The Types of Commercial Construction Buildings
There are a number of types of commercial construction buildings and projects which contractors can be tasked to build. Commercial or industrial construction is different than residential construction by dealing with corporate representatives (and their engineers and architects) as opposed to home-owners and their architects or designers. Commercial construction can be interior-only renovation or both exterior and interior developments. For interior development, the project could be either a white box shell (where the interior is developed as basically as possible, with white walls and concrete floors), or a tenant fit out (where a white box shell is developed for move-in ready tenant improvement requirements). Fit outs can be one-off projects, but often represent corporate chain roll-out projects, where locations are meant to meet office or store branding specs for consistency across each branch.
Retail
Retail stores are often thought of as smaller stores within shopping malls or plazas, but in fact can also be large enough to include big-box retail stand-alone stores. For retail stores with multiple locations, branding and consistency are often critical. So often retail stores receive face lift design and construction at a corporate flag-ship store, which is then rolled out to the other locations for mostly interior construction and renovation.
Restaurants
Restaurants often project a total brand experience for customers. Not only are restaurants a place to eat, they are a place for customers to spend 30 - 90 minutes and enjoy the atmosphere of getting away from work, home - wherever. So branding - whether a one-off store, or part of a franchise - becomes very important. A good design-build contractor, or architects-and-construction team, can be instrumental to restaurant success. Local regulations and permits also become critical to restaurant projects - as well as the understanding of how safety and electrical planning are for the kitchen area.
Food stores
Grocery stores tend to be either stand-alone stores or anchor stores in strip malls. Grocery stores receive a lot of foot traffic - and aisle planning and refrigeration locations within the store are instrumental. At the same time, consistency with other branch stores is important, so these plans are often presented by the architects and engineers to the construction company.
Offices
Office buildings can run from small local buildings with a few rooms, to skyscrapers for large corporations. Larger office buildings could contain everything from standard offices to medical facilities to hair salons - all with their specialized equipment and needs. Larger buildings also have specific requirements to be met for fire escapes and bathrooms.
Industrial buildings
There are many industrial facilities with specialized building requirements such as raised ceiling heights, shipping docks, heavy machinery, and equipment planning and areas. Safety also can be a necessary planning issue for industrial facilities.
Hotels and motels
Lodging facilities have their own special requirements, such as size of rooms and allotment of privacy and even sound-proofing. Fire escapes and elevators become very important as well. For these types of buildings, the more experienced the contractor, the better. Customers spend much more time in hotels and motels than retail stores for example, so quality construction is critical.
Medical buildings
Medical facilities can be different than other types of construction. They require a lot of diverse but critical equipment and intensive planning for electrical and plumbing. There can be a lot of rooms, but ease of access and navigation becomes very important. And overall accessibility needs can be much more important for medical facilities than perhaps other office buildings.
Athletic facilities
This can cover everything from fitness centers to school facilities to large stadiums and arenas. Specialized seating becomes vital, such as bleachers. Equipment planning is also important. And safety is critical for planning in visitor seating for stadiums and fields.
There are a number of options for types of commercial construction - an experienced contractor is vital to them all. Want more? Read about Buildrite Construction’s ground-up construction services.
