A+C Studio Discussion + Liberty University Athletics Center
K12 Studio Discussion + Fauquier County New Middle School Proposal
Page 05 Page 55
Higher Ed. Studio Discussion + University of Miami Centennial Village
Not a Conclusion + Contributors
“ With everything perfect, we do not ask how it came to be. Instead, we rejoice in the present fact as if it came out of the ground by magic. No one can see in the work of the artist how it has become. That is its advantage. For wherever one can see the act of becoming, one grows somewhat cool. We prefer our excellence fully formed. We prefer mystery to mundanity. Our vanity, our self love, promotes the cult of the genius. For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking.
Do not talk about giftedness, in-born talents. One can name great persons of all kinds who are very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became geniuses, as we put it. They all possess that seriousness of the efficient craftsperson, which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion the great whole. They allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little secondary things well, than in the effect of the dazzling whole.”
- Nietzsche
Ethos is a journal about design at VMDO.
It is an inquiry into the specifics of quality that drive us.
It is about the creative ideas and diligent work of many people that aggregate into meaningful architecture.
Ethos is a yearbook that celebrates team effort, records ideas worth remembering, and collects lessons learned.
Ethos acknowledges the confluence of dozens of small skills and activities, which have been carefully drilled into habit and fitted together into a synthesized whole.
We are eager to learn, to make better architecture, together.
The Ethos Proposal
Ethos: The characteristic spirit of VMDO’s design culture made manifest by our work together
What?
A series of small annual publications (one per year) that, over time, will form a profile of how we work, what we value, and who we are. Each Ethos acts as a complement to our marketing collateral as a companion publication that reveals and celebrates what goes into the making of our architecture – key benchmarks, lessons learned, details of construction, iterative design process explorations, and ideas worth remembering. Decidedly not a monograph, each Ethos is a scrap book, treasure chest, or yearbook, of what matters most to VMDO. This 2019 edition is the pilot of the Ethos initiative.
Why?
To create a forum for exploring a common definition of design quality.
To unite the studios under a shared banner.
To encourage innovation.
To celebrate the projects, teams, and initiatives that make our work as a firm better, and to learn from them.
To recognize the multiple voices and collaborators that influence the work.
To give future recruits, clients and collaborators a sense of who we are beyond our finished products.
To gather critical information that we need for other purposes - like awards submissions, presentations, and research agendas – and foreground that information during the design process.
To fill a gap that currently exists between our homegrown internal communications and our more glossy external communications, and connect the two to ground our purpose as a firm in our everyday lives.
To share more about our people, their passions, and the design process that ties us to our work and clients.
To help create a knowledge sharing platform for lessons learned in the fields of sustainability, design, research, and business practice that affect the design profession and the communities in which we work.
To reinforce collaboration between marketing and the studios and spark conversations that inspire new and better ways of sharing insight with current and future clients and collaborators.
How?
Each studio openly discusses their work and nominates a project that it feels has made the most significant contribution to improving the quality of our work this year, and best exemplifies VMDO’s values. Audio is transcribed and edited as a record of the conversation for inclusion. Project teams provide graphics and data to be compiled and organized graphically by a volunteer Ethos working group. Firm and/or studio leadership could contribute optional text, and there could be year-in-review essays as applicable. Ethos is compiled together, edited, and printed to be presented and revealed at VMDO’s Annual Meeting. Ethos is meant to be NOT precious, so time needed to prepare the journal will be purposely limited and specific.
For each nominated project, the studio will discuss the following questions, which serve as the basis for the booklet text:
1. Why is this project significant (for the studio/for the firm)? How does the project reflect and further the firm’s mission?
2. How does the project raise the level of design excellence at VMDO - (connection to place, level of craft, level of building community, clarity and ingenuity of documentation, etc)?
3. In what ways does the design elevate the client’s program and initiatives?
4. How did the team solicit stakeholder input (users, operators, community members, etc)?
Projects chosen for inclusion in Ethos are considered the most significant for that year.
sig·nif·i·cant | \sig-ni-fi-kənt \ 1 : having meaning, especially : SUGGESTIVE. 2a : having or likely to have influence or effect : IMPORTANT: b : probably caused by something other than mere chance
5. How does the design take responsibility for its stewardship impacts (energy use, water use, ecosystem/watershed health, resource extraction, product manufacture, etc)?
6. How does the design actively support occupant health + well-being (movement, daylighting + views, circadian lighting, air quality, thermal comfort, biophilia, food, etc)?
7. How does the design address resilience (climate change, passive survivability, adaptability, change over time)?
8. How did the design process and team further accumulated knowledge at VMDO? What important ideas, studies, tools or resources were piloted by this project that might be useful to others?
9. What lessons has the project team learned on this project? What would we have done differently if we had the chance?
10. Who was on the project, and what role did they play?
K-12 Studio Discussion
All right. This is the official Ethos discussion!
The selected project doesn’t necessarily have to be a completed project, and it doesn’t have to be a superstar project. It can be a project that we feel has impacted our studio and its work in a significant way.
So not this year, but let’s say some year in the future, we really invest in a pro bono project and feel like that allowed us to experiment in an unusual way and contribute in an unusual way, and we learned something from that. That might be the project that year. It’s not one that we’d publish or win awards for, but it’s something that we feel is significant to the work of our studio.
Bluestone immediately jumps to mind for me. I think there’s a good social story there about inclusion and about diversity, addressing ESL needs and programs. There’s a great story there about net-zero energy-ready building design, preparing a building to receive future technologies.
The other project that we talked about as being maybe a little bit of a jewel, but something that went deep was the Elon Roads project, which really looks at design for small children, for early childhood learning, and that, whereas Bluestone hits a lot of different levels and storylines, Elon Roads maybe strikes one, but it goes deep into design for little kids, little students, learners.
Yeah, I think Fleet should be out there as one. As continuing to serve a client who has similar thoughts that we do about design and what’s best for their children. This is the second opportunity with them. And so it’s a continuation of the theme in that
county that I think is really setting the standard, as Discovery already set and that Fleet is continuing to set. It may be harder because it’s not completed yet. From what we disussed today, there was such a strong expression from people about what they’re interested in, why they’re working for our firm, that I think the project is a contender.
I think Elon Roads was exemplary in its VE strategy of trying to right something that was going wrong. I think the project suffered greatly in its ability to complete VE and also keep what I think is a really important tangible aspect of most of our projects, which is the relationship to the landscape and creating indooroutdoor connections, and a lot of that obviously was lost in that VE process.
It’s supposed to be worked on in 2018, right? In some way, touched.
But doing completed projects here, you’re kind of looking at something a little bit backwards as opposed to what are the things that are hot and going ahead, and about building, but often a lot of what makes them good and what makes the next step in where we’re headed is in setting up that project and stuff, so I’m not suggesting this, but like Lancaster I think, has been a model project in bringing a community client along for the project that it is now. And so somehow, somewhere, I don’t think it’s ‘good’ now, but there’s a tremendous amount of really good work in projects like that.
What about the projects that have stretched us? That’s what came to mind when I thought of the project that would be in ETHOS. They’re the ones that push things further, and part of the purpose of ETHOS is
to encourage people to take risks. It’s an exercise that prompts deep discussion about our design values.
I’m sort of wondering about, like, the Fauquier Middle School submission. I remember sitting near that table and there was so much energy and interest and a lot of people talking about stuff that they cared about and, you know, ideas that come from 20 years of practice all sort of buzzing around. That seemed like a special time when that was happening.
Something like the Fauquier Middle School study is going go on the shelf and may never see the light of day again. So, you know, that’s another way to think about this is how do we want to capture things that were important, learning opportunities or initiatives that may not be captured through other mediums.
I’ve heard two significant proposals. Any others that people want to nominate? I’ve heard Bluestone nominated; I’ve heard Fauquier; I hear you about Lancaster; but I’m thinking that that might be a year or two down the road.
All right. I think the Clark Elementary project is tiny and it would be easy to overlook, but when I think about pushing things – that was the other one I thought about.
