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Olson Kundig
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6 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, October 2016

Contents
Volume 105, number 10. October 2016.
On the cover: Shinsegae International in Seoul, South Korea,
by Olson Kundig
photo by Kevin Scott

20 GSA Commends Two Courthouses for

Lifetime Achievement
22 An Escher-Like Creation for Hudson Yards
24 Architecture for the Body
26 The Joy of the Section
28 New Lab Opens in Brooklyn
30 A Conceptual Memorial to an Inevitable
Problem

Tech + Practice
36 Best Practices: Engaging in Architect-Led
Design/Build 131 Tall Buildings
40 Detail: The Circular Pavilion 132 Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler
42 Next Progressives: Studio MK27 144 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
50 Technology: Innovations for a Worldwide 152 Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Workflow 160 Legorreta + Legorreta and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
54 Products: Wood Stools 170 Arata Isozaki & Associates and Andrea Maffei Architects
56 Q+A: Daniel Wiens, Journeyman International 178 Olson Kundig

AIA Architect
61 The Production of Life
63 Choose Your Own Adventure
64 Design’s Vanguard Moved to France
69 Six Design Decisions Your Clients Will Thank
You For

Columns
97 A Visionary Planner Tackles Detroit
by Karrie Jacobs
111 Iraq’s Modernist Architect
by Zach Mortice
119 How the Critics Covered the NMAAHC
by Amanda Kolson Hurley

Residential
189 A Bare-Bones Cabin for Iceland’s Hikers
190 Thirty Years of Modernist Residential Spaces
192 Radical Lighting Using Natural Wood
Residential
195 WORKac
Editorial
208 A Rising Infrastructure Lifts All Boats
by Ned Cramer

Volume 105, number 10. October 2016. architect® (ISSN 0746-0554; USPS 009-880) is published monthly by Hanley Wood, One Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2016 by Hanley Wood. Opinions expressed
are those of the authors or persons quoted and not necessarily those of the American Institute of Architects. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Periodicals
postage paid at Washington, DC, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to architect P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065. Canada Post Registration #40612608/G.S.T. number R-120931738. Canadian return
address: IMEX, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. For subscription inquiries, address changes, and single-copy sales ($10 in the U.S., $15 in Canada, $20 for other countries, payable in advance in U.S. dollars) write to architect,
P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065 or call 847.291.5221 or toll-free 888.269.8410. REPRINTS: Call or email Wright’s Media: 877.652.5295 or hanleywood@wrightsmedia.com. DISCLOSURE: architect® will occasionally write about
companies in which its parent organization, Hanley Wood, has an investment interest. When it does, the magazine will fully disclose that relationship. PRIVACY OF MAILING LIST: Sometimes we share our subscriber mailing list with
reputable companies we think you’ll find interesting. However, if you do not wish to be included, please call us at 888.269.8410.
Quasicrystals by Alberto Adolfo Fernández González and Carlos

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COMPONENTS
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Increasingly, shade structures begin the design conversation. This is particularly

so in commercial buildings, those in sunny climates, those which will inhabit a
warming planet (this one), and by architects looking for new ways to create built
environments in harmony with nature’s forces. The future includes a conscious
intention toward shade structures.

T H E E VO L U T I O N O F S H A D I N G FA B R I C S
In order to appreciate the future of shade and position oneself on the leading
edge of this movement, it helps to review the past, the long history of using
fabrics as architectural add-ons, and how the practice has evolved.

Prior to the 1960s, most awnings and shading fabrics were made of cotton
canvas, which the sun broke down quickly. In 1961, the owners of one of the
oldest, most respected fabric brands decided to change the nature of shading
materials the company had been making since the 1880s. They replaced cotton
ÜÌ >VÀÞV wLiÀÃ >` «ÀiiÝÌÀÕÃ «} iÌÃ >` vviÀi` > Õi>À`v
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In the 1970s, performance fabrics got the attention of boaters, and the outdoor
vÕÀÃ}Ã`ÕÃÌÀÞiÝ«`i`ÜÌÌiÃiiÜ]}>ÃÌ}ÞiÌ«>Liv>LÀVð
£nn] 7LiV> iÌiwÀÃÌV>ÀLÀ>`Ì>`«ÌÌÃV «>Þ½Ãv>LÀVÃvÀÌà Hanging Parasol Garden combines sun shading, illumination, water collection and climbing plants
into one innovative shade system.
convertible models.

By the early 2000s, as the green building movement gained momentum with
the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating program, more attention was
paid to the sustainable nature of performance fabrics. As high-performing
shade fabrics last longer, people use less fabric and thus generate less waste
as compared to other fabrics that might fade, lose strength or give in to mildew
and atmospheric chemicals. In fact, some fabrics can be recycled through
>Õv>VÌÕÀiÀÀiVÞV}«À}À> Ã]Ài`ÕV} «>VÌ>`wð

S I G N AG E A N D B R A N D I N G W I T H FA B R I C S
As the use of shading fabric continues its trajectory in modern architecture,
its use as a business branding strategy spans the decades. Historically, a print
canvas canopy over a cigar shop or beauty parlor signaled the establishment’s
presence to passersby. While that design practice continues today, modern
corporate branding with fabric is often spectacular, with enormous printed
banners moving in the breeze. They are a signal to passersby and even passing
aircraft that business or cultural events are happening there. The colors of the
shading fabric convey their own branding message, tying into the corporate,
V «>Þ]i`ÕV>Ì>]À«ÀwÌÀ}>â>̽Ã`iÌÌÞ°

E X PA N D I N G S PAC E
Shading strategies in corporate, cultural and residential settings create copious
amounts of added space for meetings, gatherings, meals and leisure. While
>À`*>>Ã>ivwViÌ]i>ÃÞÌ>ÃÃi Liy>Ì«>VÃÞÃÌi `iÃ}i`Ì«ÀÛ`i
immediate shelter in disaster relief zones.
ÌiVÃÌvÜ>Ã>`>ÀvVÕ`Li«ÀLÌÛi]>` ÃÌiÞiÝVii`}>
particular lot’s allowable square footage of structure, the addition of shaded
ºÀ ûLiV iÃ>«ÃÃLiÜ>ÞÌiÝ«>`Ìi> ÕÌvÕÃ>Lië>Vi°>LÀV
iVÃÕÀiÃV iÀV>ë>ViÃÃÕV>ÃÀiÃÌ>ÕÀ>ÌÃV>i«LÃÌ«ÀwÌÃLÞ
increasing the amount of outdoor seating available year round.
 Ƃ, ", Ƃ "1// 1/1, "-Ƃ  9
S H A D E S T R U C T U R E S F O R H E A LT H A N D U V P R OT EC T I O N
Protection from the sun has always been important to humanity, but never so COMPLETING THIS CONTINUING EDUC ATION
much as it is in modern times, with holes in the ozone layer and the unprecedented
speed at which our planet is warming. Whereas natural climate change occurs
"1,- Ƃ/-1 ,  Ƃ °
"É"-
1
gradually, giving organisms the opportunity to evolve their own protections,
the speed of this man-induced climate change requires man-made protections.
`i>Þ]Üi`½ÌÜ>ÌÃÕ}ÌÌLiÌÌ>Þº»Àºvv]»>`Ì>ÌÃÜiÀi
UV-resistant shading fabric (as well as shade itself) comes into play.
 Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti

The Journal of the American

Institute of Architects

Editor-in-Chief
Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA
ncramer@hanleywood.com
@NedCramer

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Design Features Art

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 The Journal of the American
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to reduce energy consumption

in buildings isn’t just about the energy
they consume day to day.
2016 Board of Directors
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faia, Vice President; Francis M. Pitts, faia, Vice President; John A. Padilla, aia, Secretary; Stuart
producing the materials used to Coppedge, aia, Treasurer; Torrey Stanley Carleton, hon. aia, CACE Director; Danielle M. Mitchell,
assoc. aia, Student Director; Amanda Harrell-Seyburn, assoc. aia, Associate Director; Julie Taylor,
construct them. Submit your vision for hon. aia/la, Public Director; Jennifer Workman, aia, Director; L. Jane Frederick, faia, Director;
Anthony P. Schirripa, faia, Director; Donald I. King, faia, Director; Thierry Paret, faia, Director;
minimizing this embodied energy by Burton L. Roslyn, faia, Director; Marilyn C. Terranova, Ph.D., Director; Robert A. Ivy, faia, EVP/Chief
Executive Officer. AIA STRATEGIC COUNCIL: Daniel S. Hart, faia, Moderator.
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5L^@VYR*P[`VJL[V^LY·VUL^OVZL Robert A. Ivy, faia, Chief Executive Officer; Abigail W. Gorman, mba, Chief of Staff; Michael Carr,
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 64th annual
Progressive
Architecture
Awards

2017 CALL FOR ENTRIES

Are you designing the next

Wexner Center for the Arts?
The Progressive Architecture
Awards have a storied
legacy of awarding projects
for their forward-looking
vision. In many cases, the
P/A recognition moved these
projects from on-the-boards DETAILS
to completion. What will Projects must have a client and a
completion date after January 1, 2017.
you build, and what will your Judging will take place in November 2016.
Winners will be notified in December 2016,
legacy be? Enter the 64th published in the February 2017 issue of
Progressive Architecture ARCHITECT, and honored at a ceremony in
New York. For more information and rules
Awards today! and regulations, visit paawards.com.

HOW TO ENTER FEES

submit your work at paawards.com single entry $195
additional entries $150
QUESTIONS? late fee $50
email paawards@architectmagazine.com
DEADLINES
JUDGES regular October 28, 2016
Barbara Bestor, aia, Bestor Architecture late November 2, 2016 (Will include
Jennifer Bonner, MALL a late fee of $50 per / entry)
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20 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, October 2016

GSA Commends Two Courthouses for Lifetime Achievement taylor lednum/gsa

Every two years since 1990, the U.S. General Services Administration’s Design Awards have recognized outstanding federal buildings
and their project teams. Eighteen projects were recognized with 20 awards and citations in the 2016 program, including two recipients
of the new 10 Year Award, which this year honors buildings “substantially completed” in the decade of 1995 to 2005: the Lloyd D. George
United States Courthouse (above) in Las Vegas, designed by Mehrdad Yazdani, assoc. aia, of Cannon Dworsky (now CannonDesign),
and the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. —sara johnson

> Read about the other projects recognized in the 2016 GSA Design Awards at bit.ly/2016GSADesignAwards.
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22

An Escher-Like Creation for Hudson Yards courtesy forbes massie-heatherwick studio

A bronzed-steel and concrete structure with proliferating staircases (154 in total) with stairs (2,500 of them) rising up from the
ground to stacked viewing terraces (80 in all), the newly unveiled Vessel project by London architect Thomas Heatherwick is to be
located at Hudson Yards, a mixed-use complex under construction in New York. The $150 million 15-story project will be erected
as the centerpiece of a landscaped esplanade framed by a double phalanx of office and residential towers. Construction on the
stairway is already underway in Italy, and the parts will be sent to New York for an anticipated opening in 2018. —joseph giovannini

> To learn more about the Vessel, visit bit.ly/HeatherwickVessel.

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24

Architecture for the Body damian griffiths

A new London gallery, Maison Mais Non, opened its inaugural show last month, which began as a project envisioned by the late
Zaha Hadid and her firm partner Patrik Schumacher as a way to examine how designers and architects could utilize innovative
technologies. Proposed as a collaborative workshop, “The Extraordinary Process” examines how fashion and architecture can
benefit humans through new, experimental concepts and technologies, and features work such as a jacket and trousers by
Krystyna Kozhoma and Zaha Hadid Design (above). The exhibition is open through Nov. 16. —selin ashaboglu

> Read more about the exhibition at bit.ly/TheExtraordinaryProcess.

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26

The Joy of the Section

A new book by the principals of New York’s LTL Architects, Manual of Section (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), is a paean to
slicing through the building fabric. After an introduction and history, they dive into subjecting 63 buildings from the modern era to
jeff elkins

the pen’s scalpel, opening up the objects of inspection with perspectives revealing the relations of space, structure, and form, in
a sequence constructed as much by their choice of drawing location as it is by the actual buildings. As dessert, they offer some of
their own designs, which hold up well after the servings of architectural derring-do that precede them. —aaron betsky

> Read Betsky’s complete review at bit.ly/BetskyManualofSection.

28

New Lab Opens in Brooklyn spencer lowell

An 84,000-square-foot technology and manufacturing facility, New Lab, opened in New York late last month. With room for
more than 400 people and 50 companies, it is an amalgamation of many things: a co-working space for high-tech companies,
fabrication and prototyping shops, and a gathering space to host workshops, seminars, and presentations for occupants as well
as the public. Located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New Lab is one of four tenants in the 220,000-square-foot Green Manufacturing
Center, which combines three former shipbuilding machine shops that had sat unused for decades. —wanda lau

> To learn more about New Lab, visit bit.ly/NewLabOpens.

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30

A Conceptual Memorial to an Inevitable Problem

Bay Area landscape architects Erik Jensen and Rebecca Sunter won the Memorials for the Future ideas competition—organized
by the National Park Service, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Van Alen Institute—for their concept, Climate
Chronograph. The winning project represents the displacement of people due to climate change by planting a parcel of land in
Washington, D.C.’s Hains Point with cherry trees that will perish as sea levels rise. An exhibition about the winner and finalists is on
display at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through Oct. 20. —chelsea blahut

> Read more about the winning entry in the Memorials for the Future competition at bit.ly/ClimateChronograph.
Sustainable Growth
The architects selected CF Architectural/Horizontal insulated metal panels
in a variety of widths and colors to achieve a mosaic design on La Joya ISD’s
Child Nutrition Center and Police Station. Built to accommodate an increase
in students, the structures incorporate sustainable design while the medley
of colors emanates a youthful environment.

Visit www.mbci.com/lajoya for more information.

PROJECT: La Joya ISD Child Nutrition Center

and Police Station
LOCATION: La Joya, Texas
ARCHITECT: Gignac & Associates
CONTRACTOR: Leyendecker Construction
PANEL PROFILE: CF Architectural/Horizontal
(Brite Red / Snow White / Slate Gray)
Copyright © 2014 MBCI. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2016 MBCI. All rights reserved. 844.338.6769 | INFO@MBCI.COM

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36 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, October 2016

Best Practices:
Engaging in Architect-Led Design/Build

text by nate berg

In the late 1980s, New York–based Peter house construction arm that acts as the the subs on the site really focus on [the
Gluck and Partners Architects (now general contractor and construction details]. We believe that it produces a
GLUCK+) landed a high-profile, high- manager, while others may hire a much better piece of architecture.”
stakes project: designing an addition to standalone general contractor to handle
a 1955 Connecticut residence by Ludwig the construction. Take the First Step
Mies van der Rohe. The project was “a Firms may hesitate to lead a design/
great honor and responsibility,” says Evaluate the Benefits build effort because of liability issues
principal Thomas Gluck. Change orders and cost overruns are related to construction accidents or
It was also a lot of work. The firm uncommon in architect-led design/build failures. But, says Mark Friedlander, a
didn’t want any missteps so they projects, at least in Gluck’s experience. partner who specializes in construction
watched the contractors closely Architects are more sensitive to cost, and design law in the Chicago office of
during construction “without being schedule, and material issues during Schiff Hardin, the risks are not much
compensated for it and without design, and more attuned to addressing greater than what a typical architecture
having the authority to direct the quality issues during construction. “The firm may expect to shoulder.
subcontractors,” Gluck says. This person who’s designing [the project] Construction problems typically
experience led the firm to rethink how is the person who is conveying it and would be covered by the general
it handled its projects. working with the trades,” he says. contractor’s general liability policy. “If
Tom Vandeveer, aia, senior vice something is built wrong, the architect
Understand the Delivery Method president for global architecture firm accepts full responsibility for it to
For the past two decades, GLUCK+ has HDR, says that financial case is clear the owner, but then passes down
engaged in architect-led design/build for architect-led design/build delivery, the liability or the responsibility for
(also called designer-led design/build), which currently makes up about 10 fixing it to the general contractor, who
working as the single point of contact for percent of HDR’s revenues. “There’s probably in turn passes it down to
the client, managing the project’s design definitely a greater opportunity to make a subcontractor,” Friedlander says.
and construction, and subcontracting more money,” he says. However, firms should set up a separate
the construction to a general contractor, In a conventional design/bid/ corporate entity to handle construction
who in turn subcontracts to specific build model, an architect’s total fee is to insulate the architecture side of the
trades. Some firms may have an in- between 6 and 8 percent of construction firm if catastrophe does occur and the
costs, which translates to about a 10 construction side has to dissolve.
percent profit. Contractors pull in profits Because the architect and the
“There’s definitely of around 15 percent. In architect-led general contractor are working more
a greater design/build projects, those profits also closely together, Friedlander says the
go to the architect. potential for problems is greatly
opportunity But, Vandeveer says, “the real motivator reduced. “I structure my [clients’]
to make more is more in being able to participate and, designer-led design/build projects so
to some degree, control the design that the architect and the contractor
money.” decisions that might otherwise be share savings and losses on a 50/50
—Tom Vandeveer, aia, subordinated to a contractor,” he says. ratio—which means that they know
senior vice president, HDR Gluck agrees: “We can make sure all they’re financially in bed together.”

> To read more about the architect-led design/build delivery method, visit bit.ly/ARLedDBld.
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40

Detail:
The Circular Pavilion

text by timothy a. schuler

The Circular Pavilion is anything but Reclaimed materials make up 80

round, with the exception of its nearly 180 1 percent of the open, stick-framed
doorknobs. The skin of the 750-square- 2
pavilion with a sawtooth roofline and
foot polygonal café and event space in 20-foot-high ceilings. The firm enlisted
Paris comprises a bevy of reclaimed 3 municipal personnel into realizing the
doors, salvaged from a public housing 4
pavilion; for instance, maintenance
project in the city’s 19th arrondissement, workers and garbage collectors helped
to the northeast. Designed by local firm 5 divert wooden chairs from the city’s
Encore Heureux and erected in front curbside furniture pickup service. “When
of City Hall, the temporary structure is we started, we had no idea what kind of
named for the aspirational circularity of material we would have,” says partner
the life cycles of its building components. Nicola Delon. Insulation came from a
supermarket renovation. Baseboards
were surplus from Rudy Ricciotti’s
MuCEM building, in Marseille. Light
fixtures were exhumed from a warehouse
owned by Evesa, the company in charge
of lighting Paris.
And then there’s the envelope of
doors. In May 2015, Encore Heureux
got a call from the city: It was removing
400 wooden doors from a 1936 housing
project. Delon immediately went to see
6 the doors. “They’re perfect,” he said.
His team devised a herringbone
7 pattern, with each door angled 45
8 degrees. They also redesigned the
9 building from their initial tent-like
concept to have a trapezoidal floor plan.
Soon the pavilion will be
1. Solid oak door, 38mm deconstructed and moved to its new
2. 25mm × 50mm wood slat (60mm o.c.) home on the Petite Ceinture, a former
3. Waterproofing membrane railway that encircles the city. Delon
4. 9mm OSB sheathing hopes it has left an impression on the
cyrille weiner

5. 70mm mineral wool insulation city and people involved. “When you
6. Spruce frame find ways to not waste, you find positive
7. Vapor barrier energy,” he says. “Two centuries ago,
8. Reclaimed wood panel, painted we’d go to the forest. Now, we go to the
9. 100mm × 240mm Douglas fir post city. It’s a change in paradigm.”

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42

Next Progressives:
Studio MK27

edited by deane madsen

Location: (This Was Not My Dream, 2014), and

São Paulo, Brazil I had a lot of fun. Micasa Vol B was
an advance in the studio’s language—
Year founded : without any finishings, embracing the
In the early 1980s; the firm became imprecisions of the process. Studio SC
Studio MK27 in 2001. was a space designed closely with the
client with a great amount of freedom,
Leadership: and a unique program that joined art
Marcio Kogan, hon. faia and gastronomy, two things that I love.

Education: Historic design hero:

B.Arch., FAU-Mackenzie I was in love with utopian architecture:
Master of Education, Society, and American hippie Modernism, Archigram,
Culture, Escola da Cidade Superstudio … Those were right up my Marcio Kogan
alley. In reality they still are. I also admire
Experience: the Japanese metabolists. I recently and Richard Rogers, hon. faia.
I was a film director until my first long visited the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Realistically, I could mention 100 more.
feature in 1988, which bankrupted me. Tokyo, which is amazing!
Then I had to content myself with being After I graduated, I began to deeply Special item in your studio space:
an architect. admire Brazilian Modernism. It was The studio has thousands of objects
difficult for me to understand how Brazil, filling up every empty corner. We have a
Total staff: a country that was completely isolated collection of sketches and drawings that
20 architects and four other staff from the world at that moment, could go from Le Corbusier to Oscar Niemeyer.
produce such spectacular and iconic
Mission: architecture, from the end of the 1930s Design tool of choice:
A microscopic collaboration for a better until the beginning of the ’60s, when the A block of 100 sheets of tracing paper
world. city of Brasília was inaugurated. I can’t and a Staedtler .05mm pen.
forget to mention Mies van der Rohe.
Favorite project: Skills to master:
Like many architects would respond, the Modern-day design heroes: I still am left with the sensation that I
last finished one. I’m partial to Jungle I like the current Japanese architecture need to learn everything.
House, in Guarujá, Brazil. and numerous incredible architects
like Toyo Ito, hon. faia, Kazuyo Sejima, Morning person or night owl:
Second favorite project: Ryue Nishizawa, Sou Fujimoto, Takaharu I am a night person, but I have to wake
romulo fialdini

I have a very tender feeling for the Redux Tezuka, Kengo Kuma, hon. faia, among up early every day for meetings, which
House, Micasa Vol B, and Studio SC, all others. I believe that they are inspired by turns me into a (yawning) day person.
in the state of São Paulo. Redux House Brazilian modernist architecture. And I
has an interesting synthesis of materials also have great admiration for Herzog & Social media platform of choice:
and volumes; we made a movie there de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, hon. faia, I really like to read.

The Next Progressives series of emerging-firm profiles is proudly supported by VT Industries.

 Deadline:
Feb. 15, 2017

CALL FOR
SUBMISSIONS
architectural lighting invites you to forward new product releases for editorial consideration in our
Annual Product Issue (May/June 2017), which is distributed at Lightfair. Luminaires, light sources,
and lighting products that have been released after June 2016, qualify for editorial consideration.
This annual special issue showcases more than 150 lighting products in a variety of categories.

