The city of Waterloo, Ontario, located just west of Toronto is a university town. It’s also a hotbed for ICF construction, and the city has built a number of massive ICF student housing projects in recent years. The latest is a 22-story dormitory, with weight-bearing ICF walls. It sets a new benchmark as the tallest ICF building in North America, and also for the amount of 12″-core ICFs used in a single building. This project has pioneered the use of ICFs in the high-rise market, and developed techniques that the entire industry will benefit from.

They used conventional Giraffe Bracing and custom knockdown steel bucks to form the walls. “It sped up the installation and provided exact opening dimensions,” says Rob Vandenbroek, owner of RV Construction. “The bucks, including their shoring components, would be stripped out, palletized and moved to the next floor to be reinstalled in the same location.”