Having a client that was willing to trust us and had some past experience with us. I wonder if selecting the project should be based in part by how much collaboration there is between us and the client. I can think of a lot of projects where we did a lot of good things in spite of our client. It would be nice to reward clients who see the benefit of the things we’re delivering. And
again, I think the documentation of that project is probably under the radar, that very few people have seen it, but it’s great. If it hasn’t been photographed yet, it will be soon.
We could talk a little bit more about how we engaged the students? That seems like something we could really learn about.
The principal was really moved, she said, “It makes me sick we never thought to ask the kids before,” and she was really moved by the responses that she was getting and how imaginative, and how invested the students were.
You know, it’s three rooms. So, this is such a tiny project. It was three classrooms and then the smattering of other renovations around the school. We did a survey with the three teachers, but then also we were just in the rooms, like, doing our measurements and whatever, and by the end they were coming up saying, “Oh, this is the design that we wanted for our classrooms!”
It seems like something exploratory is what ETHOS is pressing – the spirit of why we come together. It seems like an opportunity to learn and continue to learn, and then set a bar for how that learning is embodied and contributing to the bulk of our firm knowledge. I think Fauquier’s a great idea.
We’re 30 minutes behind.
Can we shortlist?
I’d take Bluestone off.
I’m thinking probably take Lancaster off because it has the potential to be selected in the future, and it’s just started.
I agree that internally, I think we had the most joy working together as a team on Fauquier Middle School. I just feel like without having gone through the rigor of VE and boots on the ground work and, you know, all of the things that purify a design and an idea and a solution, that we would be selling ourselves short in terms of representing, really, the process of a completed project.
Like the Design for an Adolescent Learner, Design for Added Value pieces. The process of a quick, rapid prototype being different solutions, you know, working together collaboratively as a kind of mixed group ... some of those things are lessons that could be shared and could influence work in the future. I agree that it would have been much better had there been a project that came out of it.
To me it’s appealing in that it captures a lot of knowledge and intelligence that’s part of our studio capitol, and that, you know, as someone who wasn’t part of the process, I’d be really interested to read the article and have access to the ideas and conversation.
Clark?
I’m not sure. I mean, I think that Fauquier Middle School would be an ideal candidate to go into what we used to call the Desktop Reference Guide. As examples of best practices, problem-solving. It probably meets those criteria more than this. This [ETHOS] is a little different.
I have to say I don’t know these projects, and I haven’t been involved in them much, but it seems like
people are headed towards Fauquier, I keep hearing people talk about that a lot, and honestly I’d love to hear that story because I don’t know what the story is about. And I live in the K12 studio!
MIDDLE SCHOOL
0 1 Feasibility Study Grade Houses
*SCHEME by RRMM ARCHITECTS
Middle School project matter?
Why was it significant, + why was it chosen?
I think for me, there are a lot of ways that could be answered. I think there are probably three reasons that I feel like are most significant for me. One was, we took what seemed like a challenging situation: prototype design and a complex client that didn’t really know what they wanted.
We transformed a typical interview context or proposal context into a design competition. We leveraged that as an opportunity to explore and expand our own understanding and offer I think, something that was unique to the client, that they may not have expected out of the process. That was, offer unexpected value, that was one.
The second one was, it was a trial run of our team approach in K-12. It’s something that we had been talking about and I think since the interview have leveraged more, but at that time, it was a new way of doing things. Bringing together a large group of specialists and figuring out a way to work together, to leverage the skills and talents of the various people, none of whom had time to do it on their own but as a group, we got to parse it out and do what we did best, in terms of making contributions. The process I think was interesting that way and we learned a lot from that.
Then the third piece for me, was a kind of evidence-based design approach where we, I won’t say rigorously, fairly methodically looked at different aspects of the problem and tried to evaluate those and provide a kind of functional problem solving and evidence to support the design proposals that we were making.
2 3 Urban Hinge Learning Plex
SCHEME 2
SCHEME 3
“The adolescent brain science I think, was a real driver and understanding what kids of that age should be doing and how space could support that. “
Whether it was looking closely at the client’s middle school program or whether it was looking closely at construction technology and cost drivers.
Whether it was looking at the adolescent brain. We were kind of digging into the research and trying to apply it to the design, to support better design decisions. Also to illustrate the value of the design to the owner, to the client. For me, those are three reasons why it’s significant.
Succinctly, I was going to say the same thing. The adolescent brain science I think, was a real driver and understanding what kids of that age should be doing and how space could support that. The complex site and the prototype were definitely a challenge.
Wyck Knox
Rob Winstead
Ken Thacker
Kelly Callahan
Bryce Powell
Tyler Jenkins
Joey Laughlin
Finding one good solution would have been challenging and we pushed and found three potentially good solutions. Then, piling on the team approach that involved a lot of the studio was fun. It was sort of a competition mentality, so we had a lot of fun with it.
For me, that part has carried through to products we’ve worked on or are now working on. Reed is a prime example of that, where we pulled the studio together and pushed that project really hard, really fast, and came up with some great results, having 10, 12 people at a time working on it at various parts.
Fauquier Middle School Course Offerings
2017-2018 School Year
Fauquier Middle School Course Offerings
2017-2018 School Year
7 bell periods, plus lunch
7 bell periods, plus lunch
Assumed 85% utilization: a core classroom is occupied for 6 of 7 periods of the day.
Assumed 85% utilization: a core classroom is occupied for 6 of 7 periods of the day.
First, we carefully looked at your current course offerings…
First, we carefully looked at your current course offerings…
A truly effective prototype is not a pre-designed facility that is site-adapted, but proven school design approaches that are clientadapted.
We don’t think that Client B should be given a product designed for Client A…
No one should be Client B!
first, we carefully looked at their current course offerings... ...then we matched them w/ VMDO prototypical spaces
fig.1
What is a
VMDO Prototype?
How did you guys talk to the client? Was there anything unusual that you learned from it or is worth sharing with the other studios?
Like you said, that was a complicated client, who didn’t quite know what they wanted, so how did you figure out what they wanted or how did you respond to that?
They said they wanted a prototype in their written documentation. Is it a prototype?
I think it was the kit of parts.
Yeah. Coming from the world of prototype architecture before I came here, [I] have a different opinion on some of it.
How do we take some awesome spaces that we’ve designed, some great gyms, some great libraries, some great classrooms, some great cafeterias. And utilize that knowledge and reform those designs into three pretty awesome project proposals for the site.
That’s what we came up with: three great ideas based off all of our previous work.
The prototype parts (fig 1.) were reassembled into three different design options.
pro·to·type
noun 1. a first, typical or preliminary model of something, especially a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied.
“What I liked most about it was trying to develop what a VMDO prototype is. I feel like the word prototype is not a word in VMDO culture.”
Speed to Market – As they say, time is money. This is particularly true with regard to large construction projects. While there are many factors affecting construction costs, they rarely go down over time. Therefore, measures to reduce construction time often result in significant savings. Strategies include alternative construction delivery models, input from major sub-contractors during design, early construction packages, modular planning, pre-fabrication, etc. While potentially significant, added value from these approaches will require extra attention to design, coordination, and contract administration.
Designing for Added
Area to Envelope Ratio – This ratio is the amount of exterior envelope required to enclose a certain amount of square footage. Foundations, roofs, and exterior walls are the typically the most expensive parts of building construction. A compact building design will enclose more area in a smaller envelope, reducing costs. This approach seeks to reduce corners and material transitions and favors vertical over horizontal solutions. This adds value by focusing resources on the interior spaces that have a direct impact on learning and minimizing exposure to the elements for heating and cooling.
Right-sized systems – Mechanical and electrical systems represent a significant portion of construction costs. Paying careful attention to building orientation and massing and providing a highperformance building envelope reduces the heating and cooling load, thereby reducing the size and cost of mechanical equipment. The introduction of LED lighting, along with careful attention to daylight harvesting, equipment and plug loads can significantly reduce electrical systems. High-performance envelopes and right-sized systems add value by reducing operations and maintenance costs for the life of the building.
Designing Value
Build less, furnish more – Many traditional systems, such as hallway lockers and banks of library shelving, no longer make sense in a contemporary school. Storage needs can be accommodated by furniture systems and equipment. Limiting the amount of fixed or built-in components reduces construction costs and increases flexibility in the learning environment. This approach adds value by focusing capital funds on construction while allowing spaces to be outfitted for specific curriculum and adapted over time as programs evolve.