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Editor-in-Chief, architectural lighting One Thomas Circle NW, Suite 600 Tel: 202.729.3647
Washington DC 20005-5811
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 46

3
Studio MK27
Next Progressives:
2

1,3: nelson kon; 2: fernando guerra

 47

4 5
4: pedro vannucchi ; 5: nelson kon

1,3. Cobogó House, built in São Paulo in 2011, features a lattice-like enclosure upon its roof.
Comprised of tessellated 8-inch-square modules of white cast stone by Austrian-born artist
Erwin Hauer, the screen fills the interior with dappled light. 2. Studio MK27 completed
Redux House—a residence riffing on the Miesian archetype, in an environmental preserve in
Bragança Paulista, north of São Paulo—in 2013. 4. The board-formed, reinforced concrete
and operable wooden scrims of Vertical Itaim, a 10-unit apartment building in São Paulo
completed in 2014, references the work of an acclaimed local architect, the late Lina Bo
Bardi. 5. With the 2009 Paraty House, Studio MK27 designed two reinforced concrete boxes
that cantilever from a hillside in the namesake beach town. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass
doors in the lower volume open the living room and kitchen to ocean views, while eucalyptus
panels provide privacy and shade for sleeping quarters in the upper volume.
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Structural Fuse Technology
50

Technology:
Innovations for a Worldwide Workflow

text by michael kilkelly

Designed by global firm CannonDesign side of the globe would be starting their person perspective to show that patient
and Montreal firm NEUF Architect(e)s, day and could use the same hardware sight lines would be maintained.
the $1.5 billion, 3.6 million-square-foot and soft ware licenses.
University of Montreal Health Centre 5. Keep on Training
(CHUM, for Centre Hospitalier de 3. Treat BIM as a Centralized Database Consistent training is essential for
l’Université de Montréal) is currently Healthcare projects deal in repetition, maintaining the integrity of project
the largest healthcare project under with corridors of identical rooms. The protocols, Cavataio says. Designers—
construction in North America. design team leveraged CodeBook, a and even project managers—joining the
Executing this massive private-public database application in which users team completed a full week of training
partnership, whose first phase wraps can identify “exemplar” rooms, such and job shadowing before they were
up next month, required CannonDesign as CHUM’s 442 exam rooms, 39 allowed to touch the Revit model.
to redefine its approach to BIM, project operating rooms, and 772 single-bed
workflow and delivery, and staffing. patient rooms, whose equipment and 6. Don’t Forget Face Time
Following are six lessons the firm shared. requirements can be batch applied to all While technology was essential for
corresponding rooms. the different offices and firms to
1. Get Everyone on the Same Page communicate, it doesn’t supplant face
Nearly 180 architects across 15 offices 4. Use the Right Tool at the Right Time time. CannonDesign regularly rotated
worldwide have worked on CHUM. The The project team used PDFs for internal staff members from the 14 remote
team set strict protocols on everything communications, editing shared locations through its Montreal office
from email correspondence to building documents with Bluebeam Studio. To and scheduled in-person training
reference details in the Autodesk Revit illustrate design and coordination issues, sessions. “Don’t discount the value
model. “It wasn’t going to be enough to the team used Autodesk Navisworks, of technology,” says vice president
just design the building,” says Christie which allowed them to walk user groups Matthew Forman, aia, “but nothing
Cavataio, CannonDesign senior vice virtually through the center in first- beats a face-to-face conversation.”
president and CHUM senior project
manager. “We needed to design the
workflow as well.”

cannondesign + neuf architect(e)s

2. Leverage your IT Infrastructure
CannonDesign leased space from
a data center to host project data,
run project soft ware to minimize
latency, and to avoid complicated file
transfers (it purchased its own servers
and workstations). As a result, its IT
department could complete updates to
soft ware and hardware at one location.
And as teams in North America were University of Montreal Health Centre, also known as CHUM
ending their workday, teams on the other

> For more information about the strategies CannonDesign and NEUF Architect(e)s employed on this project, visit bit.ly/ARCannonCHUM.
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54

Products:
Wood Stools

text by selin ashaboglu

Barstool 7, Stillfried Wien Drift Tall Stool, Council Luco, Martin Azua
At 43" tall, this solid wood barstool by By San Francisco–based studio Branch Spanish designer Martin Azúa made this
Croatian studio Grupa is treated with for Council, this minimalist stool comes turned-wood beech stool using CNC
natural oil and wax, and uses vinyl-based in natural ash and four painted finishes technology. For high-traffic applications,
glue. Available in six finishes, including (blue, shown) with a steel or brass Luco comes in three heights: 17.7", 23.6",
maple, cherry, and walnut. stillfried.com footstool. councildesign.com and 29.5". martinazua.com

Rustic Stool, Mark Laban Squaretown Stool, Hollis+Morris Brace Stool, Dino Sanchez
After entering the wrong settings on a Two skewed pyramids morph into each A solid oak body and legs firmly plant this
CNC-milling machine, British designer other’s apexes in these stools by Toronto- elementary school–inspired stool on the
Mark Laban leveraged the glitch to form based studio Hollis+Morris. Available in ground. Designed by New York–based
Rustic. The solid maple stool is 17" tall, walnut and oak with natural, white, and studio Dino Sanchez, Brace is 17.5" tall, 16"
13" wide, and 30" long. marklaban.com black (shown) finishes. hollismorris.com wide, and 11" deep. dinosanchez.com

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56

Q+A:
Daniel Wiens, Journeyman International

text by wanda lau

At the behest of his parents “to go to Who reviews the designs? Students to run a design competition we
college and do something,” Daniel We have several layers of quality control call the “Humanitarian Design-A-Thon.”
Wiens enrolled in California Polytechnic before projects are built. A student If firms want to get their staff involved
State University’s construction designer will have their professor as in directly doing projects, we welcome
management program after working well as the JI team, which also reviews that. We also worked with AIA San
for a contractor in Bend, Ore. For his projects. We also pair every designer— Francisco and NCARB to create the JI
undergraduate thesis, he designed and whether they’re a student or not—with a Emerging Professionals program, which
built a dental clinic in Independence, mentor, typically a licensed professional lets designers earn IDP [now AXP] credit
Belize, through Global Outreach Mission. near them who they can meet with for volunteering with JI projects.
This “phenomenal” experience, he says, weekly or so. Then we partner with an
fulfilled his degree requirements and organization in the project’s country that How is JI, a 501(c)(3), funded?
gave a charitable organization free labor. knows the materials available and what’s The primary funding source is through
And so the model for Journeyman culturally appropriate. On top of that, corporate sponsors. We go to AEC
International (JI) was born. In the we run all of our drawings and designs companies, show them what we do, and
following interview, Wiens, who founded through a local architect and engineer. request that they sponsor the design
JI in 2009 and serves as president, talks development of a specific project.
with architect about what makes his How does a student get involved? Oftentimes that company becomes the
nonprofit organization such a distinctive We don’t accept all students; they have mentor for that project.
humanitarian design entity. to apply, and submit résumés and I’m the only JI employee, so I collect
a salary from our sponsors. That helps
support my time in putting together
Journeyman International, by the Numbers
project logistics, provide money for
travel, and things like site surveying or
72 17 35 200+ 6 350+ soil testing for a project. The money also
projects projects countries in professional Participating locals hired
designed or built or in which JI has or student universities to construct goes toward general business expenses
in design progress worked volunteers projects and helping students travel.

What are JI’s greatest needs?

What makes JI’s model unique? portfolios. Our criteria for selecting We’re actively seeking new projects, as
Our niche was to tap into the designers is two-fold: One, we want well as people who want to volunteer
academic world and students highly talented people; and two, [they their work, time, and energy—and then
studying architecture, engineering, or must have] a genuine heartfelt passion also sponsors. Many firms love doing
construction with thesis projects. Some for humanitarian work. humanitarian work, but coordinating the
of those students are now in industry I ask students to talk to their logistics can be time-consuming. My
and licensed, forming an alumni professor and their department head. company makes that easy for them, so
network. Our student program is almost Basically, a JI project has to fit into an that the firms can just get to work. The
more of a training program to inspire existing curriculum. If it doesn’t match pitfall for me is finding enough projects.
young people. If their thesis project gets and it’s not a good fit, then we just There’s a lot of people willing to volunteer,
designed and built, it’s the cherry on top. don’t do it. We also collaborate with AIA which is a nice problem to have.

> To read the full interview with Daniel Wiens, visit bit.ly/ARJourneyman.
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 October 2016 AIANow 63 AIAFeature 64 AIAFuture 69

AIA Architect
AIAVoices
PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANCESCO SAPIENZA

Because the High Line is a linear park, there’s take some of those theatrical approaches into
The Production a prescribed path that a person would take
through it that is similar to how a camera
our architectural work over the past 15 years.
Film is interesting [but] a documentary
of Life might experience it; there’s a direction, and a
narrative unfolds. The space itself becomes a
film about architecture can never convey the
actual experience of being there. And, any
Traversing the intersection of real and kind of character, a protagonist or antagonist film with an edit has a point of view. It can’t
cinematic. in the production of life, thereby turning an simply be an index of a place. Yet a film does
everyday experience into a kind of filmic explain something better than a still can.
Charles Renfro, AIA, constructs experiences. experience. Generally speaking, there’s no set A still, by nature, removes so much visual
He is a partner at New York City–based Diller way to experience a project or a building, but information that it cannot fully explain a
Scofidio + Renfro, a firm that has integrated if the work is good you will get people to think place, not to mention time. Film can start to
the arts and architecture like few others. That and feel something new. That’s really what overcome that.
intersection between tangible and cinematic we’re after. Architecture and film are both art forms
is on display in Diller Scofidio + Renfro: We began our careers as architects that are acquired or apprehended through
Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High working in the art world. Often that led time and space. In architecture, your body is
Line, a film about two of the firm’s more us to performance, theater, dance, and moving through the space; movement and
prominent urban projects that premiered at filmmaking—areas where we could control a direction and time add up to make a kind of
the Architecture & Design Film Festival in 2012 point of view and deliver a predictable way. cinema. In film, the camera is moving. More
(directed by Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper). It’s how we became interested in than any other art form, the connections are
Here, Renfro makes a case for architecture and interrogating the culture of the everyday. direct. AIA
film’s inextricability. We’ve also tried to interrogate the art forms
themselves: the art of cinema and the space
of the theater with its fourth wall. We’re For more on the 2016 Architecture & Design Film
As told to Steve Cimino interested in poking holes in typologies to let Festival, visit adfilmfest.com.
new experiences emerge. And we’ve tried to
61
I became an architect
to make a long-lasting
impact on communities;
to lift spirits, to add value
to people’s lives and to
positively shape the way
people live and use space.

Joseph Lai, AIA Member since 2012

Join me.
aia.org/join

Join today and get free registration to AIA Convention 2016!*

*Some restrictions apply. Review terms and conditions at aia.org/join.
 AIA NOW OCTOBER 2016 AIA Architect

AIANow
By Steve Cimino
Art Direction by Jelena Schulz
Choose Your Own
Adventure
As part of its new StudyArchitecture.com
initiative, the Association of Collegiate Schools
of Architecture (ACSA) has outlined eight
career paths for architects who have obtained
their degrees—a far cry from the former binary
choices of “architecture” and “other.” Here, we
examine what each of these eight paths has to
offer an emerging professional about to take
his or her next step.

ARCHITECTURE: The traditional option,

although becoming a licensed architect allows
for various areas of expertise, such as project
management or building codes.

DESIGN: Take the more visual elements of

your architectural training and employ them at
an advertising agency or urban planning firm.

COMMUNICATIONS: Architects have to

collaborate and communicate in order to
succeed; those skills are always a major plus in
both public relations and human resources.

COMMUNITY BUILDING: It’s difficult to be a

working architect today if you aren’t plugged
into your community. Management and design
positions in community initiatives abound.

TEACHING: Bring the lessons imparted upon

you to the next generation; an architect’s
communication and project management skills
translate well to the educational world.

MAKING: Use your design abilities in a hands-

on fashion; construction and carpentry are
a bit more physical but rooted in the same
methodologies.

MARKETING: A variety of clients, detail-

oriented work, and visionary thinking that leads
to beautiful design? Marketing is basically
architecture with more writing.

POST-PROFESSIONAL STUDIES: Why start

a job when there’s more to learn? Head back to
school, either for architecture or a related field
ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN NASSEF

of study, and narrow down your future path

even further.

To learn more about the ACSA’s new initiative,

visit studyarchitecture.com.

63
 AIA Architect OCTOBER 2016 AIA FEATURE

AIAFeature

Design’s Vanguard
Moved to France
Two architects write design/build’s next chapter abroad after making an indelible mark on their students and colleagues in the U.S.

By J. Michael Welton

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CARLIER

Architects and educators Marie and Keith Zawistowski have been instrumental in supporting France’s new legislation to make design/build a legal delivery method. They have also broken ground on a design/build workshop
in Villefontaine, outside Lyon, where they will blend practice, research, and teaching to train a new generation of architects.
64
AIA FEATURE OCTOBER 2016 AIA Architect

The Zawistowskis learned lessons about creative problem-solving

on a budget at Auburn University’s Rural Studio in 2001 and 2002,
which has led the couple to a highly coveted French architecture
prizes—and the opportunity to reintroduce design/build to a new
generation of French architects.

From 2008 to 2015 they developed those live in the home they designed and built. Marie. “They’re patient.”
lessons for Designing Practice, a class they “Lucy had been living in a shack, a house with From onSITE, they created a design/
co-taught as the first professors of practice no running water,” Keith says. “There were build teaching initiative to engage students at
at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + two things she asked for: a place to pray and a Virginia Tech in nonprofit community-service
Design, which garnered a National Council storm shelter.” projects. They called it design/buildLAB, and
of Architectural Registration Boards prize She got them both—no problem. The team blend creative problem-solving, fundraising,
for curricular rigor and application. While poured a concrete basement for a shelter design, and hands-on construction. In
distinct, Designing Practice was aligned with and designed her bedroom as a chapel, with essence, they urged students to create the
another course they taught: a design/build lab a skylight for its only window. They created conditions where architecture can succeed,
for third-year architecture students. walls made of stacked carpet tiles salvaged and with them they’ve established a legacy of
“Rather than teaching students how from office buildings and donated by Interface civic architecture in southwest Virginia.
practice works, we taught them that their Americas, the world’s largest modular carpet “They brought an educational dimension
future is a design challenge like any other— manufacturer. that subsequently generated a ‘service to
that they should be as creative about their “It was life-changing; it transformed her Appalachia’ component,” says Jack Davis,
approach to practice as they are about the life, and it transformed our life, too,” says FAIA, Virginia Tech’s Reynolds Metals
buildings they design,” Keith says. Marie, a native of Paris who studied at the Professor of Architecture and dean of the
Scott Poole, FAIA, former director of Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture College of Architecture and Urban Studies.
architecture and design at Virginia Tech, Paris-Malaquais before crossing the ocean to “Their greatest impact was making a
likens the pair to the fervent young founders of experience Rural Studio. “As architects, it was connection through design education to a
Modernism in the 1920s. “They’re unusual in incredibly empowering. We made a positive community in need.”
the sense that they operate at a high level in how impact on the world around us.” For Virginia Tech students, the pair
they negotiate difficulties and get the public were also the source of an infectious
excited about their work,” says Poole, currently entrepreneurial spirit. “It was like, ‘Take
dean of the College of Architecture + Design at Theory into Practice at Virginia Tech this project and own it from concept to
the University of Tennessee. “They are high- realization,’ ” says Virginia Tech graduate
level professionals at a very young age.” After graduation, the pair followed up with Brent Sikora (class of 2014), now working at
more residential design/build projects out HKS Architects in Richmond, Va. “They bring
of the practice they called onSITE, including a passion to what they’re doing, and it rubs off
The Lucy House a rammed-earth house in New Mexico; a on all the students.”
farmhouse in Covington, Va.; and an addition The pair takes an artisan’s approach to their
These two thirtysomethings met at Rural to a cabin in Stuart, Va. Their strategy was teaching. “We like to work with our hands,”
Studio as part of a team of six students to take on one project at a time, and ended Marie says. “We know it’s important for them
working on a project that became known as up having a three-year waiting list. “Clients to see the process. As a consequence of the way
the Lucy House, for the woman who would that are willing to wait are good clients,” says they draw, they will be better architects.”
65
 AIA Architect OCTOBER 2016 AIA FEATURE

AIAFeature
CONTINUED

Students in design/buildLAB managed a

budget while learning to value local resources,
context, craftsmen, and precedents. They
were taught to consult with community
leaders and prioritize projects—and line up for
funding from grants or sponsors.
They did that first in Covington, where
they designed and built a new permanent
farmer’s market downtown. A year later
students created an amphitheater in Clifton
Forge, Va., following up with a bridge that
serves as connective tissue between two
sections of downtown. Both projects spurred
revitalization, and two more classes designed
and built a Little League fieldhouse and
community ballpark.
“They were enormous ambassadors for
the value of architecture and architects,”
Keith says. “Consensus and momentum were
extremely important; they organized the
community around them, and then gave hope
to that community.”

Two Prizes in Paris “achievements in practice and in teaching.”

The irony is that their design/build work in
The couple’s work did not go unnoticed, the United States had triumphed in a country
especially in Paris. By April 2014 onSITE had where it was against the law. “We talked to
won the prestigious AJAP, or French Young representatives from the minister of culture,
Architects’ Prize. In November 2014 the and said that we’re doing it in the U.S. because
firm won the Prix Françoise Abella from the it’s illegal in France,” Keith says, “But its
French Académie des Beaux-Arts. Members roots are in France, from the origins of the
of the juries for both prizes cited onSITE’s profession through the time of Garnier.”

“They bring a passion to

what they’re doing, and it
rubs off on all the students.”
—Brent Sikora
TOP: After leaving Virginia Tech, the Zawistowskis moved to Soleymieu, a the late-medieval era stone village outside of Lyon, to raise their family.
ABOVE: At Les Grande Ateliers in Villefontaine his fall, the Zawistowskis begin teaching design/build to architecture students from Lyon and Grenoble.
66
AIA FEATURE OCTOBER 2016 AIA Architect

That’s Charles Garnier, who designed and

built the Paris Opera, or Palais Garnier, from
1861 to 1875. That lavish Beaux-Arts structure
served as a model for 19th-century design/
build. Garnier actually built a temporary office
on site so he could collaborate with artisans as
they executed his design.
It was a practice that would not last in
France. In 1895 the Code Guadet, the first
French code of ethics for architects, declared
the architecture profession a servant of the
public interest, incompatible with that of a
contractor, a servant of commercial interest,
and in 1940 that code was written into law.
But by 2014 an economic crisis, along with a
diminishing role for architects, were calling the
law into question. Attitudes were beginning to
shift. “Public commissions had long been the
lifeblood of French architecture, but the money ABOVE: The Zawistowskis and Michel-André Durand, the director of Les Grands Ateliers, discuss a prospective collaboration between students and
for large social projects has dried up,” Keith artisans. BELOW: Marie and Keith with Romain Anger, the scientific director of Amaco, a material research institute within Les Grands Ateliers.
says. “Adapting to this new reality has literally
become a matter of survival for the profession.”
When the Zawistowskis won their prizes, One result of the three committees’ work space, research offices, and an auditorium—will
architecture in France was on the cusp of was that the French legislature revisited its be sited next to the existing 15,000-square-foot
change—and the couple would be influential architecture laws and revised them. It inserted Grands Ateliers, a building prefabrication space
in helping to guide that change. “The question a new clause that allows for exemptions that large enough to accommodate the fuselage
was, ‘How do we make sure that the law allows enable demonstration projects that might of a commercial aircraft. If their impact at
young architects to shape the future of their include the concept of design/build. That Virginia Tech and Appalachia is any indicator,
own profession?’” he says. legislation passed this July. the French architecture students soon will
One answer was the French minister of be engaged in groundbreaking architectural
culture’s creation of a “National Strategy experiences. The Covington farmers market
for Architecture,” a series of cultural and Creating Dream Jobs earned a 2011 Design Excellence Award from
political initiatives for legal changes that favor AIA Virginia, and it was not just a one-off
architects and architecture. The first phase One of the couple’s favorite teaching points for community success. It was followed by four
was the creation of three committees with students is that their dream job doesn’t exist: more student-led projects in Clifton Forge.
names derived from action verbs: Innovate, They have to create it. In France they’ve taken “That whole community of Clifton Forge
Sensitize, and Develop. Each was co-chaired by their own advice, moving both themselves and now values modern architecture in a way some
a late-career winner of the French Grand Prize onSITE to the little stone village of Soleymieu cities don’t, because they saw the value Keith
in architecture and an early-career winner of near Lyon and Les Grands Ateliers (The Big and Marie brought to their community, with
the Young Architects Prize. “There was one Workshops), a resource that Patrice Doat, a the amphitheater, the bridge, and the ballfield,”
person who’d been around a long time, and one giant in French architectural education, was says the University of Tennessee’s Poole.
with an ideology of how architecture could be,” instrumental in creating. They’ve worked Et voilà! The pair recently incorporated
Marie says. with that resource, one shared by all French onSITE for practice in France, which means
She represented onSITE on the Innovate public architecture schools, to identify partners that now, to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald,
committee. “Our work here was definitely an and raise funds to create teaching positions anything can happen—anything at all. AIA
important reference,” she says. “It showed for themselves. “The schools of Lyon and
the value of what we were proposing.” Out Grenoble are each contributing half of one
of that committee came measures designed of our salaries,” Marie says. “The regional
to pave the way for initiatives similar to government is contributing the other halves.”
their Designing Practice course and design/ So this fall they’ll be teaching a group of
buildLAB. about 40 first-year master students from Lyon
In fall of 2015, the pair left Virginia Tech and Grenoble at Les Grands Ateliers. That first
and headed for Paris to help shape laws and group of design/buildLAB students in France
policy, and to initiate design/build in teaching will be assigned a one-of-a-kind exercise in
and practice. They visited with friends, creative problem-solving. “They’ll design and
colleagues, school directors, and faculty, build the Co-Creation Lab, which will serve as
exhibiting their work and giving lectures, the base of future public interest design/build
seeking to identify an entry point for design/ student projects,” Keith says.
build in the public architecture school. The 5,000-square-foot structure—with lab
67
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 AIA FUTURE OCTOBER 2016 AIA Architect

AIAFuture
Six Design
Decisions Your
Clients Will
Thank You For
People spend 90 percent of their
time indoors, and much of that time
is spent at the office: an average of
47 hours per week. From lighting,
to acoustics, to how much time we
spend sitting, employees’ workplace
experiences can impact their mental
and physical well-being, even after
they leave the office.
The good news is design decisions
can increase health and happiness
at work, and mitigate negative
consequences of environmental
stressors. According to Stanford
University researchers, the effects
of workplace stress are comparable
to those of secondhand smoke.
Long workdays and short deadlines
contribute to long-term increased
risk of cardiovascular disease, along
with depression, anxiety, and short-
term losses in productivity at work
and at home.
Potential design clients are
taking note. Nearly half of U.S.
companies are investing in workplace
interventions to mitigate stress
and improve well-being, including
redesigning where we work. The
WELL Building Standard and other
emerging evidence-based tools and
standards help architects design
spaces that reduce stress and
ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL KIRKHAM

enhance physical and mental well-

being. On the next page, you’ll find
three common workplace stressors
and six evidence-based strategies
that can help clients promote health
and reduce costs.
69
 AIA Architect OCTOBER
JUNE 2016
2015 AIA DESIGN
FUTURE

AIAFuture
CONTINUED

WORKPLACE STRESSOR #1: Light

Adequate lighting is conducive to good health. It allows people to see

color, perceive space, and perform tasks with ease and focus. But the
quality of light in the workplace—both sunlight and artificial—matters.
Diffuse ambient light or visible daylight may boost moods, while
excessive or uneven light may lead to fatigue and visual discomfort.
Light affects people in nonvisual ways, too. Inadequate exposure
to daytime sunlight and nocturnal light pollution over time are linked
with increased risk of breast and prostate cancer. Therefore it is critical
that workspaces provide regular access to natural light, feature lighting
systems that consider circadian rhythms, and reduce sources of glare
and visual discomfort.
1. Architects can reduce the effects of glare—stress-inducing
excessive brightness—through strategic window sizing, operable
controls, and electrochromic glass that reduce disruption without an
overreliance on window shading.
2. Architects can use light models and other technologies to ensure
adequate levels of equivalent melanopic lux—the parameter that
indicates the impact of light on circadian rhythms—at workstations WORKPLACE STRESSOR #2: Acoustics
throughout the day, ensuring better rest at night.
Office noise is a leading source of dissatisfaction—and distraction—in
the workplace. According to researchers at the University of California,
Irvine, the modern office employee is interrupted every three minutes.
These interruptions come at a cost: Interrupted workers require more
effort to complete their work, and experience greater levels of stress.
And while it may be appealing for workers to cue up a Bach cello
suite and don a pair of noise-canceling headphones, the long-term
exposure may cause permanent hearing damage with no substantial
gains in productivity.
3. Architects can provide their clients with a variety of “quiet” and
“loud” zones to enable speech privacy—a leading concern among office
workers—without impairing collaboration. An important first step is
identifying and reducing noise emanating from mechanical systems
and office equipment.
4. Architects can incorporate absorptive surfaces in order to reduce
unwanted noise reverberation. Examples of sound-reducing treatments
include wall panels, ceiling baffles, and other surface enhancements.

WORKPLACE STRESSOR #3: Temperature

Thermal comfort significantly affects how individuals feel and perform at

work, and individual preferences can differ substantially from person to
person. Yet many workplaces are optimized for middle-aged men in suits.
Variables such as humidity, air speed, metabolic rate, and clothing
affect comfort, productivity, and stress levels. If it’s too warm, workers
may experience headaches, eye and throat irritation, sweating, or an
inability to focus on tasks. If it’s too cold, workers will often report
feelings of discomfort.
5. Whether designing mechanically or naturally ventilated spaces,
architects can work with engineers to balance workers’ personal
comfort and the building’s energy efficiency, improving clients’ bottom
lines.
6. Architects can provide areas with thermal gradients and personal
controls to ensure that workers can find a space that meets their
preferences. AIA

Matt Welker
70
Insider knowledge
that thinks outside
the box.

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information, education and inspiration. From LED toolkits and photo galleries
to original content, the Lighting reSOURCE gives you 24/7 access to the
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 SPONSORED CONTENT

CASE STUDY: KMD ARCHITECTS

Beyond Visualization
Lumion Helps the Clients of KMD Architects Make Better Decisions

“We are an idea firm …” begins the firm’s

official introduction.
That reverence for ideas, their generation,
development, propagation, and sharing is
at the heart of San Francisco, Calif.-based
KMD Architects. This 53-year-old employee-
owned firm has turned their ideas into some
of the finest examples of commercial, retail,
healthcare, government/civic, office, and
hospitality building environments, earning
hundreds of design awards worldwide,
including more than 40 AIA awards.

