Hillis-Carnes Provides Extensive Work for the Anthem House, $100M, Nine-Story Luxury Residential Building, Located in Southern Baltimore, MD

Hillis-Carnes recently completed services for The Anthem House, a $100M, nine-story luxury residential building, located between the Locust Point and Federal Hill areas of South Baltimore, Maryland. The Anthem House consists of 292 luxurious residential units and 20,000 SF of retail space.

Hillis-Carnes, working for Bozzuto Development, provided Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Materials Testing and Inspection services. Hillis-Carnes’ skilled and experienced crew worked under the supervision of Project Manager David Patron, PE, and handled an extensive scope of work for this remarkable development. Ariel Gillis and Nick Stella were Engineering Technicians on the project; Ed Smith was the on-site Structural Steel Inspector. Our scope of work included testing and inspections of soils/earthwork, utilities, modular/segmental retaining walls, underground stormwater management facilities, spread footings, pre-cast concrete and steel H-pile installations, cast-in-place concrete, reinforcing steel, structural load-bearing masonry, wood framing, and pavement. The project was carried out on schedule and completed this month.

Prior to construction, Hillis-Carnes also provided Geotechnical Engineering services, which included subsurface exploration services, Pile Dynamic Analyzing (PDA) of test piles, vibration monitoring services during pile driving operations, and monitoring production pile driving operations. Hillis-Carnes evaluated subsurface conditions at the site, discovering it was comprised of existing fills, buried tanks, and existing footings; there were environmental contamination issues and alternating sandy and clayey soil conditions.

The site also included impacted soils that would frequently require expensive hauling to special landfills for handling. Based on the results of our subsurface explorations and in consideration of the variable surface conditions, we provided recommendations that would minimize foundation construction and earthwork costs.

We developed recommendations for support of the building on a dual foundation system comprised of piles and shallow spread footings. The piles were pre-cast concrete and steel H-piles exhibiting compression capacities ranging from 96 to 123 tons. The steel H-piles were used where high-tension capacity or uplift loads were anticipated in the building. The footings were designed for 6 KSF bearing in natural soils.