Compact Boundary – To control costs, it is important to limit the area of development. At the site scale, this includes focusing development in one area rather than multiple sites, minimizing site infrastructure, avoiding utility relocation, and leveraging existing infrastructure and shared resources. A clear and carefully considered boundary is particularly critical on tight or occupied sites to provide area for phasing, lay down, and site access for construction. This adds value by reducing the impact of construction activity and leaving space on the site for future development and/or community use.
Simple light-weight structures – Complex, heavy structures are expensive. Simple, light-weight and repetitive structures tend to be more cost effective to procure and to construct. As structural elements tend to be some of the heaviest materials delivered to the site, lightweight structures can significantly reduce costs for shipping and erection. While still allowing a high-degree of variability in the interior spaces, carefully planned structures and modular planning can add value by reducing first costs, improving flexibility, and increasing the speed of construction.
Testing the “Team Approach”
to tap into the larger hard mind of the studio and evaluate how the different designs were developing and what the opportunities and limitations were with each of the design proposals, so that we could articulate that to the
Including some of the upper level people in the studio, that may only work on one project and not work together, provided a forum to work together. It was the first example of doing more pinups in the studio and just having a more casual open conversation with everybody, which
“It built a trust level; an understanding; a confidence in each other…
I think also just allows for crosspollinating between team members and project types and all that. Rapid prototyping involved short design sprints and there was more than one solution be investigated. So we said: Okay, we’re going to come up with multiple solutions and they all have to be successful on these criteria: on costs, on site drivers, on adolescent brain, on middle school programming, on constructability.
All right. I think we made it through the questions. Anybody have last words about why anybody else outside of K-12 should care about this project?
Well I would just say ... this is following up on the thoughts I’ve had after our discussion at our K-12 retreat ... I just feel like we do really good design work often that isn’t always realized in a built project. Whether it’s a project that is realized but some really glorious idea or unique opportunity didn’t come to fruition because of cost. Whether it’s a project like that, where we developed some really big ideas and unfortunately because of nothing having to do with us, the project just didn’t go forward. I hate to see those good ideas just disappear, go onto the shelf.
Designing for the Adolescent Learner
Adolescents experience more physical growth, and more brain development, than any other time in their life except for infancy. As the prefrontal cortex matures, teenagers can reason better, develop more control over impulses, and make judgments better. Adolescence is also a period of consolidation, as the brain prunes away synapses and strengthens neural pathways.
At this critical time in their development, middle school students are often treated as over-sized children or inexperienced adults. How might the design of a middle school support the unique needs of the adolescent learner? In response to a review of current research on adolescent physical, intellectual, and emotional development, VMDO is investigating the following strategies in middle school design.
Adapted From Dr. Glenda Beamon “Supporting and Motivating Adolescent Thinking and Learning,” 2001 Teaching with Adolescent Learning in Mind
Square Footage + Site Area +/- 27 Acres
Learning Plex: 144,650
Urban Hinge: 162,400
Grade Houses: 165,100
Budget + Cost/SF
$40,000,000
Learning Plex: 276/SF
Urban Hinge: 246/SF
Grade Houses: 242/SF
Program Middle School
Project Timeline
RRMM Study: July 26, 2017
RFP issued: January 10, 2018
Pre-proposal meeting: January 17, 2018
VMDO charrette: February 9, 2018
Proposal submitted: February 28, 2018
Interview: July 11, 2018
RFP cancelled: September 9, 2018.
Climate Zone 4A Mixed Humid
Third Party Verfications (Anticipated/Achieved) NZE, Energy Star (anticipated)
POE Conducted or Planned Planned
You said you had a back and forth with CMTA. How else did stewardship factor into this?
Well I mean, we were proposing a net-zero energy ready facility and illustrated through modeling and best practices that we could
Grade Houses
18.4
Learning Plex Urban Hinge
17.9
17.2
Energy Modeling Results
deliver a cost-competitive project at 18 KBTU/sf/yr, which we felt was a threshold that we could say was net-zero energy ready.
We thought about things like building orientation, roof surface, interiors, mechanical rooms, all
those sorts of things that would contribute to that. There was a good amount of site analysis. Stormwater and watersheds and celebrating the site, the views, and daylight. Trying to minimize the footprint of impact. We explored things: one of the
% below code 60%
% below code 64%
% below code 66% annual energy costs
$83,476 annual energy costs
$81,208 annual energy costs $78,032
“We had this call + response thing going with CMTA”
proposals was the Learning Plex. It explored big box construction, basically asking: how do we enclose the most volume in the smallest envelope and how do we provide a high-performing envelope and then spend our time and our energy on the
interior learning environment, that has an impact on students?
Anyway, it explored some different ways of delivering a high-performing building at a lower cost. We did look at things like heavy timber construction, CLT. Healthy materials were just
assumed. The main thing that they [CMTA] were pushing us on was, our value at the envelope, roof and wall, and glazing-toenvelope ratio. They felt like if we got that stuff right, then they could provide the systems to get us the rest of the way there.
“What would you have done differently?”
“Won the project.”
Been so convincing that they went forward with the project.
Is there anything in the proposal or presentation that you wish you had changed, upon reflection, besides win the project?
This is may be hindsight, but I think that the rapid prototyping models, the 3D printing models, that we did for Reed in a public process, were very compelling. That would have been pretty powerful, to walk into that interview and have physical models of the three proposals. I think people can access physical models in a way that they can’t seem to access digital models or sketches. If we had built a site model, and put the three projects on there, I think that would have been compelling.
Yeah. Maybe your regret might be that, we could have been really aggressive about saying, “Don’t throw Taylor MS away, we’re going to find a way to renovate this thing, as part of an incredible scheme.”
It might have been the best solution in terms of sustainability and resilience: making use of that existing building.
• Demolition of Taylor
• Relocation of Overhead Power Lines
• Vehicles on Flat Land, Fields on Slopes
• Less than Ideal Orientation of Grade Houses
• Occupies the Entire Center of the Site
We didn’t have a client. We were our own client in a way, but we did our best to represent the client and we played that role on a team.
SCHEME 1: GRADE HOUSES
• All buildings are placed in the four corners of the site, preserving the middle for passive and active recreation.
• Academic houses are in a naturally protected, isolated part of the site
• Existing Taylor Middle School building doesn’t have to be demolished
• Existing overhead power lines don’t require relocation
• Gives the school a presence on Alwington Boulevard
• Bus and parent vehicular traffic comes off the existing elementary school driveway, with expandable parking along shared property line with the community center and Walmart
SCHEME 2: URBAN HINGE
• The new school is placed adjacent to Taylor MS on East Shirley Avenue, creating a strong street edge
• Building has a 2-story presence on Shirley
• The community-use parts of the building (auditorium, gym) are oriented to Shirley, with the grade level portion “hinged” towards the middle of the site
• The clear majority of the site is saved for playfields
• Existing parking areas can be reused or easily reconfigured
• The building is placed on existing slopes –space that is otherwise unprogrammable
• Existing Taylor Middle School building doesn’t have to be demolished
• Existing overhead power lines don’t require relocation
SCHEME 3: LEARNING PLEX
• All buildings and all parking are placed in the four corners of the site, preserving the middle for playfields
• Minimal sitework
• Existing Taylor Middle School building doesn’t have to be demolished
• Existing overhead power lines don’t require relocation
• Gives the school a strong presence on Alwington Boulevard
• Bus and parent vehicular traffic comes off the existing elementary school driveway, with expandable parking along shared property line with the community center and Walmart
A+C Studio Discussion
Press it harder.
There you go.
Hello? Hello? Hello?
Testing.
We’re going to select one project, but the goal of the Ethos initiative is to get the conversation going about design quality. What is the project that provides the strongest, most solid base for having a very honest, truthful, and deep conversation about design, about construction, about all those things that can help us be a better student, and a better office.
So, I’m gonna go out on a limb and nominate this project for our submission.
