Walgreens: The story behind the store on top of I-80

After months of battling differing opinions

and unusual permitting and design

hurdles, the Walgreens store located above

Interstate 80 in Reno is finally open for

business. The 29-year-old super-structure

floating above the freeway has been completed

as a "gateway" architectural statement

for Reno in the form of a humble

Walgreens drug store.

Constructed in 1973, the pad was

designed as the ground floor of a 15-story

hotel/parking structure. It had a short stint

as a parking lot in the 1980s, but never

became much more than severely corroded

by rain, snow and de-icing salts. By 1998,

there was a movement to demolish the pad

because it was becoming a maintenance

headache and potential liability.

But Walgreens saw an opportunity to

lease the pad and place a store on top.

After the deal was made, a very long permitting

process began. One of the first

issues was changing a Nevada law prohibiting

private signs over a freeway. Walgreens

had to lobby the Legislature to amend the

law to allow an exemption specifically for

this project. This was the first of several

potential "showstoppers" that had to

be overcome.

Blakely Johnson & Ghusn was contracted

in May of 1998 to perform a structural

review of the pad. It became obvious early

on that a standard Walgreens store would

not do. A battle quickly ensued over

whether to match the brick look of the university

to the north, or go with a bold architectural

design. This bold view prevailed,and BJG moved forward.

Built for a hotel, the existing pad

columns are large, but far apart. Although

they could carry huge loads, they were in

the wrong places for our little Walgreens.

The concrete and metal floor deck was just

that a floor and could not support the

weight of a new building. The solution was

to build structure to span column to column

and hang the building from them.

After conquering waterproofing, structural

strength and lighting concerns, the

project finally won city approval and we

moved into the design-build stage.

The architectural detailing was difficult, as

many material interfaces had to be detailed and

dimensioned. During the long design process,

value engineering often required changing materials

in the middle of detailing. Special lighting was

designed, value engineered and redesigned to light

the structure at night for dramatic effect.

Even as Walgreens twice changed the

standards for its stores, we battled a dangerous

demolition, complicated weight

restrictions on construction trucks, a sloping

floor we had to even out, as well as

transportation, more value engineering and

lighting issues.

But by November 2001 the end was in

sight and the shell was nearing completion.

The trusses had been erected, the interior

framing was nearly complete, the mechanical

units were set, and most of the exterior

was complete. Then, just before

Thanksgiving, we received word that the

building was on fire.

The fire, in the pharmacy area, was

started by a small propane-fired heater.

The heater had a 20-gallon propane tank

and a spare 20-gallon tank (full, of course)

that vented and burned their entire

contents. The wood floor burned over a

relatively small area, but the heat and

smoke damage was extensive. Steel roof

joists were melted as was the metal roof

deck. Windows at the front of the store

cracked due to the heat. Insulation melted

from the electrical wires and dripped on

the floor. Everything was black from soot.

The floor insulation became saturated with

firewater and rain water. The entire shell

had to be gutted and rebuilt. Not quite a

do-over, but awfully close.

On the positive side, the fire department

response indicated that the strategy

worked out by BJG and the chief

was sound.

Overcoming all the obstacles, the store

finally opened to widely varied opinion on

the design. But most people were happy to

just have something there, even

a Walgreens.

We would like to note that Naisbitt

Construction executed a very difficult

project with class and professionalism.

Much tribute should go to the project

superintendent who shepherded the job

from agency to agency, three Walgreens

prototype changes, a plethora of contractors,

a fire, a fussy architect and a

frustrated owner.

Now, at night, traveling at 70 mph, the

two 180-foot-long triangular trusses loom

out of the black Nevada night like a "Star

Wars" construct, setting a grid of light across

the busy freeway. The bright red Walgreens

sign shimmers against the glossy black

reflective glass of the east and west walls and

alerts travelers that an aspirin and a six-pack

of soda are not far away.

???

George Ghusn & Blakely Johnson and

Ghusn received an award for outstanding

achievement in structural civil engineering for

the project from the American Society of Civil

Engineers.

The structure could have been hidden

but architect Jim Wallis and I (I was the

structural engineer) decided to make the

structure a bold architectural statement.

Another hot topic was fire safety. We

were able to create some unique features

that satisfied the fire department, including

pull-out lanes for a fire engine, emergency

access points and direction signs for the

engines that often pointed the wrong way

on one-way streets. Little did we know we

would test this idea before the building

was complete.