Masonry Magazine March 1982 Page. 25
Obsolete Grain Silos Recycled Into First-rate Hotel Complex
The Setting: Quaker Square in Akron, Ohio. The unusual project called for 36 Quaker Oats concrete grain silos to be recycled into a 200-room Luxury Hilton hotel. The Quaker Square Hilton is the capstone in the Quaker Square shopping complex consisting of several renovated brick factory buildings that once housed the Quaker Oats cereal company.
Work began in November, 1979, continued through the winter and spring, and was completed in early June, 1980. Each of the 36 structurally sound silos measured 125 ft. high and 25 ft. in diameter with 7-in.-thick walls. The silos had been built by slipforming in 1932 and showed no spalling or cracking.
The architects for the project were Curtis & Rasmussen of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Their design converted each silo into and eight-story "mini hotel"; every room is round-shaped with 450 sq. ft. of space and a balcony.
The Problem: Before any interior construction could begin, slabs had to be removed from the rounded exterior walls for doors and windows. Once the openings were cut, materials could then be brought in and floor slabs poured. The curvature of each silo also meant very precise cuts had to be made.
The Solution: Diamond-edged blades, manufactured by Super-Cut, Inc., Chicago, III., handled the thousands of feet of cutting. The bulk of the work was accomplished with 24-in. blades attached to wall saws, with 30-in. and, occasionally, 42-in. blades used on difficult spots where cutting was on the radius.
The wall saws ran on tracks with ½-in. drop-in anchors used to bolt the rails to the wall. To compensate for the
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Built in 1932, these obsolete grain silos, once owned by the Quaker Oats cereal company, are now part of the new Quaker Square Hilton Hotel in Akron, Ohio. The conversion entailed a massive job of cutting through the 7-in.-thick concrete walls with diamond edged saw blades.
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MASONRY/MARCH, 1982 25