Needing to expand its housing options, Bowdoin College undertook several projects, including constructing the new Park Row Apartments for upperclass students. The eighty-eight-bed development includes four wood-framed buildings, each with...
Bowdoin College’s Schiller Coastal Studies Center, comprising 118 acres of coastal spruce-pine forest and 5 mi of coastline, serves as a living laboratory for research and learning. After receiving a $10 million gift from the...
Arlington County Public Schools needed to accommodate increasing enrollment. They undertook constructing a new school to meet these demands and added the challenge of making this building the first zero-energy school in the Mid-Atlantic. To help...
Housing approximately 800 students, Craven and Crowell Quadrangles (Quads) make up a significant portion of Duke University’s West Campus Quads. The university determined the 1920s structures, each comprising multiple houses, required...
The Hotchkiss School Natatorium is a competitive swimming and diving facility within a 212,000 sq ft athletic complex. During its first winter, the owner reported problems, including brown stains and water dripping from the ceiling,...
To expand the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College relocated it to a landmark 1927 Renaissance Revival building on Commonwealth Avenue. The project included renovating the existing 23,000 sq ft space and constructing a 6,000 sq ft three-story,...
During winter seasons, St. Paul’s School struggled to maintain daily temperatures with overnight mechanical setbacks in their 1936 schoolhouse. Window air leakage leading to occupant thermal discomfort drove St. Paul’s to replace...
The 550,000 sq ft Van Ness offers offices, apartments, retail space, and below-grade parking in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. The mixed-use development comprises two towers bridged by a landscaped plaza over ground-level retail spaces...
The Marcia & John Price Museum Building at the University of Utah was a collaborative, design-build effort between Prescott Muir Architects, VBFA Inc., and Layton Construction Co., Inc. In collaboration with the original project team,...
For the new Athletic and Fitness Center at Grinnell College, the design team needed to address the combination of high internal temperature and humidity of the natatorium set in a cold climate. To minimize problems, such as staining, icicle...
Fluid-applied air barrier/water-resistive barrier (WRB) membranes for use in exterior wall systems are relatively new products and are increasingly being specified and used by designers and building owners. Their integrity and continuity is...
Also published in the April e-newsletter. Abstract: There is growing awareness in the AEC industry of the destructive problems of moisture and air leakage through the building envelope. Building codes have caught up to the findings of...
Expert advice on how to control wasteful air leakage in the building envelope. The basic function of an air barrier system is to prevent uncontrolled air leakage through the building enclosure. An air barrier must be a complete system of...
Although air barriers are not a new concept, design and construction issues related to these systems abound. What are the reasons for these problems? Are architects and engineers sufficiently educated about this component for building envelope...
Abstract: Upgrades of United States energy codes recently attracted attention to the finicky "continuity" details between air and water barriers in facade construction. A typical construction detail on a new project that contains rain-...
Air leakage through the building enclosure can have a significant impact on heating and cooling,loads. Unfortunately, the measurement of air leakage through enclosure systems and components can be very difficult in practice. Inaccurate...
also published in RCI Interface, March 2011|Abstract: This presentation will discuss failures and other problems encountered during forensic investigations of ailing curtain wall systems, with primary focus on glass and metal (aluminum)...
As energy resources are diminished, energy costs increase, and the detrimental environmental effects of combustion emissions become more pronounced and better understood, optimizing building energy performance becomes essential to building owners...