APC {i.e. the Liberty Athletics Center].
Yeah. I can elaborate on why. I think, for our studio at least, as far back as I can remember in the history of this studio, this was, to me, the project that really sort of defined what our studio was about. I mean, we talked a lot about design being the main driver and about what we’re about Lynchburg City Stadium is one that I would like to throw out there too. I think it pushed the envelope in a number of ways and we’re pushing it in on other projects. It’s a smaller project but it really has a lot going for it and there’s a lot that we’ve learned from it. And it’s seems like a transformative place.
I was gonna say, I think, not to jump ahead to future years, but I hope that we do Lubber Run next year, and I think the materiality is going to be important on that, in the experience and expression. And I think that this is
part of that story, this is the beginning of that story.
I have a dream that we do APC now, then Lubber Run the next year, and by that time Lynchburg City has got enough money to do the next phase of Lynchburg City Stadium and we get to complete that master plan. And then we do that, and that’ll be the Ethos to remember.
I think one of the aspects we’ve been talking about is being a design firm ... if you want to be a design firm, you’ve got to be a designer, you have to actually think about, try for all these things in the way that makes the most sense to us, you know?
I think APC has those pieces as well, and has a lot of richness to it ... there’s more layers to APC. That’s what makes it more interesting to me.
Is Long Bridge just too painful?
We didn’t touch it in 2018. It was priced to the dollar too.
With all the challenges we have with getting things built, it’s a whole different idea.
Seems like though APC is still standing out. Like you said, it’s the horns. The solutions to the challenges are coming out but from a marketing perspective I feel like we spent so much time talking about more of the polished elements, that I think it’d be worthwhile to excavate some of the lessons learned from construction and materiality. And really how we can make sure that this is applied to every project in the studio or at least we can turn to you guys if this or that needs help. There is that integrity view of quality and design.
From a financial performance perspective, both on the construction side and firm side, how do you compare Lynchburg and APC?
We made money in terms of a fee. We made money on both projects and I think that’s an interesting thing when we talk about the scale of our projects, you know. Really one of the best ways to make money is the big project. There’s just a lot more to work with in terms of fee.
Well, what’s interesting about this project, I think, is that it didn’t come from an idea about style or architectural precedent in a lot of ways. It came from a response to the site. We talked about it being in the hill and we had an idea about the hierarchy of materials and all the moves that come from that idea.
The little pavilion on the top, that’s probably the only piece that is trying to make some connection to the Liberty context. The roof. The hippish roof. The color of the column. But even the columns are elliptical, the whole thing is a little bit twisted based on this other idea about the curves and the campus walk, it came from the campus walk too.
Yeah, I think the same argument was used as well for the materials; the stone, and the style, that it’s landscape ... it’s piece of the landscape, not necessarily a building but it’s both.
[Images of projects appear on screen.]
They look awesome.
And there they are.
They’re so straight.
Nailed it.
[crosstalk]
You’re welcome everyone.
So, I don’t know if we want to mandate it, but I feel like I want to, that having a built project be our Ethos forever. There’s a rule ... I don’t know ... maybe just for me, it’s like our studio is all about materials and craftsmanship and seeing the realization of our effort with the people working and installing the work and seeing how it comes out. I think it’s so important that one of Ethos’ criteria is about what exemplifies the way you work and what’s important to your studio. That’s up there for me.
I think it’d be interesting that maybe we could have a leap year un-built work ETHOS.
[crosstalk]
If we do that across the board I can do that.
You learn something from un-built work.
Well, I think I totally agree with you about the built aspect being really important. I do think that how we work in the design process and with a client is such a huge part of our studio also.
Is there tracking data available for APC? Are we gonna have to work hard at getting that?
[crosstalk]
Right. Can we move?
Let’s move.
You’re on Oh.
I think APC is the winner, yeah.
Project Size
67,000 SF
Completion Date
08.2017
Construction Cost
$26,000,000
Joe Celentano
Randy Livermon
Andres Pacheco
Noah Bolton
Nina Comiskey
Alex Kaplan
Jen Hamilton
Jacob Wimmer
Working on a campus like Liberty’s, being able to do this project there, it’s very significant in my mind and the bridging of the academic and athletic precincts. This is a big connector space. It’s kind of a middle zone in the campus. It’s got a road in between it but the pedestrian connection through with the bridge in the building, I think, is pretty important for the students crossing through to the other side of campus. So it’s a pretty big connected building.
This is really important because we’ve been working on this campus and this is what we’ve been able to achieve and now we’re taking that to the next level with this building. We’re able to achieve something we didn’t think we could do with this building. It was a stretch. And then on another level, the parti is really clear so we feel good about that because we’re architects and we’re able to execute on an idea. It’s an achievement in and of itself to share how we really did this.
“ This curve here, grew from the moment that we drew that line , that oval, around the track.”
ACADEMIC LYNCHBURG,
The unique site conditions and programmatic spatial requirements demanded an organizational and sectional response implemented by an atrium that allows abundant daylight deep into the space. The atrium, or light garden, is the spinal element that connects all the different program pieces together, positively affecting them with daylight and natural system flows, while allowing for spectacular views to the mountains.
Strength and Conditioning and Sports Medicine and Training occupy the first level where the main lobby is located. These two self-contained spaces have mezzanine projections at level 2 where offices and the cardio room are located. The Academic component, which hosts classrooms, offices, and meeting and tutoring rooms, occupies level 2 to the east of the building and all of level 3.
“It wasn’t like we just started off this project and said biophilia would be a driving force of the design. It would be good for student athletes. It really came out of the parti of working in the hill and then, when you get natural daylight into the building, taking advantage of that element and what the space could be.
It made a lot of sense.”
Something that seems very apparent just from looking at the project is that you were doing something new for the first time for our office and you were also doing something new with the program by coming up with the new form to go with this very particular program. And then you were experimenting with the atrium and bringing the plants inside. Looking at all of that, we haven’t done a project like that before, right? So to be able to soar and execute on something seems like an achievement.
“This project just crosses off the boxes for what this studio represents and encapsulates ... it makes a mark in my memory of important projects for this studio.”
You guys already know the context where we’re building this. Liberty wanted nothing to do with sustainability. But there were a few aspects of this building that made it a really good sustainable project, regardless. Whether it has a LEED checklist or not. So, this building does not have a LEED checklist. Why not call this a sustainable project, because we internally designed this with sustainability in mind fully? There are things that didn’t pan out, especially working with the client that we had.
Square Footage + Site Area 72,000 SF + 75,000 SF
Budget + Cost/SF
$26,000,000 +/- $370.00/SF for the Buildings
Program Strength & Conditioning + Training + Academic Center
Project Timeline (Start Date, Duration, Current Status)
Completed: August 2017
Construction Started: Spring 2016
Design started: Spring 2015
Climate Zone 4A Mixed Humid
Third Party Verfications (Anticipated/Achieved) N/A
POE Conducted or Planned In Progress
Sustainable Elements:
- Land preserved by developing undesired hill location.
- Previously impervious portion of parking lot reclaimed for building footprint and new pervious areas. Stormwater strategies help clean rainwater and manage runoff.
- Roof garden reduces heat island effect, provides habitat for birds and insects, and creates location for future food production and PV arrays.
- Building shape and massing provide passive strategies for daylighting and solar gain control.
- Efficient 30% glazing ratio and indirect daylighting reduce cooling load while maximizing views.
- Native materials include locally quarried stone and plantings.
The theme of daylight was not just something for the atrium, but something that we always thought about – how we bring daylight and views to every room. I don’t know if you can see from this picture, but the ability that we had to open up the spaces, to bring in light, even from hydrotherapy was a good strategy. To bring daylight all the way in, even in the conditioning room. The ability to put windows up here and have a double height space is a very efficient way to bring daylight deep into the space. That happened throughout the project. It was a very successful way to achieve it.
Reflections / Lessons Learned:
- The client was motivated by first cost, not long-term ROI. Despite overtures from VMDO to stay connected to the central plant, the initial savings offered by a cooling tower was more attractive to them. This leads to two key lessons learned:
1) We should become more convincing in our pitch for energy-efficient strategies, bolstered by ROI-focused professionals like CMTA, for example;
2) Work for clients who value sustainability whether for ROI or environmental impact.
