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Design Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop Architect of Record: Davis Brody Bond LLP Structural Engineer: WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff Photograph: Frank Oudeman

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Shaking Bad In New York, passing subways can shake entire buildings, but that wasn’t an option for Columbia University’s new Jerome L. Greene Science Center. Home to sensitive laboratory and imaging equipment requiring exceptional stability, the design by Renzo Piano Building Workshop relies on a steel structure to reduce floor vibrations to a miniscule 2,000 mips. Even as the elevated No. 1 train roars past, this helps ensure that nothing distracts from the scientific advances being made within the center’s unshakable walls. Read more about it in Metals in Construction online.

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Sarah Amelar, Fred A. Bernstein, Robert Campbell, faia, Blair Kamin, Jayne Merkel, Clifford A. Pearson, David Sokol, Michael Sorkin, Sarah Williams Goldhagen Naomi R. Pollock, faia David Cohn, Tracy Metz, Aric Chen, Chris Foges Iwan Baan, Roland Halbe

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With four consecutive Stanley Cup victories in its history, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a beloved fixture of Long Island life. When the owner of the 1972 arena decided to reward fans with a renovation worthy of its storied past, it reimagined the venue with an overcladding that would bring new life to the facility. With a design by SHoP Architects and Thornton Tomasetti, the new folded-ribbon facade of composite aluminum fins connects to the original structure with a minimum of intervention, ensuring thoughtful reuse of a venue that still has a lot of wins in its future. Read more about it in Metals in Construction online.

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04 2019 NEWS

61 PRODUCTS: WALLS & CEILINGS By Kelly Beamon 67 PRODUCTS: CLADDING By Kelly Beamon

19 ARATA ISOZAKI WINS 2019 PRITZKER PRIZE By Miriam Sitz

22 SIDEWALK LABS POISED TO ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT IN TORONTO By James S. Russell, FAIA

Deane Madsen 44 OFF THE GRID: HOUSES FOR ESCAPE, BY DOMINIC BRADBURY Reviewed by Anthony Paletta

24 KATERRA INTRODUCES NEW PRODUCTS & BUILDING PLATFORMS By Deborah Snoonian Glenn

DEPARTMENTS

71 INTRODUCTION 72 MEADOW LANE RESIDENCE, NEW YORK TOD

16 EDITOR’S LETTER: A MODEST PROPOSAL

WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS | PARTNERS

31 TRIBUTE: KEVIN ROCHE, 1922–2019 By Fred A. Bernstein

BUILDING TYPE STUDY 1,005 RECORD HOUSES

26 NEWSMAKER: THOMAS WOLTZ By Miriam Sitz

33 LANDSCAPE: WATER-TREATMENT FACILITY IN MUTTENZ, SWITZERLAND By Andrew Ayers

BOOKS

42 TWO CALIFORNIA BOOKS Reviewed by

By Josephine Minutillo

ARCHITECTS By Linda C. Lentz

112 RIVERBEND RESIDENCE, WYOMING CARNEY LOGAN BURKE ARCHITECTS By Beth Broome

TECHNOLOGY 121 FACE VALUE ARCHITECTS REFINE THE ART AND SCIENCE OF FACADE DESIGN By Michael Cockram

147 DATES & EVENTS 152 SNAPSHOT: THE PAINTED HALL AT LONDON’S OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE By Justin Chan

By Joann Gonchar, FAIA 84 WUEHRER HOUSE, NEW YORK JEROME

41 GUESS THE ARCHITECT

88 PATH, TOKYO ARTECHNIC ARCHITECTS

54 FIRST LOOK: A LITTLE KNOWN HOUSE IN ILLINOIS BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT By Sarah Amelar

MARISCAL STUDIO By Suzanne Stephens

106 GALLERY HOUSE, CHICAGO JOHN RONAN

78 CASA TERRENO, MEXICO FERNANDA CANALES

35 IN FOCUS: THOMAS HEATHERWICK’S VESSEL AT HUDSON YARDS By Jerry Adler

49 COMMENTARY: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE? By Lance Hosey

100 AGAHNIA HOUSE, CALIFORNIA SEBASTIAN

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APRIL 2019

perspective tribute

Kevin Roche, FAIA, 1922–2019

P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y K E V I N R O C H E J O H N D I N K E L O O A N D A S S O C I AT E S ( L E F T ) ; © T I M G R I F F I T H ( R I G H T )

BY FRED A. BERNSTEIN Like his mentor Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche could design buildings of startling originality. His Ford Foundation headquarters, on 42nd Street in Manhattan, completed in 1967, arrays glass-walled offices around a spectacular 12-story atrium (record, February 1968). His Oakland Museum of California, which opened in 1969, conceals galleries in planted terraces cascading down a hill. And his Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, completed in 1973, is a collection of discrete limestone boxes, almost heroic in their simplicity. Roche, who died early last month at 96, will be remembered for those iconic buildings, and for the more than 200 other projects realized by his firm, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA). “It would be impossible to write a history of 20th-century architecture without Kevin Roche,” Robert A.M. Stern said in the 2017 documentary Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect. Roche won the Pritzker Prize in 1982 and the AIA Gold Medal in 1993. In a more than 70-year career designing corporate, institutional, and commercial buildings, however, Roche rarely matched the heights of Wesleyan, Oakland, and Ford. Reviewing a 2011 exhibition of Roche’s work, Belmont Freeman, an architect and critic, described his path from those early projects “through the increasingly gargantuan suburban corporate buildings of the 1970s and ’80s and the sometimes banal developer projects of more recent years.” At a symposium associated with the exhibition, Roche himself commented that the previous speakers “had made him feel like he had retired in 1980.” In fact, Roche continued working almost until his death. His career included a 40-year relationship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hired in 1967 to devise a master plan for the museum, he and his partner, John Dinkeloo, created a wide stairway in front of the building, replacing McKim, Mead & White’s narrower flight. John Morris Dixon, the longtime editor of Progressive Architecture magazine, called the new steps “one of New York’s architectural coups.” Later, the firm completed the pyramidal Lehman Wing and the glass-walled container for the Temple of Dendur, among other additions to the museum, which together nearly doubled the building’s size. New galleries for Greek and Roman art—replacing an old cafeteria—opened to rave reviews in 2007. Some of his buildings, like the Knights of Columbus Tower in New Haven (1969), corseted

In a career spanning more than seven decades, Kevin Roche (left) designed a number of memorable projects, including the Oakland Museum of California (above), which opened in 1969.

by four massive round piers, were lightning rods for criticism, and the quality of the firm’s work in recent decades was uneven. Paul Goldberger, writing in The New York Times, praised 1 United Nations Plaza, the hotel and office tower completed in 1976, as “an exquisite minimalist sculpture.” But Roche’s Egyptian-inspired headquarters for E.F. Hutton on West 53d Street, completed in 1987, was, according to Goldberger, “pretentious and overblown.” Eamonn Kevin Roche himself was never either of those things. Born in Dublin in 1922, he was raised in Mitchelstown, County Cork, where, he said in the 2017 documentary, “Nobody had ever heard of an architect.” But his father, a successful farmer, asked Roche to design a pigsty, which he did. “The pigs loved it,” he recalled—and Roche was on his way. During World War II, he earned an architecture degree from the National University of Ireland. In 1948, while working briefly for architects in Dublin and London, he saw the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in magazines and resolved to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where Mies presided. Roche arrived there in 1948 but, finding Mies “uncommunicative,” lasted only one semester. He planned to try his luck working for Alvar Aalto. But he was “totally broke” and “living in the streets,” he said, when he heard about Eero Saarinen and joined his office in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1950. In 1954, he was named Principal Design Associate, working closely with Saarinen. Seven years later, when Saarinen died unexpectedly, Roche and Dinkeloo took over. Together they completed about a dozen Saarinen projects, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; the gull-winged TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York; and the stoic, soaring CBS Headquarters (known as the Black Rock) on Sixth Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan. In 1966, when most of the Saarinen projects were complete, Roche and Dinkeloo formed

KRJDA in Hamden, Connecticut, where Saarinen had begun moving his firm just before he died. Roche was its chief designer. The Saarinen connection helped the new firm snare its first important commissions. Roche told the authors John Cook and Heinrich Klotz for their 1973 book Conversations with Architects that the committee searching for an architect for the Oakland Museum “had intended to invite Eero” and therefore invited KRJDA “as a courtesy.” The committee was won over by the firm’s scheme—which ultimately gave Oakland a beloved public space and presaged the “green roof” movement by decades. But at the same time as the architects were working in raw concrete in Oakland, they were using luxe materials, like grayish-pink granite, for Ford. With that building, Jonathan Barnett wrote in architectural record in 1968, the architects “created a new kind of urban space that stands between the sealed environment of a modern office building and the increasingly harsh and uncontrolled urban landscape outside.” But they avoided that kind of mediation in later buildings, some of which are tightly wrapped in mirrored glass. If Roche’s work lacked a single unifying element, that was intentional, he said. “Society is enormously complex, so I suppose it’s reasonable to expect this range,” he told Cook and Klotz. In recent years, the Metropolitan Museum began working with architects other than Roche, and the Ford Foundation didn’t formally involve him in its recent $200 million renovation (record, February 2019). Last July, the firm announced it would “wind up operations” after completing a 2.2 million-squarefoot development in Washington and preparing its archives to be donated to Yale. Roche was married to the former Jane Tuohy, whom he met in Saarinen’s office (she and their five children survive him), but in the 2017 film, he was also depicted as wedded to his work. According to his assistant, “He only stopped coming in on Saturdays last January.” n

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

perspective landscape

P H O T O G R A P H Y: © B Ö R J E M Ü L L E R ( T O P ) ; A A R O N KO H L E R ( B O T T O M )

A WATER-TREATMENT FACILITY IN SWITZERLAND CONFORMS TO THE EQUIPMENT IT HOUSES—AND ITS SURROUNDING LANDSCAPE. BY ANDREW AYERS

“This projecT started with a disaster,” says Beat Huesler, head of Oppenheim Architec ture’s Swiss office, about the boulderlike 20,000squarefoot watertreatment plant his firm recently completed in Muttenz, a munici pality bordering Basel on the River Rhine. He’s referring to the 1986 Sandoz agrochemical fire, which caused tons of pollutants to enter the river—the principal source of drinking water for half a million people. The political fallout eventually resulted in Muttenz’s separating its water system from Basel’s and building its own filtration plant on a protectedforest site. Under the area’s strict environmental and building standards, typical industrial materials that might contaminate the stored water are pro hibited. Oppenheim was hired to design an external envelope that would not only conform to code, but also blend in with the natural surroundings. According to principal Chad Oppenheim, who founded the firm in Miami 20 years ago, the hardest part of the project was “creating the most economical building possible, because we were going to be under tremendous scrutiny where costs were concerned.” Opposition par ties were contesting the expense of pulling out of the Basel system, and political pressure to remain within the $7 million construction budget was intense. Searching for a meaningful form, the architects decided to express the idea of economy by shrinkwrapping the plant in a concrete envelope that closely follows the con

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tours of the equipment inside. They then covered it with a layer of semiporous shot crete, colored a rusty brown by the addition of clay and soil, so as to create “an organic object that begins to disappear into nature and doesn’t require repainting or refinishing. We wanted it to be beautiful in its decay,” explains Oppenheim. To perfect the naturalistic illu sion, trees have been planted right up to the building’s perimeter and, once mature, will all but hide it from the forest approach. A visitors’ center, placed to one end of the plant, afforded the team a little more archi tectural latitude. “Visitors are taken on a procession,” says Oppenheim, “a very purifying decompression in this industrial area. You’re near the highway, there are a lot of manmade structures, and then you enter this kind of sacred forest and meander past the water chan nels and the groundfiltration pools. Slowly, the

The structure’s concrete shell curves to the contours of the equipment inside (top). Visitors to the facility are guided through passageways that come into close proximity with water (above).

building begins to emerge through the trees, and you’re not sure—is it part of nature or is it manmade? Then you enter a sort of cave, a very mystical experience, stepping over water, which reflects indirect light from above. We find that water is a very poetic medium to work with.” The facility is also, as he points out, a timely reminder of the element’s preciousness. n

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

Vessel Has Landed Thomas Heatherwick’s 2,500-step climbable sculpture opens in Manhattan.

P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E S Y M I C H A E L M O R A N F O R R E L AT E D - OX F O R D

BY JERRY ADLER

IN FOCUS

On the far west side of Manhattan—where Hudson Yards, the monumental city-within-acity that will someday encompass 18 million square feet, is rising on a platform held aloft above a sea of railroad tracks—stands one of the most original structures in New York. Viewed head-on at a sufficient distance—looking east from the spur of the High Line, say, across acres of parked commuter trains— Vessel, the climbable sculpture designed by Thomas Heatherwick, has the calming aspect of a pagoda, its eight levels of upturned wings glowing a soft copper color in the sun. But up close, at ground level, its rigid symmetry dissolves into a jumble of stairs and platforms, mushrooming from a base of 50 feet across to 150 feet across at the top. London-based Heatherwick Studios managed to come up with a shape that defies geometric description. The elaborate website devoted to it, which features a promotional video staged by the Alvin Ailey dance company, calls it a “spiral staircase,” which it most definitely is not. The interior of the Guggenheim Museum is a spiral, one continuous ramp circling a central axis, but Vessel is a nest of steps, landings, and

Heatherwick’s Vessel (left) mushrooms from a base of 50 feet. Its stairs and landings are clad with a copper-colored stainless steel (above).

