Sep 6 2005
Dan Pratt, Vice President, Building Division of Hughes General Contractors, Inc., has been added to list of speakers for the first annual convention hosted by the Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA).
To be held Oct. 12-15 in Atlanta, Ga., the Tilt-Up Convention's theme, "Tilt-Up 4 Today: Energy, Environment, Economy, Efficiency," was selected to highlight the diverse and growing attributes of the site cast Tilt-Up method.
Ed Sauter, TCA Executive Director, said Pratt’s expertise and experience with award-winning educational facilities make him a speaker not to be missed. During the past 21 years, Pratt has overseen the construction of 90 educational facilities in the State of Utah with Hughes General Contractors Inc., 16 of which were Tilt-Up structures. Pratt will discuss some of these projects and how they have partnered with the Washington County School District to make Tilt-Up the leading solution for educational facilities. Not only has the School District embraced the Tilt-Up method, but also the use of colored Tilt-Up, as evidenced by the 25 integrally colored Tilt-Up facilities they have built over the last 11 years. With each project, they have tried to make improvements so that it is better than the last.
The District also has utilized many “green” building principles including geo-thermal heat and xeri-scaping – all of which will be covered in Pratt’s presentation. Pratt will also highlight work with other school districts and provide tips on how attendees can partner with owners to create architectural Tilt-Up including curved, round and liquid colored panels as well as the use of an aluminum forming system. After starting his career in Calgary, Alberta as a carpenter, Pratt earned a B.S. in Construction Management at Brigham Young University in 1984. He is heavily involved in pre-construction planning, bidding and construction management, having provided design phase services under CM/GC or design-build formats for more than 80 projects. Pratt served as a member of the Associated General Contractors Building Committee for several years, and in 2001, received the organization’s “Service to the Industry” award for the State of Utah.
To be held at the Hyatt Regency Buckhead, the Convention is an evolution of the Association's biennial Symposium and Design Charette events. Jim Baty, Technical Director of the TCA, said the three-day Tilt-Up Convention will feature intensive training and education seminars for contractors and engineers, as well as a trade show, building tour and focused sessions on marketing and architectural design. Construction topics include pre-construction planning, forming and casting, finishes, environmentally-controlled structures, connections, rigging and lifting, troubleshooting and much more. Architectural sessions will focus on the state-of-the-art Tilt-Up methods, as well as how these practices are changing the landscape of today’s building market. The marketing sessions will focus on roundtable discussion groups providing the opportunity to learn how to implement media relations and other marketing tactics from the TCA. Construction personnel, marketing professionals, engineers, architects and owners are all invited and encouraged to attend in order to maximize the benefit to each company. The Convention also serves as another venue for the Tilt-Up Supervisor’s Certification exam – a joint program of the TCA and the American Concrete Institute.
Additional information is available on TCA’s website at www.tilt-up.org.