Orchestrating a staff of over 200 of self-

described “artists, pirates, scientists, math
professors, and bards” is the responsibility of Medical University rendering courtesy of KMD Architects
KMD Director of Design and CEO Ryan Stevens, more to garnish client support if you actively effect the main entrance at 10:00 a.m.?
AIA. Stevens assumed the KMD leadership compare and contrast design ideas in real-time. At 4:00 p.m.? We can quickly see the effects of
post in 2013, after a 13-year stint as the firm’s light, reflection, placement of elements on the
“This morning, for example, I was meeting with
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a team on a project. We must have reloaded the
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Challenge
For CMD designers, Lumion has earned a to use fancy words to describe what you’re
“The key to good design is enabling good
coveted place in the CMD work flow as a trusted trying to do.
decisions” Stevens explains.
way to “deal with the decision-making process.”
For CMD, that means actively engaging “Lumion lets clients experience your ideas.
Lumion is a software solution that enables
the client in the ideation process. Stevens
CMD architects to quickly, easily create
They become advocates.” ?
understands some may view that approach as
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a risk, but it’s one Stevens is open to. “You want
panoramas. Today 61 of the world’s top For More Information
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100 architect firms are among thousands
involve your client in that process,” the KMD Website
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represents finality, all the design decisions infoUSA@lumion3d.com
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CONTINUING EDUCATION

ROBUST WALLS WITH CONTINUOUS

Presented by:

FOAM PLASTIC INSULATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:
1. Examine NFPA 285 approved wall assemblies that
use foam plastic insulation in cavity walls and rain
screens.
2. Understand how insulation manufacturers can
assist architects in attempting to secure approval
from code officials without first performing time
consuming NFPA 285 tests on the wall assembly
proposed for their project.
3. Describe the importance of using continuous
insulation in wall assemblies.
4. Find alternative wall designs that might provide
better insulating performance and better prevention
of moisture penetration/accumulation than vapor
permeable wall designs.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
CREDIT: 1 LU/HSW
COURSE NUMBER: ARoct2016.4
Use the learning objectives above to focus
your study as you read this article. To earn credit
and obtain a certificate of completion, visit
http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course4 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you
are new to Hanley Wood University, create a
free learner account; returning users log in
as usual.

INCREASED INSULATING PERFORMANCE Finally, misconceptions exist about foam plastic

OF WALL ASSEMBLIES insulation preventing compliance with the IBC
requirement concerning flame propagation. There
Many architects today and in the future will
are wall assemblies that are approved for NFPA
be looking for ways to increase the insulating
285 and manufacturers of polyurethane insulation
performance of wall assemblies in order to
that are ready to assist if code officials require an
meet increasingly stringent minimum energy
actual test.
code requirements. Using the highest R-value
insulations, all other things being equal, Foam plastic insulation (polyiso board and spray
would seem to make sense as a key measure polyurethane foam) can be used in code-
in developing walls with greater insulation approvable wall assemblies that work in cold,
performance. warm, marine and humid climates. Architects will
be able to create alternatives to vapor permeable
The idea that building design and material
wall assemblies that address three main concerns:
selection can impact occupant health has also
NFPA 285 flame spread tests, mitigating moisture
landed on the architectural profession. Moisture
retention within walls, and delivering higher
accumulation and mold as a health issue must
insulating performance with great levels of
be addressed. Some believe that a wall must
comfort.
maximize its ability to dry out via vapor diffusion
and related phenomena to efficiently prevent
moisture accumulation, but that approach The International Building Code requires that walls with foam plastic
sacrifices thermal performance. There are insulation pass the NFPA 285 test. Image courtesy of Construction and
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other approaches.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

designs no longer code officials in making choices about how

work. For example, walls are designed, and to aid those seeking
in the past architects less energy use and better thermal comfort
could incorporate for occupants.
more robust HVAC
This diagram demonstrates what the test looks
systems to help dry
like. The test begins with a five-sided concrete
out walls, but the
box; the sixth side is where a company builds
more energy efficient
their wall to be tested. The wall is always the
HVAC systems that
same dimension, always has windows in the
are now required
same place, and is always set on fire in the
no longer serve this
same ways.
auxiliary purpose; the
walls now have to The fire is first introduced inside the lower floor
dry out on their own. with the room burner. After a short period of
Only 2% of all the oil harvested is used as feedstock for the manufacture of products such as wall insulation. Therefore, as we drive time the fire is introduced within the thickness
Image courtesy of US Energy Information Administration (PVC) lack.
overall energy usage of the wall at the window burner. These two
down, wall design sources of flame are designed to simulate how
A Petroleum Bias
and moisture management are becoming ever fires may get into a wall and how flames can
Many architects believe that using building more important. Continuous insulation can be spread through the wall.
materials comprised of petroleum is inherently one part of the solution to this conundrum.
In order to pass the test, the exterior flames
bad. This is a common misconception that must
NFPA 285 must not spread beyond vertical and lateral
be clarified. The fact is, approximately 93%
limits; these limits are five feet left of, right
of petroleum is burned as fuel, 5% is used in Foam plastic insulation is the generic term
of, and below the center, plus 10 feet above
asphalt, lubricants, and other miscellaneous for polyiso board, spray polyurethane
the window opening. If there is any visible
liquids, and only 2% of all the oil harvested foam, expanded polystyrene, and extruded
evidence of fire even one inch beyond these
is used as feedstock for the manufacture of polystyrene. These are all insulations that are
limits the wall assembly fails.
products, such as wall insulation (plus many made from oil.
other products in construction, medical and In addition, thermocouples read the
The International Building Code requires that
other fields). As the chart above shows, this temperature inside the wall. The core
walls with foam plastic insulation pass the NFPA
brings all non-fuel uses to only 7%. The major temperature may not exceed 1,000 degrees
285 test, aka Standard Fire Test Method for
problems with petroleum arise when it is Fahrenheit and visible flames should not
Evaluation of Fire Propagation Characteristics
combusted as heating oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, protrude beyond the wall assembly. There
of Exterior Non-Load-Bearing Wall Assemblies
jet fuel, propane, natural gas, or still gas, not is a 1st story and a 2nd story test room; the
Containing Combustible Components.
when it’s used to manufacture products. interior flames should not go into the 2nd
Many are unaware that some insulation story. The 1st story stud cavity should not
Moving Toward Continuous Insulation (C.I.)
manufacturers have pre-emptively and exceed 750 degrees Fahrenheit. And finally,
Continuous insulation is now the preferred, successfully tested wall assemblies using foam there can be no appearance of flames at the
and often mandated, way to insulate a wall. plastic insulations to help guide architects and edges of the wall assembly.
Continuous insulation means placing insulation
As you can see, this is a
on the outside face of the sheathing so that it is
time-consuming test to run,
not interrupted by studs inside the wall, which
and it’s expensive, but the
cause thermal breaks. There may or may not
results are clear.
be a weather barrier in between the sheathing
and the insulation. Some sort of weather barrier Hurdles include not only the
should always be used in the wall assembly. cost, but also the time it takes
Foam plastic insulations tend to provide to schedule the test, build the
additional resistance to moisture penetration wall assembly at the test site,
and absorption—a useful redundancy—while and then actually conduct
fibrous insulations absorb the moisture. the test. The time required is
often more of an issue with
LEED projects mandate continuous insulation,
building owners than the cost
but in general, it is considered a basic design
of the test since a part of the
solution for improving the energy efficiency of
building design may remain
walls, and is becoming the norm even if not yet
unresolved until the results of
required by code everywhere.
the test are known.
Another phenomenon is that building energy In order to pass the test the exterior flames must not spread beyond vertical and lateral limits;
usage is being driven lower, so older wall these limits are five feet left of, right of, and below the center, plus 10 feet above the window
opening. Image courtesy of Construction and Maintenance Solutions, LLC

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

Wall Assemblies—XPS Insulation

Extruded polystyrenes (XPS) are
thermoplastic insulations by
classification, meaning that they do
not resist heat and fire well. When
exposed to enough heat they can
lose their shape. When they catch
fire, and when on fire, material on
fire drips from the board.
In most roof and wall assemblies
seeking a fire rating that are constructed
with extruded polystyrene, another layer
of protective material must be placed
between the flame and the XPS to
prevent the XPS from directly contacting
the flame and absorbing too much heat
or catching on fire.
Window Head Condition—
Polyiso Insulation
By contrast, polyiso board is a thermo-
set product, which means that it won’t
change shape or disintegrate when
Protect sensitive materials by blocking fire and heat from getting into the exposed to flame. It burns, then chars,
wall cavity at the window head. Image courtesy of Carlisle Construction which retards flame propagation to a
Materials and Construction and Maintenance Solutions, LLC. certain degree. This is why it can be
set in window openings in wall cavities
Wall Assembly Details and NFPA 285
without other protective material
It is not just one material that helps a wall between the insulation and the window Foam plastic insulation in six NFPA 285 walls. Images courtesy of Covestro
assembly pass NFPA 285; it’s an assembly. A opening in many NFPA 285 compliant
poorly detailed wall may fail using the same assemblies. Other reviewing agencies such these walls is close enough in design to the
products as a better-detailed wall. Window as the insurance oriented FM Global may have wall you are constructing, you can present
head details can make or break the NFPA 285 additional requirements. It is advisable to check an engineering report to your code official,
results, so it is an important strategy to protect with the building owner’s insurance carrier for showing that a sample/similar wall passed.
temperature and flame sensitive materials by any additional requirements they might have
You may then not have to perform the test
blocking fire and heat from getting into the beyond building code compliance.
yourself because the wall assembly already
wall cavity at the window head. Steel, concrete, tested satisfies the code official’s concerns.
For a long time, code officials ignored the
masonry, mineral wool, fire-rated gyp board,
code requirement for testing walls containing
fire-treated lumber, and/or intumescent caulk Whether you have to do an actual test or not,
foam plastic insulation. Then, with the advent
may be required. by doing all these NFPA 285 tests preemptively,
of continuous insulation, the NFPA 285 test
certain polyiso manufacturers are now very
This image shows the view beneath the became more often required by code officials.
knowledgeable and could help anyone who’s
window head. At the top of the window The required tests on these known insulations
contemplating designing a wall with polyiso
head, flammable and semi-flammable weather and wall assemblies can take $15–$30,000 or
insulation in it.
barriers are introduced over the fire-treated more to erect the wall at the testing site and
lumber, closing off the inside face of the wall then run the test. It can take three to four FOAM PLASTIC INSULATION IN
(blue material). The wall assembly in this image months waiting in a queue to get an assembly NFPA 285 WALLS
has a steel lintel on the outside, but there is tested. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to
convince a client to either delay a project for Let’s look at these six illustrations, each showing
a two-inch air gap between the vertical studs
that long or incorporate the required time into steel stud walls with polyiso board continuous
(jamb) which are also covered in the blue
the original schedule when neither is a normal insulation. All have passed NFPA 285, and have
weather barrier, and the insulation. It is possible
part of project development. a variety of 3rd party engineering opinions
to fire caulk the narrow ½"–1" gap at the head.
that expand the applicability of the testing.
But you can’t caulk the 2" gap at the jamb.
This is why a number of polyiso board The first is a typical brick veneer wall with
With this wide gap, many assemblies will fail
manufacturers have preemptively built and steel studs. Next to it is an un-insulated metal
the NFPA 285 test. In many cases, blocking off
tested a number of wall systems constructed panel skin, a very different type of veneer. One
the gaps is an essential part of wall assembly
of various materials for NFPA 285. If one of would think that the brick would actually help
design no matter what insulation is used.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
CONTINUING EDUCATION

with the flame-spread, but right next to it is QUIZ

a wall assembly that just has pieces of metal.
This shows that the polyiso board and other
1. Approximately _____% of petroleum is burned as fuel, while only ______% of all the oil harvested is used as feedstock
thermo-set insulations can resist flame spread, for the manufacture of products.
irrespective of the cladding without additional a. 10, 80 b. 93, 2
protection or unusual additional materials. c. 80, 7 d. 25, 75

Cement board siding is a typical cladding

2. Foam plastic insulations tend to provide additional resistance to moisture penetration and absorption while fibrous
material. Next is a terra cotta rainscreen, which insulations absorb the moisture.
is designed so that air moves between the a. True b. False
insulation and the back of the cladding, yet
it still passes the NFPA 285 test. Finally, both 3. The International Building Code does not require that walls with foam plastic insulation pass the NFPA 285 test.
natural stone cladding and traditional stucco a. True b. False
veneer with polyiso insulation passed the test.
4. Polyiso board is a thermo-set product, which means that it won’t change shape or disintegrate when exposed to flame.
Some insulation manufacturers have 3rd party a. True b. False
NFPA tests for certain wall assemblies. These
assemblies are a combination of building 5. Which type of wall resists more moisture retards moisture penetration, while allowing drying toward the interior if/when
envelope skins, steel studs, and polyiso board moisture gets in?

insulation. NFPA 285 compliant wall assemblies a. Higher perm b. Lower perm

that have been preemptively tested successfully

6. A rigid board will remain rigid and resist air penetration, while fiberglass or mineral wool insulation will not stop moisture
include components such as the following: from entering the stud cavity via air leakage.

The skins include: a. True b. False

• Brick veneer 7. In Building Science Corporation tests, walls with continuous insulation in the Pacific NW keep their sheathing moisture
content below 20 percent almost year-round, protecting the interior surface temperature of the sheathing from getting
• Stucco (minimum ¾" thick with cold enough for condensation.
exterior lath) a. True b. False
• Limestone veneer (minimum 2" thick)
8. Which of the following are true?
• Cast stone veneer (minimum 2" thick)
a. Highly permeable walls allow moisture b. High perm insulation retards moisture from
• Natural stone veneer (minimum 2" thick) in vapor form to pass through air leakage inside the wall
c. Vapor diffusion can be relied upon to drive d. Low perm walls keep out moisture from
• Metal composite material (MCM) moisture out of walls all of the time air leakage and vapor drive
• Terra cotta cladding (1-1/4" thick minimum) e. Low perm walls save HVAC energy when they f. A, D, and E
prevent moisture from entering the building
• Metal panels g. All of the above
• Cement board siding
9. Continuous insulation foam plastic insulation walls that are vapor-impermeable have the lowest wintertime air leakage
Manufacturers successfully tested the same wall and lowest wintertime sheathing moisture content.
assembly with different types of polyurethane a. True b. False
insulation board products. Each of these skins
have passed NFPA 285 burn tests using the 10. Which of the following is a benefit of continuous low perm foam plastic insulation as a wall design strategy?

following insulation board products: a. Control bulk moisture from precipitation b. Control air penetration and air leakage into the wall
c. Maintain warmer temperatures within the stud cavity d. Control moisture penetration via vapor drive
• Polysio board with coated glass mat facers
e. B, C and D f. All of the above
and WRB
• Polysio board with foil facers and WRB
• Polysio board with nailable fire-treated
wood panels and WRB SPONSOR INFORMATION
• Polysio board with air/moisture/vapor
resistant facer, taped board joints and
no WRB

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Covestro is a global leader in high-tech polymers and creative solutions that positively impact people’s
lives every day. We push the boundaries of what is possible in the building & construction industry, among
others. Covestro products create sustainable, resilient and aesthetic construction solutions.
complete the corresponding quiz for credit.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

Presented by:

ACCESSIBILITY FROM THE FIRST STEP

DESIGNING AUTOMATIC PEDESTRIAN ENTRYWAYS TO EXCEED ADA STANDARDS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course the student

will be able to:
1. Discuss how to design entrances using automatic
sliding and swinging doors to fully address
ADA compliance and the needs of physically
challenged individuals.
2. Describe how automatic door systems function
and considerations for accommodating their
footprints and operational aspects in the overall
building design.
3. List key criteria for choosing a door system
or configuration for a specific application,
based on ADA and general principles of use.
4. Explain how safety and security devices and
actuators have expanded the functionality of door
systems, including for ADA applications.
5. Reconcile the use of automatic door systems with
building codes and ANSI guidelines.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

AIA CREDIT: 1 HSW/LU

AIA COURSE NUMBER: AROCT2016.2

Use the learning objectives above to focus

your study as you read this article. To earn
credit and obtain a certificate of completion,
visit http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course2 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you are
new to Hanley Wood University, create a free learner
account; returning users log in as usual.

By C.C. Sullivan

BASICS OF ACCESSIBILITY AND and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board in information, knowledge, and interest in
DOOR SYSTEMS (ATBCB), also known as the United States complying with the ADA still exist,” as defined
Access Board, “issues guidelines to ensure by the National Council on Disability.2 In one
One of the country’s most significant civil
that buildings, facilities, and transit vehicles of those areas—entrances to buildings—
rights laws when it passed in 1991, the
are accessible and usable by people with significant strides have been made recently in
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits
disabilities,” according to the U.S. Department ADA policy, technology, and implementation.
discrimination against people with disabilities in
of Labor.1 These include new automatic door systems and
every facet of public life, including employment,
products, as well as design solutions to improve
transportation, public accommodation, Yet even today, more than 25 years after
the accessibility and safety of today’s building
communications, and governmental activities. ADA became law, architects involved in the
entries while also boosting functionality
The Department of Justice enforces the law’s ADA through building design are aware of
and universal design, meaning that they are
application to public accommodations and an “implementation gap”: Places where
inherently accessible to all people, as well as
government services, and the Architectural “the ADA remains unimplemented, and gaps
those with disabilities.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Addressing these challenges, a growing improving accessibility and the universality of intellectual challenges. The growing trend of
number of architects are adopting and sharing their designs. On the technology side, new service animals adds yet another dimension.
strategies to boost universal design for automatic door systems include auto-slide and In all cases, ADA provides a baseline for
doorways and entrances. Rather than aiming auto-swing doors that open paths to novel accommodation; but leading architects are
for minimum compliance, which is enforced design solutions, as well as a new generation of going beyond the bare minimum to consider
by codes and ADA, these savvy designers large-diameter automatic revolving doors. the preferences of the physically challenged
are thinking about universal design and user user community and to differentiate their
According to the Builders Hardware
preferences, and differentiating their buildings buildings and landscapes by being truly
Manufacturers Association (BHMA), standards
by leveraging appropriate technologies. The accessible, comfortable, and open to all.
for power-operated pedestrian doors are
keys to success include:
covered in ANSI/BHMA Standards A156.10
• Choosing and designing appropriate and A156.19.3 These include automatic doors
entries, openings and doors for people and power-assist and low-energy types, their
with varied abilities. operator mechanisms, and components such as
• Applying those door systems to meet and sensing devices, guide rails and control mats.
exceed all ADA requirements for entries in Protective elements include the safety zone,
buildings of certain sizes. where the presence of people will prevent door
operation when appropriate, as well as break
• All while complying with published
out action, an emergency feature allowing the
building codes and standards.
doors to swing in the egress direction.
In some cases, project teams are reviewing case
Today’s power-operated door systems
studies on best-in-class door system designs
have evolved dramatically. New solutions
to apply similarly novel solutions. In addition,
include storm-resistant types that withstand
they’re consulting the 2010 ADA Standards
wind pressures as high as 85 psf or wind speeds
for Accessible Design, initiated in March 2012,
exceeding 100 mph. In-ground operators
which had a few key changes, including some
now allow architects to hide the mechanisms
for automatic doors. At the same time, building
in the floor for aesthetic and safety benefits.
codes have changed, notably the International
Automatic security revolving doors, often used
Code Council (ICC)/American National
with flanking swing doors for ADA compliance,
Standards Institute (ANSI) A117.1, Accessible
offer protections against piggybacking and
and Usable Buildings and Facilities. Architects
tailgating, two key issues for hospitals, schools
encounter these new rules in the International
and police stations. Automatic slide doors can
Building Code (IBC) and the International Fire
even be engineered for ballistic-rated openings.
Code (IFC); for egress doors, the rules are
Indoor powered systems offer applications for
also referenced in the National Fire Protection
self-closing, smoke-rated (UL 1784 compliance)
Association’s NFPA 101, Life Safety Code.
sliding doors for intensive care unit (ICU) use in
healthcare settings. Many automatic door products address ADA compliance as well as
innovation in universal design.
With these and other tools, architects now
design entries with better, more comfortable THE EVOLUTION OF BETTER
layouts and clearances, including for larger DOOR SYSTEMS
vestibules that help maintain interior
temperatures while also reducing building For these architects, part of the challenge is
energy consumption. The power-actuated educating their clients on key questions related
systems even help architects create more to entryway and doorway system design.
resilient enclosures, meaning they are suitable Owners need to know: What’s a barrier?
for significant swings in weather. And what’s “readily achievable” in terms of
accommodations? Also, how is ADA enforced?
Most important, many of the automatic door Many of these questions are resolved in the
products address ADA compliance as well original ADA (1990) and Amendments (2008).
as innovation in universal design. While in Yet, owners also need to consider improvements
New automatic door systems include auto-slide and auto-swing the past some have called this barrier-free or over standard practice in entry designs to
doors that open paths to novel design solutions, as well as a new even “special needs” design, today the term
generation of large-diameter automatic revolving doors.
achieve the benefits of universal design.
universal design is seen as best practice—a
sign of smart, high-quality architecture.4 For doors in ADA applications, the key elements
STANDARDS—AND SOLUTIONS for design-phase review include: the number
Many building projects accommodate an
In these ways, architects push to keep abreast increasingly diverse user population, with and size of openings; the clearance width of
of door system improvements to focus on older occupants and a diversity of physical and the door opening and other maneuvering
clearances; hardware selection (including
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
CONTINUING EDUCATION

security considerations); the height of to a building’s aesthetics and can make a more swing door operation or perhaps by a
thresholds; and the slope and evenness of attractive and accommodating facility. sliding door? Does a compliant revolving
floors and ramps. ADA standards and ANSI/ door suit the needs for the entryway?
BHMA requirements also apply to all power NEW DOOR TECHNOLOGIES AND SYSTEMS
• Operation. Considering the traffic, layout,
operators. The U.S. Access Board provides Before going into detail on these ADA and clearances, should the doors be
direct advice in its Guide to the ADA Standards attributes of entries, a closer look at automatic in-swing, out-swing, or sliding? Is left- or
under “Chapter 4: Entrances, Doors, and and power-operated door systems helps right-handed operation best, and which
Gates”5 on the number and size of openings, provide a toolkit for achieving and exceeding way should the sliders move?
opening force and closing time, hardware mere compliance. A first variable is product
design and function for openings, and • Power assist, low energy or full power.
selection: Is the best door solution a revolving, While some situations need power-assist
threshold and floor characteristics at swing, slide or folding type? For example,
openings, which generally should be and low-energy swing doors, which
an auto-slide door may be preferred over can be opened manually or activated
smooth, level and flush. an auto-swing door due to right-of-way with a “knowing act” such as pressing
Recent changes in the 2010 updates to the (ROW) requirements or door area layouts an actuator push-plate, heavy traffic
ADA and in the current IBC include a force and clearances, hands-free actuation, or a applications often require full-power swing
limit for door hardware of 5 pounds-force (lb combination of those. A second consideration or sliding doors, which would be routinely
or lbf) for interior applications and 12 lb for is controls: Which area sensors and actuators motion sensor actuated.
exterior doors. New profile requirements for will serve most safely and efficiently the
expected inbound and outbound traffic, • Sensors. Closing time is adjustable, and
manual swinging doors6 are also now in effect.
including the widest range of user types? some actuators can be programmed with
For automatic doors, two key changes have
Finally, mode of operation should be clearly safety modes to reverse direction when the
emerged: First, the requirement for standby
defined in any specification, meaning the door touches an object or person, called
power for automatic operators on swing doors
precise description of how the automatic door door-reversal sensors. Novel sensor systems
without proper maneuvering clearance on
system is to function. For example, there may for door operators include obstruction-
the egress side. Second, safety requirements
be more than one “mode of operation” such as sensing technology, which reduces opening
are now given for low-energy automatic
during secured and non-secured hours. Similar speed when the entry is blocked, as well
operators, which must meet most or all safety
questions must be addressed for power- as hold-open sensors, which maintain the
requirements for the full-powered automatic
operated interior doorways, such as those seen door in the open position as long as there
operator and in some cases must provide for
in hospital ICUs. is a presence in the threshold area.
safety mats and guide rails.7
• Installation. Surface applied or overhead
Other general requirements to consider for best From these starting points of operator and
concealed systems offer different benefits for
practices include operator variables—speed, controls selection, architects and specifiers
the application, aesthetics and architectural
time delay, and obstruction sensing—as well then consider a number of product types,
integration. In-ground operators may be
as options for vision glass, frame options and configurations and options:
preferred for certain applications, such as
signage. These are not only useful elements of • Door type. Is the automatic opening best swing door entrances with arches or all glass
universal accessibility, but they also contribute served with single, pair, or double egress curtain wall construction.
• Operator access. For installation and
DEFINITIONS OF POWER-OPERATED DOORS maintenance of the electric door operators,
For pedestrian applications, automatic doors are defined and standardized by the group Builders Hardware door headers can have bottom or side
Manufacturers Association (BHMA) and their nationally recognized ANSI/BHMA Standards A156.10 (full access panels if they are easily accessible.
powered) and A156.19 (low energy).
In-ground operators with top access may
• Automatic Door: A system combining a door, an operator, and controls. be preferred for aesthetics or when there
• Automatic Operator: The mechanism bringing about the opening and closing of a door upon actuation. is no headroom above the door frame to
• Break Out or Emergency Breakaway: In emergency mode, an auto-swing or auto-slide door permits opening by mount an operator.
swinging in the egress direction (often required when power-operated doors are in the means of egress).
• Control Mat or Floor Mat: The recessed component in front of an automatic door used to actuate the door, In addition, an automatic door system can
prevent its activation, or hold it open. be ADA compliant as well as hurricane sturdy.
• Guide Rail: Architectural separation elements used to control traffic. Some door systems on the market are rated
• Low-Energy Door: Power-operated doors that operate in a controlled manner to meet a specified maximum for high wind and air pressures, water ingress
amount of kinetic energy. and windborne projectiles. These storm-ready
• Power-Assist Door: Power-operated doors designed to reduce the opening resistance of a self-closing door. assemblies respond to needs for better weather
• Sensing Device: Including motion, photocell, and area occupancy sensors, these work in place of or in tandem protection as well as local codes including
with a control mat. the Miami-Dade and Broward County
• Safety Zone: An area on the outswing side of a power-operated door and the threshold area that must be standard for high-velocity hurricane zones.
protected when occupied—for example, by motion sensors or control mats, or both. While storm resistance is not a part of ADA
Source: Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association compliance, it is often a key part of the
http://www.buildershardware.com/resources/Terminology/power-operated-pedestrian-doors opening specification.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

QUIZ

1. For doors in ADA applications, which of the following is a key consideration for design-phase review?
a. Number and size of openings b. Clearance width of door opening and other
maneuvering clearances

c. Hardware selection d. Height of thresholds

e. Slope and evenness of floors and ramps f. All of the above

2. Recent changes in the 2010 updates to the ADA and in the current IBC include a force limit for door hardware of ______
pounds-force for interior applications and 12 pounds-force for exterior doors.
a. 1 b. 5
c. 10 d. 15

3. True or False: Some actuators can be programmed with safety modes to reverse direction when the door touches an object
or person, called door-reversal sensors.