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

IN FOCUS

walkways that run in straight lines and Santiago Calatrava.) This marvel and intersect at oblique angles. of engineering was designed not just Nor is it “soaring,” as the website to support the buildings but also the calls it—a curious description for a landscaping, which required a 150-foot-high object just yards from stormwater storage tank and a ventilation and air-conditioning system a 900-foot-tall tower, 10 Hudson to exhaust the heat of the idling Yards, and its even more gigantic trains below and cool the soil neighbor, 30 Hudson Yards, both by enough for plants to survive. Kohn Pedersen Fox. For that matter, “Considering what it takes to hang it’s not a “vessel” either, a name that 225 trees over the rail yards,” said pretentiously eschews a definite landscape architect Thomas Woltz of article—just “Vessel,” like “London Nelson Byrd Woltz, “these must be Bridge” or “Jupiter”—but which has the most expensive trees in the nothing to do with the object itself, world” (see “Newsmaker,” page 26). either in the sense of a ship or a By the same token, Vessel must container. Heatherwick drew inspiration from the 1,000-year-old rank among the most expensive stepwells of Rajasthan, deep cisterns pieces of public sculpture in the reached by steep stairs chiseled into world; for the same $200 million the walls. They are vessels that hold price, Ross could have bought, just a water, but Vessel encloses nothing week earlier, the entire Chrysler but air. Building, with $50 million to spare. Stephen Ross, the chairman of And expectations are high; admission will be by timed ticket, Related Companies, which, along although there are no plans to with Oxford Properties, developed charge for it. The optimum number Hudson Yards, wanted to make a of visitors at one time is calculated bold statement with Vessel, and he to be around 700, although it respared no expense. The structure’s mains to be seen whether that will 154 staircases and 80 landings, allow for Heatherwick’s vision of mostly fabricated in Monfalcone, New YorkersÕ ditching their gym Italy, are clad with stainless steel, memberships to get their exercise copper-colored by a process called running up and down Vessel’s 2,500 physical vapor deposition. This steps. The truth is, there isn’t much creates a shiny surface that will not else to do on it; there are no places weather or corrode into verdigris. In The 150-foot-high structure consists of 154 staircases and 80 landings that run in to sit, no food for sale or allowed, certain lights, it reflects a sallow straight lines and intersect at oblique angles (above). and you can take a selfie but the sheen onto the movable ETFE “shell” rules prohibit selfie sticks. Vessel conveys, in of the adjacent performing and visual-arts Wood’s words, a “hyper-acceleration of arousal space, the Shed, which will open in early from the outside but, on it, a calm materialApril. There is no obvious reason why the ity.” The best views, he adds, “are inwards, copperlike-cladding was necessary, except as a because they focus on intimate spaces, on statement of how much money the developers human beings.” had and were willing to spend. It’s good that he thinks that, because, once “Our brief was that Hudson Yards needed a the entire project is built out, the current galvanizing moment,” said Stuart Wood, the sight lines to the Hudson River and the New project manager for Heatherwick who led a Jersey shore will be mostly cut off, and the tour of the site, a week before it opened to the views will be of the looming towers and the public. “New York is an intense, bold, very expensive shops inside the retail atrium, the compressed environment, one of the few of the High Line’s DNA, the sense of discovery experience less like walking across the Brookplaces in the world that can take this.” Apart imparted by its origins as a hidden, indeed lyn Bridge than being a mouse trapped in a from that generalization, Vessel makes no forbidden, remnant of New York’s industrial wastebasket. The success or failure of the obvious gestures toward the surrounding history. project won’t be known until people begin to cityscape—it is only a couple of hundred feet Once completed, almost the entire Hudson use it, of course, and New Yorkers, starved for from busy 10th Avenue but walled off from it Yards project will sit on two platforms totaling open space, have been habituated to less likely by the two big towers and the new shopping places. It’s a safe bet it will fulfill its destiny to mall between them—or to the site itself, either 28 acres and spanning the trainyards and the rail tunnels to New Jersey under the Hudson provide them—or, certainly, tourists—with the once-bustling waterfront nearby or the River. (Construction is scheduled to start next Instagrammable moments. n enormously complex infrastructure below. It year on the western half of the site, which is is meant to complement the nearby High Line Jerry Adler is a former senior editor of Newsweek expected to include towers designed by and attract at least a fraction of the 7 million or so who visit there each year, but it has none Heatherwick, Frank Gehry, Robert A.M. Stern, who wrote about architecture and other subjects.

The brief to Heatherwick Studios was that Hudson Yards “needed a galvanizing moment.”

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A monthly contest from the editors of RecoRd asks you to guess the architect for a building of historical importance.

CLUE: SOON AFTER THIS ARCHITECT FOUNDED AN INFLUENTIAL SCHOOL, HE AND A COLLEAGUE DESIGNED A HOUSE FOR A UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR NEARBY THAT REFLECTED HIS CURRICULUM’S MODERNIST IDEALS. THE STILL EXTANT RESIDENCE ARRESTINGLY FEATURES THOSE PRINCIPLES—INCLUDING A FLAT ROOF, CUBIC MASSING, AND WHITE-PLASTERED TAUT PLANES.

The architect for the Beverly Hills Civic Center is Charles Moore, along with his Los Angeles office, Urban Innovations Group. Completed in 1990, the complex, heralded by a 1932 Spanish Renaissance tower, employs a typically “Moorish” Postmodern approach that fancifully mixes Art Deco and Spanish motifs. By entering, you have a chance to win an iPad mini. See the complete rules and entry form online at architecturalrecord.com/guessthearchitect.

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California Dreaming Two books highlight defining moments in mid-20th-century residential design on the West Coast. Reviewed by Deane Madsen

Photo by Steve Hall, Hall +Merrick Photography. Designer: Eastlake Studio.

Pierre Koenig: A View from the Archive, by Neil Jackson. Getty Publications, 304 pages, $55. Just the mention of Midcentury Modern architecture easily conjures up Julius Shulman’s image of Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House 22, cantilevering over the Los Angeles landscape. But Koenig was so much more than just the creator of a pair of Case Study houses, as Neil Jackson’s new book reveals. Anyone who has drawn a steel detail should feel a debt to Pierre Koenig (1925–2004), whose refinement of technique and materials spanned a whole career. Thankfully, Jackson has included most of these details in a rich set of plates that fills the final third of the book. As important as these illustrations is his deeply researched investigation of individual projects executed over the course of Koenig’s professional life. These include episodes of Koenig’s working through wood post-andbeam construction with Rafael Soriano on his way to designing his own house in steel. Bolstered by the expansive archives of the Getty Research Institute, Jackson traces project development and change orders as well as sketches, plan sets, and photographs showing works in progress and completed buildings. The author emphasizes the peaks of Koenig’s career—the inclusion of his work in John Entenza’s Arts & Architecture program in the late 1950s and, in 1989, a full-scale reconstruction of Case Study House 22 for the Blueprints for Modern Living exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Yet Jackson doesn’t neglect the slow period in the early 1980s when few new clients arrived, and the bulk of Koenig’s work was devoted to updating past projects. When Koenig was at his height, his visions for custom residences, achieved economically through industrialization, helped to define the Southern California modernist style. The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism, edited by Joseph Becker and Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher. Prestel, 176 pages, $60. In November 1965, architectural record featured the then new Sea Ranch among other

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so-called “Second-Home Communities” in a 15-page spread touting its “exceptional planning.” (You can find that issue in the online archive at architecturalrecord.com.) Now the Northern California residential retreat is the subject of a current SFMoMA exhibition, open until April 28, and is accompanied by this catalogue. What becomes immediately apparent, in observing how embedded the Sea Ranch buildings are in its landscape, is just how crucial that design ethos was for the talented team assembled by developer Alfred Boeke. Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin seized upon the experiential and environmental value of the 5,000-acre plot to help preserve it as a communal benefit. Working with him were Berkeley architects Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon, William Turnbull, and Richard Whitaker of MLTW, as well as San Francisco architect Joseph Esherick. Finally, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon developed the Sea Ranch’s strong and playful visual identity, from logo and signage to supergraphics. The group designed weathering-wood-clad condominiums and cabins, protected by earth berms and hedgerows, with rooftops angled to shelter the structures from the prevailing winds. The modified barnlike forms appeared clustered together for warmth like the herds of sheep that once occupied the land. The book’s editors, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher and Joseph Becker, provide written recollections of the Sea Ranch experience from residents and creators. Solomon is quoted: “That was the whole idea, that good design was good for you, good to look at.” More academic essays offer critical responses to the development, intermingled with contemporaneous and commissioned photography so vivid that the salt-laden fog becomes almost palpable. The whole production sheds light on East Coast misgivings about this free-spirited West Coast vernacular modernism and the designers’ prescient notion that the craggy landscape was one well worth protecting. n Deane Madsen is an architectural writer and photographer based in Washington, D.C.

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perspective books When You Really Want to Get Away Off the Grid: Houses for Escape, by Dominic Bradbury. Thames & Hudson, 272 pages, $45.

Reviewed by Anthony Paletta GoinG off the grid is often easier said than done, since electricity, water, and gas may sound like shackles only until you don’t have them. Yet the remote retreats offered in this book involve moderate to limited compromises in comfort and considerable design excellence. With his selection, UK-based Dominic Bradbury argues that creating houses without the standard infrastructure “requires a degree of imagination and confidence. But, he adds, it makes “everyday living in remote and rural parts of the world a rewarding and tempting reality.” There is an element of the rustic to many of these houses, yet none is a drafty shack. Many are built with a deliberately light footprint, often on pilotis, and some are conceived with easy relocation in mind. Local and reused timber is common, components become as demotic as plywood, and some resemble time-honored backwoods archetypes like the Aframe. Steel is a common component, and many of these dwellings are modular. Nevertheless, a small number have a more permanent character, with a few built of stone: one, the Bolton Residence in Quebec, by the firm _naturehumaine Architecture & Design, sits on a concrete plinth. Oil lamps or fireplaces provide light and heat in a few of the houses. Most rely on a mixture of the “deeply familiar and reassuringly lowtech,” from devices burning wood or private wells and harvested rainwater to more innovative technology, such as photovoltaics and wind and hydroelectric turbines. Some of them are only suited for use during certain seasons, while others can function year-round. Several of the houses are distinctly modern. There’s a Miesian pavilion in Arbrå, Sweden, conceived by Delin Arkitektkontor, consisting mainly of glass. One home in Mudgee, New South Wales, by Casey Brown Architecture, features adjustable corrugated copper canopies reminiscent of Paul Rudolph’s 1952 Walker Guest House in Sarasota, Florida. Some geometries are rigid, while others are purposefully irregular. One craggy roof in Okstindan, Norway, created by Jarmund/Vigsnæs was molded in response to a study of snowdrift patterns at the site. Adjustable elements are frequent, including doors that can be opened to create breezeways. The Japanese-styled Premaydena House in Tasmania, designed by Misho + Associates, features an inner core surrounded by a veranda that can be enclosed by sliding ochre-colored steel panels, providing either views and breezes or comprehensive insulation. It also includes a solar-powered roof whose eaves can raise up to open the structure to the skies. Some of these houses are within a modest drive of the grid, but others are genuinely out of reach. One has access only by foot or on horseback, another by foot or helicopter. Though there’s not much of an indication of cost here, a few of the dwellings would seem to be affordable only to the helicopter demographic, while others are composed of common enough materials that the pastoralist of more modest means might stand a chance of owning one. In any case, the author’s sustainable credo that “any kind of construction should carry with it a degree of responsibility” is well borne out, and his selection demonstrates that this ethos requires no diminution of quality. n Anthony Paletta is a architectural writer based in Brooklyn.

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What Happened to the House? Single-family dwellings used to outrank other buildings in the architectural canon. No more.

P H O T O G R A P H Y (C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P ) : C O U R T E S Y PAU L KO Z L O W S K I /© F O N DAT I O N L E C O R B U S I E R / A R T I S T S R I G H T S S O C I E T Y; L I B R A RY O F C O N G R E S S ; DA D E R O T; M A R K LYO N S

BY LANCE HOSEY Two years ago, Thom Mayne and UCLA’s Now Institute produced 100 Buildings, a guide to the “most important and influential buildings” of the 20th century, as ranked by nearly 60 leading architects and practices. While the projects range in location, scale, and function, by far the most common building type is the single-family house. Twenty-four houses appear in the survey—more than twice the number in any other category. Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (1931) tops the whole list, and two other houses are included in the top 10: Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (1951) and Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre (1932). (Wright’s Fallingwater is No. 13.) By these measures, houses dominate the canon of 20th-century architecture. Yet the timeline reveals that houses became less and less common on the list over the century. Half the 24 were designed before 1930, but only six after 1950, and none of those ranked in the top 50. Only one house—OMA’s Maison à Bordeaux (1998)—was completed after 1980. By the year 2000, leading-edge houses had all but disappeared. Other sets of rankings are similar. In 2010, Vanity Fair ran a survey of the “most important” structures since 1980, and not one house appeared in the final roster of two dozen buildings. Over the past two decades, two dozen houses have won an AIA Institute Honor Award, but that accounts for only 10 percent of all winners; only four have won in the past decade, none since 2012. And of the 16 houses in record’s 2016 poll of the 125 most significant buildings since 1891, the most recent was completed 40 years ago. What happened to the house? “A lot of it has to do with economics,” says James Timberlake, of KieranTimberlake, whose Loblolly House (a record house, April 2007) was one of the four houses to win an AIA Institute Honor Award over the past decade. “The more elite, wealthy owner can afford the fees to commission an architect. Many cannot.” This signals a stark change from past generations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1940 and 2000, inflation-adjusted housing prices quadrupled. In 2018, the median home price was twice the equivalent cost in 1960. Twothirds of the houses in 100 Buildings were completed before World War II. In the postwar era, Case Study houses showed that beautifully designed modern homes could be affordable, but cookie-cutter production housing increasingly became the norm. Some sources estimate that Clockwise from top: Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, Poissy, France (1931); Farnsworth House, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Plano, Illinois (1951); Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bear Run, Pennsyl vania (1938); Maison de Verre, Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet, Paris (1932).