- These lessons are being applied on Arlington County’s Lubber Run Community Center – which builds on many of the nature-inspired elements outlined on the next page and enlists the expertise of CMTA – while being championed by a client that is motivated by environmental stewardship and energy-efficient goals.
Strategies for Designing a Nature-Inspired Building:
- Create an embedded, secure, and emerging form that is one within the surrounding landscape context.
- Sculpt the parti and program in ways that respond to the natural rhythms of the terrain.
- Express health inside and out through a parti that integrates daylight, water, habitats, and views.
- Engage the senses through natural expressions, rhythms, sights, and sounds that help heal and restore.
- Ground occupants in the building through intuitive orientation that creates natural pathways for community-building as well as places for privacy and respite.
“I
was just watching ... the last time I was there the lady was spraying the plants with a hose and was basically soaking the entire roof over the bar. I thought to myself ...
...I hope there’s waterproofing in there.”
So, when did this happen? Was it during construction? Would that be a lesson learned to engage your consultant way earlier in the process next time? With plant selection, I think the building already was in construction. We were having to select the plants. So, that is the other challenge that I would point out. It’s seemingly obvious ... seems obvious now ... but, you have to pretty much treat anywhere you have plants like an exterior condition. Because we have irrigation in there and water that’s keeping them irrigated. Water roofing and drainage. All those factors need to be inside.
It takes landscape architects who know how to pick plants. Not every tree is going do well in there. And in the end they were very clear. They’re like, “There’re really only four choices.” You really want to grow trees and have them live? You’ve got your ficus. It’s going to look like a mall. I’m sorry. There’s a reason for that.
“The project was inspired by the landscape and grew out of the clues that nature gave us.”
HEIGHT: 12’-24’
HEIGHT: 10’-16’
HEIGHT: 15’-20’
AVAILABLE HEIGHT: 10’-16’ LIGHT REQUIREMENT: 150-400Fc
bucida buceras
caryota mitis black olive
fishtail palm
I have to say, Rhino was as important for the roof, for the bridge, as it was for the precast. Alex pretty much built a Rhino model and just printed it, exported it, and sent it to the precast guys and they worked from that model. He exported that to DWG, and they worked from that Rhino model. So it was, I think, a spectacular tool for the right moment.
This is one of those ones where you go see a building and you’re like, “I’m gonna do that on one of my buildings somewhere.” That was at Arizona State University, They had precast that was faceted and, it was even a little more complex than what we did. It had more depth and it had a pattern that was a little more variable. It was incredible.
We said: “Okay, all that is fine, but how are we going to actually do this façade? What’s the concept of the façade?” We worked and came up with an exterior envelope concept where the reveals were born, where the clerestory to solve the light was implemented, where the rhythm of the precast was established. So it was useful to continue to develop the details in Revit.
“I think APC has a lot of richness to it ... ...there’s more layers for APC. That’s what makes it more interesting to me”
There are phenomnal moments in this project, this building, that surprised me in a good way. Knowing that it was a radial building, knowing there were curves, knowing that there were no 90 degree angles, I was always trying to push for more rationale and purism in the development of the idea. We were luckily forced into doing some tweaks. For example, ... you know this, Joe ... I was never a fan of tweaking this curve, that it was not parallel. I was internally resisting that, but with the site, we just didn’t have the space for it to be parallel. So, I want you guys to realize how challenging this was. To make things worse, this curve is not parallel to that, and this is not parallel to that, so we just had curves that are not parallel to one other. And on top of that, you have a radial system ... so that was driving me crazy a little bit, and it’s because we just didn’t have the space here.
We did a good job of describing things in elevation. Actually showing all the pieces, that’s really valuable. Like with the precast, there was dimensional pre-casting. Like understanding that precast and how that piece is notched around ... assembling all those pieces in the 3D model allowed us and others to understand the scope and build to that. That kind of drawing is actually describing scope. It’s all based on scope. They get a price and you have an accurate scope and then most of the time we’re figuring it out together exactly how we’re going to build it. I mean if we’re heading into more integrated project delivery then we’re going to be working with, if we’re lucky, good craftsmen.
The other thing I’m remembering looking at this is that everything is curved and everything sloped simultaneously on this building. And modeling this roof, as simple as it looks ... there was a lot of back and forth, a lot of stuff in the rhino model that we then brought back into the revit model. Especially with this roof form, it looks so simple but when you have to slice it, it had to resolve that geometry or something. It’s a pretty complicated setup.
“When it was under construction, there was a lot of head scratching. But we had a really good superintendent that grabbed ahold of it and loved it, so that was nice.”
When we are designing with our sensibilities and without trying to try to manipulate too much, or react to many things, and not just the context of the other things, but the outside forces, you know. I think that is really the position you want to be in and as much as possible, this project is kind of under the radar. We were able to pretty much do the things that we thought made sense to this place and carry them out. And that was a simple thing.
H.E. Studio Discussion
We’re here to decide between four projects: University of Richmond Basketball & Wellbeing Center, University of Miami Centennial Village, Virginia Weslyan Greer Environmental Sciences Center, and Virginia Tech Creativity Innovation District.
I’ll start. I wonder if this group would agree, or disagree, with the idea that the proof of our projects, or an idea’s success, is in the pudding. If you’ve built it and they’ve come, then that might point to Greer as being the right one. We know how it works, and I think we’ve heard really good things about it. That said, the other three projects are incredible in varying scopes and scales and different project types. So I guess I want to open up the floor to the group to talk about whether built versus unbuilt is a distinction that we need to look at carefully in making the selection.
I guess it depends on what the goals of the publication are, right? If the idea’s to showcase our most proven project, then I think what you’re saying is right. If it’s about design and revealing a design process, then to me, any of these could be valid.
What is included this year should be the project that either embodies what the studio’s values were that year, or the one that pushes the studio the most.
What does the studio want to put forth as the most significant this year?
Then if we were to choose a built project, which would be awesome, I feel like we’d want to have a great set of stories about that project’s construction. Images of behind the scenes stuff, including construction documents that mattered to us as a studio, that pushed us forward.
It could be revealed for the first time through Ethos, to inform our work moving ahead. That’d be the reason to include built work, I believe. On the other side, if we’re choosing to look at projects that are more in process, I feel like there would be a desire to push things that are still in design, where the feedback loop could be much shorter, perhaps. So if there are key initiatives that are being pushed through a project, it would be about things that are currently going on, tricks of the trade, key advantages that could immediately go back into projects, say, and inform them.
Both equally good reasons, and both reasons why we should talk about what matters to us, and which single project we should put forward for this year’s yearbook.
That’s what I think is the key ... and trying to figure out as a firm, as a studio, what aspects of design do we value most? And how can we foreground design in a publication?
The goal is to reveal things about the design process and the people who worked on it, why and how stuff happened, things that went wrong along the way, we’re trying to foreground those stories in a way that we can learn from them and keep getting better at what we do.
If it’s about design and design process, one thing that stands out to me, thinking about the Miami project, watching the design competition process and seeing all the volumes of different studies, different routes that were explored, different innovations and tests that were done, there was so much volume of design work that was done there, including all paths that we didn’t go down.
I wanna float another potential way to think about it, and that is proportional impact of project to the place where it is constructed. I think in looking at these four, three of which happened at rather large institutions that we all were aware of before we found the place and got the project. I think Greer is so special in my mind, because it’s actually been transformative in the way that the other three cannot ever be. I think Greer has really become the heartbeat of that campus.
And I think when you think about our impact as architects, it’s maybe most rooted in places that haven’t experienced that in the past. I love all four, and I’d be very happy if any of them became the feature. But I feel like Greer is special in that way, and would be interested to hear if other people agree.
A question was asked earlier about the proof being in the pudding with built work. Personally, I totally agree with that. I think as architects, the way we can have the most positive impact on places is the building left behind, that everyone can use and can experience. We can impact a lot of people with that. And yet, I think ideas are also really powerful. And a reason to go with a project still in process involves having a lot of those teammates still active and fresh in the office.