4. To protect occupants in an emergency, multiple means of egress are typically sized so that if one means is lost, the
remaining available capacity would not be lower than ____ percent of the total required capacity.
a. 20 b. 30
c. 40 d. 50

5. Per the ADA standard, doorways must always have a clear opening of at least _____ inches wide.
a. 24 b. 30
c. 32 d. 46

6. In new construction, the rule is that _____ percent of public entrances must be accessible.
a. 10 b. 30
c. 60 d. 90

7. True or False: At all entries except those used in only one direction, the maneuvering clearances are required both inside
and outside.

8. For all door types in new construction projects, threshold height must always be ____ inch or less.
a. 1/4 b. 1/2
c. 1 d. 2

9. Which type of device reduces (but does not completely eliminate) the needed opening force, activated by initial manual
force, switches, or sensors?
a. Power-assisted b. Low-energy
c. Full-power operators
Most auto-swing and auto-slide systems have adjustable control of
the hold-open time as well as adjustable time-delay closing, ranging
from two seconds up to 30 seconds. 10. True or False: Most doors with low-energy operators do not need safety sensors, control mats, or guide rails because limits
on their opening speed and force help protect users from accidents or injury.
To design for ADA applications using these
and other automatic entry door offerings,
project teams increasingly deploy controls and
operators that make accessibility safer, more
comfortable and efficient. Most auto-swing SPONSOR INFORMATION
and auto-slide systems have adjustable control
of the hold-open time as well as adjustable
time-delay closing, ranging from two seconds
up to 30 seconds.

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Horton Automatics has been designing, manufacturing, and selling automatic and manual doors since 1960,
when it developed the first automatic sliding door sold in America. Horton provides engineered access
solutions for people-oriented environments. Through an intense focus on delivered quality, a broad and
complete the corresponding quiz for credit. customizable product portfolio, innovative applications and best local installation and service, we enhance
the safety, security, convenience and style of commercial, institutional and transit facilities.

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ACOUSTIC PRIVACY WITHIN

Presented by:

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course the student

will be able to:
1. Define ‘acoustic privacy’ and why it
is important.
2. Explain how speech intelligibility is measured
within the built environment.
3. Identify how to achieve acoustic privacy using
various interior elements.
4. Describe the impact of background sound levels
within both open and closed spaces.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CREDIT: 1 LU/HSW
COURSE NUMBER: ARmay2016.6
Use the learning objectives above to focus your
study as you read this article. To earn credit and
obtain a certificate of completion, visit
http://go.hw.net/AR516Course6 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you
are new to Hanley Wood University, create a free
learner account; returning users log in as usual.

Photo © iStockphoto.com/mediaphotos

By Niklas Moeller

INTRODUCTION However, we should not lose sight of the fact WHAT IS ACOUSTIC PRIVACY?
that privacy can still be violated in ‘traditional’
Typing the word ‘privacy’ into any search Many people immediately equate acoustic
ways. In fact, it can even be lost to those who
engine yields a virtually endless stream of privacy with speech privacy, but there is more
do not intend to infringe upon it. People are
entries describing the ways in which this basic to this concept than the ability to clearly hear
often exposed to sensitive information simply by
human right can be violated. There are reports what another person is saying.
being within audible range of a conversation.
of hackers acquiring credit card information,
For example, even if the conversation taking
law enforcement agencies mining social Current privacy legislation tends to focus
place in the room next to you is unintelligible,
networking sites, and members of the public on securing access to information stored
you may still be able to identify the speaker’s
using drones to take aerial photographs. More on computers or within filing cabinets, but
tone and ascertain whether they are happy,
recent headlines indicate that voice-activated attention also needs to be paid to our built
sad or angry. This type of information can be
televisions can even eavesdrop on their owners. environment. When examined in this context,
considered private under certain circumstances,
privacy has both an acoustic and a visual
Our preoccupation with the vulnerabilities such as when issuing from behind the closed
component. This course primarily focuses
exposed by the internet and electronic products door of a human resources manager’s office.
on the former, except insofar as it is affected
is understandable given their relatively rapid The same can be said for non-verbal noises like
by the latter.
spread into almost every aspect of our lives. those overheard from an adjacent hotel room.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION

How much we understand of a conversation Services in 1996 is a good example. It requires

also depends on whether or not we can see healthcare entities to take “reasonable
the speaker. This effect—known as visual safeguards” to ensure speech privacy during
cues—has been quantified by various studies. both in-person and telephone conversations
Generally speaking, if you can only understand with patients and between employees.
20 percent of someone’s conversation when
Acoustic privacy is also vital to employees’
you are not looking at them, the ability to see
overall satisfaction with their workplace. A
their lips increases that amount to nearly 55
decade-long survey of 65,000 people run by
percent. If you start at 50 percent, visual cues
the Center for the Built Environment (CBE),
increase it to almost 90. In other words, there
University of California, Berkeley, found that
is also a visual component to acoustic privacy,
lack of speech privacy is the number one
which is important to bear in mind when
complaint in offices. Participants expressed
designing a space.
irritation at being able to overhear in-person
Furthermore, acoustic privacy should not only and telephone communications, as well as
be considered from the perspective of the concern for their own level of privacy.
person speaking, but also that of the listener(s).
The reasons will become clear when we explore WHAT ABOUT THE OPEN PLAN?
the various impacts of a lack of privacy. The topic of workplace satisfaction also
emphasizes the need to consider those occupying
WHERE IS IT NEEDED?
spaces other than closed rooms. Though some
A lack of acoustic privacy carries real risk, may dismiss the importance of acoustic privacy
particularly in facilities where there is a when designing an open plan, studies show that
perceived need for it or an expectation on the it has a significant impact on productivity.
part of its users. Examples that readily spring
For instance, research conducted by Finland’s
to mind include hospitals, bank branches, law
Institute of Occupational Health shows that
offices, government and military facilities. When we can unintentionally overhear a conversation, we often feel
unwilling listeners demonstrate a five to
However, other types of spaces—such as annoyed or even the sensation that our own privacy is being violated.
It can also make us insecure about our level of speech privacy, 10 percent decline in performance when
commercial offices, call centers and hotels, to
compromising our ability to freely communicate. undertaking tasks such as reading, writing
name but a few—have privacy needs as well. Photo © iStockphoto.com/fotostorm and other forms of creative work. Simply
The degree required typically depends on the
If we can inadvertently hear a conversation, hearing that someone is speaking can disturb
type of activities the space hosts.
we can also become self-conscious about concentration, but this problem is greatly
WHY IS IT NEEDED? our own level of privacy. In some contexts, it magnified when you can clearly understand
can create a sense of unease, which in turn what they are saying because, if you can follow
It is easy to understand the need for acoustic a conversation, it is much harder to ignore it.
impacts our ability to freely communicate. For
privacy—or even acoustic security—from
instance, if we visit a medical clinic and hear Though an organization might not consider
a speaker’s perspective, particularly in
what is happening in the adjacent examination privacy a goal within an open plan, it is
environments where they are discussing medical
room, we might be less inclined to disclose impossible to justify increasing disruptions.
information, financial planning, personal
information to the nurse or doctor, knowing Taking the steps required to lower speech
relationships, trade secrets, matters of national
that we too can be overheard. intelligibility within this type of space increases
security, and similarly confidential topics.
However, a lack of acoustic privacy can have The degree of acoustic privacy afforded by occupants’ output and reduces error rates.
impacts beyond divulging sensitive information the built environment can even impact an
ASSESSING SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY
to unintended parties. This fact becomes clear organization’s brand image. We want to be
when we shift our perspective from the person in control of our personal information when But how do we assess speech intelligibility
talking to that of the involuntary listener. meeting with a financial or legal advisor, for within the built environment?
example, and a positive acoustic experience
When a noise or voice enters ‘our space,’ some To begin, we cannot talk about this subject
can reinforce our confidence in their firm.
degree of annoyance is typical, but it can also without getting into the concept of degrees
This level of protection is also indispensible
make us feel as though our privacy is being because we do not need to understand every
for staff to effectively negotiate the terms of
invaded or our sense of physical separation word of a conversation in order for privacy
various agreements.
from others violated. Perhaps the most relatable to be violated. Due to the redundancies and
examples of this sensation are when the guest In some countries, protecting verbal patterns in speech, we can follow much of
in a neighboring hotel room turns up their communication within particular types of what is said even if we only hear half of it, and
television’s volume or the patient at the other facilities is actually mandated by law. particularly if we have previously been part of
end of a waiting area starts speaking loudly into The Health Insurance Portability and a similar conversation. Furthermore, private
their cell phone. Accountability Act (HIPAA) introduced by details can be exposed even if we only hear a
the U.S. Department of Health and Human small part of the discussion.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

We must also acknowledge that is very difficult it contributes to speech comprehension. The However, PI can be misleading. Part of the
to subjectively assess degrees of speech final AI value is between 0 (where conversation problem likely stems from its use of the word
intelligibility. For example, a listener would is completely unintelligible) and 1.0 (where ‘privacy,’ which can cause users to come to the
have a hard time indicating with any precision everything is heard and understood). wrong conclusion about the rating’s meaning.
whether they can understand 40, 55 or 70 The fact that it is expressed as a percentage
AI ratings are challenging to interpret in a
percent of what someone else is saying. creates even more potential for confusion.
meaningful way, so studies have been done to
For example, with an AI of 0.3, you arrive at a
Fortunately, there are ways to measure and correlate them to subjective ‘privacy’ categories;
PI of 70 percent. If you refer to Graph 1, the
quantify the degree of privacy afforded by a however, the value of these groupings is
reason to avoid this metric is obvious. When
built environment. The Articulation Index (AI) somewhat diluted by the wide range of
told the PI is 70 percent, most people would
remains the most widely used method. comprehension within each one. ‘Confidential’
assume that they would only understand 30
It was developed at Bell Labs in 1921 by privacy is from 0 to 0.1, ‘Normal’ from 0.1
percent of what is being said. In reality, you
Harvey Fletcher as he sought to quantify to 0.2 and ‘Marginal’ from 0.2 to 0.3. If AI is
would understand nearly 85 percent. Therefore,
speech comprehension over telephone lines. above 0.3, there is effectively no privacy.
building professionals should be cautious
During the 1950s, those involved in the speech
As shown in Graph 1, the relationship between when investigating acoustical solutions and
privacy sciences adopted his invention as a
AI and actual comprehension is not linear. On interpreting related PI statements.
measure of exactly the opposite: how much one
a 0–1.0 scale, many would expect a value of
could not understand. HOW SOUND TRAVELS
0.5 to mean that a listener would understand
To calculate AI, one uses a test signal that 50 percent of a conversation, but—as is In order to design the built environment
includes the frequencies known to specifically clear from the graph—they would actually for acoustic privacy, it is also important to
impact speech comprehension. This signal is understand approximately 95 percent. The understand the three ways in which sound—
measured at 1 meter from the ‘source’ and shaded areas along the left of the graph show and, hence, voice—travels to a listener.
again at the ‘listener’ location. The background the Confidential, Normal and Marginal privacy
sound level is also measured at the ‘listener’ ranges, indicating just how low an AI is required Sound follows a direct path when it travels
location in order to quantify how loud the for true privacy. uninterrupted from the source to the listener
test signal is relative to it—a value known as or penetrates a barrier between them, such
A more recent arrival on the acoustical scene as a wall. This transmission path contributes
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This value is
is a metric called the Privacy Index (PI). the most to high levels of speech reaching
critical, because the lower the SNR, the less the
PI is based on AI, in that it is calculated as the listener. However, it can also travel on
intelligibility and the greater the speech privacy.
1 minus the AI value, multiplied by 100, and a reflected path. This type of transmission
For AI, SNR is measured in each of 15 frequency
expressed as a percentage; in other words, occurs when sound bounces off of the various
ranges (from 200 to 5,000 Hz). Each of these
1 - AI x 100 = PI (%). surfaces within the space, such as the floors,
is weighted according to the degree to which
ceilings, walls, and furniture. Finally, sound can
travel in a diffracted path—that is, it can bend
around obstacles. This pathway is generally less
significant than the first two.
Because speech travels in these various ways,
it can be difficult to contain. Several methods
must be utilized because no single technique can
sufficiently address all transmission pathways.

DESIGNING FOR ACOUSTIC PRIVACY

Of course, the louder a person speaks, the more
likely they are to be heard. Building occupants
should always try to be mindful of their voice
level, but proper etiquette is only effective to a
point. The remainder of the acoustical burden
has to be borne by the design using a three-
tiered approach called the ‘ABC Rule,’ which
stands for absorb, block and cover. Acoustic
privacy is achieved by using a well-designed
combination of all these tactics. The very brief
outline provided below only touches on the
interior fit out and furnishings, not the shell.

Graph 1: The relationship between Articulation Index (AI) and intelligibility is not linear. For example, a value of 0.5 means that a listener can As mentioned above, the ‘A’ in the ‘ABC
understand approximately 95 percent of a conversation, not 50 per cent. A very low AI value is required for true privacy. Image courtesy K.R. Rule’ stands for adding absorption. As speech
Moeller Associates Ltd.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

sounds hit various surfaces within a facility, QUIZ

they are reflected back into the space. If those
surfaces are comprised of hard materials such
1. ‘Acoustic privacy’ is simply another term for ‘speech privacy.’
as concrete, glass and metal, the reflected
a. True b. False
sound energy remains high and overall volumes
rise. A high percentage of hard surfaces also 2. Acoustic privacy is only required in areas where confidential conversations are taking place.
increases reverberation (i.e. echo) within the a. True b. False
space, making it uncomfortable. In order to
control this type of transmission, absorptive 3. Studies show that unwilling listeners demonstrate a ____% decline in performance when undertaking tasks such as reading,
materials must be applied to the ceiling, walls writing and other forms of creative work.
and workstation partitions. Because the ceiling a. 2 to 3 b. 5 to 10
is usually the largest unimpeded surface within c. 10 d. 20
a facility, organizations should invest in the
best acoustic tile they can afford and ensure 4. When used to rate speech intelligibility, ‘AI’ means:
a. Auditory Insufficiency b. Articulation Index
consistent coverage throughout their space.
c. Audio Index d. Acoustic Indicator
‘B’ stands for blocking speech transmission
using walls, windows, doors and other physical 5. A Privacy Index (PI) of 70 percent indicates that a listener will only understand 30 percent of what is being said.
structures. This method is most obviously used a. True b. False
in the construction of closed rooms, but it is
also extremely useful within the open plan. 6. Sound travels to a listener along a:

If there are no barriers between occupants in a. Diffracted path b. Reflected path

these spaces, speech travels more easily and c. Direct path d. All of the above

the ability to see (and be seen) further reduces

7. Acoustic privacy is achieved by:
privacy due to our natural capacity for lip
a. Using physical structures to b. Applying absorptive materials to the ceiling,
reading. Again, though some might argue that block sound transmission walls and workstations
privacy is not expected nor needed within the c. Covering speech and noise with a d.All of the above
open plan, understandable speech disrupts sound masking system
occupants’ concentration. For this reason,
workstation partitions should be no lower than 8. If a sound masking system’s loudspeakers are installed facing downwards, the sound does not need to be tuned in order to
meet the specified curve.
seated head height (60 to 65 inches; 1524 to
a. True b. False
1651 mm). Even the direction in which a person
faces affects their voice’s volume within the 9. Because variations in the masking sound affect the level of speech privacy and noise control it provides, it is important to
neighboring workspace; therefore, occupants keep tolerance to a minimum.
should be seated facing away from each other a. True b. False
on either side of partitions.
10. Occupants in closed rooms:
Today, there are numerous pressures to reduce a. Have a higher expectation of privacy than b. Will not benefit from the application of sound masking
the height of workstations or eliminate them occupants in open plans
altogether. This trend has had a dramatic c. Have privacy if the room’s door is closed d. All of the above
impact on the acoustical performance of open
plans because though other treatments can
reduce overall volume levels and deal with
noises generated from farther away, they have
no effect over short distances. When barriers
are dispensed with, local noise sources remain
highly intelligible and disruptive. SPONSOR INFORMATION

ª This article continues on

http://go.hw.net/AR516Course6. Go online
to read the rest of the article and complete
the corresponding quiz for credit. Introduced in 2003 by industry leader KR Moeller, the LogiSon Acoustic Network is the world’s first
networked sound masking, paging and music system. TARGET software accurately tunes the masking sound
to the specified spectrum, maximizing speech privacy and noise control. Worldwide distributors provide
turnkey services and expert support. Visit www.logison.com.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

Presented by:

ADVANCED HEATING TECHNOLOGY

APPLYING VRF IN COLD CLIMATES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course the student

will be able to:
1. Identify how VRF heat pumps differ from
traditional HVAC systems.
2. Describe what advanced heating technology is and
how the technology works in VRF systems.
3. Describe the main benefits of using VRF heat
pumps with advanced heating technology.
4. Identify how VRF systems contribute to the energy
efficiency goals of buildings.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

AIA CREDIT: 1 HSW/LU

AIA COURSE NUMBER: AROCT2016.1

Use the learning objectives above to focus

your study as you read this article. To earn
credit and obtain a certificate of completion,
visit http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course1 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you are
new to Hanley Wood University, create a free learner
account; returning users log in as usual.

Ceiling-recessed indoor units offer a sleek method of air distribution in separate zones of a building’s interior space.

By Parker A. Grant, PhD

VARIABLE REFRIGERANT FLOW (VRF) HEAT match indoor unit styles. VRF for commercial and interior space planning, to meeting the
PUMPS: AN IDEAL HVAC SYSTEM applications was introduced to the U.S. energy efficiency needs of your clients and
market in 2003. Since then, there have been comfort control demands of end users, VRF has
Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) has been
major improvements in heating capabilities, the features that let your designs shine.
used throughout the world since the 1980s.
space savings, and ease of retrofitting into
In many countries, it is the most-used VRF achieves such success by dividing a
buildings that were never designed to have
HVAC technology: for example in Japan building’s interior into zones, each of which
air conditioning. Furthermore, advances have
VRF represents approximately 90 percent of can be conditioned separately. For VRF with
been made in the performance of the inverter-
installed systems within commercial buildings, heat recovery, one room can even be cooled
driven compressor, including improved energy
Europe approximately 81 percent, and China while another is simultaneously heated.
efficiencies and reduced operational noise.
approximately 86 percent. In this case the exact required capacity is
With so much to offer, it’s no surprise that distributed to each indoor unit via a branch
Architects have favored VRF systems for many
much of the world has taken to VRF. You can circuit controller. The result is superior personal
reasons, among them longer line lengths for
turn to VRF heat pumps for a multitude of comfort for occupants.
more flexible design and the ability to mix and
reasons. From optimizing a building’s exterior

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Design Challenges of Traditional H Comfort

HVAC Systems H Total Installed Cost
Comfort trumps everything, but there are H Efficiency
multiple kinds of occupant comfort to consider:
H Maintenance
feeling, seeing and hearing. A building
must feel, look and sound good in order for H Architectural Impact
occupants to enjoy their environment. In addition, with as much as 40 percent of a
Most people recognize that no one wants to building’s operating costs tied to HVAC and
be in a building that’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t other mechanical systems, it’s important to
matter how beautiful or innovative the building minimize operating costs while achieving
is; if people don’t want to be in it, it’s ultimately goals such as reliable performance, a modern
not a successful project. This is a difficult truth aesthetic, and personalized comfort control. A 4-way ceiling-recessed cassette can be used to provide a more
spacious feel.
for designers in a world of tantalizing projects Because of this, VRF is the option that can bring
and details. flexibility to your building designs. With many indoor unit styles and the ability to
Design Flexibility with VRF Systems mix and match ductless and ducted options,
When it comes to commercial buildings,
you can design to your vision. Some of these
architects face two main challenges when VRF systems allow flexibility within your design indoor unit choices include:
incorporating HVAC systems that bolster since there is little to no ductwork involved.
occupant comfort. The first is space. HVAC H Wall-Mounted
By reducing the plenum size, you can raise
systems have traditionally been quite large, your ceiling heights leading to more stunning H Low Profile Ceiling-Concealed Ducted
with outdoor units requiring ample square designs. The benefits are fourfold: H High Static Ducted
footage on rooftops or grounds and indoor
units and ductwork consuming plenty of space H A more spacious, modern feel H Multi-Position Ducted
in ceilings and plenums. This is bad news in a H Lower construction costs due to the H Floor-Standing
business focused on usable square footage. possibility of designing shorter buildings
H 1-Way Ceiling-Recessed Cassette
Ultimately an HVAC system should maximize H More natural light and better indoor
an area, enabling you to create more useable H 4-Way Ceiling-Recessed Cassette
environment due to bigger windows
space for your clients. While VRF is in many cases an ideal HVAC
H The option to develop additional
The other main challenge in designing an HVAC leaseable space option, heating in cold climates has historically
system for comfort is acoustics. You should presented challenges. Heat pumps have been
avoid using a system that your client—or VRF enables you to reclaim usable square troublesome in extreme cold climates. Below
your client’s tenants—will complain about. footage such as space that would otherwise 17 degrees Fahrenheit, an auxiliary heat
Loud outdoor units, noisy indoor units, and a go to mechanical rooms. This can also take the source, such as a gas-fired boiler, was needed
vibrating structure are all problematic—and form of minimized wall penetrations, where to adequately heat a building. In many places
best avoided. two small pipes connect the outdoor unit(s) to throughout the country electricity was a much
the indoor units, thereby reducing installation more accessible and affordable fuel than gas.
You can turn these design challenges into an costs and impact. The result was a technological gap—the need
opportunity, but it all starts with knowing for heat pumps that could operate in even the
your options. Armed with this knowledge, VRF’s smaller footprint also means a lighter
coldest weather.
you can influence your clients, improve project weight. In some cases, VRF systems can be 30
performance, and make a significant difference percent lighter than chilled-water systems. The Today, those heat pumps exist. VRF heat
to the end user. As a result, your client may be implications are profound: ultimately, lower pumps with advanced heating technology
able to increase rental rates and deliver more construction costs because installations of were developed to address these very issues,
useable square footage to building owners. lighter systems require less structural support, and heat pumps can now offer impressive
reducing the amount of physical materials and performance in even the coldest climates—with
The Best Option: VRF Systems labor required. You can even transport the no need for auxiliary heat. With advanced
outdoor units in a service elevator, potentially heating technology, your design flexibility
VRF is an HVAC system that makes the most
eliminating the need to rent cranes. increases. This saves end users energy, money,
of square footage, acoustics, and budget
while offering energy-efficient technology that and maintenance headaches, which is excellent
In addition, the exterior of a building is often
provides outstanding comfort. news for the building professionals who get
reserved for the outdoor components of an
called in every winter to solve cold-climate
HVAC system. VRF’s modular and compact
Compared to conventional HVAC systems— heating problems.
design reduces the size of the outdoor
such as Variable Air Volume, Packaged Rooftop
units versus traditional HVAC systems. This ADVANCED HEATING TECHNOLOGY: WHAT
Units, Water-Source Heat Pumps, 4-Pipe Fan
enables flexible design since outdoor units IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Coils, Packaged Terminal Air Conditioners,
can be spread around a property or located
and Split Systems—VRF is highly favorable in There is currently no industry-wide definition
together, placed inside or outside, such as in a
every category: of advanced heating technology since it is
mechanical room or in an alleyway.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
CONTINUING EDUCATION

now extended to areas of the country where 4. Outdoor unit pulls heat from outside air
historically heat pumps just couldn’t be applied. to get liquid into gaseous form. In order
for this to happen, the refrigerant must
How It Works
be colder than the air outside, making a
As the outdoor temperature drops below freeze protection circuit necessary.
freezing, traditional heat pumps face decreased For example, if the temperature outside
performance as the flow of refrigerant is minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the
circulating through the system drops. In turn, refrigerant must be colder.
this reduces the amount of heat generated. 5. Flash injection circuit cools down compressor.
Advanced heating technology solves this
problem with the addition of a flash injection 6. In the freeze protection circuit, a hot gas
circuit. This is accomplished by injecting a loop eliminates ice buildup.
portion of the refrigerant into the compressor at The result of this technology is impressive
a lower temperature than normal, reducing the heating capacity—100 percent at 0 degrees
temperature inside the compression chamber Fahrenheit and 85 percent at minus 13
and enabling the compressor to run faster. degrees Fahrenheit, for example. In the case
With the compressor running at higher of VRF with heat recovery and advanced
speeds than normal, the system can maintain heating technology, simultaneous cooling and
its heating capacity despite colder outdoor heating is generally available down to minus 4
temperatures. This process is typically used in degrees Fahrenheit (instead of the 14 degrees
units over 24,000 Btu/h of capacity, and kicks Fahrenheit associated with most manufacturers’
in when the ambient temperature drops below standard version of VRF).
25 degrees Fahrenheit. Having the ability to cool and heat at the same
Here is a further breakdown of how the time during negative ambient temperatures
process works: is necessary in applications such as office
buildings that need to serve both workers
1. Outdoor unit in heating mode sends sitting all day (requiring heating) and occupants
Add a highly responsive VRF system with advanced heating
technology to any building project, in any climate.
superheated gas to the indoor unit. using gym facilities (requiring cooling) even
2. Gas becomes liquid/vapor mix inside the as the temperature drops. Between minus
relatively new to the United States and only
indoor unit and migrates to the separator. 4 degrees Fahrenheit and minus 25 degrees
some VRF manufacturers offer it. Among
3. Heat exchanger pulls remaining heat Fahrenheit outdoor ambient temperatures, a
those who do, a general definition of the
from liquid/vapor mix; mix becomes VRF system with heat recovery and advanced
technology is the ability to provide full rated
subcooled liquid. heating technology will operate in heating
heating capacity at zero degrees Fahrenheit (or
mode only.
below depending on the manufacturer) and
offering substantial heating capacity at minus
13 degrees Fahrenheit.
Heating in Cold Climates
Historically, heating in cold climates has put
industry professionals to the test. When it
comes to heating indoor spaces—from office
buildings to schools to health and wellness
facilities—the challenge is to not just achieve
the required heating, but to do it effectively
and efficiently. Many heating systems don’t
perform as the temperature drops, causing end
users to rely on auxiliary heat, and often on
fossil fuels. These are both things an energy-
and money-conscious market is looking to
move away from.
An advanced heating technology system
helps eliminate the need for additional fossil
fuel burning or inefficient electric heating
systems. That’s better for the planet and your
bottom line. Proven residential and commercial The advanced heating technology process uses a flash injection circuit to help the system maintain a high heating capacity despite colder
success with advanced heating technology has outdoor temperatures.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

A Closer Look at the Defrost Cycle QUIZ

None of this, of course, would be possible
without a defrost cycle. For VRF with advanced 1. Compared to conventional HVAC systems, in which of the following categories do VRF systems excel?
heating technology, defrost cycles help to: a. Comfort b. Total installed cost

H Stop the indoor unit fan motor, preventing c. Efficiency d. Maintenance

cold air from being distributed into the e. Architectural impact f. All of the above

conditioned space (“cold blow”).