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perspectivecommentary From top to bottom: Colorado House, ARO, Telluride, Colorado (1999); Loblolly House, KieranTimberlake, Taylors Island, Maryland (2006); McCann Residence, Weiss/Manfredi, Tuxedo Park, New York (2014); Maison à Bordeaux, OMA, France (1998).

architects now design fewer than 2 percent of all houses built in the U.S. Timberlake notes that his firm, founded in the mid-80s, used to design at least one house every year. “Now we’re lucky if we have one every three to five years.” Urbanization is another factor. A century ago, a minority of Americans lived in cities, and now over 80 percent do, according to the Census Bureau. The number of single-family detached dwellings peaked in 1960, while the number of households living in apartments and condominiums grew by 63 percent over the following three decades, the Census reports. As a percentage of all new residential construction, multifamily housing has nearly tripled since the early Õ90s. This trend is positive in many ways, since various studies show that denser, more diverse, walkable communities are environmentally and socially beneficial, dramatically lowering resource consumption while improving health and wellness through casual exercise and social engagement. But the shift also means fewer opportunities for architects to design houses. How might these changes affect the profession? “Historically, singlefamily houses have been important commissions for young architects,” notes Adam Yarinsky, of Architecture Research Office (ARO). “They provide an opportunity to test new ideas.” Yarinsky was in his 30s when ARO designed the Cor-Ten-clad Colorado House (a record house, 2001). Robert Venturi and Charles Gwathmey were 37 and 27, respectively, when they designed their parents’ houses, which launched their careers. Houses also can be midcareer reboots. Frank Gehry was 51 when he completed his Santa Monica home, which made him famous. KieranTimberlake had been in business for two decades when it designed Loblolly, which reinvented the firm’s practice around alternative production methods. “We couldn’t have done that with a larger, more complex building type,” says Stephen Kieran. “Houses are incubators for experimentation,” contends Tom Kundig, of Olson Kundig. “Smaller projects present opportunities for quickly testing ideas—both poetic and technical—on how to create an architecture that relates to its context and connects people to place. Residential design leads innovation trends.” The kinetic window of the Chicken Point Cabin (2004 Institute Honor Award)—“a turning point in my career,” says Kundig—led to similar experiments in larger projects. Yet many architects now focus on other project types, notes Yarinsky. “Over the last decade or so, young architects have more design opportunities in the public realm. These offer greater visibility and impact than the single-family house, which has lost some of its significance as a means of exploring ideas.” Take the work of Weiss/Manfredi. “Our own practice is focused primarily on projects with a public dimension, particularly where architecture and landscape play a powerful role together,” explains Marion Weiss, who contributed to 100 Buildings. The stone of their McCann Residence (a record house, April 2016) appears to be extruded directly from the site, so the firm’s attitude toward geography and materiality in the public realm seems to influence its work on private houses. Weiss and Yarinsky both say that if the profession does not follow a single canon of residential architecture, it may have less to do with the quality of contemporary design and more to do with the quantity of media outlets. “The canonical houses of the 20th century were designed, built, photographed, and published at a time when the media was less saturated by their seductive imagery,” Weiss says. Online media have exploded: since 2005, the percentage of Americans using social media has shot from 5 percent to 69 percent, according to the

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Pew Research Center, while the number and influence of national architecture magazines began dwindling during the same period. As a result, architects’ attention is being diffused: a major museum project might be featured in every media outlet, while the latest house may not get as much coverage, so there’s less opportunity for consensus. “There’s a different media landscape determining what is or is not ‘important,’ ” Yarinsky points out. “We may be in one of those periods where there’s not too much that surprises us about houses,” muses Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, whose Keenan TowerHouse (record, February 2001) brought him national acclaim. For years, at the University of Arkansas, he taught a course on the 20th-century American house. “A lot of houses built over the past 25 years are incredibly familiar, extensions of what came before. They may not be strange enough for architects.” He calls some of the houses in 100 Buildings, to which he contributed, “wonderfully strange” and “transgressive,” redefining dwelling at a time when the single-family home was a staple of the American landscape. “The issues we’re dealing with as a profession today—affordability, prefabrication, sustainability—haven’t fully manifested themselves yet. We may still be working through something before the next radicalization. The next revolutionary house will be something anyone can afford. That will be a breakthrough.” n Lance Hosey is an author, architect, and a design director at Gensler.

P H O T O G R A P H Y: © B E N JA M I N B E N S C H N E I D E R ( T O P ) ; T I M O T H Y H U R S L E Y ( B O T T O M )

Chicken Point Cabin (above), Olson Kundig, Idaho (2004); Keenan TowerHouse (left), Marlon Blackwell Architects, Fayetteville, Arkansas (2000).

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A Little Known Gem An important, previously unpublished Frank Lloyd Wright house from 1957 has been newly renovated. BY SARAH AMELAR PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES CAULFIELD In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright said about an impossible client, “There can be but one Louis Fredrick . . . He does not know what he wants, nor what he does not want. He has cost us more pains in time and money . . . than he can ever repay. If ever he gets a house, he will be the architect—and God help both him and the house.” Oddly, Wright was addressing that complaint to the client himself. And, even more surprisingly, the following year, Wright actually built a home for Fredrick and his family, in Barrington Hills, Illinois, an affluent area 40 miles northwest of Chicago. It’s not clear, however, that the Hungarianborn contract-interiors designer and onetime boxer became less of a nightmare client. For the same site, he’d already had Wright develop two entirely different, construction-ready house designs (including a textile-block scheme)—and rejected both. Then he switched to another architect before circling back to Wright, who completed the Lewis B. Fredrick House for move-in in 1958. In the process,

funds ran short, leaving most of Wright’s custom furniture unrealized. And, when the architect died a year later, his fee remained partially unpaid. So, that history—combined with Fredrick’s sense of privacy—may explain why this striking project never got published. But now it’s emerged from extensive renovations by Chicago-based Eifler & Associates (E&A), commissioned by an owner who wanted to include many of the previously unexecuted elements and is willing to share the results more widely. Wright’s final design for the wooded 10-acre site was (unbeknownst to Fredrick) a hand-medown from a canceled Michigan project. Modifications for Fredrick included substituting Cranbrook brick for stucco cladding on the low-slung, 2,650-square-foot single-story house, which sits high on a hillside. A 34-footlong daylit gallery connects the playroom (now a study) to the rest of the house, with its original three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and—like Wright’s other Usonian Houses—pol-

Instead of stucco, Frederick requested Norman (or Cranbrook) brick, as used by Eliel Saarinen at Cranbrook. The low-slung house has a daylit corridor along the bedrooms and entrance (above) and, at the other end (left), a long gallery leading to the study.

ished concrete floors with radiant heating. The purportedly modest and affordable “Usonians” often became pricey to build—and this one, at $100,000, was astronomically costly for its era. Fredrick lived there until his death, in 2002. His children later sold the property to an art collector, who—despite high aspirations—left it vacant and unmodified for 12 years. Finally, in 2016, real-estate developer David McArdle bought it. Decades earlier, McArdle, with his wife, Joyce, had owned and renovated Wright’s 1901 F.B. Henderson House, in Elmhurst, Illinois. In 1989, they helped found the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. And, in 1994, they commissioned a home from Wright dis-

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ciple E. Fay Jones, right in Barrington Hills. “Yet we never got to see the Fredrick House,” says McArdle. “It’s not visible from the road, and the driveway is steep and private.” He finally got inside—and made his offer—the day it went on the market (listed at $795,000). “It was a wonderful time capsule—almost nothing had been done to it,” he recalls. “But that also meant it needed lots of work.” He approached Eifler, who’d renovated more than 20 Wright houses, including 15 Usonians, and impressed on him, the architect remembers, “that he wanted to do a bang-up job.” The two-year renovation included restoring roofs, floors, and radiant heating, while borrowing square footage from an oversize secondary bedroom for a more generous master bath. E&A stripped Fredrick’s pink and green tints from the cabinetry, restoring natural color and luster to the interior’s ubiquitous Philippine mahogany. Now the house has geothermal heating and cooling, plus Wright’s custom furniture, most of it for the first time. The McArdles also mixed in contemporary pieces— notably by Nakashima, who’d created some of Fredrick’s original furnishings here. This spring, Eifler will build Wright’s freestanding stable (as a teahouse with garage space, since Usonian homes only have carports). The owners, who also reside in Florida, moved in last June. “It’s been wonderful,” says McCardle. “If you’re lucky enough to live in a Wright house, you constantly see things you haven’t noticed before, even the play of light, or the way a small detail leads your eye. Such amazing thoughtfulness in the design. Everyone who steps inside says, ‘Oh, my God!’ ” n Throughout the interior, the renovation restored Philippine mahogany and radiant-heated concrete floors—as seen in the dining area (top), living room (opposite, top), bedrooms (opposite, bottom), and light-filled corridor (left) leading to the study.

credits ARCHITECT: Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957 RESTORATION ARCHITECT: Eifler & Associates

Architects â&#x20AC;&#x201D; John Eifler, principal; Virginia Eby, interior designer; Gil Galan, team member ENGINEER: J&R Herra (mechanical) PROJECT MANAGER: Deer Creek Construction

Management CLIENT: David and Joyce McArdle SIZE: 2,650 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: December 2018 SOURCES MILLWORK: Distinctive Millwork MASONRY: Marion Masonry STONE: Vetter Stone ROOFING: Cedar Roofing

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COCKTAIL NAPKIN SKETCH CONTEST 2019 CALL FOR ENTRIES If you are a licensed architect or related professional who practices in the United States, you can enter this remarkable contest. All you need is a white cocktail napkin and pen to demonstrate that the art of the sketch is still alive. Two grand prize winners will be chosen (1 licensed architect, 1 related professional). Grand prize winners will receive a $300 gift card and a set of cocktail napkins with their winning sketch printed on it! The sketches of the winners and runners-up will be published in the November 2019 issue of Architectural Record and shown online in the ArchitecturalRecord. com Cocktail Napkin Sketch Gallery.

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HOW TO ENTER: } Sketches should be architecture-oriented and drawn speciﬁcally for this competition. } Create a sketch on a 5-inch-by-5-inch white paper cocktail napkin. You may cut a larger napkin down to these dimensions. } Use ink or ballpoint pen. } Include the registration form below or from the website. } You may submit up to 6 cocktail napkin sketches, but each one should be numbered on the back and include your name. } All materials must be postmarked no later than September 6, 2019. Winning Sketch 2018 by Kevin Utsey, Registered Architect

DEADLINE: September 6, 2019. ENTER NOW! For more information and ofﬁcial rules visit: architecturalrecord.com/cocktail-napkin-sketch-contest Due to the volume of entries, cocktail napkin sketches will not be returned.

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

products walls+ceilings

Quiet Time These solutions add acoustic privacy to vertical and horizontal planes.

By Kelly Beamon

Invisacoustics Basics Designed to add quick, cost-effective sound control to exposed industrial ceilings, this system can be installed directly on trusses and beams. The 24" x 48" panels are easy to cut, measure ¾" thick, and can be specified Field Paintable for custom colors. Each unit has an NRC of 0.75. armstrongceilings.com

Ecoustic Unika Vaev’s timber blade panels enable architects to add soundabsorption to existing ceilings and walls. Backed with a scrim and an additional .53" thickness of fabric made of the company’s proprietary Ecoustic Core Backing 0.85, the natural wood slats get installed on a steel frame to deliver a noise reduction coefficient of 0.4. Measuring 106" x 12", the panels can also be installed on a curved surface with a radius of up to 5.9". unikavaev.com

Soundwave Ennis The concrete block pattern Frank Lloyd Wright created for the Ennis House is among new molded polyester-felt acoustic-ceiling options from Offecct’s Soundwave collection. Additional designs include patterns by Jean-Marie Massaud, Karim Rashid, and Claesson Koivisto Rune. Each measures 23" square. offecct.com

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

products walls+ceilings SoftGrid Imaginative new designs extend Arktura’s highperforming acoustic baffles system SoftGrid. Built from PET plastic, the 5' x 6' modular units have an NRC rating of 0.9 and an up to Class-A fire rating. Deca, Orbit, and Flux (shown) are the latest patterns the company offers, in 30 colors. arktura.com

Cartoon This modular partition wall has been used for privacy in office and residential spaces since 1994. Now manufacturer Baleri Italia is offering the system with an option to specify custom patterns on its corrugated MDF screen. Havana (shown) and Classic White, which were designed by Luigi Baroli, are also still available; they stand 5½' tall and unfurl to 13' in length. baleri-italia.com

Switchblade For a cost-effective way to add noise control, these baffles are specially designed to be installed on existing steel tee-grid ceilings in a variety of spaces. Individual PET-felt baffles attach with magnets to the flat 9∕16" and 15 ∕16" cross sections of grid framing. Panels come in lengths of up to 24" and in 17 colors. turf.com

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

products cladding

Tough Skin

These facade systems install faster and require less maintenance than ever.