So, it might be that the broader team voice could be heard on other projects, because they’re all available and around to tell stories of what’s going right, what’s gone wrong, in a way that would keep it really fresh and help bring out the impact of each individual collaborator right away on the project. Greer could certainly do that, but I feel like, being a few years older, we’re probably missing some of those key people who would leave part of the story untold. And because the design portion of it is passed us, it would be more difficult to capture some of those anecdotes and key decision points that might make those really interesting.
For me, this is a great conversation, but it’s really abstract. And it would be helpful to me to hear what are the stories that we would be telling if we told the Greer story? And what are the details that would emerge if we focused on that? And what are the details that we would highlight if we told the Miami story? And I’d love to hear the same for Richmond and CID as well.
The Greer story is amazing. The idea that our firm was carefully selected to honor a person’s legacy at a school, without going into detail about that. So there’s an interesting backstory. I think it’s a good one that the cache of information and imagery regarding Greer, and the story that the process deserves, doesn’t really exist in the same way. There was such a fast and furious round of creation of the thing, that I do think from a content standpoint, there are better and longer stories that can be told with all of the other three projects.
The wood is not something we typically do. There’s a lot of collective learning there, and we haven’t had to check in a couple years. If it worked, if we maintained it. But there’s something there too. So there’s multiple scales at which we think about Greer.
Virginia Tech is an exciting opportunity. From a BD lens, Virginia Tech sounds interesting, but there’s something programmatic that’s different about this project than any other housing project. Second of all, this is the only project on the board that we can’t control its outcome. We inherited a program, it’s held over in a design build process. That perhaps this is the year to document it, ‘cause we don’t know what will come.
That’s true. And we’re going to be elbowing out our competition to maintain control.
Well, yeah. But it’s true. We have to share the limelight, so what is the piece of the limelight we wanna take? What is it that we wanna explore? For those who don’t know, this is a residence hall that has about 30,000 square feet of academic shared use space. Other institutions are curious, “How are you making this work?”
Nobody else is doing it. That’s what I’m talking about; the shared use. And it’s also the direction that we know we want to go in. And just looking at the strategic plans of all the universities that we’re working with, this cross-disciplinary collaboration is something that everybody wants to understand how to do, and it’s hard.
And it’s about how we need to be thinking about how we work in the future, if we’re gonna be successful in this fusion building type. Really, it’s a fusion building.
All four have a glassy bridge connection.
I doubt we could describe ... Or I don’t think we could or should describe Miami as a culmination of those efforts. But a really cool place in time, where there was an invitation offered to us because of our subject matter expertise. And then, we won a design competition. And those two things came together in a really special way. It could be a pretty cool, broad story about that aspect of our work in residence life. And our quality of design ideas via competition, and how those things reached a good balance.
And palm trees.
We haven’t talked about Richmond.
I feel like the team has gone through some really crazy hoops, both in terms of conditions of the project and in terms of the demands of the client, that mean it’s full of really interesting stories. And I think it’s a triumph in that regard, as well as kind of mixing some different programmatic elements. It’s definitely worked.
It is an interesting story to tell because of the starting point, that we began with the program and a concept design that was put together by two separate architects. And they joined, and then we were challenged to try to make a good building out of that starting point. So our first move was to challenge that as the starting point. And asked them to start over, and we had a three week timeline to start over and conclude.
So it is an interesting project in the delivery. And I think if we look at what design build means, what it means to be in design build partnerships, it could be an interesting story to record, and to focus on the building of a good design-build relationship, with someone we’ve partnered with before and know what they’re capable of.
That was great.
It’s amazing. Just the diverse kind of experiences that you have in small square footage, and how it sort of weaves together two wildly different parts of a building, and demonstrates ... I mean, we’re talking about wellness in a powerful, comprehensive way. That’s where we want our work to go, and that’s the kind of work that we wanna get really good at.
I mean, it was an excellent project to land on. And you know, the team just kept growing more and more, every facet unpacked a new challenge. So it felt like it was a solid workflow all the way through. That’s sometimes hard to work out. But everybody seemed to snap together really well. I’m not sure that was planned. I think we were all the new people in the firm, and as the newest person arrived, they got put on Richmond. And then we wove them together like that; a good basket.
I feel like the work that we do in this area of the country that’s typically brick, and done in an amazing way, doesn’t get the platform that it deserves nationally, for reasons I’m not sure or aware of.
We shouldn’t be afraid of, or we shouldn’t be ashamed of doing beautiful collegiate gothic work, that can be really inspiring.
We’ve designed a collegiate gothic contextual building in a very authentic way in this instance. And our clients don’t always know what that means. I think that there’s a lot of desire for contextual architecture and not a lot of knowledge about what that actually means. So being able to articulate that for ourselves as part of our culture would be helpful, because I think it’s important for us to be able to describe for ourselves, and to be able to place ourselves as we think about the work that’s happening on many of the campuses that we interface with.
Miami’s design guidelines say international style.
Well then, I feel like what you’re describing is a theme that I’ve heard about in all these projects, kind of a certain bravery as we enter into the design process of ... or a certain confidence maybe, is a better way to put it. That these are architectural styles we haven’t worked in before, these are building materials we haven’t worked in before. Systems, detailing, the whole nine yards. And we can’t let that stop us from pursuing these types of projects and excelling at them. Gotta have a willingness to just learn as you’re doing it.
The four projects on screen are so diverse in so many ways. We have a lot of projects that get built. I hope that all four of these projects are built and expect them all to be. Because, that’s what I think, ultimately, our biggest job as architects is. We can make a difference in the community through being able to have these conversations and translate people’s ideas and programs into something that lasts and endures, and people like and can call it home.
The feeling one gets going into any of them is important. And I think for Greer, it was excitement about learning, and the sciences, and even if you’re not a science student, being caught up in it, and having the building be a teaching tool. So that, to me, is like the little flame of success that’s housed in that building. And that same flame at Richmond was authentic. But counseling and psychological services, student health, fitness, the teaching kitchen, and all that together.
What’s the key kernel of what the project is about, and did we succeed, despite some difficulties?
But selfishly, I would, for where we are now, since I worked pretty hard on trying to figure out how to do that wood, it’s been a long enough ... Their facilities department isn’t super on top of it. So I’d love to do a postop. I’d find that interesting.
How are we gonna vote? Are we gonna raise our hands?
Okay, Tech is out.
All right, Greer’s out.
So, there’s almost equal camps between University of Richmond and Miami.
[crosstalk]
I think we’ve got our winner. It was very close. We are at 11 to 13 votes between University of Richmond and Miami. And Miami was chosen, but we’re gonna follow up with the Richmond team to make sure we capture those stories and keep going.
[crosstalk]
Good game, well played.
HIGHER EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CENTENNIAL VILLAGE
Team Discussion
Okay, let me translate it as, why should we give a crap about this project?
National profile enhanced. The res life project of the year nationally, I think, one could say.
So I believe that residence life work has been part of the firm’s history ever since the very beginning, long before I was here. A lot of renovation work, some new construction, a lot of deep thinking with the development, key concepts, editing the magazines. And this was a invited
design competition. I think, at least, for me, in some ways the invitation was based on a lot of background hard work done over many, many years to establish the firm’s ability to be an expert in residence life work.
So hopefully, that invitation confirmed a lot of that hard work and then the competition itself was more of a design competition. Though residence life was a key part of it, I think had we not been able to come through with a solid campus placement design vision and beyond, we wouldn’t have made it so far.
So some of the significance for me I think is in tying together a lot of hard work on project-type business development and then a lot of hard work on thinking really hard about key design concepts for residence life projects that over time have made their way into one proposal and winning design competition, an invited one in a national level is pretty big deal. I think it would be fun to win a few more of those to be able to compete in a few more of them, which is good.