2. ______ percent of a building’s operating costs are tied to HVAC and other mechanical systems.
H Stop the outdoor unit fan, allowing the a. 10 b. 40
outdoor condenser coil to increase in c. 60 d. 90
temperature to more efficiently eliminate
ice build-up. 3. True or False: VRF enables designers to reclaim usable square footage within a building such as spaces that otherwise would
go to mechanical rooms.
H Operate the compressor frequency at
a high speed, increasing the discharge 4. VRF systems can be _______ percent lighter than chilled-water systems.
gas’ temperature. a. 10 b. 20
c. 30 d. 40
A VRF system with advanced heating technology
looks at three variables to determine when
5. True or False: Advanced heating technology is typically used in units over 24,000 Btu/h of capacity, and kicks in when the
a defrost cycle should be initiated: outdoor ambient temperature drops below 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
ambient air temperature, cumulative compressor
operating time, and outdoor refrigerant pipe 6. What is the heating capacity with advanced heating technology?
temperature. The cycle auto-terminates either a. 100 percent at 0 degrees Fahrenheit b. 85 percent at minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit
when the maximum defrost time is reached c. 10 percent at 0 degrees Fahrenheit d. 100 percent at minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit
or when the outdoor refrigerant piping e. Both A and B
temperature has reached or exceeded a pre-set
level for a pre-set amount of time (e.g., 50 7. True or False: In the case of VRF with heat recovery and advanced heating technology, simultaneous cooling and heating
operation is generally available down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
degrees Fahrenheit for two minutes).
End users will find that defrost cycles occur more 8. What are the three variables used to determine when the defrost cycle should be initiated with a VRF system with
advanced heating technology?
often when it’s warmer out, for example 32
a. Outdoor ambient air temperature b. Number of pipes in the boiler
degrees Fahrenheit and snowing, than during
c. Cumulative compressor operating time d. Outdoor refrigerant piping temperature
periods of extreme cold with a lack of moisture in
the air. Regardless of the temperature, end users 9. True or False: VRF systems have the ability to treat hot and cold spots via zoning and simultaneous cooling and heating to
likely won’t notice the defrost cycle taking place ensure comfort for all.
at all. If the system stops heating during a defrost
cycle, heat will only be absent for a few minutes. 10. True or False: VRF consistently performs at 25 percent higher efficiency than conventional systems.

Some manufacturers also offer a technology

that creates heating capacity even during a
defrost cycle. This happens by defrosting one
section of the condenser coil at a time. The
resultant operation shows a marked increase in
heating capacity during defrost (from 0 percent
to up to 60 percent depending on the outside
ª This article continues on http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course1. Go online to read the rest of the article
and complete the corresponding quiz for credit.

temperature), as well as a small increase in overall

SPONSOR INFORMATION
heating capacity.
This technology takes different forms depending
on the manufacturer. Some use hot gas defrost,
others reverse defrost and others use a hybrid.
With some manufacturers, a hybrid of hot gas
and reverse defrost can take place in a single
Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc. Cooling & Heating Division (Mitsubishi Electric) is headquartered in Suwanee,
module, making the technology applicable to Georgia. Mitsubishi Electric is a leading marketer of Zoned Comfort Solutions™ and Variable Refrigerant
smaller projects. Flow (VRF) air-conditioning and heating technology in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and
Bermuda. In 1982, Mitsubishi Electric introduced its state-of-the-art, ductless air conditioners and heat pumps
While the use of hot gas defrost does increase
in North America and later expanded its product line with VRF zoning heat pump systems using INVERTER
the frequency of defrost cycles and make “cold technology to offer simultaneous cooling and heating capabilities. The division also offers compressors and a
blow” possible, it is still widely sought after for full line of air-conditioning accessories.
its impressive increase in heating capacity.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

WESTERN RED CEDAR Presented by:

A PROVEN MATERIAL OFFERS SUSTAINABLE

WARMTH FOR CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the uses of Western Red Cedar from ancient
times, to modern designs.
2. Explain Western Red Cedar’s sustainability
designations and pathways to LEED certifications.
3. Identify design options for specifying Western Red
Cedar in contemporary architecture.
4. List Western Red Cedar’s proven performance
characteristics.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
CREDIT: 1 LU/HSW
COURSE NUMBER: ARoct2016.3
Use the learning objectives above to focus
your study as you read this article. To earn credit
and obtain a certificate of completion, visit
http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course3 and complete
the quiz for free as you read this article. If you
are new to Hanley Wood University, create a
free learner account; returning users log in
as usual.

Western Red Cedar adds warmth to contemporary design at CHS Field in St. Paul, Minnesota. Designed by Ryan A+E, Inc. and Snow Kreilich.
Photo courtesy of Paul Crosby Architectural Photography.

By Kathy Price-Robinson

To understand how architects and designers can The wood is shipped overseas to reinforce the
bring natural warmth to modern architecture, chain’s signature look.
you need look only as far as your local Crate &
Although Crate & Barrel mostly uses clear cedar,
Barrel store. While each of the company’s stores
a brushed, knotty cedar is increasingly used
are different, each has a common aesthetic
to mimic barn wood for interior accents. For
feature: a warm and welcoming chic, created
example, stores in Georgia and Florida employ
with clean lines and the extensive use of
this design choice. Annually, Crate & Barrel
Western Red Cedar, a soft, red-brown timber
uses between 100,000 and 150,000 square
that has thousands of years of proven use.
feet of WRC.
The cedar features specified for each store vary.
“It’s used for exterior siding, interior paneling, WHERE MODERN AESTHETICS AND
and ceilings, and it’s stained and painted,” ANCIENT HISTORY CONVERGE The contemporary architectural aesthetic can feel cold or sterile. The
addition of Western Red Cedar helps overcome that. This residence
says Josh DeGuire, president of Specialty Wood Today’s design trends clearly indicate society’s was designed by Ha2 Architectural Design. Photo courtesy of
Products (SWP), the Colorado-based company Houry Avedissian.
preference for sleek, minimalistic aesthetic. At
that is the sole cedar supplier for the global the same time, contemporary architecture limited natural world, a warm glow. And of importance
chain. Some of the newest Crate & Barrel to glass, stone, steel, and stucco can feel cold to architects, it’s a proven sustainable material.
outlets, all of which use Western Red Cedar as or sterile. While clean, unembellished lines gain As a design guideline, there is evidence to indicate
a design theme, are in such places as Russia, traction, a sense of nature via the use of wood that we like some wood in our architecture,
the Czech Republic, Dubai, and Indonesia. is also sought after to evoke a connection to the without going full-on log cabin effect.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

The preference for some wood in interiors was While currently trendy, Western Red Cedar is WESTERN RED CEDAR’S CHARACTERISTICS
revealed in a study on the effects of wood in not a new phenomenon. A large number of
hospital rooms, which was reported at the 2010 archeological finds indicates the widespread
International Convention of Society of Wood use of Western Red Cedar in ancient native
Science and Technology, held in cultures. It was used extensively wherever
Geneva, Switzerland.i it was found along the northwest coast of
North America, including British Columbia,
For the study, hospital employees and patients
Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and parts
were asked to rate digitally manipulated images
of Alaska.
of three rooms—1) one with no wood in the
room, 2) one with wood on the floor and one Bark baskets woven in five different styles have
wall, and 3) one with wood on all walls as well as been found near Vancouver, along with ropes
the floor and ceiling. The preference? The room and ocean-going canoes dating to 3000 years
with wood on one wall and the floor was rated ago. Woodworking tools such as carved antlers,
most pleasant, most natural, most calming, and dating between 8000 and 5000 years ago were
most secure, and as the least boring room. discovered in shell middens at an archeology
site near Vancouver. Tools dating 4000 to 3000 Western Red Cedar’s scientific name is Thuja plicata. The name is
Western Red Cedar, long revered for its durability
years old have been found on the west coast derived from thujaplicin, a chemical substance that is found in mature
for exterior applications, is a natural choice for trees and serves as a natural fungicide, thereby preventing the wood
of Vancouver Island. Wooden artifacts 1000
also warming up interiors. Imbued with from rotting. Photo courtesy of Houry Avedissian.
years old were unearthed on the east coast of
decidedly crisp yet rich tonal properties, the wood
Vancouver Island. The scientific name for Western Red Cedar
not only creates beautiful outdoor environments,
is Thuja plicata and has one of the widest
but also enlivens traditional home decor, The cedar trees and their wood have deep
spread growth ranges on the West Coast. It
provoking cutting-edge architecture and inspiring religious values. In a book titled “Cedar: Tree of
is often found growing alongside Douglas Fir
innovative interiors. Life to the Northwest Coast Indians,”ii author
and Western Hemlock. It grows in lush forests
Hilary Stewart mentions a legend among the
“Western Red Cedar is simply one of the world’s and mountainsides, and also in many forested
native Coast Salish peoples that describes
most beautiful woods,” says Paul Mackie, known swamps and stream banks in its range.
the origins of the Western Red Cedar. The
as “Mr. Cedar” in the building industry. “No
legend focuses on a generous man who gave Western Red Cedar is one of North America’s
man-made material can duplicate Western Red
the people whatever they needed. When the great renewable resources. Slow growing and
Cedar’s naturally luxurious appearance.”
Great Spirit saw this, he declared that when naturally durable, it has one of the longest
Finishes, which will be discussed later, include the generous man died, a great red cedar tree life spans of any North American softwood. It
elegant dark stains, shabby chic bleaches, would grow where he is buried, and that the produces various lengths of timber with true,
traditional solid colors and natural semi- cedar will be useful to all the people, providing straight grain.
transparent stains. Western Red Cedar also offers its roots for baskets, bark for clothing, and
Western Red Cedar’s celebrated durability
a wide range of sizes, surface textures and grades wood for shelter.
actually reveals itself long before harvest.
appropriate for many different applications.
Native Americans of coastal Oregon to A report by Connie Harrington of the U.S.
CEDAR’S HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO southeast Alaska also have a long history of Forest Service, an agency of the USDA,
CANADA’S FIRST NATIONS AND NATIVE using Western Red Cedar. Some northwest stresses that the tree tolerates shade very well.
AMERICANS coast tribes refer to themselves as "people “Cedars have a reputation for surviving in the
of the redcedar," using the original spelling, understory with (slow) growth,” Harrington
because of their connection with the tree for states. Further, the species' growth rates are
their basic needs. Roots and bark were used likely to thrive, as accelerated climate change
for baskets, bowls, ropes, clothing, blankets, occurs. And it is “less susceptible to diseases
and rings. The wood has been used for houses, than many other conifers.” The trees can live
boards, ceremonial objects, totem poles, masks, for more than 1,000 years.iii
utensils, boxes, boards, instruments, canoes,
and vessels.
Therefore, the specification of Western Red
Cedar in contemporary architecture carries with
it a deep and meaningful link to the history of
native cultures.

While currently trending in contemporary design, Western Red Cedar

has a proven history of use and performance going back thousands of
years. Photo courtesy of the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CASE STUDY: SANDY HIGH SCHOOL—CEDAR HELPS CAPTURE REQUIRED ‘SANDY STYLE’

Because the buildings needed to last at least 75 years, the architecture firm of DOWA-IBI Group Architects decided on a proven, durable wood siding. Photo courtesy of Josh Partee.

The $79-million Sandy High School—which operational and maintenance costs are often the A whole-building sustainability plan was developed,
accommodates 1,800 students—opened in the fall largest burden that public school districts face once ensuring the building included a long list of green
of 2012 to replace a nearly 90-year-old structure their capital construction bond is spent. building strategies. The goal was to “reduce the
half its size. The school has been described as a big school’s carbon footprint” and in the process
building in a small town: 310,000 square feet for a In meeting the design requirements, the design team
achieve a LEED Gold certification. In this regard,
community of just 8,000 people, halfway between at DOWA-IBI Group Architects in Portland, knew
Sandy High was equipped with passive and active
Portland and the historic Timberline Lodge on early on they would need wood that was not only
solar panels, green roofs, geothermal piping
Mount Hood, Oregon. indigenous to the region but which had superior
and an air displacement system. The school’s
distinctive saw tooth roof brings sunlight into the
Organized as if it were an ancient Roman town,
gym, and skylights perform the same function
the school is comprised of two parts, one running a
in other locations. Where shading was needed,
north-south axis (which serves as a corridor linking
deep overhangs and a combination of vertical and
a gym, an auditorium, and a dining commons) and
horizontal cedar louvers were installed.
a 600-foot-long east–west axis (which leads to three
classroom wings extending out to the south and to a Much attention was placed on selecting materials
double-height library to the north). that would last the minimum 75-year life of the
building, patina over time and not tire, and require
The new Sandy High School needed to exemplify the
few resources to maintain. Western Red Cedar met
school district’s commitment to quality education
those requirements with its natural resistance to
and be a center of pride for all communities within
moisture, decay and insect damage and because it
the district. In addition, the city’s zoning code
can be installed, left alone yet look great over time.
required that all new construction conform to the
A key decision in this regard was to treat the cedar
“Sandy Style,” a local design standard meant to
The use of Western Red Cedar helped reinforce the desired modern with bleaching oil to accelerate the aging process
celebrate their position as the Gateway to Mount
Cascadian aesthetic. Photo courtesy of Josh Partee. and give the timber the grey, weathered appearance
Hood and characterized by Cascadian architecture
that has become associated with the Cascadian style.
(which is English Arts and Crafts combined with
durability and was suitable for diverse applications.
Oregon Rustic), which was popular between 1915 With such a large building, cost issues were
and 1940. “The natural characteristics of Western Red Cedar magnified by the scale and quantity of material
came to the top very quickly,” says DOWA-IBI needed. DOWI-IBI staff pointed to the first-time cost
The Oregon Trail School District was also adamant
principal John Weekes says when recalling the effectiveness of cedar siding, the favorable natural
that the facility would impact the natural landscape
review of woods that could satisfy the design needs. weathering for long term maintenance and avoiding
minimally and be a model of environmental
the high cost and high embodied and recurring
sustainability. This meant serious attention to The modern Cascadian interpretation pointed
energies of paint and coatings (an additional
building system performance but also building to a design concept of heavy-timber frames,
sustainability feature).
material performance, such as locally produced pitched rooflines and uncoated WRC board siding,
materials that would last the minimum 75-year life complementing the rural, rustic ethos of the
of the building. surrounding farm communities. Cedar was also used
as roof decking (in three-to four-inch thicknesses)
Finally, the design needed to be economical to
with exposed facing, as 8x8 quad posts, and for
build and cost effective to maintain. Long term
siding.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CONTINUING EDUCATION

HOW WESTERN RED CEDAR FORESTS ARE QUIZ

MANAGED AND CERTIFIED
1. First Nations and Native Americans have used Western Red Cedar’s wood, bark, and roots for thousands of years. What
have they used it for?
a. Baskets, bowls, ropes, clothing, and rings. b. Houses, boards, ceremonial objects, totem poles,
masks, utensils, boxes, boards, instruments.
c. Canoes, and vessels. d. All of the above

2. Which global retail chain adds a warm aesthetic with Western Red Cedar in all of its 70-plus stores?
a. Dick’s Sporting Goods b. Williams-Sonoma
c. Crate & Barrel d. L.L. Bean

3. According to a survey of hospital employees, which room design was rated most pleasant, most natural, most calming,
and most secure, and as the least boring room?
a. A room with no wood in the room. b. A room with wood on the floor and one wall.
c. A room with wood on all walls as d. None of the above
well as the floor and ceiling.

4. Where are Western Red Cedar forests not found?

a. Central California b. Northwest coast of North America, including British Columbia
c. Washington state d Parts of Alaska

5. When architects specified Western Red Cedar for the new Sandy Hill High School in Oregon, what reasons were
given for that choice?
a. Because it requires minimal maintenance. b. Because it has a proven history of durability.
c. Because it’s consistent with the area’s rural, d. All of the above
rustic design ethos.

6. What percentage of timberland in BC is certified by internationally recognized, independent, third party forest
More than 85% of timberland in the province of British Columbia is certification agencies?
certified by internationally recognized forest certification agencies. a. More than 45% b. More than 65%
Photo courtesy of Western Red Cedar Lumber Association.
c. More than 85% d. 100%
Western Red Cedar is found in the province
of British Columbia and grows nowhere else 7. When FPInnovations-Forintek, measured the environmental impact of various decking materials from cradle to grave,
which materials substantially outperformed the others in every category?
in Canada. Western Red Cedar was declared
a. Brick b. Western Red Cedar
British Columbia’s official tree in 1988.
c. Fiber cement d. Vinyl
More than 85% of timberland in BC is certified
by internationally recognized, independent, 8. Recently, the USGBC announced a new pilot credit for its LEED system that is designed to further advance environmentally
responsible forest management and help rid buildings of illegal wood by promoting the use of wood that is verified to be
legal. What is the name of that credit?

ª This article continues on a. Associated Compilation Protocol (ACP) b. Alternative Continuation Process (ADP)
http://go.hw.net/AR1016Course3. c. Ancillary Compliance Portal (ACP) d. Alternative Compliance Path (ACP)
Go online to read the rest of the article and
complete the corresponding quiz for credit. 9. What chemical substance found in Western Red Cedar trees acts as a natural fungicide, thereby preventing the
wood from rotting?
a. Creosote b. Thujaplicin

SPONSOR INFORMATION c. Natural resin d. Fungnotine

10. One grade of knotty Western Red Cedar product is intended to be fully usable with the resawn face exposed to after
trimming to fit the stud wall spacing. It contains no open characteristics or through defects. The product allows the use of
adhesives on the reverse face to secure knots and is particularly well suited for factory priming or finishing. What is the
common name for that grade?
a. Architect knotty b. Knotty grade
The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association rep- c. Pattern knotty grade d. Rustic grade knotty
resents quality “Real Cedar” producers, distributors
and retailers throughout North America. Founded
in 1954 and known as “the voice of the cedar
industry,” WRCLA offers extensive resources to assist
with selection, specification and quality standards.
For more information, visit RealCedar.com

Course valid through October, 2019

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 97

“Cox is no longer
doing triage.
He’s not interested
in sawing off limbs.
If a neighborhood
was deemed too far
gone, he’s not denying
it city services.”