By Kelly Beamon

Insulated Metal Panels Insulated metal panels (IMPs) are designed to provide a speedier installation process than more typical weathertight cladding products. Architects can specify Metl-Span’s IMPs to add interior walls, insulation, and exterior panels in one product, reducing labor to a single-step process, compared with the usual two to four steps necessary for other assemblies. metlspan.com

Trekker Made of recycled wood and plastic, Trekker by Havwoods International is a plank-style cladding and decking material. The FSC-certified composite units are installed using the company’s clip system and can be hosed down for faster, easier maintenance than most wood decks. havwoodsusa.com

Envelope 2000 RV This field-assembled aluminum cladding works with manufacturer Citadel’s Rout and Return systems and Rainscreens to keep moisture away from a building’s structure. As an extension of the company’s Envelope 2000 line, the RV system adds horizontal and vertical reveals to facades and features a fireresistant core of phenolic resin. citadelap.com

Celect Royal Building has added a new profile to its Celect siding collection. Smooth Clapboard, a 7" profile made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that is cut and shaped to emulate natural wood, features an interlocking seam to keep out moisture and the company’s Chromatix technology to protect against fading. The durable siding comes in 15 colors. royalbuildingproducts.com

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY 1,005

Record Houses

P H O T O G R A P H Y: © J E F F G O L D B E R G / E S T O

2019 72

Meadow Lane Residence, Southampton, New York Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners

Casa Terreno, Estado de México Fernanda Canales

Wuehrer House, Amagansett, New York Jerome Engelking

PATH, Tokyo ARTechnic architects

Bayhouse, Northeast U.S. Studio Rick Joy

100

Agahnia House, La Jolla, California Sebastian Mariscal Studio

106

Gallery House, Chicago John Ronan Architects

112

Riverbend Residence, Jackson, Wyoming Carney Logan Burke Architects

BAYHOUSE, NORTHEASTERN U.S. STUDIO RICK JOY

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

Meadow Lane Residence | Southampton, NY | Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects / Partners

House Warming

A typically cold material makes for a surprisingly cozy concrete beach retreat. BY JOSEPHINE MINUTILLO PHOTOGRAPHY BY READ MCKENDREE

BEACHCOMBER Facing the Atlantic Ocean, the heavily glazed southern facade features a two-story brise-soleil thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s detached from the house.

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

sk Tod Williams and Billie Tsien—designers of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the erstwhile Folk Art Museum in New York—and they’ll tell you they don’t do houses. A few years ago, David Walentas, the real-estate tycoon who transformed part of Brooklyn’s derelict waterfront into one of New York’s most desirable neighborhoods, and his wife, Jane, needed an architect for a house they were building on Long Island’s East End. They didn’t think Tod and Billie—whom the couple, as patrons of the arts, had known for years—would do it. “We wanted a simple concrete box,” says David. In fact, the Walentases had originally hired a local architect to deliver that. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. By the time they came to Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA), plans for a barshaped structure were already far along, and the couple didn’t want to change that. David and Jane, as it turns out, had very strong feelings about what they wanted. After developing several million square feet of residential space, and living in numerous renovated lofts or old Victorians in New York City, Connecticut, and the Hamptons, this was the first house they were building for themselves. “The last place we had was a 1670 farmhouse, on an equestrian estate in Bridgehampton, with low ceilings and small windows,” explains Jane. “We wanted something contemporary. And some of the places we looked at to buy were just too beautiful.” After giving up riding and playing polo, they also wanted to return to a strip of beach in Southampton where they had lived in the 1970s in a Ward Bennett–designed house they bought for $200,000. (It recently sold for over $17 million.) As it also turns out, TWBTA does do houses—some pretty nice ones, in fact. “I believe all the original owners still live in them,” Williams says of the smattering of private residences, most of them in that part of Long Island, that the venerable New York–based firm has designed during several decades of practice. The studio’s extensive experience with institutional buildings, on the other hand, and the difficult building process those often entail, was particularly useful in what would

become a complex construction. “Poured, board-formed concrete is very unforgiving,” says David. “There are no do-overs.” That might also explain why a concrete house is such an anomaly here. While the locale might be an ideal summer escape, the weather in winter can be brutal, especially on this ever-so-narrow strip of flat, open land facing Shinnecock Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It took over two years to pour all the concrete walls and floor slabs, section by section, when the temperature was not too hot, and not too cold. The builder, who specializes in commercial structures in the area but enjoys taking on the occasional architectural challenge, started with the caretaker’s pavilion embedded in the front lawn by the tennis court, working out any glitches there. That space is connected by tunnel to the vast, flood-resistant basement, where storage, mechanical, and electrical rooms are located. The process wasn’t without its trying moments. The two stories above ground are surprisingly modest in size, but the concrete there needed to be pristine. “Tod recommended tenting the formwork,” recalls David, who opted not to do so. As luck would have it, an unexpected storm hit, warping much of the Southern yellow pine that was left exposed. Adds David, “The neighbors have tented the house they have under construction now.” That calamity behind them, the team was then faced with an extraordinary coordination effort so that each pour, alternating between interior and exterior walls and slabs, accommodated all the rebar, wires, radiant heating, track lighting, recessed cans, and depressions (for inwall iPads that control the lighting, shades, security, audio, and mechanical systems), as well as a last-minute request from the clients to embed additional uplights throughout the lower-level ceiling. “That ceiling was the most complex thing in the entire house,” says project architect Peter DePasquale, referring to the 8-inch-thick, cantilevering, post-tensioned structural slab. “It’s so dense. If you took an X-ray of it, you’d see more non-concrete than concrete.” To keep the layers of concrete thermally isolated from each other, the exterior walls were poured against balcony connectors made of stainless steel and polystyrene insulation protruding from the floor slabs.

MEADOW LANE RESIDENCE

CURB APPEAL From the road, the elevated house is visible past a berm, into which the caretakerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residence is embedded (opposite). A fireplace set within one of the interior concrete walls faces both the living room (right) and dining room, where another wall conceals the adjacent cantilevering stair (above).

SOUTHAMPTON, NY

TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS | PARTNERS

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

Cast-In-Place Concrete Facade Post-tensioned Concrete Slab

Insulated Balcony Connection 5

Motorized Shade Enclosure Stainless-steel Enclosure

SITE PLAN

100 FT. 30 M.

7 6

GROUND-FLOOR PLAN

20 FT. 6 M.

Stainless-steel Window System

MAIN-RESIDENCE ENTRY

CARETAKER-RESIDENCE ENTRY

PARKING COURT

SERVICE

POOL

LIVING

STUDY

GUEST BEDROOM

FIREPLACE

Concrete Topping with Radiant Tubing Post-tensioned Concrete Slab

Stainless-steel Window System Concrete Topping with Radiant Tubing

10 DINING 11 KITCHEN

Stone Sill

12 STORAGE/LAUNDRY 14

SECOND-FLOOR SECOND-FLOOR PLAN PLAN

14 MASTER SUITE

0 0

20 20 FT. FT. 6 M.6 M.

Cast-In-Place Concrete

13 SUNROOM Cast-In-Place Concrete Facade

Rigid Insulation

EXTERIOR ENVELOPE SHOWING THERMAL BREAK

MEADOW LANE RESIDENCE

SOUTHAMPTON, NY

The design of the southern, oceanfront facade presented perhaps an equal but different challenge. The architects insisted on including a two-story, occupiable brise-soleil, both to protect against the harsh sun and for aesthetic reasons. “We really had to convince the clients on that one,” says Tsien. “Finally, we told them that without it, the house would look like a motel on the beach.” Set 2 inches from the facade glass, the detached brise-soleil is structurally independent. Great care was taken with interior details, the kind for which TWBTA is known. An impressive cantilevering stair, hanging off a vertical steel truss extending from the basement, features treads of a polished bleu de savoie stone that almost matches the concrete but is noticeably a step above. Doors and shelves in raw teak add warm accents to both the kitchen pantry and bedroom closets. The master suite is separated from the guest quarters by a sunroom adjacent to the open stair. A metal roof over that area can be manually retracted by turning a wheel along the wall, exposing it to the sky and wind. “They hardly have guests stay over, so no one ever really sees the second floor,” Williams says. “There needed to be a reason to look up.” But, mostly, David and Jane look out—to the incredible water views on either side, to the ocean and the bay—that this inimitable site offers from both the living spaces on the lower level and the bedrooms upstairs. As for the house itself, the clients call it tight and cozy. “Our friends are happily surprised,” Jane admits. “They expected a bunker.” And though she says the stressful construction led Williams to refer to the project as “that goddamn concrete house,” she and her husband didn’t mind. “We’re builders,” David says. “We loved the process.” n

TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS | PARTNERS

INTERIOR ACCENTS Stainless-steel cabinetry in the kitchen matches the concrete aesthetic (opposite, left). Teak adds warmth to a guest bedroom upstairs (opposite, right). The second-floor sunroom features a retractable roof (above).

credits ARCHITECT: Tod Williams Billie Tsien

SOURCES

Architects | Partners — Tod Williams, Billie Tsien, principals; Peter DePasquale, project architect; Denise Lee

CAST CONCRETE: Ruttura & Sons

ENGINEERS: Gilsanz Murray Steficek

(structural); Ettinger Engineering Associates, Weber & Grahn (m/e/p) CONSULTANTS: Reg Hough Associates

(concrete); PW Grosser Consulting (geothermal/PV); Steven Winter Associates (energy efficiency, certification) GENERAL CONTRACTOR:

Two Trees Management — Alex Forden, Joe Fowler CLIENT: David and Jane Walentas SIZE: 12,000 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: January 2017

STONE: Precision Stone, ABC Stone STEEL & GLASS WINDOW WALL SYSTEM: Roschmann Steel & Glass

Construction, Secco Sistemi PHOTOVOLTAICS: Greenlogic HARDWARE: Lowe Hardware RAILINGS: Studio 40 LIGHTING: Viabizzuno, Visual Lighting Technologies, Boca Flasher CONTROLS: Lutron, Savant BATHROOM FIXTURES: Fantini SOLID SURFACING AND WOOD DOORS: Descience Laboratories KITCHEN CABINETS: St. Charles of

New York OPERABLE ROOF HATCH AND FOLDING STEEL DOORS: Turner Exhibits

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

Casa Terreno | Estado de MÃ©xico | Fernanda Canales

Order in the Courtyard A remote vacation house is designed around a series of patios. BY JOANN GONCHAR, FAIA PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAFAEL GAMO

f you know the work of a particular architect well, you can often spot his or her preferred forms, identify favored materials, or discern a particular aesthetic. But that is not the case with the buildings of Fernanda Canales, a Mexican architect known for her small but polished body of work. Each of her projects looks as though it could have been created by a different designer. Among her single-family residences, one urban house is a Modernist composition of crisp, overlapping and projecting white concrete boxes, while another, in a popular vacation area, is a rustic assemblage of stone-enclosed volumes with pitched roofs supported by exposed timber structure. And her Casa Bruma (record, May 2018), in a secluded community about 100 miles southwest of Mexico City, is a villagelike cluster of discrete one- and two-story structures formed in assertive black concrete. Her most recent house, Casa Terreno, a weekend retreat for her own family, has yet another expression. The 6,500-square-foot residence, in the same remote development as Bruma, is a horizontal ensemble of textured red brick walls and terra-cotta-tiled barrel vaults. As diverse as these projects might sound, however, they have a strong commonality: all are conceived around open-air living spaces, building on the long tradition of the courtyard in Mexican architecture. It is a theme Canales returns to again and again, “even though the formal solution is always different,” she says. This newest project has not one but four such courtyards. These outdoor spaces are of various sizes and shapes and are interspersed among the elements of the one-story compound, which include a wing of four bedrooms, each under its own barrel-vaulted ceiling and each facing east toward the morning sun; an open-plan living/dining room under a larger vault; and flat-roofed volumes for the kitchen and the caretaker’s apartment. While providing daylight and fresh air, the voids break down the scale of the overall structure. But, according to Canales, they also bring a human scale to the spectacular landscape, which feels especially vast at night. This drama should be preserved, at least for the foreseeable future: Terreno, along with Bruma, is among a handful of houses completed so far on the community’s 500 largely untamed acres, which for decades had been used for cattle grazing and logged for its once-plentiful supply of old-growth oak trees. The developers aim to keep the wild feel intact, capping the total number of residences at only 70.

MAKING AN ENTRANCE Casa Terreno sits on a relatively flat piece of property in the midst of rugged surroundings, and has four courtyards interspersed among its interior living spaces (opposite). You enter the house through an irregularly shaped patio defined by a curved brick wall (below) and then proceed into a small skylit chamber (left), which is also made of brick, including its gabled roof.

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

1 COURTYARD 2 ENTRY 3 STUDIO/

CLOSET 4 BEDROOM 5 FAMILY ROOM 6 LIVING/DINING 7 KITCHEN 8 EQUIPMENT/

STORAGE

9 CARETAKER’S

3 1 2 10

1 8

SITE PLAN

APARTMENT

10 GARAGE

50 FT. 15 M.

UP ON THE ROOF A combination of vaulted and flat roofs shelter the house. These can be reached via a stair in one of the courtyards, offering an unusual perspective on the constantly changing landscape.

Amid this rugged and sparsely populated terrain, the house’s immediate 2.5-acre site is level, with few mature trees to provide shade from the often intense sun. Canales chose to emphasize its flatness, not only with the low-lying architecture, but also with her choice of plants for the area surrounding the complex and within some of the courtyards, including small fruit trees, flowering shrubs, and other, mostly ground-hugging, vegetation. During the dry season, which stretches from November through April, this flora, along with plantings on the flat roofs, turns reddish brown, like the brick exterior, camouflaging the house. Similarly, during the region’s extended rainy season, Terreno also nearly disappears in the mist that often shrouds the site. You enter Terreno through the curved brick wall of an irregularly shaped patio and proceed through a small skylit chamber, which, including its gabled roof, is also made of brick. The almost cryptlike room is intended, says Canales, to accentuate the sense of arrival. This unusual space opens onto a central courtyard and an arcaded walkway from which the interior living spaces flow: brick gives way to a different material palette, with the vaulted ceilings cast in exposed poured-in-place concrete and the floors and built-ins made of local oak, the grain of the millwork echoing that left in the concrete from the forms used during construction. The overall effect is simple yet refined, with generously proportioned rooms, and an aura of coolness and calm.