Site Parti Sketch - 4 Strands + Campus Connections
Massing Parti Sketch - Elevated Strands + The Ship’s Hull
Square Footage + Site Area
Budget + Cost/SF
Program
Project Timeline (Start Date, Duration, Current Status)
535,000 SF
$161,000,000 +/- $300/SF for the Buildings
Four Residential Colleges consisting of 1,725 beds in two phases, including common, social, gathering, and various learning spaces per College
Invitation to Participate: January 2018
Competition Submission + Proposal: March 2018
Interview #1: April 2018
100% Design Development (Current): March 2019
Climate Zone 1A Very Hot Humid
Third Party Verfications (Anticipated/Achieved) Pursuing LEED, WELL
POE Conducted or Planned Planned
Embodied Carbon 11,394 MT CO2e (.025 MT/sf)
We were offered the chance to apply all of these residence life lessons learned and brain trust of campus design thinking into one proposal, and have some fun while doing it.
The overall proportion of its impact on the office is pretty substantial, already.
Yeah, and I’m guessing that, from the client’s standpoint, from University of Miami’s standpoint, the significance is that we’re
providing all of the housing for their entire first year class. Every freshman will stay in one of these residence halls. That’s a huge deal for them and a huge opportunity for UM to establish a standard of excellence for creating a home for students, helping students to interact and feel like they belong in the university setting. And in so doing, grow and matriculate and succeed at UM.
This is my first time working through a project from start to finish. We’re currently in DD, and thinking back on SD is very abstract - to look at the floor plans and programming. Trying to imagine what this could be like at the end when people are actually occupying the space and that feeling lingers with me as I work through some of the interiors that we’re doing right now.
Hecht-Stanford Dining Hall
01
Campus in a Tropical Garden
David Oakland
Joe Atkins
Fatin Hameed
Jim Richardson
John Trevor
Pete O’Shea
Michelle Amt
Andres Pacheco
Lauren Shumate
Thomas Bates
Lorenzo Battistelli
Diana Fang
Matt Johnson
Jack Hatcher
Dade Van Der Werf
Mert Kansu
Bryan Ireland
Test Fit Study Options Explored Campus Placemaking + Residential College Fit
Yeah. In terms of looking back to the beginning, I think just the circumstances of the design competition and its opportunities are so different than other residence life projects.
Hopefully it furthers excellence in our firm by showing, through a versatility of means, we can accomplish a high quality result that people love.
And we’re not there yet, but we’re trying really hard to pursue those things while still being new in Florida, in a new culture, and learning how they build down there. We need to become expert in that pretty quickly,
with a lot of help from great consultants and partners.
Well, it seems like it’s an interesting question of what is the standard of craftsmanship down there versus up here? Seems to be a lot of big glass and caulk, things like that.
Yeah, and our role as both design lead and subject matter lead, but not Architect of Record, is an interesting one. I think we all care a lot about how things are executed. And so, we’ll remain 50/50 with our partners through CDs. But there’s something a little bit different about how we play the design lead role, where
we’re trying to think ahead and set things up in a way where, as the team grows, both in the office as well as with our partner team, we have to provide some intent that’s clear, and some oversight along the way to try and make sure that everything is ending up at its best.
Right.
You’re going on again.
I’m just kidding.
Four Residential Colleges
Since there are four new residential colleges, we began with four buildings to offer to students a strong sense of orientation and identity. These four buildings are placed with their narrow ends to the lake, like Eaton, to align with the Dining Hall and open to the Canal.
Adapting to Context
The four residential college bars are sculpted by site forces. They bend to align with the School of Architecture and optimize solar orientation. They open to the lake. They open to Dining. They are arranged to maximize rooms with a view, and minimize rooms that face off against one another. Too much order is boring. Too much variety is chaotic. The best campus places balance order and variety for an overall sense of coherence.
Energizing the Ground Floor
We’ve all walked down sreets that are dead, and ones that are alive, and generally we prefer the livlier ones. Students are drawn to places that are full of visible life, where they can feel a strong connection with others. We’ve placed active public rooms on the ground floor that are open, transparent, and inviting. These are destinations.
Elevated Residence Life
It’s wonderful to live together in uplifting surroundings that feel like an extension of your home. We’ve lifted the resident commnities above the ground and created community lounges at the ends and bends that act as lanterns to the campus. Such community spaces refine the expression and advangage the lake.
First Year Village from Lake Osceola - Interview #1 Rendering
First Year Village from Lake Osceola - Interview #2 Rendering
And the phasing of this makes the documentation tricky, because we are trying to work through both phases in DD but split off eventually. So there’s some tricky logistics with that in the model, and in the documentation.
There’s still a lot of things in the air to be crafted.
What about the sky bridge that connects each two buildings together? It’s a really cool space to circulate through - a double height bridge that is not just for circulation, it’s also a lounge space that’s shared between colleges. I think that’s a really cool amenity for students to congregate with people from the building next to theirs, and things like that. They get to easily interact in a prime location.
And I think just in general, some of the community spaces are designed to lend themselves to a mix of uses. It really connects people from different buildings and gives great views of the campus and the surrounding landscape. just the intensity of the architecture and landscape, and their connections, is what makes it special.
First Year Village from Lake Osceola - Design Development Rendering
Sea Level Projections Study
ACTIVE g RO u ND f LOORS
WOOD BOXES & GLASS BOXES
FIGURAL GREAT ROOMS
EXTERIOR ARTIC u LATION
LEVELS 3 & 4
LEVELS 5 & 6
2-STORY OFFSETS
ENDS & BENDS
ARCHITECT u RAL EXPRESSION
BALANCING ORDER & VARIETY
STUDY POP OUTS
LEVEL 2 RESILIENT SERVICES
LEVELS 7 + 8
LANTERNS
LEVELS 9 + 10
SHIP’S HuLL DATuM
VERTICAL CIRCuLATION
SKy bRIDgES
MASSINg DEVELOPMENT
But by the nature of there being eight and ten story buildings, having gathering spaces for the whole residential college that are in the middle on level five or six is a pretty big deal. That’s really fun for students, I think. So we have major community rooms that connect the residential colleges at mid-height.
The pebble-shaped Great Room connects all two, or four, residential colleges together, and then, if we’re successful, the apartments on the top have mini Great Rooms that partially belong to the students. So, we hope we can come up with a design that allows students to get access to the top floors at the ends with exterior terraces, where they can have, with supervision, access
to great campus views and stuff. That’s pretty different from our other work by the nature of this project’s scale and height, and a great client who seems to know the value of what good thinking and design can bring to a student’s life.
We’re trying to address all scales of community architecturally.
I feel like there’s so much more emotion to the aesthetic of what we’re achieving by knowing what levers to pull. What we can and can’t do for a community hall, but also knowing where we’re able to maybe push and be a little more innovative to achieve a different, but better, and more interesting aesthetic that everyone seems to want. It’s a big challenge for
residence hall work in general. We’re working to have a window for each resident room but also keep it from looking boring or institutional.
Right.
That can be pretty bad.
No, it’s not.
Ok.
Down the Scale by Shifting Singles + Doubles
Stewardship, so I’m talking about this. Well, I think we tackled this in a couple of ways. One was really trying to focus on energy use, being in a different climate. Having a different architectural typology or look and climate meant that we got to revisit some stuff that we hadn’t been able to revisit recently. So, we went into the competition with things like geothermal and combined heat and power, that sort of stuff, with guns blazing, which seemed to appeal to them, and then quickly had to roll it back.
[crosstalk]
What can I say?
Features of a Typical Resident Hall
Canal Walk
Elevated Residence Life - Building End Lanterns
Adding PVs are worth about 10 EUI. U of Miami Phase II Design Competition Insight Energy Model
2030 Baseline (Modeled) (kBTU/sf/yr)
Jim Richardson AIA, LEED AP BD+C Senior Associate
Target (70%) 93 28
VMDO Architects 200 E Market Street Charlottesville, VA 22902 434.296.5684 vmdo.com
proposed
ON-SITE SOLAR compared to 2030 baseline demand met by renewables average
SAVINGS
From: Jim Richardson
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2018 1:31 PM
Cc: Sidney Griffin <griffin@vmdo.com>; John Trevor <trevor@vmdo.com>
Subject: RE: U of Miami Housing Phase II Design Competition - Insight Modeling
Great feedback. Thank you all.
