LUXURY CONDO & HIGH SCHOOL
ANYCITY, USA
ANDREW AUMILLER
STRUCTURAL OPTION
GENERAL BUILDING STATS
Building Occupants | Residential Tenants/ School staff and Students
Occupancy Types | Secondary Education and Residential
Size | 171,000 sqft
Number of Stories | Twenty-Five
Date of Completion | Fall 2015
Rough Construction Cost | $75 Million
Project Delivery Method | Design Build
PROJECT TEAM
Owner | Alchemy Properties
Architect | FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS, PC
Structural Engineer | Severud Associates
MEP Engineer | Dagher Engineering, PLLC
Interior Designer | BNO Design
Exterior Consultant | Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP
Geo-Technical Engineer | Langan Engineering
Facade Maintenance Consultant | Entek Engineering, LLC
Vertical Transportation | VDA
Acoustical | Cerami & Associates
LEED Consultant | Steven Winters Associates
Construction Manager | AnyStreet, LLC
BUILDING STATISTICS
ARCHITECTURE
Having two distinct uses: a school at street level and luxury condos above is shown with a change of architectural styles splitting the spaces. A square base of granite conforms to the feel of the street while the slopped glass residential tower extends up to provide superb views for the residents. Perfect harmony is achieved with the school gaining six floors of new classroom space and a half gym while giving up the air rights of its adjacent buildings so that the residential tower can cantilever out on two sides and achieve 55 residencies. Occupants of the tower will enjoy a floor dedicated to committee space including a fitness center, dining room, wine storage, and a 75’ wide terrace. All said and done this will be a near perfect example on how to design mixed use buildings.
CODES AND ZONING
AnyCity, USA being a larger city has its own building code. However this code is based on the 2003 edition of the International building code with some adjustments made specifically for the city's needs. The 2003 IBC references ASCE 7-02 for many aspects such as wind and seismic provisions.
BUILDING ENCLOSURE
Façade
Being a split use building it also features two main types of façades to mimic the interior use and change in architecture. Granite panels on a CMU masonry wall makes up the lower portion of the building which helps continue the like of the street. Above the building skin changes into a glass curtain wall with aluminum shading panels. A section of both of these wall systems can be seen to the right.
Roof
Angled extensions of the curtain wall surround the actual roof on all sides to achieve the architectural ideals. Water proofing is achieved with multiple sealants and ridged insulation on top of the concrete slab which makes up the structure of the roof. There are also two main terraces: one on the 18th floor and one on the 7th. These terraces both utilize concrete pavers on risers while the 7th floor terrace also uses a semi-intensive green roof. A section of this roof system can be seen to the right.
SUSTAINABILITY
To create a sustainable building the project team decided to shoot for a LEED Silver rating for this building. One of the green features of the building is its green roof on the 7th floor terrace giving the residents a bit of nature in the otherwise building dominated city. As for the concern of having a large portion of the building covered in curtain wall, the design team has developed a variety of shading systems to help with efficiency. These include frit on the surface of the glass and angular aluminum fins to accent the architecture as well as shade the residences.
STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
With two very different uses and floor layouts that change on almost every floor it was determined that the use of a split structural system was best for this building. In the School part of the building (1st-8th) a composite steel framing system is used, the beams used vary in depth from 12 to 24 inches. Sitting on these beams is four and a half inch concrete topping on three inch galvanized composite metal deck. Composite steel framing is supported by wide flange steel columns. In this section of the building lateral forces are resisted using a steel braced frame core that is imbedded in concrete shear walls in addition to regular steel braced frames and moment frames.
Moving into the Luxury Condo portion of the building (9th-25th) the structural system transitions into an 8 inch two-way flat plate slab. This transition is achieved using four twelve foot tall steel trusses whcih can be seen to the right along with steel transfer girders. These steel components transfer loads from the concrete columns onto the steel columns bellow. In this section of the building the braced frame core imbedded in concrete shear walls transitions into a concrete shear wall core to resist lateral loads.
MECHANICAL SYSTEM
The luxury feel of the building is continued with the use of electric radiant heating in the floors along with an abundance of 100% outside air provided by two air handling units. Mechanical space is designated on the 25th floor along with the cellar for housing of all mechanical systems connected by a vertical distribution system.
LIGHTING SYSTEM
The building lighting system utilizes primarily high performance fluorescent and LED fixtures. Controls consist of switches with most fixtures on dimming controls as well. The building also has ample access to natural daylighting of spaces with the glass enclosure.
CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERATIONS
Construction on this project will be made difficult due to limited site area and general congested nature of the city. Other issues include the excavating to get to bed rock so that the foundations can be secured, along with the sequencing of constructing the overhangs on the north and west faces.
FAÇADE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM
With a very unique design such as this also comes very unique challenges. One of those for this project is the cleaning of the curtain wall clad residential tower. This is solved with a very interesting solution of essentially having a small crane that is hidden inside the screen walls of the roof. This crane can when needed lift out a platform over the edge of the façade that attaches to special tracks in the mullions of the curtain wall system that will allow the platform to easily move up and down the façade while cleaning and preforming repairs. Images of what the system looks like stored and in use can be seen the right.