CASA TERRENO

ESTADO DE MÃ&#x2030;XICO

FERNANDA CANALES

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

Canales’s design approach was highly resourceful, making the most of the limitations of building in such a remote location. The bricks, for instance, were manufactured nearby. But the architect, predicting that many would be damaged during transport on winding and unpaved roads, decided to use intentionally broken brick. These are “torn” in half, with the rough face exposed, creating an unusual and rustic wall surface. This practical mindset extends to the operating strategy, and almost every element of the house performs double duty. The roofs filter and collect rainwater, directing it to a 26,000gallon cistern below the central patio, which is Terreno’s sole source of water (sewage is treated on-site). And because the rooftops are accessible by way of a stair in one of the courtyards, they also are a vantage point for taking in the spectacular landscape, even offering views—on a clear day—of the Nevado de Toluca, a volcano about 20 miles away. The house has solar panels for electricity and hot water, but no mechanical heating or cooling systems: its 18-inch-thick brick walls and the concrete roof, in addition to serving as support and enclosure, provide thermal mass. These hefty structural components, along with wood-burning fireplaces and operable windows, are sufficient to keep the interiors comfortable—despite fluctuating climatic conditions and temperatures that can swing more than 30 degrees Fahrenheit over the course of 24 hours. “We get winter and summer all in one day,” jokes Canales. The constant change is what Canales loves about staying at the house—the rapidly moving clouds, the lifting of the mist, and the shifting colors of the hillsides. And with Casa Terreno, she has created a welcoming and intelligently designed retreat from which to appreciate the ever-evolving backdrop. “Every time we come,” she says, “it is a new place.” n

credits ARCHITECT: Fernanda Canales CONSULTANT: Grupo SAI GENERAL CONTRACTOR:

Felipe Nieto CLIENT: Fernanda Canales and Carlos Del Río SIZE: 6,500 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: April 2018 SOURCES METAL FRAME WINDOWS: Cortizo

SIMPLE AND SERENE In all the interior living spaces, including the bedrooms (top), the kitchen (above), and the living room (opposite), the material palette consists almost exclusively of the poured-in-place concrete roof slabs and vaults, formed with reusable wood molds, and wood floors and millwork in local oak.

HARDWARE: Arquideco FLOOR AND WALL TILE: Mármoles Arca CUSTOM WOODWORK: Óscar Nieto

CASA TERRENO

ESTADO DE MÃ&#x2030;XICO

FERNANDA CANALES

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

Wuehrer House | Amagansett, New York | Jerome Engelking

Family Ties

A New York City architect creates a glass-andwood getaway for his in-laws. BY ALEX KLIMOSKI PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIC LEHOUX

hen Jerome Engelking’s in-laws asked him to design a vacation home on a wooded plot of land in Amagansett, on Long Island, he found it the perfect opportunity to do what he thinks any architect would dream of doing: build a glass house. “The site spoke to the idea,” he says. “It was virgin land—I didn’t want to whack everything down and make some big, formal statement.” But first, he had to convince the in-laws, who had some concerns about privacy. According to the French-born Engelking, who is a senior associate at Richard Meier + Partners Architects, his father-in-law came around after seeing pictures of Philip Johnson’s Wiley House in Connecticut. “He liked the idea of looking at nature rather than walls,” says the architect. What he didn’t like, however, was the idea of steel, which he found too austere. Being from Austria, he and his wife wanted a warm and casual setting for spending summers with their adult children and eight grandkids, all based in New York. So Engelking proposed an all-timber structure.

For the architect, the project, which he designed in his spare time, was a chance to experiment with a prefabricated building system that would merge the structural frame with the glass envelope. After some research, he found a Quebec-based manufacturer, specializing in energy-efficient timber curtain walls, that could combine the load-bearing columns and the glazing support into easily transportable elements. Within six days, the entire skeleton of Southern Yellow Pine glulam beams and mullions was assembled on-site, for the “most pleasant construction experience I’ve ever had,” says Engelking. In the middle of the 3.2-acre site, the architect depressed the land to create a grassy clearing, and placed the one-story, 12-foot-high house toward its edge, so that the lawn serves as the backyard, and the front facade, to the east, is protected by a retaining wall formed against the dip in grade. Using 5-foot modular increments as his base, he divided the simple, rectilinear plan into a private wing, to the north—which comprises the master suite, two bedrooms, and a flexible lounge space—and a social wing, to the south, with the combined living, dining, and kitchen area; he organized the living spaces so they have access to the back garden along

SIMPLE PLAN The rectilinear house is divided into a private wing and a social one, which includes the combined living and dining area (above). Cedar slats along the front facade (opposite, top), and wood blinds on the rear (opposite, bottom) provide privacy and prevent heat gain. For easy maintenance, aluminum caps the mullions on the exterior.

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

ENTRANCE

KITCHEN

LIVING/DINING

LOUNGE

BEDROOM

MASTER SUITE

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

6 5 5 4

GROUND FLOOR SITE PLAN

30 FT. 10 M.

INTO THE WOODS A minimal material palette brings out the warmth of timber (top). Doors to the outside along the west facade are instrumental for natural ventilation (opposite, top). A flexible lounge space doubles as a bedroom (above). The baked pine blinds are lowered in the afternoon, when the sun is strongest (opposite, bottom).

WUEHRER HOUSE

AMAGANSETT, NEW YORK

the west wall, while the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry are arrayed along the east. Although fully glazed, Engelking made moves to visually protect the interior from outside eyes, though “the only spectators lurking about are deer,” he jokes. In fact, as one approaches the front facade, which is clad with vertical slats of cedar, the residence doesn’t seem like an all-glass house. It is not until one enters that the full effect of transparency is realized; as you walk in, the woody surroundings become one with the house. To provide privacy for the living and dining area and bedrooms, as well as to mitigate heat gain, Engelking placed automated thermally modified wood blinds on the exterior of the west facade. The blinds are usually lowered only during the afternoon, when the sun is strongest, although they sometimes come down at night too. Throughout, wood is the only expressed material. Its presence is felt everywhere—the vertical mullions, the exposed plank ceiling, the built-in surfaces in the kitchen and bedrooms—but subtly, just enough to lend that sense of warmth that Engelking’s in-laws wanted. Cozy and minimalist might not be words that often go together, but the house is both—especially when the eight kids, parents, and the grandparents all flock here during the summer months. It’s a big family for a relatively small building but, according to Engelking, they make it work. One bedroom, which he dubs the “party room,” has two sets of bunk beds and a convertible sofa, and the lounge space doubles as a sleeping area when the other rooms are

JEROME ENGELKING

occupied. Yet having everyone stay overnight at the same time is not the usual scenario, explains the architect, as people come and go; during the non-summer months, both his family and his sister-in-law’s use the house as a weekend getaway. It’s a tight fit regardless, but “my father-in-law is very informal—he wanted it to be festive,” he says. “For us, it’s like a camping ground.” n

credits ARCHITECT: Jerome Engelking ENGINEERS: Stutzki Engineering (structural); Fusion Systems (mechanical) SIZE: 2,500 square feet COMPLETION DATE: March 2018 SOURCES STRUCTURAL WOOD FRAME, GLAZING: IC2 Technologies GLUE-LAMINATED TIMBER: Art Massif EXTERIOR BLINDS: Skirpus SLIDING DOORS: Xinnix CUSTOM WOODWORK: Vitsoe SOLID SURFACING: Corian LIGHTING: Artemide (interior ambient); Luminii (LED strips); Litelab (tracklights); B-K

Lighting (facade) RADIANT HEAT FLOOR: Uponor

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES

PATH | Tokyo | ARTechnic architects

Upwardly Mobile Circulation takes the high road in a singular home, tucked into a tight urban site. BY NAOMI R. POLLOCK, FAIA

craggy mountain of a house, the appropriately named PATH, is as much a piece of the landscape as a place to live—except that it is located in central Tokyo and is made almost entirely of concrete. Belonging to a couple with three children, the structure was designed by ARTechnic architects, whose principal, Kotaro Ide, dreams of building amid big rocks and bold natural places. “But we never have that kind of site,” laments the Tokyo architect. Compensating for this deficit, Ide took the actual conditions, a 3,122-squarefoot plot surrounded by houses on three sides, and recast them as his ideal property. Oriented toward the street in front, PATH is a U-shaped structure with a courtyard and outcroppings of greenery in the middle. Essentially, it has no facade. “I am more interested in the internal space than the external appearance,” explains Ide. Though regarded as a three-story house, the floors of the two wings differ by a half-story. The resulting six levels are connected in the middle by stairs that switch back and forth like a hilly hiking trail. Starting at grade, one wing houses the garage and the other the main entrance, with a passageway linking the two in back. From the foyer, stairs ascend to the kitchen/dining and living areas on the second floor, above the garage. The third floor contains individual bedrooms for the children plus a communal study space, followed by bedrooms for each parent on the fourth floor, and the family bathroom—a trio of discrete spaces for a sink, water closet, shower, and bathtub—on the fifth. Topping the entire building is a roof BOTTOM TO TOP Bracketed by planters, gently rising steps lead up from the street to the front door (left). While solid concrete shields much of the interior from passersby, large, stragically placed windows admit light and views. A roof garden overlooks the courtyard (opposite). Clad with wood decking, it features a place for outdoor dining amid patches of greenery.

P H O T O G R A P H Y: Â© N AC A S A & PA R T N E R S I N C . (O P P O S I T E ) ; G E N I N O U E

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11 11 2

6 4

SECTION A - A

THIRD-FLOOR PLAN

10 FT. 3 M.

9 8

SECOND-FLOOR PLAN

3 M.

7 6 A

10 FT.

2 A

GROUND-FLOOR PLAN

10 FT. 3 M.

1 ENTRANCE

7 CLOSET

2 RAISED SEATING

8 KITCHEN/DINING AREA

3 GARAGE

9 LIVING ROOM

4 MECHANICAL ROOM

10 STUDY AREA

5 COURTYARD

11 BEDROOM

6 HALL

12 FAMILY BATHROOM

P H O T O G R A P H Y: Â© N AC A S A & PA R T N E R S I N C .

PATH

TOKYO

STEP BY STEP Concrete planters integrate with the architecture in the courtyard (opposite). They contain native Japanese plants and trees, which are nourished by an automatic irrigation system. At the entrance foyer (above), stairs ascend to the kitchen/dining and living areas on the second floor and descend to the garage.

terrace that can also be accessed by taking the elevator at the rear of the house. Except where partitions are needed for privacy, the interior is essentially a continuous multilevel corridor containing a chain of functional areas. To develop his design, Ide began with the volume instead of starting with the plan. His inspiration for this extremely complex shape was “columnar jointing,” a natural geological formation defined by faceted, pillarlike protrusions resulting from cooling lava. With that image in mind, he designed the building using parametric modeling, which enabled the concurrent manipulation of multiple variables, such as how the volume would step up as it moves back on the site, and the ratio of the building’s height to the width of the courtyard void. Once the basic form was decided, Ide carved out its interior and inserted the programmatic pieces, massaging the volumes to make everything fit comfortably without compromising the building’s overall proportions. Construction had its challenges. The building’s unusual shape re-

ARTECHNIC ARCHITECTS

quired more sophisticated analysis tools than is typical to calculate the load-bearing capacity of a single-family home. Consulting with two structural engineers, the architects determined that the concrete structure needed to be reinforced with numerous small beams, as well as copious amounts of rebar in the concrete itself. Forgoing the usual practice of positioning the reinforcing steel and then constructing the forms around it, the contractors used 2-D measurements taken directly from Ide’s 3-D model to build the complex wood molds first. “We had to provide more drawings than usual, but most of my work is like that,” laughs Ide. Due to the concrete slabs’ irregular geometry, locating formwork panel joints and rebar anchors in a balanced, visually pleasing pattern was nearly impossible. To conceal the irregularities, Ide applied a thin layer of mortar to the surfaces of the interior concrete walls, followed by a coat of semitransparent silicate-base paint. The concrete on the outside of the building is covered with foam insulation and finished with stucco. Walnut floors and custom cabinetry provide a warm contrast to the gray-hued concrete surfaces. Because of the quirky room shapes—there are only three right angles in the entire house—custom was the only option for most of the furniture. While the polygonal dining table

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echoes the angled walls nearby, the living area’s modular seating nestles cozily against the stepped wood floor and the concrete walls. Even the bed frames had to be designed to mediate between conventional rectangular mattresses and Ide’s unconventional architecture. Integrated with the fit-out and furnishings are ambient lighting and HVAC systems. These include strips of LED fixtures, lining the tops of cabinets as well as in coves tucked around the ceilings and air-handling ducts built into the floors. Even in Japan, a place that spawns some of the world’s most distinctive dwellings, homes of this complexity are uncommon. Most houses in this country last a mere 25 years—they wear out, the land changes hands, the owner wants something new. Yet there is a method to Ide’s seeming madness. As with any stony peak, PATH’s sharp edges will naturally soften over time: its surfaces will weather, and new growth is likely to overtake the current plantings. But beneath those superficial changes, Ide’s architecture is rock solid. According to the designer, “If an architect were to discover this concrete structure in the future, they would reuse it.” n

credits ARCHITECT: ARTechnic architects — Kotaro Ide,

principal; Bala Sivakumar, Ruri Mitsuyasu, Yukako Kitae, Takume Sugi, design team ENGINEERS: Naomi Kitayama and Hiroki Osanai

REAR WINDOWS On the second floor, the dining room segues into a living area, which contains seating that overlooks the courtyard (above). A custom platform bed and built-in storage in a child’s bedroom adapt to the architecture (right). Jutting into the courtyard, the living room’s glass enclosure makes one of the only right angles in the house (opposite).

