students. “For the students it is quite the challenge, but they are responding with huge interest,” says Schmitzberger “This year I had to reject some students to take part in the students because we wanted to limit the studio. They are hard working, they are very interested, they adapt very quickly to the knowledge and now with the engineering students they are fantastic. The engineering students came in with some reservation about working with architecture students. And now they are such a great dynamic in the studio and tight collaboration, and friendships going on between the architects and engineers.”

On a personal level, Schmitzberger says that his relationship with precast concrete has changed for the better. “I worked before with precast in Europe and the United States,” he says “My relationship with precast has changed because I’ve been exposed to the history of precast, and even the making of it.”

For now, the first dual architecture/engineering studio at Cal Poly can be rated a success. So much so that Schmitzberger and Gershfeld are making plans for the next studio. And, there is hope that their work will help spread the idea of a precast studio to other universities. “Material based studios are also a good area for academic research as well,” says Schmitzberger. “I hope that we can continue this collaboration and secure funding from different industries.”

2011 PCI Foundation Scholarship Award Recipients

The PCI Foundation recently provided $2000 scholarships to three deserving students. Each of these students is either an employee of a firm that is a member of the Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute or the child of an employee. 

The these scholarships are a small part of what the Foundation does. They are a great example of how the foundation is meeting its goal of developing and attracting high-potential students to productive careers within the industry. The three recipients of the scholarships this year were Benjamin Gedney, Jason Huntsman, and Eric Smith. 

Benjamin E. Gedney is the son of Blakeslee Prestress Inc. employee Jeanne C. Gedney. He will be graduated from Norwich University with a Bachelor in Science in Architecture in 2014 and a Masters from the same school in 2015.

 

Jason A. Huntsman  is currently employed as a draftsman for Oldcastle Precast Building Systems. He has worked for the company for 12 years in various positions. 

 

 

Eric J. Smith, Smith is a full-time employee at Coreslab Structures (Omaha) and is also pursuing his construction management degree. He started out as a general laborer 15 years ago and now works in quality control.