Commonalities in Construction with Insight into Differences

In yesterday's Building Construction lab, we were assigned with the task of visiting two construction sites on-campus, and then, compare the various fundamental elements. We were quick to observe that the two sites, the Basketball Practice Facility and the New Residence Hall, both had commonalities in their overall progress as they were both nearing completion. Both construction projects were using common building materials, such as precast concrete and Hokie stone (which is Virginia Tech's own variation of a limestone). Although, the composition percentages of those building materials where different in that the Basketball Practice Facility had a higher percentage of precast concrete while the New Residence Hall had more Hokie Stone.

Elements of site layout were present at both projects, including: fencing, heavy equipment (cranes, forklifts, concrete mixers, etc.), several access points for vehicles and equipment, on-site storage of excess materials, field operation buildings, and temporary structures. But each element in relation to each other are different between the two sites. For instance, the field operations units were different in relation to the various access points to the site. The scope of work and structural dimensions also varied between the two sites; especially since the two buildings serve different purposes (which also causes a variation in building quality, although we couldn't necessary observe this difference).

Summarized, from this task, I walked a way with a better, broader understanding of construction. Even though the two sites on-campus were different in purpose, structure, and layout, in a broader view they still had many common fundamental elements.