(structural); TNA (mechanical); Makoto Electric Design (electrical) CONSULTANTS: Lysing (landscape design); Chizuki

Iizuka (lighting design) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Wada Construction SIZE: 4,260 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: September 2018 SOURCES EXTERIOR INSULATION AND FINISH SYSTEM:

Toho Leo ROOF: Handywood (regenerated-wood deck); Aqasoil (green roof system) WINDOWS: YKK AP HARDWARE: Miwa Lock; SECOM; West Hardware PAINT: KEIM; Ducale TILE: IOC CARPET: Karastan FURNISHINGS: Cassina LIGHTING: Daiko; Luci; Moriyama; Yamada ELEVATOR: Mitsubishi Hitachi Home Elevator PLUMBING: Hansgrohe; Cera: Toto; Kaldewei

P H O T O G R A P H Y: Â© N AC A S A & PA R T N E R S I N C . (O P P O S I T E , 2) ; H I R OYA S U S A K AG U C H I A T O Z

PATH TOKYO ARTECHNIC ARCHITECTS 93

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Bayhouse | Northeast U.S. | Studio Rick Joy

Style and Substance

A weekend place owes its calm presence to its highly crafted use of granite walls and slate roofs. BY PILAR VILADAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF GOLDBERG/ESTO

ince Rick Joy started his practice in Tucson, in 1993, he has been creating buildings that deftly balance modernist formal rigor with sensitivity to place. His houses have ranged from rammed-earth desert structures such as the Adobe Canyon house in Patagonia, Arizona (2005), to a Vermont farmhouse in Woodstock, a record house (April 2009), where the shingled roof and side walls contrast with the stone shear walls at each end—a striking yet seamless blend of contemporary form, rich materials, and local tradition. That approach is at the heart of his recent Bayhouse, a spacious single-story residence set on two acres of waterfront property in a small coastal town known for its picturesque charm. The clients, a mature couple, wanted a modern house, but the town favors traditional architecture for new buildings. “I knew that Rick would design something modern that would be a good neighbor,” the wife says. So Joy and his studio looked for cues in the historic houses of the Northeast, with their clapboard or shingled walls and pitched roofs that shed snow, but didn’t take them literally. Rather than use painted clapboard, for example, the architects clad the house in varying lengths of 4-inch-high, 5-inch-deep white granite, with flush vertical joints and

TAUT PLANES The granite-walled house, with an asymmetrical hipped slate roof, includes a “car porch” at the entrance (above). At the rear (opposite, bottom), the living and dining areas face the water. The detailing of the stone corners and recessed windows of the screened porch (left) deftly articulates the thick planar walls.

raked horizontal ones to evoke clapboard’s forms and rhythms. (The clients also wanted stone for its ability to insulate the house from the noise of summer boating activities.) The steeply pitched slate roof is another reference to the past, but its asymmetrical hipped form and exaggerated height are contemporary moves, Joy explains, that were ultimately based on “a desire to create daylit spaces for the living and kitchen/dining areas.” To achieve that, the architects created two light monitors with clerestory windows surrounded by a parapet at the top of the roof. These belvederes bring light into the lofty, open-plan public areas within. An inverted copper pyramid inside each monitor reflects daylight onto the pitched, 28-foot-high wood ceilings. Joy is not a fan of direct daylighting: “Don’t light up the architecture,” he says: “light up the life.” (Electrical lighting was designed by Claudia Kappl, Joy’s wife and associate, and a partner with her husband in Concept Lighting Lab.)

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8 5

GROUND-FLOOR PLAN

SECTION A - A

30 FT. 10 M.

15 FT. 5 M.

1 “CAR PORCH”

5 LIVING ROOM

2 ENTRANCE VESTIBULE

6 GALLERY

3 SCREENED PORCH

7 EXERCISE ROOM

4 KITCHEN/DINING

8 BEDROOM

BAYHOUSE

NORTHEAST U.S.

KAHN-LIKE MOVES The entrance to the house admits visitors into the vestibule (opposite) before they take a turn and enter the living area (above). Here the Douglas fir–clad interior, pyramidal skylight, and granite chimney bring to mind the vocabulary of Louis Kahn. The space is all the more dramatic because of the water view.

The granite chimney of the fireplace separates the living room on one side and the kitchen/dining area on the other, with both looking out to the calm waters of a bay. Adjacent to the kitchen at the west end of the house is an enclosed porch, while the east end contains three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. In contrast to the soaring spaces of the living and kitchen/dining areas, this wing, with its walls of troweled white plaster, has 9-foot ceilings. The bedrooms are laid out in a pinwheel plan around a central gallery, which displays works by contemporary photographers. This space offers a view through the living areas, while the corridors that branch off it look to the outdoors.

STUDIO RICK JOY

The house’s front facade was carved out to create what Joy calls a “car porch” at the entry, with a bronze railing, like a ballet barre, running along the wall to aid passengers who need a little help getting out of a car. That exterior alcove’s Spanish cedar wall, says project senior designer Matt Luck, “reveals the soft core” of the house, with its sustainably harvested Douglas fir–lined entry, living, and kitchen/dining areas. As dramatic as the house’s outlines and main interior spaces are, its details are what make the building “an exercise in refinement,” as Joy puts it. At the corners of the exterior, the ends of the flame-finished granite pieces are burnished and buffed, creating a subtle contrast of textures, while the top surfaces of the granite window sills slope toward their centers in a gentle V to help drain water. The asymmetrical angles of the roof became “a self-inflicted design challenge,” says Joy,

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with conventional courses of slates impossible. Instead, the architects created eight different shingle sizes and devised a set of patterning rules that produced a seemingly random effect. Combined with the slate’s natural color variations, the resulting surface is both subtle and complex. And then there is what can’t be seen: gutters hidden between the edges of the roof and walls, revealing themselves only when they span the stone walls (water drains into pipes that are concealed in the house’s corners) or the entirely invisible geothermal pumps that provide air-conditioning and heat for the radiant floors. The plantings, by Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture, are natural and informal, reflecting the desire of both the architect and clients that they fit into the beachfront setting. Though the house clearly stands out from its more conventional neighbors by virtue of its unusual roof and the precision of its materials and detail, the design “attempts to be a good citizen, identifying with the spirit of the place,” notes Joy, without trying to imitate them. Not only has he created an elegant but unpretentious house, he has met his own goal of making architecture that is “at once emotional, existential, and super-well crafted.” n Pilar Viladas, a former design editor at The New York Times, writes about design and architecture.

SPATIAL FLOW The architects connected the living room with the dining and kitchen area (above, left) by circulation paths on both the entrance and the water sides (opposite). A second pyramidal skylight dramatizes its interior. In the bedroom wing, a hall with Venetian plaster walls (above) frames the view of the bay.

credits ARCHITECT: Studio Rick Joy — Rick Joy

SOURCES

principal; Matt Luck, senior designer;

CEDAR SIDING: Alan McIlvain Company

Natalia Zieman, project manager; Bach

WHITE GRANITE: Granites of America

Tran and Oscar Lopez, team

COPPER BELVEDERES: Cedar Design

ENGINEERS: Silman (structural); Altieri

CEDAR-FRAME WINDOWS AND ENTRANCES; DOUGLAS FIR DOORS:

Sebor Wieber (m/e/p); Daniel Falasco Consulting Engineers (civil)

Duratherm

CONSULTANTS: Michael Boucher

STEEL-FRAME WINDOWS, COPPER CLERESTORIES: Hope’s Windows

Landscape Architecture (landscape);

SOLARBAN GLASS:

Concept Lighting Lab (lighting)

Vitro Architectural Glass

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Dowbuilt SIZE: 7,000 square feet

BIRD-PROTECTION GLASS: Arnold Glas PLASTER: USG Diamond LOCKSETS: Baldwin

COST: withheld

LIGHTING CONTROLS: Lutron

COMPLETION DATE: August 2018

TOILETS/BATHTUB: Duravit

BAYHOUSE

NORTHEAST U.S.

STUDIO RICK JOY

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Agahnia House | La Jolla, California | Sebastian Mariscal Studio

Hanging Gardens

Dense foliage and simple rectangular forms evoke an ancient wonder. BY SUZANNE STEPHENS PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAÚL RIVERA

wanted the architecture to be taken over by lush planting,” says Sebastian Mariscal (a Design Vanguard winner, record, December 2007) about the 7,400-square-foot house he designed in the hills of La Jolla, California. The location is a good choice for such botanical immersion. The picturesque town, near San Diego, edges the Pacific Ocean with bluffs and sandy beaches and is known for its sunny weather, not to mention the abundance of palm and eucalyptus trees. The effulgent vegetation enveloping this site owes much to Marcie Harris Landscape, a firm that consulted with Mariscal on several projects during his 13 years in San Diego before he moved his practice to Boston in 2012. The greenery lustily invades an assemblage of rectangular and square connected blue limestone–clad volumes stretched along the ridge of the half-acre property. At his Phoenix House near-

by, Mariscal had draped the exterior concrete board-form walls with vines (a record house, April 2014); in this case, the planting is even more prevalent, with jasmine pandorea cascading from the roof gardens, softening the gray-white stone walls. The fragrance emanating from these hanging plants makes you appreciate another aesthetic dimension. The front of the house hugs the street with an abundance of Brisbane box and Silversheen pittosporum, so you have to look carefully to spot the “humble” entrance, as Mariscal calls it. “Too many houses here are designed for curb appeal,” he says about La Jolla’s fanciful polyglot of residential styles. “But we didn’t want that.” Not surprisingly, Mariscal’s designs evoke the solidity of materials and massing, alternating with voids, of Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute several miles away, and even the stuccoed white planes of Irving Gill’s architecture in downtown La Jolla.

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LUXURIANT LANDSCAPE The entrance on the street (left) appears unassuming amid planting, which softens the clustered volumes clad in blue limestone. Light monitors (above) pop up among the roof’s dense flora.

While the house appears to be one-story high from the front, that perception shifts at the back, where the main level is expressed as a strong rectilinear bar, extending along the west elevation and edged by an expansive mahogany-and-cable balustrade. Another floor is tucked below it where the slope drops, with the entirety looking out on a verdant golf course—“a lawn we don’t have to mow,” says owner Kayvon Agahnia. Beyond it are views of the Pacific. The house sits high enough on the steep slope to command this vista, but other houses are perched even higher along the street’s vertiginous ascent. “That is why I wanted to create a fifth facade,” says Mariscal about the thickly overgrown roof gardens and terraces. “This is for the neighbors looking down from above.” The slightly meandering entry sequence brings you through a gate into an open court, where a mahogany gangplank bridges a koi pond to the vestibule and a small internal courtyard planted with slender China Doll

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

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SECTION A - A 7 6

2 5

3 M.

10 FT.

17 1

ENTRY POND

2 3 4 5

MAIN PLAN

15 FT. 5 M.

PAVILION-FLOOR PLAN

10 FT. 3 M.

GUEST ROOM

11 MASTER BEDROOM

16 GARAGE

VESTIBULE

GARDEN

12 MASTER BATH

17 COURTYARD

LIVING/DINING/KITCHEN

LAUNDRY

13 CLOSET

18 DECK

POWDER ROOM

PANTRY

14 STUDIO

19 RECREATION ROOM

BEDROOM

10 PLAYROOM

15 STORAGE

20 GYM

AGAHNIA HOUSE

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

THE LONG STRETCH While the house seems to be one level from the street, at the back, the drop in the slope (right) allows a lower level for recreational spaces to be tucked under the living and dining areas (above), where expanses of glass and open decks make the most of the west-facing view to a golf course and the Pacific Ocean.

trees. But this is only the setup for what is to come: just ahead, the living and dining area rises dramatically upward to a 15-foot-high mahogany ceiling and expands out to the drop-dead view of the golf course and the ocean to the west. Here a 50-foot-wide expanse of glass sliding walls is free of columns, owing to a steel beam spanning the length of the space in this hybrid wood-frame, cast-in-place concrete, and steel structure. The living and dining area, demarcated by meticulously detailed mahogany cabinetry and backed by a gridded wood screen, is behind you as the glass walls to the outdoor deck of Mangaris wood slide away, blurring any distinction between inside and out. “We often gather here, especially at sunset,” says Kayvon, who, along with his wife, Maite, was so enraptured by the natural panorama, they located their bedroom at the northern end of the deck. Bedrooms for the two children, now almost grown, occupy this wing as well, where the spaces are treated as clustered units, to break down the scale of the large residence. Two light monitors push up above the flat roof planes like periscopes to bring daylight into an internal corridor. Near the two monitors is a suite, facing east, with its own small patio, for Kayvon’s mother. Originally, it was reserved for the children as a playroom. “The design can evolve as the family evolves,” says Mariscal. A distinct but connected pavilion on the northwest corner is reserved as an art studio for Maite, an abstract painter and photographer. The 17-foot-high cubiform space also accommodates her office on a mezzanine. Outdoor steps from the studio lead down the west side to the floor tucked under the main level and bolstered by concrete retaining walls

SEBASTIAN MARISCAL STUDIO

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and caissons. Most of this floor is devoted to casual recreation space. “Our kids love to entertain here,” says Maite, “and I can have receptions for those coming to see my art.” In a gym on the south end, Kayvon, a triathlete, can work out. Despite having a narrower deck than the floor above, both spaces still partake of the ultimate in relaxation—the rolling landscape (with a few golf carts). On top of the residence are roof gardens, one with a wood deck and beach sand. While the weight of the soil for growing white yarrow and dwarf mat rush and other foliage required beefing up the wood joists, the payoff is greater than the combined visual and olfactory sensations. The gardens not only insulate the interior from the sun’s heat but absorb most of the rainwater runoff. In addition, photovoltaic panels on the studio and garage roofs provide 95 percent of the house’s electricity, adding to the sustainability efforts, along with natural ventilation, which the family often uses in lieu of air-conditioning. Kayvon is not only a client. He is also an investment partner in Mariscal’s practice for various development and design projects the studio is executing in Boston and Mexico (where the Mexican-born designer keeps a second office). When the client/partner is asked how well Mariscal adhered to the budget and schedule with the house, Agahnia deadpans, “When architects give you estimates on time and money, just multiply by three and you’ve got it.” Maite, who initially wasn’t sold on the idea of sandblasted concrete floors in the living/dining room, says, “I went along. I have a blind trust in Sebastian. He’s never arrogant, and he’s always calm, a therapist as well as architect.”