A Visionary Planner Tackles Detroit by Karrie Jacobs

98

The first time I visited Detroit, five years ago, I got a Virginia campus—he’d taught in the architecture school
grand tour one evening from one of the city’s most there—and talked about Thomas Jefferson. Then Cox
tireless boosters, advertising exec and author Toby impressed me by insisting we visit the pedestrian mall
Barlow. He took me to an avant-garde piano concert downtown and explained how that more workaday
in the hip neighborhood of Corktown, an artisanal place also embodied Jeffersonian ideals.
pizza joint near Eastern Market, and, oddly, a wrap Today, Cox works in an office dominated by a wall-
party for a Hollywood movie held at a soul food sized map displaying Detroit’s 100,000 or so publicly
restaurant downtown. owned properties. “The green represents vacant
During my trip I realized that if I tagged along land,” Cox tells me. “The ones with the stars on it are
with someone like Barlow, I could find a city that properties that should be demolished, and other stars
felt vital and urbane, a connect-the-dots puzzle of are properties that can be rehabbed.”
imagination and ambition, in which small-scale and During an hour-long conversation, Cox rattled off
entrepreneurial efforts were leading the way. There more ideas—all of them grounded in reality—than any
was an awakening here, but you had to know where one city could possibly attempt. Admittedly, many of
to find it.
When I returned to Detroit this past September,
I discovered a very different city. For one thing, for
the first time in decades, Detroit is enjoying an
influx of major new construction. Orleans Landing,
for example, a 278-unit market-rate apartment
development designed by the local firm Hamilton
Anderson Associates, is nearing completion on a site
near the edge of downtown, at the intersection of two
popular bike and pedestrian trails, the city’s River
Walk and the Dequindre Cut. Just to the north, a pair
of major developments are underway: City Modern
at Brush Park, an architecturally ambitious 405-unit,
8.4-acre residential enclave and, practically next door, Maurice Cox at the Ideas City Detroit conference in April
District Detroit, a massive 45-acre agglomeration
of uses with a new hockey arena at its center. Both
projects will boast easy access to the QLine, a 3.3-mile the schemes he’s setting in motion are an outgrowth
streetcar system along Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s of the plan initially called Detroit Works and later
central spine, scheduled to open next year. The QLine Detroit Future City, drawn up during the Dave Bing
is the city’s first new transit since the downtown administration.
People Mover opened in 1987. Bing set out to save the city by lopping off its
For another thing, Mayor Mike Duggan has hired most abandoned portions. The idea was to divide
the city’s highest-profile planning director since Charles neighborhoods into three categories—steady,
Blessing, who in the 1960s dreamed up a modernist transitional, and distressed. City services like street
remake of the city that was never implemented lights and ambulances would be enhanced at the
(although he did manage to lure Luwig Mies van der steady end of the spectrum and removed from the
Rohe to town to design the beloved apartment and distressed end. Then, in 2013, Detroit went bankrupt,
townhouses complex known as Lafayette Park). and it elected Duggan. “Tens of thousands of people,”
Cox says, referring to Bing’s plan, had already done
A Phenom Named Cox a lot of thinking about “how the city should form
Architect and urban planner Maurice Cox moved around this question of the million-plus people that
to Detroit last year from New Orleans, where he was have left and are not coming back.”
associate dean at the Tulane School of Architecture While Detroit’s population is still shrinking—a
and ran its community-based design studio. Cox is city that peaked at nearly 1.9 million in the 1950s is
justin milhouse

considered to be a phenomenon within urban planning now home to fewer than 700,000 people—the outflow
circles: smart, passionate, and inspiring. In 2003, when slowed last year to a trickle; the city lost half a percent,
he was mayor of Charlottesville, Va., I interviewed him or 3,107, of its residents. “People aren’t moving out
for a radio essay about democracy and architecture. at anywhere near the rate they were,” Mayor Duggan
We went to the historic part of the University of told the Detroit Free Press. “They are choosing to
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100

Orleans Landing, a 278-unit apartment development by Hamilton

Anderson Associates that’s nearing completion close to downtown

City Modern at Brush Park plan

top and bottom left: erik paul howard

One of the existing historic houses on the City Modern site City Modern rendering
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102

stay. We’re at a historic tipping point.” According to month). The document features surprisingly lovely
the mayor, it’s even possible that this year Detroit’s renderings of how the vacant land might be used: a
population will grow. wildflower meadow surrounded by a white picket
fence, an orchard with a picnic area, a field of hops,
A New Vision for Vacant Land presumably for a local microbrewery.
Cox’s vision for the city reflects this change. He is no Additionally, there’s now a program, Motor City
longer doing triage. He’s not interested in sawing off Match, to pair aspiring entrepreneurs with vacant
limbs. If a neighborhood was deemed too far gone, commercial properties. The idea is to fill in the
he’s not denying it city services. Rather, he’s trying holes in commercial districts to make more viable
to pair it with an adjacent neighborhood that’s doing neighborhoods. The things that are taken for granted
better and finding ways to recast all that vacant land as in most other cities have to be retrofitted in Detroit:
an asset. To this end, Cox is methodically packaging “Now we’re starting to talk about the Motor City Main
10 different areas around the city for revitalization, Street,” Cox tells me. “So, could you get a cluster of
all of them beyond the perimeter of what locals businesses—you know, the coffee shop, the dry cleaners,
call the 7.2—shorthand for the size, in square miles, the pharmacy, the family-oriented restaurants—all to
of the downtown. The pilot project involves the cluster on these main streets if we improve the place-
blocks adjacent to the intersection of Livernois and making of that street?”
McNichols, two commercial streets that are a mix of Cox is also focused on reinventing more central
marginal businesses and vacant storefronts. And, of parts of the city. He’s got Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
course, abandoned houses. Cox intends to restore working on a master plan to transform a long stretch
of land between E. Jefferson Avenue and the Detroit
River, including 57 acres that were cleared in the
While Detroit’s population is still 1990s for a massive casino development that never
shrinking, the outflow slowed last happened, into a string of transit-oriented, pedestrian
friendly neighborhoods.
year to a trickle.
most of them: “We basically are developing a strategy “A Great Time to Be an Architect in Detroit”
where we go out for a single housing developer who Meanwhile, another city-generated RFP was the
will come into the neighborhood and renovate 80 to impetus for what might be the most transformative new
100 homes, secure them as long-term affordable rental,” development, City Modern at Brush Park, which could
he explains. The idea is to increase the population of dramatically upgrade Detroit’s overall image. The
outlying neighborhoods without gentrifying them. developer is Bedrock Real Estate Services, founded by
At the same time, Cox is working with a landscape Dan Gilbert, who moved his company, Quicken Loans,
architecture firm from New Orleans, Spackman to downtown Detroit from the suburbs in 2010. Since
Mossop and Michaels, on strategies for using vacant then he’s snapped up some 95 properties in and around
land: “We think we can use urban ag and other land- downtown, and has renovated and restored significant
productive uses to regenerate the neighborhood,” architectural works, such as Minoru Yamasaki’s 1962
he tells me. He wants to encourage and make more office building, One Woodward Avenue, and Albert
visible the sorts of projects that are already happening Kahn’s handsome 1915 Woodward Building.
on a small-scale basis: “They might be people who More recently, Gilbert hired his very own
have a cut-flower business or people who want to grow planning guru, Melissa Dittmer. Formerly an
crops. There are a host of those kinds of businesses, architect at Hamilton Anderson Associates, Dittmer
which are already happening, but they don’t have spent her last years there shaping the Detroit Future
a brand, they don’t have a look. … We want to City project. In 2013, she was hired as the director
get it to a point where someone wants to live in a of architecture and design for Bedrock, where she
neighborhood because food is being grown there.” oversees the adaptive reuse of Gilbert’s historic
In July, Detroit issued a pair of RFPs for the properties. For Dittmer, whose office in the Quicken
Fitzgerald Revitalization Project, part of the larger Loans building looks out across an urban landscape
Livernois/McNichols Corridor Revitalization she’s rapidly remaking, “It’s a great time to be an
Initiative. One RFP asked for a developer to architect in Detroit.”
rehabilitate 100 houses and the other to come up with By the time Cox stepped into his role at the
uses for 257 vacant lots (13 submissions were received, planning department in 2015, the city had already
and developers are scheduled to be selected this issued an RFP for the 8.4-acre site in Brush Park. He
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 104

INSULATED
METAL
PANELS arrived just time to help select the
winning proposal: “We had everything
imaginable,” Cox recalls. “Developers

UNSURPASSED
who wanted to do faux historic
buildings because it was in a really
incredibly important historic district.

WEATHERTIGHT The Bedrock team was certainly the

smartest because they acknowledged

PERFORMANCE
that there was a kind of medium-
density housing that was absent from
the marketplace.”
City Modern, arguably, is Gilbert’s
grandest undertaking. Acting as master
planner, Dittmer carefully crafted
an assemblage of housing types that
will also incorporate four of the large,
handsome historic homes for which
Brush Park is known.
“We created diversity of residential
typologies,” Dittmer tells me. Her
aim is to conjure up the kind of
neighborhood “where people could
age in place.” She commissioned work
from five different architecture firms,
including a number of large rental
apartment buildings (with stores on
the corners) by Hamilton Anderson
Associates and Los Angeles–based
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects. There’s a
set of “duplettes,” cleverly interlocking
duplexes, lined up in a row, by Boston-
CFR Insulated based Merge Architects, a firm that
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architecture could sit side-by-side with historic River. Hurttienne has most of the financing lined up
architecture,” Cox says. and is eager to begin, but he is encountering a form
of NIMBYism: “Many people are questioning the
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 111

“The exhibit doesn’t

illuminate a simple
narrative of Baghdad
or a simple history
of Chadirji’s work.
Just the opposite.
It points to the
sites of tension
and complexity.”

Iraq’s Modernist Architect by Zach Mortice

112

In a photo of a dusty, rubble-strewn Baghdad street, contemporary, the photographer Latif Al Ani. At the
a group of men hold a rectangular object overhead. same time as his buildings were ushering Baghdad
It resembles a casket, the unfortunate result of a drone into the future, Chadirji was capturing snapshot
strike, perhaps, or some other byproduct of the second ethnographies of life before the modern economy fully
Gulf War. But take a closer look and it becomes clear took hold: His photos depict religious ceremonies,
the photo is documenting something else entirely. In Yazidi temples, pedicarts delivering handmade carpets,
between the refuse and long metal supports of partially and pottery kilns dug into the earth.
demolished buildings, concrete pavers have been The exhibit comes as the Graham Foundation
salvaged and stacked into neat piles. And if the men is funding research on modern architecture and
are indeed holding a casket, the procession through the modernization in the Middle East, and follows
streets is subdued, free of any outrage at a bombing the publication of The Arab City: Architecture and
gone awry. This isn’t a war zone; it’s a construction site. Representation (Columbia University Press, 2016),
The photo, taken in 1981, conveys a sense of chaos and
urgency that American television viewers have learned
to associate with war. But it actually depicts the turmoil
of Baghdad’s rush to modernization, when the state
embarked on a redevelopment plan for the city center.
The photo was taken by Rifat Chadirji, Iraq’s most
prolific mid-20th century architect, who obsessively
photographed his own buildings and everyday street
life in Iraq. Born in 1926 in Baghdad, Chadirji studied
architecture at the Hammersmith School of Arts and
Crafts in London, and in 1952 he returned to Iraq to
begin practicing. He named his firm Iraq Consult,
which suggests how close he was to being something
like an official state architect. “His buildings were
important features of the state’s administration and
representation apparatus in the ’60s and ’70s,” says
Mark Wasiuta, director of exhibitions at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, The demolition of Baghdad’s Haifa Street in 1981
and Preservation (GSAPP). Along with his colleagues
Adam Bandler and Florencia Alvarez Pacheco, Wasiuta edited by WORKac founder and GSAPP dean Amale
curated an exhibition of Chadirji’s photos, Every Andraos. All these projects can help establish a
Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the foothold of knowledge about a part of the world that,
Arab Image Foundation, on display at the Graham despite our military involvement there, remains an
Foundation in Chicago until Dec. 31. architectural enigma. ARCHITECT spoke with Wasiuta
The government ministries, business headquarters about the exhibition.
for state monopolies, and housing Chadirji designed
epitomized modernity in mid-20th century Iraq, the Soon after Saddam Hussein freed Chadirji to work on a
projects largely paid for by the country’s sudden master plan for Baghdad, he fled Iraq. Why?
influx of oil money. In 1978, after Chadirji refused There are a number of photographs of the demolition
to let President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr use his Gulf of Haifa and Rashid Streets [in Baghdad]. Part of
State offices for intelligence purposes, he was jailed. their historical fabric is demolished to make room for
Al-Bakr’s successor, Saddam Hussein, released the this new plan. So I imagine that’s an uncomfortable
architect in 1980 to work on the master plan for position for Chadirji. He’s released from prison in
Baghdad. He fled Iraq three years later after securing a order to help plan the city; this is something he did
Loeb Fellowship at Harvard, and now lives in London. in the early 1950s as well. But now 30 years later I’m
The exhibition (Chadirji, now 89, did not sure he has a much different sense of what it means
participate) is curated from the architect’s archives to be demolishing parts of Baghdad, especially part
rifat chadirji

at the Arab Image Foundation, a nonprofit that of its historic fabric, given that this is one of the
collects vernacular photographs from across the fundamental points of his architectural theory, which
region. It includes photos of his buildings and is how to retain the Iraqi legacy through its buildings.
scenes of everyday street life, as well as work by his That’s probably in part why he leaves.
 Advertisement

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114

An image of the exhibition

Intellectuals in Iraq were interested

in processes of modernization that
might foster a secular state. Yet,
TURN HE ADS WITH TERR A ZZO TILE Chadirji may have understood that
secularization comes with certain
costs, including a loosening of social
T H E O N LY C E M E N T I T I O U S T E R R A Z Z O T I L E M A D E I N A M E R I C A .
structures related to historical patterns
of settlement, and also, possibly to
Te c t u r a D e s i g n s . c o m 800. 388.8728 religious institutions. One hypothesis
is that Chadirji attempts to develop a
building practice that carries references
to local architecture in order to forge a
different relationship to the past, and
to produce a different, more inclusive
notion of Iraqi collectivity.
He’s familiar in the sense [of] his
turn to historical references, which
become an important feature of his
work from the early ’60s through
the late ’70s. [It’s] very similar to the
debates in Europe and America, the
way in which a certain doctrinaire
Modernism is challenged by various
understandings of local city cultures
and historical references.

To what extent was Chadirji willing to

discard the past to build the future?
It’s not like he was a Robert Moses
figure who is interested in ripping
through SoHo with freeways. In
the 1950s he was responsible for the
recording and maintenance of ancient
structures in Iraq, so at the very
beginning of his practice, he has a
relationship to its historical texture and
culture. [He understood that] as social

courtesy graham foundation

structures change through increased
wealth, patterns of living are going to
change, because what we understand as
“modernization” is the reorganization
of patterns of habitation and social
structures, and those have an imprint
in the city. [They] were going to change,
not because they were [an impediment],
but because new economies would
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116

emerge, new forms of commerce would emerge, travel of something like 10 buildings we know have been
restrictions might loosen, and so on. damaged. To what degree they’ve been damaged, to
what degree they’ve been restored, we can’t ascertain.
How much of Chadirji’s work is still intact?
We don’t know. We asked around, and just from The exhibition is an intensely austere archival experience,
information we’ve been able to gather, we have a list and there aren’t many narrative threads to pull on. Why
approach it this way?
Archives are not spaces of pure, easy
communication. They have their own
complex structure and opacity that you
have to work through. [The exhibit]
doesn’t illuminate a simple narrative
of Baghdad [or] a simple history of
Chadirji’s work. Just the opposite.
It points to the sites of tension and
complexity within his work, and his
relationship to the city.
I would argue that the exhibition
is as much about the Arab Image
Foundation as it is about Chadirji. [The
foundation] tries to assemble a history
of the Arab world’s photography
through a certain type of document:
vernacular photographs. This is a
type of photography that is either
functional or spontaneous. The
documents are foregrounded [because]
for us, that’s what the exhibition is
about. It’s what information they
contain, how they’re structured, how
they relate to each other.

Middle Eastern architecture is a blank spot

for many Americans. What do you want
people to get out of this show?
An important subtext is how
architecture is a feature of the
American enterprise in Iraq. Moreover,
with Chadirji, the architecture of

M A N ’S T WO B E S T FR I E N DS . modernization in Iraq can be seen to

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 119

“How much should

you separate the
physical museum
from the charged
politics around it?
Can you criticize
the architecture
without impugning
the museum’s
larger mission?”
How the Critics Covered the NMAAHC by Amanda Kolson Hurley
120

In his book The Seduction of Place (Weidenfeld “Negro achievement.” The completed project inspires a
& Nicolson, 2000), Joseph Rykwert wrote that sense of destiny fulfilled.
contemporary museums are “cult buildings of a Nor is the building, by Freelon Adjaye Bond/
global religion that offers the advantage and the SmithGroup, a stylish but neutral container. There is
disadvantage of imposing neither doctrine nor rhetoric in its profile: dark, modernist, and African
any rule of life.” The morally improving Beaux- amid the stalwart Neoclassical temples of the Mall. The
Arts museum has gone the way of the horse and story told in the underground part of the museum, in
buggy. Instead, museums today serve up a buffet of claustrophobic galleries, is heavy on human suffering
culture, and people can gorge or graze on it as they and state-sanctioned injustice, with items like a slave
wish. At the same time, the architecture of museums auction block and an early photograph of an escaped
has become increasingly assertive, with the goal of slave’s lacerated back. In the era of Black Lives
becoming an instant icon. The Broad in Los Angeles Matter and near-daily reports of black men killed by
and the Tate Modern in London, to take two high- police, the NMAAHC vibrates with uneasy relevance.
profile examples, have been accused of letting their The significance of the architecture only shrinks in
architecture overshadow their collections. proportion to the power of the exhibits inside and the
The National Museum of African American currents of history and identity that pulse through it.
History and Culture (NMAAHC), which opened in
late September on the National Mall in Washington, Political Posturing
D.C., breaks this mold. Its very existence reminds us The story the museum tells about its own making
of a stark fact many would sooner forget: that black is more circumspect. After all, it had to get built—
Americans, who make up just over 13 percent of the and that required political strategy in rule-bound
country’s population, were enslaved and oppressed Washington. In the years and months before the
for hundreds of years, and that it was white Americans opening, Lonnie Bunch, the NMAAHC’s founding
who did the enslaving and oppressing. This invests director, stressed inclusivity, describing the project in
the museum with a collective weight unrivaled by interviews not as a black museum but as a “lens” for
any other national cultural institution. The origins of all audiences to understand the American experience.
the NMAAHC go back a century, to black Civil War David Adjaye, HON. FAIA, and Philip Freelon, FAIA,
veterans who first proposed a national memorial to the architects, stressed its contextuality, calling it a

alex fradkin

A museumgoer peers through the Corona, the cast-aluminum panels that wrap the NMAAHC
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122

“knuckle” or “joint” between Washington’s urban core

and the pastoral landscape of the Mall. In truth, they
designed an icon: a building that can be recognized
from a few pen strokes. But downplaying its otherness
was prudent, at least initially.
Early on, Adjaye dubbed the metal carapace of
the building the “Corona” (crown), and this stuck,
becoming official nomenclature. The metaphor is
elegant, politically neutral, and aspirational, and
possibly fended off negative characterizations that
might have ensnared the design as it worked its way
through a maze of approvals.
Writing about the museum was more of a
The pop culture gallery at the NMAAHC
tightrope than usual for architecture critics. How
much should you separate the physical museum from
the history that led up to it and the charged politics
around it? How far can you step outside the official
story, which has been shaped and honed since 2009?
Can you criticize the architecture without impugning
the museum’s larger mission?

Near Universal Acclaim

As it turns out, the reviews have been almost uniformly
positive. Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian played up
the building’s alienness, finding “joyous glee” in how
it rejects the somber traditionalism of the Mall and
catching in the pattern of the Corona “a slightly sci-fi
air.” Other critics identified a push and pull between
standing out and fitting in. Christopher Hawthorne
A Reconstruction-era house from a freedman’s settlement
of the Los Angeles Times called the museum enigmatic,
“aloof and standoffish in certain ways and carefully
contextual in others.” Lange starts with the architecture, then zooms in on
The Corona inspired praise for its darkness and the exhibits. But some critics felt the architecture was
mutability, and critics anointed it with no shortage secondary, given the historic mission of the museum
of metaphors: a lampshade (The Wall Street Journal), (“fraught” appears in at least two reviews). Rowan
a pagoda or spaceship (The Guardian), “a box pulled Moore of The Observer in London is explicit on this
from the ground” (Los Angeles Times). There are a point: “It is indeed the content that should come before
few quibbles: that the Corona was fabricated from the architecture of the building that serves it.” Moore
coated aluminum rather than real bronze, which “feels doesn’t directly discuss the building’s design until
assembled … more than crafted” (The Observer); and the 11th paragraph of his review, and you can sense his
that the support structure of panels is “ponderous” fatigue with the much-trotted-out official story. (“[It] is
(The Washington Post). already much told and doubtless will be repeated to the
Alexandra Lange of Curbed discerns political museum’s visitors for as long as it stands.”)
calculation behind the omission of Modernism What did the critics miss? The oculus-lit
from the official story of the design. “While the Contemplative Court, one of the museum’s most
architects acknowledge a whole range of 20th century dramatic spaces, is skimmed over—probably because
influences, starting with Marcel Breuer’s Whitney it wasn’t open on the press preview day. Only some
Museum, one intuits that’s not how you get a museum stories note the missing set piece Adjaye originally
built in the nation’s capital,” she writes. “Better to planned for the atrium, a “shower of timber”
alex fradkin

start by connecting the dots between contemporary suspended like stalactites from the ceiling, which got
architecture, 19th-century Washington, and older, value-engineered away. Nor are there many mentions
vernacular traditions from the Southeast and of the museum’s anticipated LEED Gold certification.
from Africa.” One can imagine a different museum, one with a less
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 124

Where
concrete and
imagination
meet.

The oculus-lit Contemplative Court

compelling back story, making this its calling card

(“the greenest museum on the Mall”).
I’m also not aware of any reviews that relate
the museum to Adjaye’s two much-praised local
libraries in D.C.—one of which has a similar jewel-
box exterior—or the four prior museums that Freelon
designed with African-American themes (the Reginald
F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, the Harvey B. Gantt
Center in Charlotte, N.C., the National Center for
Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, and the Museum
of the African Diaspora in San Francisco). The elision
of Freelon and Adjaye’s past work from the coverage
has the effect of making the NMAAHC seem even
more singular, sui generis.

www.hanoverpavers.com Perspectives Beyond Architecture

The vast majority of the writers who have covered the
museum as a work of architecture are white (myself
Contact Hanover® at 800.426.4242
included), a sad echo of the homogenous nature of
to find your local representative.
the architectural profession and its critics. Fortunately,
because of its historic importance, the project was
widely covered across the national media, including
by black writers outside the niche of arts journalism.
Greg Carr, a professor in the Department of Afro-
American Studies at Howard University, reviewed the
museum for Ebony. He notes that Jefferson Davis, later
erik cox

the president of the Confederacy, was a founder of the

Smithsonian, and he conjectures that this museum
opening, “complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony

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 126

Many things by a U.S. president of African descent, would

have improved undoubtedly have stupefied the Confederacy.” Carr
is one of only a few writers to observe a neat trick of
over the last Adjaye’s—by setting the sides of the Corona at the same
17-degree rake as the tapered Washington Monument,
9,000 years. the architect underscores the African origins of both
buildings (the obelisk is Egyptian after all), and subtly
Africanizes this part of the National Mall.
The gesture is even more powerful when we learn,
from Ayana Byrd in Fast Company, that, “For its first 72
years as the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., was a
slave territory, and the 5-acre tract on which the new
National Museum of African American History and
Culture sits once contained a slave market.” Byrd jolted
me to attention with this lede to her story, the image
of slave pens coexisting with the U.S. Capitol and the
White House a reminder of how thoroughly parts of
American history have been scrubbed not just from
textbooks, but from the landscape.
Race, not as an abstract concept but a lived
experience, is front and center in much of the writing
on the museum by black writers, and often shapes
their understanding of the architecture. In his review
Until now, of the NMAAHC (“How a Museum Reckons With
Black Pain”), Vann Newkirk II of The Atlantic takes
brick wasn’t issue with a complaint made by Philip Kennicott, of
the The Washington Post, that the history exhibit has
one of them. been “relegated” to cramped subterranean galleries.
Newkirk counters: “The underground placement of
the history exhibit is probably better described as a
Introducing NewBrick. purposefully subversive use of space,” because “viewers
The most important innovation in are essentially deposited into the bowels of the slave
the history of brick. NewBrick is ships that stole so many souls from the African coasts.”
superior to clay brick in weight, Whereas Kennicott finds the density of
energy efficiency, speed of information accompanying the exhibits a flaw,
installation and environmental Newkirk says it’s necessary because black history is
impact. NewBrick offers the same so woefully neglected. If visitors feel overwhelmed,
well, good, Newkirk writes: “The mission of the
classic size and appearance of
exhibits seems not to always be to ‘clarify and teach,’
clay brick, but raises the bar with as Kennicott hopes, but to impress upon viewers just
improved performance. how much they don’t know, and how deeply the grand
conspiracy of white supremacy runs.”
Visit dryvit.com/newbrick to
Sonya Ross, in an Associated Press story, offers a
see all of NewBrick’s colors first-person account of a journey through the museum.
and textures. Contact us to She starts out numb, even when confronted by the
most chilling artifacts of slavery: “The [police] killings
request samples, and to learn
have drained my emotions to the point where I hardly
how NewBrick can greatly have any feelings left.” As she moves through the
benefit your next project. galleries, she has hushed conversations with other
women of color, some of them friends, some strangers.
Her experience is collective as well as personal, and the
newbrick@dryvit.com injustices of the past mingle with those of the present.
800-556-7752 x9 In National Geographic, Michele Norris, the
I’m a third generation San Francisco architect. Like my father and grandfather, I’ve
always enjoyed designing with redwood. It’s a durable material that shrinks in a more
stable manner, and maintains its architectural integrity. We use it for timbers. We use it
for paneling. We use it because of its warmth and depth of color. But for me, it’s even
more than that. For me, it’s a little bit of family history. Get inspired by projects that
architects like Aleck Wilson have built with redwood at GetRedwood.com/Aleck.
 128

former NPR host, describes the Corona as part

of a particular, “flamboyant” African-American
tradition: “Church hats. Zoot suits. Cornrows.
Bling. Situated at the gateway to the rows of
stately Smithsonian buildings on either side of

Furniture.
the National Mall, it’s as if Beyoncé, in one of her
bejeweled costumes, strutted into a Wall Street
meeting filled with gray suits.”
Comparing the NMAAHC’s arrival to Beyoncé

Fast.
crashing a meeting of bankers is a vivid and
unexpected analogy, with a political undercurrent
when you think about it (in the film accompanying
Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade, the mothers of
Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown appear holding
pictures of their dead sons). This is not Lonnie
2ɝFH Bunch practicing the art of diplomacy.