To: Michele Westrick <westrick@vmdo.com>; Michelle Amt <amt@vmdo.com>; Dade Van Der Werf <vanderwerf@vmdo.com>; Joe Atkins <atkins @vmdo.com>
Below are results for 2 of 3 massing partis. With all inputs constant, Parti D “N-S Noodles” (48.1EUI) outperforms Parti C “L’s & courtyards” (67.2EUI). Noodles
Here are some key decisions that impact the EUI, for our continued discussion (thank you in advance):
Operating schedule: I can input either 24/7 or 12/7; 12/7 is 18 EUI less. For now I have selected the line between them.
EUI targets: It looks like Sid has corrected the EUI targets for 2030, but now we’re operating above ASHRAE 90.1. Window-Wall Ratio: For now, I’ve selected 30% glazing area/gross wall area. I believe this to be the max allowable by ICC, and similar to what we’re achieving ACH: This is “unintentional leaking of air into or out of conditioned spaces, often due to gaps in the building envelope PVs: I’ve selected no PVs. Covering 90% of the roofs with PVs drops EUI by 12. HVAC: I’m not offered many choices. Here they are. There is a 12 EUI difference between the best and worst options offered.
And what’s interesting about the project is that we have been looking at the wellness side using the WELL standard as a standard, and so, while we’re trying to keep the energy levels as low as we can, we’re paying an energy penalty that has a benefit for fresh air. That type of tradeoff is interesting. We’re looking at circadian lighting in the hallways and trying to optimize day lighting in the student rooms since there are like a thousand or more of them.
And just things like trying to implement a more aggressive materials palette in terms of transparency. That type of thing. All toward getting the project WELL certified. So, while the project may not be as aggressive as we would hope on the energy side, we are hoping that we’ll be
able to tell a better story about WELL. This project would be the first WELL certified residence hall. So that’s what I would say.
It seems like we’ve been really proactive with the owner in trying to make it easier for them to do the best and right stuff. I think we’ve proved that geothermal is viable and would be a good option, despite taking that study too far from their point of view. We probably went two meetings beyond what they wanted us to do. Whatever, they just didn’t want to take the risk on this one.
Look, it’s a residence hall, an energy guzzler from the get-go. So it’s a difficult building type and it’s on a campus with a central plant. That’s two strikes against you. We’re trying to do
the right thing. Side bar - did we ever propose - using the lake for geothermal?
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah. Yeah, so the way it was left is that they recognize that geothermal is viable, although not common in south Florida, and they can always add a geothermal system to their central plant. That wouldn’t help our building’s energy performance on paper. But if geothermal were part of the central plant, it would give them much more flexibility for load shifting in the summer, when the residence halls aren’t used as much, and they could benefit a lot more from a central geothermal rather than being building specific. All good things they could do. But not this time.
Site Shade + Building Self-Shading Study
Tidal Courtyard + Canal Walk
In addition to palm trees making our renderings look really awesome, they take their landscape really seriously down there. We have some mangroves on site and some waterfront that we’re happy to be forced to maintain. The idea is that their trees are some of their most valuable assets. They want us to dig them up, move them over here, and then move them back after construction. That is going to make the landscape so much more vital right away. But also, it’s just so cool to work on a campus where they value the landscape in that way.
We have a resilience strategy. So, currently, the resilience strategy is keeping all infrastructure off of the ground floor. We looked at future climate scenarios under the different IPCC models and picked a middle to late one, so that a storm surge of a Cat 5 hurricane won’t touch them. Look at that.
And so, the team has gone through all sorts of shenanigans to get the major mechanical up off the first floor and into the second.
We’re building those systems so that they can come back online quickly after a storm, once things open back up.
Well, I was thinking that we’re using the tool of visualization and rendering a lot more than we have before, and it’s awesome. And I don’t know if other projects are able to do that, but I hope that they can. I don’t know if you agree or not with that.
Yeah, I was trying to think of ways that it could translate to other projects. It’s such a different situation. At least, it feels like a different situation that we’re in. But even on other projects where visualization doesn’t have the time or budget to get pushed as far as we’ve taken it, I feel like just what I’ve learned from being able to do as much modeling and as much rendering and animating as I have, I’ll be able to, in a casual way, not in a formal way, at least spread what we’re learning to other projects and studios.
And you nailed the Miami light, so if anybody needs Miami sunsets...
Rendering has captured it pretty darn well. It’s a totally different sunlight than the rendering in Virginia. You can tell the difference. We put a lot of effort into trying to capture that. It’s not just a button you click and it automatically goes “Miami.”
The filter. The Miami button.
DESIGN FOR PERFORMANCE
01. High performance envelope / shading
02. Direct outdoor air system with recovery
03. High performance hvac with geothermal
04. Daylighting & high performance lighting
05. Real-time data / intelligent systems
06. Rainwater & condensate harvesting
07. Green roofs
08. Photovoltaics
DESIGN FOR RESILIENCE
09. Uninterrupted power with CHP
10. Major systems on second level
11. Raised ground floor
12. Durable envelopes
13. On-site renewables feed microgrid
14. Design for passive survivability
15. Vegetated roofs & bioswales
16. Community gathering spaces
DESIGN FOR HEALTH
17. Biophilic elements
18. Direct Outside Air System w/ enhanced filtration
We had three different schemes. We modeled them all in Insight, and they all performed exactly the same. Bummer.
Because of the modularity of this project, it’s been a great testing ground for some of the Revit Dynamo scripts that we’ve been developing in-house, streamlining tasks that took a long time to do before Dynamo came along.
Yeah, the use of “groups.” Somewhere we’ve reached a new zenith. And that is true of the facade studies and the Sketchup studies that we’re doing.
Yeah, the ability to have some building blocks and just deploy them really quickly is great.
All right, lessons learned. What would we have done differently?
We’re still learning.
Yeah, it might be too soon for this question.
Yeah, it feels like there were some decisions that were surprising along the way that were delivered to us. Again, some of those things are still in flux. Suppose you come up with a scheme, and then you’re asked to change it and you make a different scheme that makes just as much sense as the first one, and then you need to rapidly rearrange and figure that out. And so, I don’t know yet what lessons we’re learning, but what I get is that we have to stay flexible while also holding on tightly to the principles that were developed in the beginning.
Okay, we stopped the recording.
Unplug it.
Oh, god.
No, it doesn’t matter.
Great Room
WE’VE PUSHED A BIT MORE HOW WE USE VISUALIZATION
Resident “Wedge” Floor Lounge
FIRM
Michelle Amt
James Atkins
Joe Atkins
Alan Averill
Thomas Bates
Lorenzo Battistelli
Maria Bninski
Noah Bolton
Robert Bowman
Katie Breckinridge
Kelly Callahan
Joe Celentano
Nina Comiskey
Todd Daggett
Robin Eshleman
Asa R. Eslocker
Kim Faber
Diana Fang
Ethan Feuer
Emily Fielder
Drew Fleming
Terry Forbes
Doug Gehley
Sidney Griffin
Jack Hatcher
Kristen Hill
Alex Jack
Kirk Jansen
Tyler Jenkins
Matthew Johnson
Lisa King
Mert Kansu
Sarah Knipp
Wyck Knox
Jim Kovach
Julia Kwolyk
Frances Watson Lengowski
Mary Beth Lineberry
Randy Livermon
Paul Lockerby
Sarah Lutze
JP Mays
Sue Mills
Robert W. Moje
Jonathan Moore
Milo Oakland
David Oakland
John Ottinger
Andres Pacheco
Bryce Powell
Bethany Pritchard
Bailey Riales
Jim Richardson
Renee Ritchie
Lamont Sandridge
Rebecca Shealy
Jon Shealy
Lauren Shirley
Lauren Shumate
Kim Smith
Yimeng Teng
Maggie Thacker
Ken Thacker
Ben Thompson
John Trevor
Dade Van Der Werf
James Vidoni
Michele Westrick
Mallory White
David Wilson
Rob Winstead
Tricia Witherow
ETHOS
Not a Conclusion
We hope that Ethos accurately reflects the enthusiasm, insight, and integrity of our architecture practice. Instead of a conclusion, we hope that Ethos stands as silent witness to VMDO’s ongoing collective resolve for design excellence in the communities in which we work.