The clients are effusive about how the house turned out. “I wake up loving the house,” says Kayvon, “and I go to sleep loving the house.” Maite adds, “It is modern, organic, and timeless.” Mariscal gives credit for its success to the power of plants: “Luxuriant vegetation is always going to make architecture better,” he says. He has a point, but there are other elements that help considerably, such as his play of masses and voids and use of materials. And, of course, the view. n

credits ARCHITECT: Sebastian Mariscal Studio — Sebastian Mariscal, principal; Mauricio de la

Peña, project manager; Javier Gracia, construction supervisor ENGINEER: DCI Engineers (structural) CONSULTANT: Marcie Harris Landscape Architecture (landscape) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: RLP Development CLIENT: Kayvon and Maite Agahnia SIZE: 7,400 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: January 2018 SOURCES BLUE LIMESTONE: Gem International WOOD FRAME SLIDING DOORS: Mix Legno Group CHANDELIERS: Ligne Roset PV SYSTEM: Alternative Energy Application

AGAHNIA HOUSE

SITE SPECIFIC The living and dining areas open onto a wood deck (above). Sliding glass doors under an elongated steel beam create a column-free space 50 feet long. At the north end of the deck (right) is the master bedroom. A gridded wood screen (above) separates the public areas from the interior courtyard (opposite), which affords privacy to the guest bedroom behind it.

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

SEBASTIAN MARISCAL STUDIO

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Gallery House | Chicago | John Ronan Architects

To the Manor Reborn

A meticulously detailed new residence reinterprets a neighborhood’s architectural roots. BY LINDA C. LENTZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY ARMOUR

avenswood Manor, a gentrifying neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, is notable for its tree-lined streets and eclectic mix of early 20th-century and prewar singlefamily and multiunit dwellings, including many bungalows and foursquare houses. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is not an easy place to build a new residence. So when a local couple tore down their Craftsmanstyle stucco house (circa 1910) to build a new one, it was not without controversy. Yet, while some maintain the community “legacy” should have been saved, the substantial, pale brick house that replaced it,

designed by local architect John Ronan, speaks to its surroundings with a common materiality, geometry, and scale that is neither slavish nor disrespectful to the area’s typology. The homeowners—recent empty-nesters who had lived on the property since 1993 and raised their two children there—loved the neighborhood for its proximity to downtown and public transit, as well as the growing influx of young families, shops, and restaurants. But their existing 100-year-old residence was dark, carved up, and problematic; it had also been rehabbed four times over the years. They ultimately chose to demolish it when they couldn’t find a similar loca-

107

SECOND HOME Sitting squarely on its site, John Ronan’s house for a Chicago couple features elements that resonate with the neighborhood’s typology, such as the deep front porch and masonry structure (opposite). A rear view reveals the building’s unique massing of three volumes connected by glazed interstitial spaces.

tion to build a new house that would better suit them. “Additionally,” says the husband, “we have a 50-foot-wide lot, which means we’re land barons, in Chicago terms.” Ronan, known for such thoughtful urban and institutional works as the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship (record, November 2018) and the Poetry Foundation in Chicago (record, November 2011), was also attracted to the expansive 6,250-square-foot site, not least for the opportunities it would provide to bring sunlight into a building. The couple wanted a light-filled home to showcase a collection of vintage black-and-white photographs the husband, a commercial photographer, has been accumulating. In addition to that, their brief to the architect simply stipulated a brick house with a great kitchen. “We didn’t want to put any constraints on anything, except for those three things,” says the wife, who works in investment management, often from home. “We wanted him to push us to make a great house.” In keeping with the language and density of the neighborhood, the 5,600-square-foot, two-story residence fills the site comfortably without overcrowding it. Like many of the surrounding properties, the house is made of brick, has a basement and deep front-entry porch, and is flanked by small but gracious front and back yards with a separate brick garage facing an alley behind it. This is largely where the simi-

larities fade, however. The clients, who like to entertain, were never satisfied with the spatial constraints and poor flow of their old house. At the same time, they didn’t really want an open plan for the new one. Ronan responded with a unique hybrid, creating a house that comprises three distinct volumes, each a skylit, load-bearing masonry structure that defines a particular set of flexible programs. The first volume spans the front of the house on its north side and contains a library/ dining room on the first floor, with two bedrooms for visiting children or guests and shared bath above; directly behind it, to the southeast, the largest structure houses a spacious kitchen/family room, topped by the second-floor master suite; and, to the southwest, a slender, singlestory volume serves as the family’s mudroom and laundry wing. These are massed around wide, double-height interstitial spaces enclosed by each structure’s walls and insulated channel glass. The resulting interior is welcoming, luminous, and surprising, warmed throughout by hydronic radiant-floor heat and permeated by a gentle, diffuse daylight, friendly to both photographs and people. Generous doorways between spaces connect them visually and enhance circulation. Ronan paid particular attention to the in-between places, making them as important and useful as larger rooms. An 8-foot-wide foyer, for instance, is more gallery than corridor, and can also double as a dining area. Five-and-one-half-foot-wide stairways that

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lead up to the second floor and down to a 2,150-square-foot basement (housing a home office, guest suite, and mechanicals) are commodious enough for moving things around the house, when necessary, or sitting down for a chat—as in the roomy landing on the upper level, where an adjacent bridge to the bedrooms overlooks the voluminous entrance. “This house is all about proportion and materials,” says Ronan. “We wanted a reduced and neutral palette as a backdrop for the photography collection.” This decision led to the selection of textured champagne-hued brick from Iowa, white oak for custom millwork (sourced from a single tree), and floor planks made from the same species for the kitchen and library floors, stairs, and upper landing. Flinty Vermont-slate tile marries outdoor and indoor spaces as pav-

8 13

SECTION A - A

10 FT. 3 M.

1 2

11 6

SECOND-LEVEL PLAN

PHOTO OPS A second-floor bridge overlooks the foyer (above). The north-facing library/gallery (opposite, top and bottom) has a large, fixed window with discreet shades to control daylight; small operable windows transfer east–west breezes. A Carl Hansen desk morphs into a dining table for entertaining (opposite, top). A modular photo-hanging system by Ronan allows the owner to easily rearrange the wall display.

credits 8

GROUND-LEVEL PLAN

10 FT. 3 M.

ARCHITECT: John Ronan Architects

SOURCE

— John Ronan, principal, lead designer; Sam Park, Andrew Akins, Brett Gustafson, Laura Gomez Hernandez, project team

MASONRY: Sioux City Brick

ENGINEERS: Stearn-Joglekar

DOORS: Fleetwood (entrance)

(structural); AA Service (mechanical)

HARDWARE: FSB; DORMA

GLAZING: Pilkington (windows); Bendheim

(channel glass) STEEL FRAMES: Hope’s Windows

1 ENTRY PORCH

8 GARAGE

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:

MILLWORK: KWI Cabinetry

2 FOYER

9 HALL

Fraser Construction

SLATE: Vermont Structural Slate

3 LIBRARY/DINING ROOM

10 BEDROOM

SIZE: 5,600 square feet

LIGHTING: Flos; Louis Poulsen; Luminii; Kichler;

4 POWDER ROOM

11 BATHROOM

COST: $3.7 million

5 KITCHEN/FAMILY ROOM

12 MASTER SUITE

COMPLETION DATE: March 2018

6 MUDROOM/LAUNDRY

13 MECHANICAL ROOM

PLUMBING: Vola; Kohler; Toto; Franke; Duravit;

7 BASEMENT STAIRS

14 BAR

D-Line

Kalmar; Focal Point; Begaa CONTROLS: Lutron RADIANT FLOOR HEATING: Warmboard

GALLERY HOUSE

CHICAGO

JOHN RONAN ARCHITECTS

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POINTS OF VIEWS The kitchen/family room (top, left) provides gathering spaces, with its large marble island and brick fireplace (top, right). Operable windows above the beds in the children’s bedrooms (above) transfer breezes. One of the husband’s favorite places, the generous 5½-foot-wide back staircase (opposite) and upper landing encourages hanging out. Deep apertures in the brick wall frame snapshot views into adjacent areas.

ing for the path from the street, front and back entrance halls, and backyard. Ronan’s attention to detail and craft is apparent in all aspects of the project, from the random bond pattern of the unique 24-by-4-by-15 ⁄16-inch brick to the deep-set steel windows, solid white oak front door, and the home’s bronze handrails and curving zinc fence (which matches the coping used around the house and garage). He even collaborated with the husband to devise a clever modular photo-hanging system for the library wall panels. Whenever possible, the scheme affords opportunities for natural light and ventilation. Apertures in the thick brick wall along the back stair and operable windows in every room frame views and transfer breezes, while a pierced, screenlike section in the masonry facade filters light and air into and from the porch. In the evening, a warm glow radiates through the porous wall and down the stairs, a gentle complement to the lanternlike effect of the building’s translucent glass. According to the clients, they occupy every part of the house—especially the kitchen/family room, where there is a well-used fireplace and a 6-by-7foot marble island that they typically dine at or gather around with friends and family. They love the home’s functionality and its generosity of space and light. “And,” says the husband, “it’s no bigger than our old house.” At 3,426 square feet above grade, the new building’s street presence remains within the limits of its predecessor, which was 3,500 square feet. “In terms of scale, the house fits in with everything in the neighborhood,” says Ronan, “but it’s a house of its own time.” n

GALLERY HOUSE

CHICAGO

JOHN RONAN ARCHITECTS

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Riverbend Residence | Jackson, Wyoming | Carney Logan Burke Architects

Into the Wild

At the edge of Grand Teton National Park, a house takes the viewing platform to a new level. BY BETH BROOME PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW MILLMAN

prawling between the Teton and Gros Ventre mountain ranges in Wyoming, the valley of Jackson Hole is “America the Beautiful” made manifest, with its majestic peaks, winding rivers, and big skies. Home to an abundance of wildlife, from bison to bald eagles, the area is also a major destination for outdoor enthusiasts and thrill seekers, especially with its proximity to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. So there’s some irony to the architectural vocabulary that has taken hold here as tourism has flourished and, increasingly, moneyed secondhome owners have flowed in. Epitomized by log-cabin-style homes, with their outsize stone fireplaces and antler chandeliers, the typology, while hoping to capture the western pioneering spirit, is one that tends to look inward. Bucking this trend, the Riverbend Residence, by local architects Carney Logan Burke (CLB), takes full advantage of its awe-

inspiring surroundings, with strong connections to the world beyond its walls. Built as a retreat for a Berkeley couple, their two teenage children, and their extended family and friends, the 6,250-square-foot house could hardly be simpler in concept. A concrete-and-steel, bar-shaped structure with a steel plate skin, it is surrounded by broad decks with 10-foot overhangs that form outdoor, cedar-lined rooms. The long, slender form, running east to west, addresses a common dilemma in the valley, notes principal Kevin Burke. “All the lots are south of the Tetons, so we are constantly hung up with this quandary of getting the FULL METAL JACKET The house is wrapped in hot-rolled steel plate with a wax coating that will weather slowly in the dry climate; the skin is most apparent on the short, opaque west elevation (opposite). The county limits glass usage, so the team strategized carefully, placing extensive glazing in the living area for views through the house, across cedar-lined decks and, from the north (above), out to the Teton Range.

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19 7 9

6 20

UPPER-LEVEL PLAN

20 FT.

SECTION A - A

6 M.

1 ENTRY 2 LIVING 3 DINING 4 KITCHEN 5 PANTRY 8

5 6

6 BAR

7 LOUNGE

8 MASTER BEDROOM

9 MASTER BATH 10 GUEST SUITE 11 MUDROOM 12 LAUNDRY 13 GARAGE 14 OUTDOOR KITCHEN 15 SPA 16 OUTDOOR LIVING 17 MEDIA ROOM 18 BEDROOM 19 BUNKROOM 20 CRAWL SPACE

COMPOUND PLAN

30 FT. 10 M.

2 1

20 FT. 6 M.

views to the north yet also emphasizing the south exposure to stay warm in this crazy environment.” Abundant glazing and the decks link interiors to the outdoors: a minimally landscaped and planked terrace, demarcated by the perpendicularly sited guesthouse and woods to the south, and, to the north, the Snake River and the panorama of the Teton Range gloriously splayed across the horizon. The husband, who grew up in Berkeley, spent much of his childhood hiking and climbing in Jackson Hole. Still in love with the area, he and his wife purchased a house there about 10 years ago—a 1970s log cabin with low ceilings and small punched windows—within a bucolic subdivision north of Jackson named Solitude. Though she was enamored of the valley, the wife, who was raised in California’s Mojave Desert, had an adverse reaction to the house. “My soul needs light, sky, expansive views,” she says. “I had a physical response to this house in the woods, bogged down by timber. I would shut down.” So, when a nearby 17-acre lot came on the

RIVERBEND RESIDENCE

JACKSON, WYOMING

CARNEY LOGAN BURKE ARCHITECTS

GREAT OUTDOORS A 1,000-square-foot guesthouse is connected to the main residence (opposite) by a large wood platform among Aspen trees. Broad decks surrounding the house form outside rooms for cooking, eating, and relaxing.