Respectability Politics
Industrial The only really negative assessment of the museum
(at least that I’ve seen) comes from a black writer
Laboratory named Steven Thrasher. In The Guardian, Thrasher
says blackness should not need validation with a
pretty building on the National Mall. He regards
formaspace.com 800.251.1505 the museum’s architecture as part of the problem:
“I worry that the museum is playing into a central
trap of respectability politics: that if we just present
ourselves in right way—on the National Mall! with
a modernist building!—black lives will be seen
as worthy.” By this reading, the Corona is not a
celebration of black culture but a cop-out.
“Fine I’m not persuaded by Thrasher’s argument.
Arc
hitectural
ardware But I also wouldn’t have grappled with his stance
for

Fine
Your
®
and experience of the space if not for his review
Furniture” (as Adjaye told the The New York Times’ Michael
Kimmelman, “The experience of being black is not
a fiction”). This is why the lack of people of color
who write regularly about architecture is a problem.
The unusual breadth of takes on the NMAAHC—
including an intimate use of the first-person voice
not often found in architectural writing—reveals
new possibilities for a field where the cool-eyed
appraisal of a building as an aesthetic object
remains an ideal.
Across media outlets, most articles about the
museum had one depressing thing in common,
whatever their style or take. Their comments
sections overflowed with ugly rhetoric about racial
favoritism (“Where’s the WHITE museum?”),
accusations that African-Americans are playing
victim, and even defenses of the institution of
slavery. As moving as it is, the museum is only the
beginning of the work America has left to do to
reckon with its original sin.
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 131

The Tall Building

Psychoanalytically
Considered

text by ned cramer

A different painting by Madelon Vriesendorp opens each of postwar towers, “the brutal skyward extrusion
section of Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas, HON. FAIA’s of whatever site the developer has managed to
psychoanalytic profile of architecture in the city’s heroic assemble.” One of the great architectural enterprises
age. The most well-known of Vriesendorp’s pictures, of our current age, readers of Delirious New York can
Flagrant Délit (In the Act), appeared on the cover of surmise, is to restore weirdness and joy—in a word,
the first edition. It depicts an anthropomorphized 30 meaning—to cities and skyscrapers. As Koolhaas puts
Rockefeller Plaza discovering the Chrysler Building and it, “Manhattan’s architects performed their miracles
Empire State Building in a state of post-coital bliss, with luxuriating in a self-imposed unconsciousness; it is
a used condom drooping over the edge of the bed like the arduous task of the final part of this century to
Salvador Dalí’s famous melting clock. deal with the extravagant and megalomaniac claims,
Vriesendorp, who was Koolhaas’ spouse and ambitions, and possibilities of the Metropolis openly.”
partner when Delirious New York was published, in In a sense, the projects in this issue of ARCHITECT
madelon vriesendorp

1978, called the series of paintings “Manhattan.” “The are love children of Vriesendorp’s Chrysler and Empire
Secret Life of Skyscrapers” would do just as well, given State (condom notwithstanding). All six buildings, and
Koolhaas’ thesis—that the architects and developers their architects, upend the high-rise paradigm, albeit
of pre–World War II Manhattan, especially its in different ways: typologically, structurally, materially,
idiosyncratic pre-modernist high-rises, subconsciously programmatically, diagrammatically. These are no mere
channeled the inner desires of everyday citizens. brutal skyward extrusions, but towers that are highly
Koolhaas bemoaned the commodification self-aware, and more than a little delirious.
132

Diller Scofidio + Renfro,

working in collaboration with
Gensler, builds a vertical
community for Columbia
University medical students
at the Roy and Diana Vagelos
Education Center in New York.

text by joseph giovannini

photos by nic lehoux
133
134

It may seem a slam dunk for a clinic to look clinical,

but at least for the planners of the new medical
teaching facility at Columbia University Medical
Center in New York, they understood the limits of
the paradigm and challenged it. Administrators were
intent that the new Roy and Diana Vagelos Education
Center be a supportive, transformative environment for
teaching and learning medicine, and they wanted more
than compact, high-gloss rooms on either side of a
double-loaded corridor. Of course, the 100,000-square-
foot, 14-story glass tower needed bright, clean teaching
spaces for dissecting cadavers. Ditto for high-tech
spaces that simulate operating rooms, complete with
surgical equipment and patient dummies.
But in the context of pursuing a more holistic
pedagogy, administration planners wanted to address
the whole student in a more engaging environment.
In study areas and common spaces outside hardcore
exam rooms that truly required sterility, they wanted a
more humane environment that spatialized theories of
collaborative learning. The traditional classroom and
lecture format assumes a passive transfer of knowledge
between faculty and students, but new pedagogies
in medical education instead put an emphasis on
participatory, problem-based learning that improves
teamwork and critical thinking.
In 2010, Columbia Medical Center held a
competition to reshape the look and feel of its
education building. Educators enlisted architects
to reinvent how medicine would be taught, learned,
and practiced in the 21st century. But there was an
elephant in the room: The sterility assumed necessary
in hospital settings is itself a dehumanizing agent,
and that sterility, almost as a style, has invaded many
(if not most) corners of medical complexes. Med
students undergo grueling routines, enduring long
hours in a succession of low-ceilinged boxes that,
over the years, test the senses, patience, and sanity, of
overworked, sleep-deprived students. Medical school
is an endurance test unnecessarily aggravated by
design. Sterility as an ethos may be pervasive, but it’s
desensitizing and silently counter-productive.
New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro
(DS+R), working in collaboration with Gensler,
changed all that with the new Vagelos Education
Center in Washington Heights, at the north end of
Columbia’s medical campus. Their strategy was simple:
separate the public spaces and functions from the
clinical spaces, and collect and stack them into what
is effectively a vertical campus—and one with buzz.
DS+R applied ongoing design research in what Previous Spread: View from east
was, for them, a new institutional typology. The
interdisciplinary design studio has long studied Above: View from south
 135

how to pedestrianize tall buildings by creating “We wanted to scatter spaces of different scale, and
spatially complex sections with ramps, stairs, and plotted an internal topography of plateaus connected
individuated spaces that favor diversified, networked vertically,” says founding partner and partner-in-charge
space. In their recently opened McMurtry Building Elizabeth Diller, who worked on the commission with
for the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford project director Anthony Saby. “These unprogrammed
University, the design team, headed by partner Charles spaces are large and small, intimate and communal,
Renfro, AIA, looped students in paired interlocking interior and exterior, some with acoustic control, some
wings that spiral up around a courtyard. In Rio de with food, and some with built-in technologies.”
Janeiro, at the Museum of Image & Sound, DS+R “It’s a cascade of spaces,” she continues, “linked
continued the Avenida Atlantica up the building in a by a communicating stair that threads its way
series of switchback paths that activate the façade and through every level of the tower. Most medical
deliver the beach-going crowd to the roof for drinks education buildings are low, densely packed, and
and free movies. For an interdisciplinary firm that has symmetrically organized, and we wanted to create a
specialized in wry social commentary and conceptual form of ‘productive inefficiency’ through a network
art installations, the paradigm of a sectionally active, of exuberant, airy, light-filled spaces that the students
networked building has been a way to develop a could take over without inhibition.”
language without resorting to formalist signature. The architects organized the vertical campus into
Now, no doubt about it: The new Vagelos four stacked neighborhoods defined by fire enclosures.
Education Center has huge curb appeal. Pedestrians The spaces always tie back to the core, which provides
regularly stop on this otherwise uneventful street to accessibility, but are also networked with stairways
gaze up at the jumbled glass façade. Even given the that meander up and down the vertical campus on a
signature condo towers now populating downtown path of discovery. The journey starts at the entrance on
neighborhoods, the design is unique in the city. the ground floor, a bright, open field of space offering
The lead southern façade of the rectangular tower food, a lounge, and dining area, and leads up to a
resembles a honeycomb after an 8.0 earthquake. In 275-seat auditorium on the next floor, before
what looks like forced perspective but is really a continuing up into the stacked neighborhoods.
building shaped by zoning set-back laws, the façade Besides transforming the building into a catalyst
tapers back as it rises, creating an illusion of speed for social interaction, the architects operate on the
and disappearance. The building rises in disciplined, normally closed, usually intractable typology of
rhythmic irregularity, the glazing interrupted by the stacked and sealed high-rise, opening the tower
angled stairways and several open-ended boxes that to itself and to the outside. Panoramic windows,
pop through the glass, two of which are outdoor differentially fritted for sun control, give the students
terraces. Not since Paul Rudolph’s Art & Architecture views of the Manhattan skyline to the south and the
Building at Yale has a building turned its own corners Hudson River to the west, relieving the compounded
with such porosity, complexity, wit, and IQ. This is a hermitic tendencies of a high-rise and a medical school.
playground of space, form, and glass—and it’s smart. Having spatially informalized the building
The façade that is so extroverted and charismatic with their cascade, the architects warm the building
on the outside was, in fact, designed from within. The materially, mixing generous amounts of Douglas
architects strategized the internal layout by placing the fir paneling on all levels. The architects took every
elevator core a third of the way into the block, zoning opportunity to relax the building, breaking the
the building so that the rooms requiring separation are stiffness and chill of extrusion. Even the glazing
north of the core, in a regular bread-and-butter part of follows its own logic, with no two floors of glass alike.
the building with a conventional section. Construction The building is functional, but has a high joy index
efficiency on the northern two-thirds of the structure that offers students an experiential dividend. “We
paid for the complexities of the rest. designed the building to support this informal learning
South of the core the architects organized public model in which work and social life are blurred, and
spaces into a concatenated vertical plaza of open students have a lot of freedom to select environments
and closed classrooms, lounges, huddle spaces, with attributes that appeal to them,” Diller says.
outdoor terraces, and computer banks—spaces whose Long ago, Vitruvius advised that a building
functional fungibility allows them to be colonized by should embody firmness, commodity, and delight.
students convening spontaneously or by arrangement. The Vagelos Center certainly checks the firm and
The students can work together, hang out, study solo, commodious boxes, and against all typological odds, it
or take a breather on a terrace with a view. scores very high on delight.
136

Fifth-Floor Plan 11th-Floor Plan 12th-Floor Plan

4
10

9
7

11

Ground-Floor Plan Third-Floor Plan

6
4

1
5
A 3 2

A1

0 20 40
 137

Section A–A1

1. Entrance
2. Lobby
3. Café
4. Offices
5. Auditorium
6. Mechanical room
7. Anatomy lab
8. Student commons
9. Meeting room
10. Classroom
11. Quiet lounge

11

3
1

0 10 20
138
 139

Top: Second-floor auditorium, with view

west to Hudson River

Opposite: Ground-floor lobby, with view Above: Anatomy lab, showing glazing
of stairwells frit for privacy
140
 141

Opposite, Top: Fourteenth floor, with Tk tkPage: Tenth floor, double-height

This
student lounge at right and Sky Room commons space
meeting space at left

Opposite, Bottom: Terraced, eighth-

floor quiet lounge
142

10th- to 12th-Floor Wall Section Detail, South Façade Project Credits

Project: The Roy and Diana Vagelos
Education Center, New York
Client: Columbia University Medical Center
Design Architect: Diller Scofidio + Renfro,
New York . Elizabeth Diller (partner-in-
charge); Ricardo Scofidio, aia, Charles
Renfro, aia, Benjamin Gilmartin, aia
(principal designers); Anthony Saby (project
director); Chris Hillyard, aia (project
architect); Chris Andreacola, aia, David
1
Chacon, aia, Christopher Kupski, aia, Barak
Pliskin, aia, Kevin Rice, aia, Gerard Sullivan,
aia, Mary Broaddus, Charles Curran,
Robert Donnelly, Amber Foo, Yoon-Young
Hur, Joshua Jow, Andreas Kostopoulous,
Joseph Dart Messick, Patrick Ngo, Matt
2
Ostrow, Stefano Paiocchi, Jesse Saylor,
Jack Solomon, Hallie Terzopolos, Elizabeth
Wisecarver (design team)
Executive Architect: Gensler, New York .
3 Madeline Burke-Vigeland, aia (principal-
in-charge); Kristian Gregerson, aia (project
manager); Ambrose Aliaga-Kelly, aia
(technical director); Joanne Fernando, aia,
Jinho Kim, aia, Michelle Neary, aia, Bill
DuBois, Ana Espejo, Mariano Ortiz, Henry
Hong, aia, Scott Wilson, aia (design team)
Structural Engineer: Leslie E. Robertson
Associates
M/E/P Engineer/Security and I.T.
Consultants: Jaros Baum & Bolles
Landscape Architect: SCAPE/Landscape
Architecture
Curtainwall Consultants: BuroHappold
Engineering
Lighting Consultants: Tillotson Design
Associates
Acoustic/Audio/Visual Consultants: Cerami
& Associates
Building Code Consultants: Milrose
Consultants
Elevator Consultants: Jenkins & Huntington
Graphic Designers: 2x4; Gensler
Civil/Geotechnical Engineers: Thornton
Tomasetti
4
Sustainability Consultants: Vidaris
Food Service Consultants: Cini-Little
5 International
6
Construction Managers: FJ Sciame
Construction
Owner’s Representative: Group PMX
Size: 110,000 gross square feet
7 Cost: Withheld

1. Laminated glass fin

2. Glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) panel
3. Post-tensioned cast-in-place concrete slab
4. Galvanized metal hanging system for GFRC panels
5. Galvanized metal framing for GFRC panels
6. Insulated structurally glazed unit
7. Radiant panel 0 1 2 Opposite: View from south at dusk
143
144

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s

56-story, mixed-use Jiangxi
Nanchang Greenland Zifeng
Tower adds an essay in
geometric rigor to the prosaic
skyline of Nanchang, China.

text by nate berg

photos by lv henghzhong
145
146

When Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) won the Previous Spread: View looking north
competition to design the first major building for a
business district in the southeastern Chinese city of
Nanchang, the architects in the firm’s Chicago office
felt a dual set of responsibilities: As a potential new
landmark, the office and hotel tower had to make a
statement, but the building—and, by extension, the
new district—shouldn’t steamroll older parts of the city.
“We wanted to try to make visual, physical, and
mental connections with the old city, and to unify
that new district,” says SOM’s Mark Nagis, AIA, senior
design architect on the Jiangxi Nanchang Greenland
Zifeng Tower. “Instead of turning its back on the old
city, it was trying to celebrate it.” That sentiment led
to the design of the 56-story tower’s signature element, Section A–A1
a semi-triangular void carved into opposite sides of
the tower’s top third. The designers call it the “Great
Window,” and Nagis says it acts as a large aperture
“that looks west toward the old city, but also looks east
towards the new city, toward the future of Nanchang.”
The carving of the Great Window had symbolic
results, but was initially inspired by the practical need
to slim down the floor plates on the tower’s upper
levels, which are occupied by a luxury hotel with
smaller spatial needs than the offices below. And, as it
turned out, the large indentations had other benefits:
“We found that carving into it actually created more
surface area oriented to the best views,” Nagis says.
Though the Great Window helps the building
stand out, a more subtle design element reveals itself
closer up. Wrapping around almost all of the tower is a
triangulated grid of aluminum fins, each about 1.5 feet
wide and suspended off the building’s sheer glass walls.
These fins serve as shading structures, and their depth
and diagonal orientation help to reduce solar heat gain
from the building’s east-west exposure as well as the
strong sunlight from the south. The nodes that connect
the diagonal fins have been embedded with high-
intensity LED fixtures that provide the tower’s lighting
expression. By night, the tower glows in a dot matrix
of light.
At ground level, the triangular geometries inform
the design of the retail podium that anchors the tower.
The podium’s roof and the large public plaza outside
the building, designed by landscape architect SWA
Group, echo the geometry of the fins in a series of
triangular segments of turf, skylight, and hardscape.
By connecting the tower to the landscape and
thus connecting it to the city, the team answered
the pressure of designing a new landmark with a
thoughtful attention to detail. “This project was going
to kick off that entire new development,” Nagis says.
“We knew that we wanted to create a large civic gesture.”
 147

1. Office entrance
2. Hotel entrance
3. Ballroom entrance
4. Retail entrance
5. Circulation
6. Retail n

7. Office 0 20 40

Typical Office-Level Plan

Ground-Floor Plan
A

6
4

1 5

2 3 4
A1
148

East entrance
149
david lloyd/swa
150

Project Credits
Project: Jiangxi Nanchang Greenland Zifeng
Tower, Nanchang, China
Client: Greenland Group Nanchang
Design Architect: Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill, Chicago . Jeffrey McCarthy, faia
(managing director); Ross Wimer, faia
(former design director); Luke Leung
(M/E/P director); William Baker (structural
partner/director); Michael Pfeffer, aia
(project manager); Mark Nagis, aia (senior
design architect); Gregory Smith, aia, Yue
Zhu, aia (senior technical coordinators);
Henry Chan, aia (technical coordinator)
Landscape Architect: SWA Group
Lighting Design: Kaplan Gehring McCarroll
Architectural Lighting
Fire Protection Engineering: Jensen Huges
(formerly Rolf Jensen & Associates)
Vertical Transportation: Edgett Williams
Consulting Group
Façade Access: Lerch Bates
Acoustic Engineering: Shen Milsom & Wilke
Wind Engineering: Rowan Williams Davies
& Irwin
Size: 209,058 square meters (2.25 million
square feet)
Cost: Withheld

Above: Hotel lobby

Left: Ground-floor lobby

Opposite: East façade

151
152

Ateliers Jean Nouvel tempers

the Mediterranean heat with
the hanging gardens of its
White Walls mixed-use tower
in Nicosia, Cyprus.

text by edward keegan, aia

photos by yiorgis yerolymbos
153
154

For Pritzker Prize–winning architect Jean Nouvel, HON. FAIA, there’s neither a typical nor an ordinary project.
From the luminous double-walled, glass-and-concrete Torre Agbar in Barcelona to the subtly battered Hôtel de
Police in Charleroi, Belgium, he has consistently brought surprising formal inventions to the high-rise genre.
Paris-based Ateliers Jean Nouvel’s latest exploration in the type is no less memorable: White Walls is a 220-foot-
tall, white-painted concrete structure in Nicosia, Cyprus. The 107,639-square-foot trapezoidal tower, which
includes two floors of retail, six floors of offices, and 10 floors of apartments, cuts a memorable figure on the
skyline with pixelated cut-outs on the east and west façades (above) that offer glimpses of gardens within.
 155

Penthouse Loft Plan Section A–A1

4 8
8

Typical Residential Floor Plan

8
4
8

4
9

4 4 8

Typical Office Floor Plan

4 5

4
7

5
4

Ground-Floor Plan

2 5

1. Residential entrance
2. Office entrance
4 3 A 3. Lobby
6 4. Garden
A1
5. Meeting room
1
6. Kitchen
7. Office
8. Bedroom n
9. Living room 0 20 40
156
 157

The structure’s south façade (opposite) is angular and hard-edged, in contrast to the softer, rounded balconies,
rendered in white-painted concrete, of the north façade (opening spread). Vegetation bursts from each balcony,
covering roughly 80 percent of the south face and providing substantial shade during the summer while still
allowing sun to penetrate to the interior during winter months. Nouvel subverts the standard structural logic of
the tall building by constructing concrete piers at the east and west ends—which contain standard core elements
such as stairs and elevator, and more private programmatic functions such as meeting rooms and bedrooms.
These piers are joined by column-free spans that serve as open offices in the lower floors and open-plan living
areas in the residences above. The architect plays with the nature of a concrete wall though the varied perforations
(above), which make the vertical surface appear in some instances to be a simple screen, at other times a
protective shell. The larger openings are filled with verdant gardens that overflow their containers and sprout
lush green foliage from the building’s envelope.
158

Project Credits
Project: White Walls (Tower 25),
Nicosia, Cyprus
Client: Nice Day Developments
Design Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel,
Paris . Jean Nouvel, hon. faia (founder);
Emmanuel Blamont (adviser to Jean
Nouvel); Philippe Papy, Elisabeth Kather
(project leaders); Sony Devabhaktuni,
Nobuo Yoshida (architects)
Local Collaborating Architect: Takis
Sophocleous Architects, Nicosia . Anastasia
Koumoulidou, Demetris Sophocleous
Structural Engineer: KAL Engineering
M/E/P/FP Engineer: Mitsides Samouhl &
Partners
Quantity Surveyor: Nicolaou & Konnides
Size: 10,000 square meters
(107,639 square feet)
Cost: €11.5 million ($12.9 million)

Both apartments and offices feature substantial outdoor loggias (opposite) that allow all building occupants
to enjoy Nicosia’s temperate climate. Voids and windows in the concrete walls are designed to a module of 0.4
meters—almost 16 inches—square. This dimension gave the architects freedom to pattern the building’s east and
west façades with various scales of these apertures, making it nearly impossible to differentiate between single-
and double-height spaces from outside. The perforations blur—in ever so digital a manner—any meaningful sense
of scale among the building’s 18 floors. The balconies to the north and south ensure that every room, even the
apartment kitchens (above), has an outdoor connection. A duplex apartment (top) caps the tower; its central
courtyard layout is based on Cyprus’ traditional architecture, with sloped louvers providing shade while retaining
views to the sky. In Nicosia, Nouvel integrates tower and landscape while employing the white walls of the
island’s vernacular, rendered larger, and in formally inventive and surprising ways.
159
160

In an unprecedented
collaboration, Legorreta +
Legorreta and Rogers Stirk
Harbour + Partners wed their
signature design approaches
in the BBVA Bancomer Tower
in Mexico City.

text by thomas de monchaux

photos by roland halbe
161
162

Does it sound like faint praise to say that the greatest necessities for formal fun, here enhanced by a vaguely
skyscraper of 1970 has just been built where the Paseo Corbusian roofscape decked out in apricot orange.
de la Reforma meets Chapultepec Park in Mexico The chevron pattern of the perimeter megaframes
City? It shouldn’t. The remarkable rigor and restraint is elaborated by what the designers, in a nod to
of the 50-story, 848,196-square-foot BBVA Bancomer vernacular sunshade precedents, call celosias: steel
Tower—an unusual collaboration between two diagrid lattices of mulberry-tinted shading blades,
established firms, London-based Rogers Stirk Harbour which in turn support aluminum screens that are
+ Partners (RSH+P) and Mexico City–based Legorreta calibrated to allow uninterrupted views for those seated
+ Legorreta—serves as a tart corrective to the rendering- at desks inside, while filtering out glare and heat gain
driven formalism and gratuitous gimmickry that passes from all that 24-degree-north-latitude daylight (and
for big thinking in today’s ever-more-dense, ever-more- contributing to the project’s LEED Gold rating). The
tall, ever-more-populous cities. megaframes also meant, Leathem says, that “we could
The look of this new headquarters building for scoop out outdoor sky terraces behind the structure,
Mexico’s largest financial institution isn’t a result of bringing the feeling of the park up into the building.”
any self-conscious historicism, but is instead a “so- The five triple-height excisions, trapezoidal
new-it’s-old” or “so-old-it’s-new” throwback to a peak in plan, span the tower’s full width, and serve, in
moment, about a half-century ago. That’s when the theory, as informal social condensers for associated
global profession of architecture had (with the not- “neighborhoods” of corporate divisions. Harry Bertoia
incidental influence of Richard Rogers, HON. FAIA, patio chairs and George Nelson tables add a touch of
and his High-Tech peers) fully assimilated the robust California ease. Those administrative neighborhoods
formal lessons—and conceptual ambitions—of the are expressed somewhat more insistently in six boxy
Brutalists, Metabolists, and other late-midcentury extrusions at the tower’s park-facing corner, each
moderns, but had yet to bury the associated containing conference rooms with panoramic views.
engineering breakthroughs inside the pseudo- The striking colors—yellow, blue, red, orange—with
Neoclassical or expressionist stylistic detours that which the sky gardens are lined, “are not whimsical,”
followed. Instead, as RSH+P project architect and Leathem says: at the urban scale, they break up the
associate partner James Leathem says with a prosaically tower’s volume, and at the human scale, extending to
inadvertent poetry typical of this new building itself: interior furnishings and wayfinding, they contribute to
“It is what it is and that’s all there is to it.” a sense of place within the larger complex.
What it is, visibly, is a building of components and The colorful sky gardens recall Rogers’ 2005
extrusions. Engineered for earthquakes, the structure design for Madrid’s Barajas International Airport,
is distributed between a perimeter steel-truss system with its rainbow-hued spectrum of structural steel
that features stacked and slab-strained inverted-V- felicitously color-coding its gates. But they also
shaped “megaframes” with brace nodes that, toward strongly evoke—along with the building’s primal
the building’s top, can oscillate some 5 feet to release mediation between the orthogonal and the oblique, the
seismic load. Several ferroconcrete service and elevator massive and the perforated, and the volumetric and
cores cross the tower’s square plan along a 45-degree the planar—the enduring interests of the late Ricardo
traverse. At the double-height, double-width 12th-floor Legoretta, once a protégé of the original modernist
“sky-lobby”—which extends atop an adjacent parking colorist, Luis Barragán.
structure and features a cafeteria and auditorium, It’s a surprising convergence between the legacies
along with the primary security bottleneck—joints of the earthy Ricardo and the steely Richard. “We were
and junctions are designed to be able to move a few slightly concerned about how the collaboration might
feet in any direction if the earth shakes, with surfaces work out at the start, coming from different design
overlapped to laterally shift, as Leathem says, “like a cultures and backgrounds,” Leathem concedes. But
gangplank on a ship’s deck.” eventually, “it worked well. One of the things that
The sky-lobby is reached by glass-walled outboard made it work was the megaframe, which was a clear
elevators that daintily recall their more dramatic organizing idea. Once we all got to that framework, we
antecedents on Rogers’ 1986 Lloyds of London office could plug pieces into the system. So we’d build on that.”
tower, here arrayed along the tower’s chamfered corner The High-Tech cohort has had mixed fortunes since
facing Reforma. In a bustle-like annex, the necessary its height in the last decades of the last century: Foster
helical curves of the car ramps up those same 12 levels + Partners’ latent classicism has become increasingly
at the base add a rounded sculptural element—a explicit; Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s failures at
timelessly modern maneuver of exploiting functional New York City’s Whitney Museum and Fort Worth’s
 163

Section A–A1 Kimbell Art Museum cast a shadow on its late work;
London-based practices Hopkins Architects and
Grimshaw Architects have each developed deeper,
yet sometimes narrower, practices. But the BBVA
Bancomer tower in Mexico City suggests that some old
dogs may yet have new tricks.
The success of the “LegoRogers” collaboration
makes a case for fewer brand-burnishing signature
moves and for more collective intelligence. Despite
the fact that these days, an office tower for a big
bank is not an especially soul-stirring venture, there
may be something critical, even gently radical, in the
building’s candid curiosity about the relationship of
function to form, material to structure, landmark to
landscape, environment to event.
“We weren’t trying to make it look like anything,
not even like something from NASA,” Leathem says,
acknowledging the Space Age vehicles that have
surely, since Rogers’ own Zip-Up House proposal of
1967, inspired the firm’s aesthetic. “Everything serves
a purpose.” The result is a building with an expressed
economy of means—a good look for a bank—that is
austere without being severe. Poignantly, and almost
polemically, its tallest point is an extrusion of its
humblest service core: a concrete tube at the back
corner that accommodates an express elevator and
plumbing pods, extruded further up for access to a
rooftop helipad. “On the original scheme we had some
spires,” Leathem says. But, fittingly, “we took them off,
because they didn’t do anything.”

