Air Barrier Adventure: An Impossible Air Tightness Goal Achieved

Read how the Joeris project team achieved the air barrier tightness goal set by the owner of 0.1 cfm/sf @75pa, less than half the Corps of Engineers' standard. The Credit Human Broadway Office Development is one of the most sustainable buildings in the country.

Air Barrier Adventure

An Impossible Air Tightness Goal Achieved

Angela Cardwell, Executive Vice President, Joeris General Contractors, Ltd. Contributors: Jorden Eiden, Matt Dunn, Henry Serry

Background and Introduction

Steve Hennigan, President/CEO of Credit Human, is not your normal seeker of efficiency and sustainability. No. Steve Hennigan wants it ALL, and he wants it to perform at the highest levels you can imagine, not those you just think you can achieve. He wants the impossible.

This mindset set the stage for Joeris’ management of the construction of the new headquarters for Credit Human. The entire project sought to exceed anyone’s idea of what it means to own and operate a truly sustainable facility. From living green walls, to solar installations, to geothermal units – Credit Human’s new office space is one of only a few such buildings in the United States, LEED Platinum qualified and beyond Net Zero to Net Producing. All this a result of Hennigan’s vision.

One part of this vision was Hennigan’s challenge to the team regarding the building’s envelope and its air barrier performance.

This paper analyzes the journey that led to not just meeting Steve’s challenge but exceeding it in grand fashion.

The Players

While the Credit Human building incorporates many sustainable features and design elements, this paper is focused on the building envelope and air barrier performance. To meet the challenge defined by Steve Hennigan, several voices needed to be engaged in the conversation. These included the architects, engineers, Joeris as the construction manager, several MEP trade partners, local inspectors, and Steve, himself. To give full credit where it is due, the following firms were integral to the success of the building envelope air barrier challenge.

• Kirksey Architecture

• Joeris General Contractors

• TSI Energy Solutions

• Professional Service Industries

• Alpha Insulation and Waterproofing

• Shadrock and Williams Masonry

• City of San Antonio

The Challenge

Steve Hennigan has very strong convictions about sustainability and has always been quick and passionate in showing the long-term benefits of sustainability initiatives, often through the example of implementation in his own home. Steve learned a lot about the challenges of constructing a tight envelope on his house. The concept of the air barrier and a tight building slowly developed as the design developed. Eventually, mention of the Corps of Engineers’ standard for building tightness was introduced (.25cfm/sf@75pa). While the standard is tough to meet, Steve laid down the gauntlet and challenged the team to exceed it, even offering an incentive to all involved if the more challenging goal he set could be met. Steve’s challenge set the goal at 0.1 cfm/sf @75pa, less than half the Corps’ standard. Once the team got beyond the initial instinct of declaring the goal’s impossibility, everyone worked together to devise a plan to make it happen. Steve’s passion drove the team to want to achieve the impossible. The team declared that they would be successful in turning the impossibility into reality.

The Process

We had no idea how this project would transform our team, or company–all because of the challenge and vision of Steve Hennigan. Steve Hennigan first met with our project team to introduce the sustainability initiatives post-award. Joeris was awarded the project because of our established relationship with the developer and our ability to support that relationship with a team of people with strong resumes to suit this unique build. With the right people together in the right place at the right time, the team was assembled.

As the project design developed, Steve’s vision started becoming apparent. Steve sat in many of the design meetings and challenged the engineers and architects as to how they were approaching their design. He even sat at the table and ran his own calculations to either validate or challenge those of the engineers. It became obvious very quickly that he was deeply invested in his vision and desired outcomes regarding sustainability.

There were early discussions with Steve concerning the roof system. He used the analogy of why you wear a heavy, insulated hat in the winter so you don’t lose all your body heat through the top of your head. These roof insulation discussions led to wall insulation and air barrier discussions. The Joeris team led discussions dealing with the window systems. It was important to our team, for quality control purposes and speed of installation, that we use a “unitized” or pre-glazed system. All these elementspecific discussions started coming together into a wholistic design of the building envelope.

While the building envelope design was developing, so were the other sustainability initiatives. Early on, the project team was approaching the sustainability initiatives as “alternates” and doing a lot of comparative analysis to more conventional systems. But the further the design developed, the more apparent it became that the sustainability initiatives were going to be funded and become integral to the project.

During this project Henry Serry, Joeris COO, recalled watching a documentary on Walt Disney and it reminded him of the way that Steven Hennigan functions. The documentary showcased how Walt Disney employed the best and the brightest and drove them to near perfection. When Disney’s teams finally got to the point where everyone thought that the project could not get any better, he would ask them for one more thing. Just one more thing to make it even better. That is how Steve Hennigan approached the Credit Human project. If he could fit one more geothermal well, or one more solar

panel, if he could squeeze in another ½” of insulation, he firmly believed that it was worth it. The team was constantly challenged to find that one more thing.

Once the team chose to take on the impossible air barrier challenge, Joeris put together a quality control plan and associated budget. Our team determined that we would be successful and built it into the project staffing and budget. Project ownership then supported it.

The project ownership found a way to encourage the entire project team’s ability to meet the building tightness challenge. They presented the idea of contractually setting the goal/requirement at the Corps of Engineers’ standard. Team members involved in the building envelope process were then offered a variable incentive for beating the Corps of Engineers’ standard. As it turned out, collectively we shattered the standard.

For a complete technical description of the process and project photography, please refer to the attached Appendix of files .

Air Barrier Appendix (https://joeris.egnyte.com/dl/U2jILIVyTv)

For a list of other articles about the truly amazing Credit Human headquarters facility, please refer to our list of related articles.

Credit Human HQ Facility Article List (https://joeris.egnyte.com/dl/jU0dwNZCK1)

At Joeris, our mission is to Transform People and Places and that includes you and your business. If we can help in any way about any topic, please don’t hesitate to contact us (joerisinfo@joeris.com).

Additional Resources and Articles

Resources

Air Barrier Appendix

Complete technical description of the process including our reports, quality control methods, and products used on the project.

Digital Copy: https://joeris.egnyte.com/dl/U2jILIVyTv

Articles

The Broadway Office Development

Project Features, Challenges, and a Passion for Sustainability at the Oxbow and Credit Human Headquarters

https://joeris.com/the-broadway-office-development-energized/

Credit Human - 1703 Broadway

https://1703broadway.com

Credit Human Headquarters at 1703 Broadway

https://youtu.be/Y72PHpimsGs

Green to the max

Solar panels, reflective windows, deep wells for geothermal energy. Credit Human is pulling out all the stops to make its new San Antonio headquarters a beacon of sustainability.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/politics/article/Pearl-area-complex-brings-cutting-edge- 13810993.php