Previous Spread: View from north

164

Main entrance, with spiral parking

ramp at left
 165

Tk tk
166

Sky-Lobby-Level Plan Typical Office Floor Plan

7
6

Ground-Floor Plan
A1

1
A

1. Entrance 5. Auditorium
2. Lobby 6. Sky terrace
3. Parking 7. Office n

4. Café 8. Conference room 0 40 80 Opposite: Sky-lobby-level café

167
168

Project Credits
Project: BBVA Bancomer, Mexico City Geotechnical Engineer: Ingeniería
Client: BBVA Bancomer Experimental
Architect: LegoRogers (a collaboration Heliport Consultant: ATG Airports
between Legorreta + Legorreta, Mexico Traffic Impact Consultant: ITT
City, and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Planning and Environmental Consultant:
London) Asesoría Urbana
Interior Design: LegoRogers; Skidmore Catering Consultant: Grupo Lux
Owings & Merril LEED Consultant: HKS
Landscape Design: Espacios Verdes Fire/Transportation Consultant: Arup
Structural Engineer: Arup; Colinas de Buen Electrical Consultant: DEC
Public Health Installations: Garza Wind Tunnel Study: RWDI Consulting
Maldonado y Asociados Engineers & Scientists
Air Conditioning/Thermal Analysis Façade Consultant Codes and Regulations: Luis
Consultant: DYPRO Rosales
Above: Sky terrace Security/Smoke Detection: Logen Renders: DECC
Acoustics/Multimedia: Saad Acústica Size: 188,777 square meters (2.03 million
Signage: Rommy Serrano square feet); 78,800 square meters
Opposite: View from west, showing Parking Consultant: Walker Parking (848,196 square feet) (office)
conference room pods Consultants Cost: Withheld
169
170

Arata Isozaki and Andrea

Maffei devise a brilliantly
straightforward structural
solution for the ultrathin
profile of the Allianz Tower
at CityLife in Milan.

text by clay risen

photos by alessandra chemollo
171
172

Milan has long been the financial capital of Italy, but Previous Spread: View from east
until recently, it has lacked the dense verticality that
marks other European economic powerhouses like Below: View of thin profile from
Frankfurt in Germany and Paris’s La Défense. In southwest
the last few years, though, skyscrapers have started
springing up around the city center, mostly to provide
office space for companies like Google and LinkedIn.
One of the most watched of this new crop of tower
developments has been CityLife. Located a few miles
northwest of central Milan on the site of the old city
fairgrounds, the complex is anchored by three towers,
including one by Zaha Hadid and one by Daniel
Libeskind, AIA. The third is the 50-floor Allianz Tower,
which, at 793.3 feet tall at the tip of its broadcast
antenna, is now the tallest building in Italy.
Designed by Tokyo’s Arata Isozaki, HON. FAIA,
and Milan’s Andrea Maffei and nicknamed “Il Dritto,”
or “The Straight One,” the Allianz Tower strikes a
stunning profile: An impossibly thin 79 feet deep by
202 feet long, it is composed of eight six-floor sections,
with the glass in each seeming to billow out like a
pillow. The curtainwall’s cold-bended, triple-glass-unit
panels are affixed to a steel frame that is curved to the
outside, but straight against the interior faÇade.
From the side, the tower intentionally resembles
Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column, Maffei says.
“Our projects always start with a concept that we
want to tell with architecture. In this case the concept
was the idea of infinity.” Isozaki and Maffei placed
the elevators and core functions at either end of the
building, so “the skyscraper becomes a thin transparent
sheet that light passes through,” Maffei says.
To keep the building rigid, construction crews
sank 62 concrete columns 101 feet into the ground
below the reinforced-concrete foundation. At the 24th
floor, the two cores, also made of reinforced concrete,
are connected by a steel belt truss. According to
Maffei, the building is strong enough to withstand
a seismic event, with some movement on the upper
floors. Rather than sacrifice office space at the top
for a damper, the team opted for four external, and
gold-painted, steel buttresses, which anchor into the
structure at the 11th floor. The two on the building’s
northwest side are 196 feet long and connect to a brace
in the basement; the two to the southeast are 131 feet
long and anchor into a pair of support structures that
house meeting rooms and cooling towers.
The Allianz Tower’s thinness is not just to show
off the team’s engineering prowess. Relegating core
functions to the ends allows for versatile interiors.
“Our idea was to create a very flexible office space,”
Maffei says. “The way of working is changing quickly
and office space needs to follow this transformation.”
 173

Typical Office-Floor Plan

3 3

Section A–A1 Ground-Floor Plan

A
1

3 2 3

A1

0 40 80

1. Entrance
2. Lobby
3. Circulation core
4. Meeting room
0 40 80 5. Office
174
 175

Opposite: View of curved curtainwall panels and gold-painted structural-brace connection at 11th floor

Above: View of tower base from south, showing pavilions containing meeting rooms and cooling towers
176

Project Credits
Project: Allianz Tower, Milan Tomita, Ayako Fujisawa (project team)
Client: CityLife Structural Engineer: Sasaki Associates
Design Architect: Arata Isozaki & (competition); Arup (project); Holzner &
Associates, Tokyo, and Andrea Maffei Bertagnolli Engineering, Cap Engineering
Architects, Milan . Arata Isozaki, hon. faia, (basement structures)
Andrea Maffei (principals); Pietro Bertozzi, Façade Consultant: Arup
Takeshi Miura, Alessandra De Stefani, Fire Safety: Studio Mistretta & Co.
Chiara Zandri, Davide Cazzaniga, Vincenzo Vertical Transport: Jappsen Ingenieure
Carapellese, Roberto Balduzzi, Francesca Lighting Design: LPA
Chezzi, Takatoshi Oki, Stefano Bergagna, Project Management: J&A; Ramboll
Paolo Evolvi, Elisabetta Borgiotti, General Contractors: Colombo Costruzioni;
Giuliano Godoli, Giorgio Ramponi, Adolfo Focchi
Berardozzi, Hidenari Arai, Higaki Seisuke, Construction Manager: In.Pro
Takuichiro Yamamoto, Carlotta Maranesi, Size: 81,615 square meters (878,497 square
Atsuko Suzuki, Sofia Bedynski, Antonietta feet) above grade; 44,485 square meters
Bavaro, Mauro Mazzali, Sofia Cattinari, (478,832 square feet) below grade
Above and Opposite: Tower lobby Taro Hayashi, Haruna Watanabe, Madoka Cost: Withheld
177
178

Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig

designs his first high-rise,
for fashion importer
Shinsegae International
in Seoul, South Korea.

interview by katie gerfen

photos by kyungsub shin
179
kevin scott
180

How did you get this, your first tower commission?

Tom Kundig, FAIA: We had worked for these clients on
a number of projects in Korea—some residential and
art spaces. One of the members of the family—which
develops stores for the fashion industry—was interested
in building this tower and asked if would I would
design it. I didn’t have a portfolio of tower projects.
But the owner was willing to take a risk, and I’m
indebted to them for inviting me to work on it.

What was the brief and how did you approach design?
The idea was to collect a number of disparate offices
that the family had assembled in different buildings
in this neighborhood in Seoul into a single building
called Shinsegae International. As for the design,
what really drives me is context. I always say that
architecture is the exterior context pushing against the
interior context. It’s the membrane between those two;
the push and pull between the two different agendas.
Traditionally, this area has had five- and six-story
buildings, because that was the limit of technology
when they were built. But in an urban context, people
only really take in the first six to seven stories of a
building whether you’re driving fast in a car or if
you’re walking. What was really clear is that for the
client, the base of this building had to be interesting
not only to the people in their cars, but also to the
people inside the building. They understood the value
of city-scaled architecture that would engage people
whether they saw it once or every day over a career.
I think this building responds to the existing built
environment at the base. And then in the body of
the building, we were making a single place for these
people that work together. The top is very much about
the community of the building itself, because that’s
where everybody gets together—in the rooftop garden.

Context and regionalism have always been key in your

work? How did you approach that at this new scale?
Architects are professional voyeurs. We look at what is
happening now in our cultural context, what happened
in the past, and what might happen in the future—
that’s the context. You spend time thinking about the
forces pushing on this building and the reasons that
the built environment around it exists as it does. But
conceptually, aside from scale and some technology
issues, in a way, there’s nothing different about
approaching the design for a cabin in the high desert
or a tower in one of the largest cities in the world.
Previous Spread: View from southwest
You’re known for a thoughtful approach to materiality.
How did you showcase the palette for this project? This Image: View from southeast, at
We used an aluminum curtainwall system that has dusk
181
182

Roof-Level Plan

some steel elements in it. It builds strength for the

windows but it’s also a brise-soleil because Seoul is
a harsh climate and it affects the efficiency of solar 8
gain and heat loss. And then there’s the base, where
the materiality really makes itself felt front and center.
There’s wood on the inside as you enter the building,
Amphitheater-Level Plan
so it’s very warm to the touch, and there’s tough steel
on the exterior. It’s hard on the outside, soft on the
inside, like a Tootsie Pop. And, of course, the base is
where the gizmos are.
7
Let’s talk about these gizmos—the wheels and panels on
the façade. What are they and what do they do? 6 7
The gizmos are motor-driven, and the wheels support
the motors as they move these black-framed, black-
mesh panels up and down along a steel track. It’s all
computer-controlled so you can change the program— Fifth-Floor Plan
they can move slowly or quickly. They’re intended
to move like fabric does—changing positions and
proportions, and that’s important because they’re at
the city level of visual engagement with the building.
The clients can put things on each panel so that
you could have a billboard that breaks up or comes
5
together: It’s ready to have artists engage. But the
gizmos are also in the client’s control, and I think it’s
cool that it engages the building at a human level and
gives people the ability to affect this building in a very
Ground-Floor Plan
personal way if they want to.

The aesthetic overall is a departure from the purely

glazed towers that we see elsewhere. Was that a driving
factor in the design?
It was intentional on my part to reconsider how these
tall buildings in cities are articulated. With the smaller
2 3
stuff that I work on, articulation and human touch
are really important, and I always think it’s somewhat
disappointing that taller buildings don’t have that.
This is a very simple building, done to the envelope 1 4

that was allowed. I thought the proportions were

beautiful, and maybe the subtlety and nuance will be
appreciated in the next 50 or 100 years, rather than if it
was a one-liner in a crazy shape.

Now that you’ve got one in your portfolio, can we expect

more towers from you? More larger projects?
I’m interested in the adventure of life, where you can go 1. Plaza
out and experience different places. That’s why I like 2. Lobby
small projects as much as large ones—they take you all 3. Auto lift
over the world. The large projects are interesting from a 4. Retail
community-design perspective, and we’re getting good 5. Office
as a firm at understanding what the larger community, 6. Amphitheater
and the owner, is looking for. It’s not about being big 7. Conference room n

or small. It’s about: What’s the new adventure? 8. Terrace 0 20 40

 183

Main entry, with view of screen apparatus

184

Above: Ground-floor lobby

Opposite, Top: Roof terrace

Opposite, Bottom: Typical office floor

185
186

Double-height, daylit amphitheater on the

tower’s 13th and 14th floors
 187

Project Credits
Project: Shinsegae International, Seoul,
South Korea
Client: Shinsegae International
Design Architect: Olson Kundig, Seattle .
Tom Kundig, faia (design principal); Dan
Wilson, aia (principal); Jason Roseler
(project architect); Phil Turner (gizmo
design); Nathan Boyd, Jerry Garcia, Evan
Harlan, Debbie Kennedy, Angus MacGregor,
Kevin Scott (project team)
Architect of Record: Junglim Architecture
Interior Designer: Dawon Design (café,
meeting room, office floors); Kesson:
(cafeteria, piazza)
Mechanical Engineer: WSP | Parsons
Brinckerhoff
Structural Engineer: Magnusson Klemencic
Associates
General Contractor: Shinsegae Engineering
& Construction
Landscape Architect: Allworth Design
Lighting Designer: TinoKwan Lighting
Consultants
Curtainwall/Façade Constultants: Front
(design development); CDC (schematic
design)
Façade Access Consultant: Lerch Bates
(schematic design)
Size: 168,390 square feet (15,644 square
meters), total gross floor area
Cost: Withheld
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Residential:

This Bare-Bones Cabin Could Shelter Weary Hikers in

the Icelandic Wilderness Sometime Next Year

text by sara johnson

A recent contest, launched by competition-organizing company Bee Breeders

with CDS NORD Property Developers, called for a shelter distilled to its most basic
courtesy origins

functions—a place to rest, relax, and rejuvenate—designed for hikers navigating

isolated Icelandic landscapes. Toronto studio Origins designed the first-place entry,
the three-roomed Terra Firma, articulated with gabion walls filled with local volcanic
stone. A 3,500-square-foot timber and polycarbonate roof covers two sleeping areas
as well as interior and exterior gathering spaces. CDS NORD plans to construct the
first Iceland Trekking Cabin, which could be any of the top three winners, next year.

> See more renderings of Origins’ Terra Firma at bit.ly/IcelandTerraFirma.

190 Residential

Perriand, Reich, the Aaltos, and the

Eameses: MoMA Highlights 30 Years of
Early 20th-Century Residential Spaces

text by chelsea blahut

Residential interiors are designed to

fit the bespoke needs and comforts of
the future inhabitant, but an exhibition
that opened this month at New York’s
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) explores
other factors in how designer and client
craft spaces: specifically, the external
social, technological, and political
influences that helped shape residential
interiors in the early 20th century. “How
Should We Live? Propositions for the
Modern Interior” presents domestic
and retail spaces as well as re-created
exhibitions originally produced between
1920 and 1950. The exhibition includes
more than 200 pieces by designers such
as Aino and Alvar Aalto and Charles
and Ray Eames, and also features some
of MoMA’s recently acquired work by
female architects and designers.
The exhibition includes personal
living spaces, such as German
modernist Lilly Reich’s “Apartment
for a single woman,” which shows an
attention to a new demographic in the
early 1930s: the single, working woman.
Another interior concept, the “Frankfurt
Kitchen” (left) by Austrian architect
Margarete “Grete” Schütte-Lihotzky,
was a response to Germany’s post-WWI
housing crisis. New materials such

the museum of modern art, new york

as aluminum, linoleum, and colorful
plastic were also introduced in design
during this period, and appear in French
designer Charlotte Perriand’s dormitory
furnishings for Maison du Brésil,
designed for Brazilian students at the
Cité Universitaire in Paris. The exhibition
will be on view until April 23, 2017.
Explore Marvin’s contemporary windows and doors at marvinwindows.com/contemporary
192 Residential

These Radical Fixtures Transform Natural Wood into

Octagons, a Diatom, and an Upturned Blossom 3

text by selin ashaboglu

1. Navicula, David Trubridge Inspired by the forms of diatoms—single-celled

phytoplankton found in the ocean—this CNC-milled bamboo plywood structure
is fitted with a strip of LEDs and available in lengths of 59", 78.7", and 98.4".
davidtrubridge.com 2. 2X Truss Chandelier, Stickbulb This 54"-by-28" chandelier
combines two octagonal forms. Made of reclaimed and sustainably sourced
materials and fitted with 2'-long, 12V LED modules, the 119W fixture puts out 2,385
lumens at a standard color temperature of 3000K and a color-rendering index of
94. Available in four types of wood (walnut shown), with polished brass hardware.
stickbulb.com 3. No. 3 Loimu Pendant, Karikoski Composed of Programme
for the Endorsement of Forest Certification–certified birch plywood, this pendant
measures 21.25" tall and 15.15" in diameter. Loimu is fitted with an E27 base, and the
40W luminaire is available in birch (shown) and shiny black. karikoski.fi
mike basher
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 Residential 195

Stealth Building
New York
WORKac

text by gideon fink shapiro

photos by bruce damonte

The Residential feature is proudly sponsored by Jenn-Air.

196
 197

This Spread: The addition is set back

from the building’s façade, creating
space for a terrace off the living area.

Previous Page: The rooftop addition is

designed to be completely invisible from
the street.
198

A sharply folding roof plane lies behind the cornice from which the building can be seen. The oblique
line of an 1857 building in New York City’s Tribeca sight line determined the roof’s 15-degree slope, as
South Historic District, invisible from the street. This well as the diagonal slash of the ceiling and penthouse
secret aerie caps the renovation and expansion of an staircase relative to the street. The three peaks of
apartment building that was originally a five-story the irregular sawtooth roof are abstractions of the
commercial loft, and that boasts one of the city’s oldest pediment, the neighboring building’s pediment, and
cast-iron façades. Dan Wood, FAIA, and Amale Andraos, the former bulkhead, which now contains a hot tub.
partners in New York–based WORK Architecture The building’s fifth floor, and lowest level of the
Company (WORKac), restored the façade and replaced penthouse, contains three bedrooms and a family room.
everything behind it except joists and party walls. Connected by a transparent glass-enclosed stairway
The four-condominium building contains three that qualifies as an emergency stair, the added sixth
1,650-square-foot floor-through apartments, plus floor, featuring an open-plan living area and kitchen
a 1,750-square-foot addition that transformed the with a north-facing terrace, serves as a dramatic
uppermost unit into a three-level, 3,400-square-foot entrance. The seventh-floor loft, reached via a steel
penthouse. The simplex units below contain WORKac- stair, opens to a south balcony.
designed cores that package kitchen, storage, and On the façade, 25 new Corinthian column capitals
bathroom spaces in a freestanding volume with adorned with foliage motifs stand in for long-lost
additional living space above—a testament to the glory originals. Generated with Michael Hansmeyer, a
of 13-foot ceilings. Zurich-based architect and programmer, the new
To develop the shape of the addition and conceal capitals were cast not in iron, but in malleable glass-
it from the street, the duo used a projection model to fiber-reinforced concrete based on a CNC-cut foam
calculate what Andraos calls “a cone of vision” from a model—exemplifying the sophisticated layering of
nearby street corner, the furthest point on the ground preservation and invention throughout the project.

Section A–A1 Seventh-Floor Plan

Sixth-Floor Plan

Fifth-Floor Plan

A A1

0 10 20
 199

Built of thin steel stringers and treads

and lined with mesh guardrails, the
staircase from the sixth-floor living
area leads to a seventh-floor loft with a
bedroom and bathroom.
200

The addition’s roofline creates a

dramatic ceiling in the sixth-floor living
space, which features the solid ash
plank flooring used throughout.

Project Credits
Project: Stealth Building, New York
Client/Construction Manager:
Knightsbridge Properties
Architect/Interior Designer/Landscape
Architect: WORK Architecture Company,
New York . Dan Wood, faia, Amale Andraos
(principals); Sam Dufaux (associate
principal); Karl Landsteiner (construction
administration project architect);
Chris Oliver (design project
architect); Maggie Tsang, Timo
Otto, Patrick Daurio
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer:
Plus Group Consulting Engineering
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman
Associates
Lighting Designer: Tillotson Design
Associates
Restoration Architect: CTS Group
Artist, Column Capitals: Michael
Hansmeyer
Code Consultant: CCBS Consulting
Size: 14,000 square feet (building,
including addition); 3,400 square
feet (penthouse unit)
Cost: Withheld
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204 Ad Index
Advertiser Page Website Phone
ABX Expo 33 abexpo.com

Advanta Cabinets 130 AdvantaCabinets.com

AdvanTech 117 AdvanTechBuildStrong.com/architect38

AL Call for Submisions 43 alproductcall.com 202.729.3647

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American Hydrotech 205 www.hydrotechusa.com 800.877.6125

American Institute of Architects 62 aia.org/join 800.424.5080

American Institute of Architects 68 careercenter.aia.org/employers

American Standard 103 americanstandard.com

American Specialties, Inc. 41 www.americanspecialties.com 914.476.9000

Andersen 32a-b andersenwindows.com/coastal

ARCAT C3 arcat.com

Armstrong C2-1 armstrongceilings.com/totalacoustics

Banker+Wire 38 bankerwire.com

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Bluebeam 27 bluebeam.com/reinventing

Bobrick Washroom 25 BOBRICK.COM

Boral Stone to Cultured Stone® by Boral 207 www.culturedstone.com 800.255.1727

Cascade Coil 51 cascadearchitectural.com 800.999.2645

Centria 55 CENTRIAperformance.com/PESealPlate 800.250.8675

CertainTeed Corporation/Gypsum 106 CertainTeed.com/WallsMatter

ClarkDietrich Building Systems 5 ClarkDietrichEQ-IQ.com

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CR Laurence 188 crl-arch.com 800.262.5151 ext. 5305

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Firestone 125 firestonebpco.com/skysscape

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Guardian SunGuard 99 GuardianGlass.com/commercial 866.GuardSG

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Advertiser Page Website Phone
JELD-WEN Windows & Doors 19 jeld-wen.com

JENN-AIR 201 jennair.com/connect

JENN-AIR 194 jennair.com

Kalwall 205 KALWALL.COM 800.258.9777

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* issue mailed in regional editions. Publisher not liable for errors or omissions.
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208 ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects, October 2016

Editorial:
A Rising Infrastructure Lifts All Boats

Last month I participated as a juror in Gensler’s annual Society of Civil Engineers’ frequently referenced
internal design review. As you would expect of such infrastructure report card, from 2013, the U.S. earned
a big firm, the projects came in many different sizes, a D+. Secondly, given the historically low interest rates,
shapes, programs, and locations. Office buildings, car never in our lifetimes will there be a more financially
dealerships, factories, and condominiums, in the U.S., advantageous moment to make the investment. Thirdly,
China, the Middle East, and Europe. As is Gensler’s the economy and the job market could use another
custom, out of all the award winners, we picked one jolt, to push us over the line from “recovering” to
project as the best of the best: a clinic for Cook County “recovered,” or better. And lastly, there are few smarter,
Health and Hospitals System in Chicago. It brings more equitable ways to improve lives, which is why
rigorous design to an often undistinguished building I couldn’t help but remember the Gensler clinic (a
type and dignity to an underserved community. collaboration with Forum Studio) during the debate.
The jury met on a Thursday and Friday in The old hospital building, a 1915 Beaux-Arts
Washington, D.C. Not surprisingly, given the locale landmark that provided the model for the gritty TV
and the fact that the first presidential debate was drama ER, has been shuttered for over a decade. Yet
scheduled for the following Monday, the election from its prominent site along Chicago’s major east-
was the topic of much conversation during breaks west artery, the Eisenhower Expressway, it remains
and meals. I didn’t expect the inverse to happen, a depressing symbol of deprivation. The online
but Monday night, as I watched the candidates spar Encyclopedia of Chicago describes Cook County Hospital
over immigration, race, gender, poverty, and the role as “open to all patients, generally poor or destitute,
of government, the jury kept coming to mind, and and often alcoholic.” And almost entirely immigrant:
especially that hospital project. 19th-century European settlers; blacks moving north
In a rare area of agreement, both Donald Trump in the Great Migration; and more recently Hispanics
and Hillary Clinton spoke in favor of infrastructure and Asians. When the Gensler’s clinic opens in 2018, it
spending, which should warm the hearts of architects will serve the same important constituencies. No matter
nationwide. While Trump didn’t mention his favorite who we elect as president, it’s time to design better
initiative, the Great Wall of Mexico, he colorfully symbols, and finer realities, for every American.
described our nation’s airports as “like from a Third
World country.” Anyone who has flown through
Orlando recently might agree.
Clinton has proposed spending $275 billion
on infrastructure. Trump’s plan would cost $500
billion—a figure that has not found favor on Capitol
Hill. Alas, without congressional support, neither of
the candidates’ plans has much chance of becoming a
reality. And that’s tragic, for several reasons. Firstly, the
stephen voss

nation’s infrastructure seriously needs an upgrade. Not

just the plumbing and wiring, or the roads and bridges,
but also the airports, schools, fire stations, and, yes, @NedCramer
hospitals. In the most recent iteration of the American
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