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HIGH STANDARDS The Tetons are visible through floor-to-ceiling glazing in the living area (opposite) and kitchen (left). The range hood is made of stainless steel. “Hoods become an exercise,” says CLB associate Jennifer Mei. “They’re critical, but no one wants to look at them.” The adjacent dining area looks south (bottom).

market, she jumped at the opportunity, convincing her husband to try something new with this exceptional site, which sits in a cottonwood-dotted riparian landscape at a bend in the Snake River, the only major feature lying between it and Grand Teton National Park. With a desire to work locally as much as possible, the couple turned to CLB. The two gave the design team a lot of creative license. “Their list of requirements was pretty short,” says principal Eric Logan, “beyond the programmatic demands and an emphasis on treading lightly on the land” (a prerequisite given that much of the couple’s philanthropic work focuses on environmental causes). “She wanted something modern that reflected her values. He just wanted some warmth.” And, of course, there was the underlying assumption that they were here to experience the wilderness. When the team initially visited the site with the clients, they mounted the viewing platform they had erected and took in the vista over the levee that runs along the river. It was suddenly obvious what they needed to do, say the architects. “Really, the house just had to replicate that experience,” says Logan. “Essentially, we needed to do a remodel of the platform.” To achieve the same vantage point, the team raised the main part of the house 5 feet (excavation spoils were used to elevate the south yard, and topsoil, which had been scraped, was later repurposed). You enter at grade and ascend a short run of stairs into the living area to the west, with its 16-foot ceilings, and the master suite beyond. Another short run of stairs scissors up to the more compressed family room and the kids’ bedrooms to the east, which are stacked atop a guest suite and the garage, contained within a board-formed concrete envelope, below. It’s like a split-level on steroids. Steel columns in the double-height living area are left exposed along the glass perimeter. All glazing is triplepaned and, in combination with a super-insulated envelope, geothermal system, and radiant flooring, make for efficient operation. Bookending the living area are two board-formed concrete walls that, at one end, delineate the boundary of the kitchen and, at the other, hold a large fireplace. Because the house sits on the Teton Fault, these elements also function as shear walls, resisting seismic forces. The team crafted the formwork of charred wood boards, which left a sympathetic earthtoned hue across the concrete expanses. The boardformed walls extend outside, as do other elements: the cedar ceiling transitions into the exterior cladding; the concrete floors, with a subtle rose-colored tint and inflections of green glass, flows outside in places in an unpolished state. Though, on paper, the building blocks—concrete, steel, glass—are tough, the sensitive application here, in combination with the wood, has resulted in gracious, inviting interiors, quelling the husband’s initial concern that a modern design would project a hotel-like iciness. On a recent afternoon, re-

RIVERBEND RESIDENCE

JACKSON, WYOMING

CARNEY LOGAN BURKE ARCHITECTS

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INSIDE OUT All the private spaces, including the master bedroom (left) and a bunk room (bottom) link to the exterior. From the master suite, cedar plank flows to the deck, blurring the line between inside and out. Floors and millwork in the kids’ wing are of beechwood.

cord-breaking snow (which necessitated cross-country skis for circumnavigating the exterior of the house) continued to fall, shrouding the landscape in white, the ground plane morphing into the sky. As the sun set, the backdrop shifted to a brilliant periwinkle. Inside the living room, looking out through floor-to-ceiling windows to the north and south, a sense of freedom pervaded—that feeling the wife had been looking for—along with the warm embrace you want in a home. In a valley rife with the trappings of National Park–inspired design, the architects are happy to bring clients along as they depart from these memes, imbuing their work with their own interpretations of what the West has to offer. “There’s a lot of wonderful stuff we see, driving around the landscape of Wyoming, like rusty pickups, ag ranch buildings, snow fences,” says Logan. “They are unpretentious, matter-of-fact moments that somehow feel appropriate to me.” With the Riverbend Residence, the team has effectively captured this spirit with a straightforward formal solution and restrained use of materials. “It’s just a dumb box, after all,” says Logan, “rendered in a palette intended to weather and blend with the environs over time.” n

credits ARCHITECT: Carney Logan Burke Architects — Eric

Logan, Kevin Burke, Jennifer Mei, Bryan James, Leo Naegele, Libby Erker ENGINEERS: KL&A (structural); JM Engineers

(mechanical); Nelson Engineering (civil); Jorgensen Geotechnical; Helius Lighting Group GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Peak Builders SIZE: 6,250 square feet (main house); 1,000 square feet

(guest house) COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: October 2018 SOURCES CURTAIN WALL: Grabill SKYLIGHTS: Aladin Skylights CUSTOM MILLWORK: Poliform, Western Woodworks,

Brandner Design, Willow Creek Woodworks PAINTS & STAINS: Sherwin-Williams SOLID SURFACING: Caesarstone, SculptureStone,

Corian PLUMBING: Franke, Dornbracht, Rohl, Vola, Victoria +

Albert, Waterworks FURNISHINGS: Kartell, Knoll, Herman Miller, Gandia

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Face Value

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BNIM’s Block D in San Diego has features that help maintain comfortable interior conditions for the majority of occupied hours, without use of the mechanical climate-control systems, including sliding red sunshades and overhanging floor slabs.

Architects refine the art and science of facade design.

By Michael Cockram Like the Layers of atmosphere that protect our planet from the extreme temperatures and radiation from space, facades provide buildings with the filters and shields that make them habitable for living, play, and work. “The facade is the interface between humans and nature. Our job is to elevate that relationship as much as possible,” says Steve McDowell, principal at Kansas City–based BNIM. One could argue that this has been true as long as there has been shelter and architects. But now sustainability-minded firms like McDowell’s are demonstrating ways to enhance this experience while exploring new tools and approaches to fine-tune energy efficiency and user comfort. When BNIM began discussing the design of the 60,000-square-foot Block D office building in Makers Quarter, a new urban district in downtown San Diego, the clients hadn’t been considering a high-performance building. But the firm, which has a history of energy-efficient design that dates to the 1970s, convinced them that such a structure would demonstrate environmental stewardship, provide long-term utility savings, and help attract tenants. Its unusual skin, which includes bright red sliding screens, along with other elements for harvesting daylight and controlling heat gain, is a key aspect of

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Solar chimneys (left, visible at far left) in a maintenance complex at Palomar Community College are key elements in the passive operations of its non-office portion. A rooftop armature (visible near left) will support a planned 220 kW PV array, which should make the complex net positive.

the building’s efficiency. It is designed to consume 41.6 percent less energy than a building that complies with the ASHRAE 90.1 standard. Block D’s 174 kW rooftop photovoltaic (PV) array is expected to make it a net zero building (one that produces as much energy, from renewable sources, as it consumes over the course of a year). Site constraints dictated that the six-story concrete-framed structure, which opened last year, be elongate on the north–south axis, with its front, mostly glass facade facing west, toward the harsh afternoon sun—a less than ideal solar orientation. To mitigate the effects of glare, the architects devoted the areas on each office floor directly behind the skin to circulation rather than workspace, creating a buffer zone. They provided additional protection by extending the slabs beyond the glazing, with balconies that double as shading devices. But since overhangs do not shade once the sun sinks low, the team also devised the red perforated metal panels that can be manually

reconfigured by the occupants to shade critical areas. For the remaining third of the main facade, the glazing is pushed out to the slab edge, with venetian-type exterior blinds suspended from above on each level. Such shading elements have the advantage of controlling glare and, unlike interior blinds, blocking heat gain. A weather station on the roof controls the blinds as solar conditions change, and retracts them in high winds to avoid damage. These blinds were almost value engineered out of the project when the contractor raised concerns about the $250,000 price tag. But the architects and engineers crunched the numbers and showed that cutting the blinds would add $400,000 in initial costs to the efficient, but mostly conventional, variable refrigerant flow (VRF) HVAC system. As realized, Block D should only need to rely on this mechanical climate-control system for about 40 percent of the year, says BNIM principal Matthew Porreca. For the majority of

occupied hours, the building is expected to be able to capitalize on the mild coastal–Southern California climate. To make the most of these conditions, the east and west facades include glazed garage-type doors that can open to permit cross ventilation. If wind speeds become too high, occupants can temper airflow by positioning the sliding sunshades in front of the doors. These openings also facilitate “night purge” by allowing the cool night air in, so that it can “flush” the heat stored in the concrete structure’s thermal mass. Several similar strategies were used in BNIM’s design for another Southern California project—a maintenance and operations complex at Palomar Community College, in San Marcos, completed in 2018 and designed to achieve net positive energy (producing, from renewable sources, more energy than is consumed over the course of a year). The L-shaped, one-story complex consists of a larger maintenance volume and an office block, connected by a courtyard that is to be shaded by a 220 kW photovoltaic canopy system. The solar array, slated for installation next August, is designed to supply 105 percent of the complex’s power needs. The program makes the project ideal for this aggressive energy goal, since two-thirds of the 28,000-square-foot complex are devoted to the maintenance spaces, which have a wider temperature range than is acceptable in an office environment. This portion of the complex could therefore be heated and cooled with passive means alone. (As with Block D, the office portion has a VRF system.) The maintenance volume’s natural ventilation scheme includes windows that open automatically at optimal times. And just behind its south-facing skin, solar chimneys with a glazed area extend above the facade. In warm months, vents at the top of these shafts are opened to induce the “stack ef-

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PALOMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE — HEATING MODE

SKYLIGHT

LOUVERS

OVERHEAD

SOLAR CHIMNEY

OPERABLE WINDOWS

GARAGE DOORS 3

PALOMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE — COOLING MODE

I M AG E S : © B N I M | N I C K M E R R I C K © H A L L+ M E R R I C K 2 0 1 9 ( T O P ) ; C O U R T E S Y B N I M ( B O T T O M 2)

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

HIGH-PERFORMANCE FACADES

4 5

2 3

AMHERST COLLEGE–COOLING STRATEGIES

1 ATRIUM

4 INTERIOR SHADES

2 RADIANT FLOOR

5 SOLAR CHIMNEY

3 DISPLACEMENT

6 RADIANT PANELS

VENTILATION

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fect,” allowing hot air to move upward toward cooler air and then be discharged. In winter, the chimneys’ vents are closed to collect heat, which is then distributed throughout the interior with fans. The designers opted for a tilt-up wall system, with the surfaces of the concrete

elements largely exposed on the interior to store thermal energy and take advantage of night-flush ventilation, as they did at Block D. They specified a vapor barrier on the exterior of the concrete wall, then 4 inches of mineral wool insulation board, which is water resistant. Between the terra-cotta plank-finished wall material and the insulation, there is a 1-inch air gap—screened and vented at the top and bottom of the wall—a typical detail in rainscreen systems. The gap serves two purposes: it helps the materials to dry out when moisture penetrates the skin of the building, and it allows convection to move warm air out of the cavity, reducing the amount of heat gain passing through the envelope. The assembly creates a “perfect wall,” a term coined by building scientist Joseph Lstiburek. It refers to the placement of the insulation and the control layers (for moisture, vapor, and air) outboard of the frame, in order to keep moisture out of the building and prevent thermal bridging (the movement of heat across an object that is more conductive than the surrounding materials and is a major source of heat loss in buildings). Any high-performance facade design requires architects to do their homework, but the Boston-based firm Payette is raising the bar on in-house investigation with its buildingscience department: the four-person group collaborates with design teams on all the firm’s projects but devote about half their time to speculative research, not—according to Andrea Love, director of the department—

directly related to current projects but potentially paying off for the firm in the future. For instance, the building-science group created a tool to quantify the effects of glazing geometry and U-value (a measure of thermal performance) on occupant comfort and in reducing HVAC costs. The software, available free on the firm’s website, subsequently helped Payette determine that it could eliminate perimeter heating on its Amherst College Science Center, completed in 2018. The 230,000-square-foot, three-story building sits at the eastern edge of the main campus in western Massachusetts, which is stretched north and south because of the configuration of the site. To connect the building to the campus, the scheme includes a highly transparent west facade enclosing a three-story atrium. Blocks of labs and classrooms, which the architects call “pavilions,” plug into the atrium. The atrium’s curtain wall is suspended from the cantilevered steel roof structure, allowing minimal mullions. To control the western sun, the architects specified internal roll-down shades that deploy automatically in four horizontal bands as the sun angle changes. In addition to avoiding glare, the setup also allows heat to be captured between the blinds and the glazing that is then vented via roof monitors to the exterior. The Science Center is projected to have an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) 76 percent below that of a baseline building (EUI is a means of

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Glazing selection was critical for a west-facing multistory atrium at a new Amherst College science building (opposite and right). The Payette project team evaluated various options for energy efficiency and transparency with multiple digital tools.

comparing energy use among buildings and is calculated by dividing annual energy use by square footage). To select glass that would help deliver this performance, the design team compared the available types of triple-glazed windows for optimal energy efficiency, shading, and transparency. In consultation with the mechanical engineers, the architects found that reducing the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC)—which is typically controlled with low-E coatings—from 0.35 to 0.28 would achieve a 22 percent cut in peak cooling load. The reduction allowed the elimination of one air handler at a substantial savings. Once the designers established these performance targets, they input data from different manufacturers into the thermal-performance software WINDOW and also ran it through the daylight- and glare-simulation program Radiance (both are open-source tools developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). The results of the digital analysis, along with physical mock-ups, aided the architects in selecting a glazing system with the desired aesthetics and transparency. The Science Center’s lab and classroom blocks are mostly clad with a perforated weathering-steel rainscreen system that includes stainless-steel connectors tying the panels to the structure. The project team arrived at this solution using imaging software to study various wall assemblies, to determine which produced the least thermal bridging. The results showed that stainless attachments would be one-third less conductive than typical steel. Analytical and digital tools were also central to the design process for SmithGroup’s headquarters for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, recently completed on a wedge of land between the Anacostia River and an existing D.C. Water pump house. In developing the six-story, 150,000-squarefoot office building, designers first had to contend with an array of view sheds, setbacks (two-thirds of Washington’s wastewater flows beneath the site in a complex web of critical infrastructure), and programmatic challenges such as the requirement that the new facility integrate the historic pump house without having a negative effect on the operations or integrity of the older structure. The new, sinuous office building stretches the undulating south facade to face the river. Integrated into the north side of the building, a 200-footlong truss spans over the old pump house.

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE FACADES

inner layer to reduce heat gain while maintaining the views to the river. In addition to the high-performance facade, the headquarters building includes such innovative technologies as a heating and cooling system that takes advantage of the wastewater flowing beneath the site. It depends upon a closed-loop heat exchanger and helps the design achieve a 45 percent energy-use reduction compared to a benchmark building complying with ASHRAE 90.1. With these features and others, including a rainwatercollection system with two 20,000-gallon cisterns, the project team is targeting LEED Platinum. SmithGroup’s impressive results for D.C. Water, and those of BNIM and Payette in Southern California and western Massachusetts, show that it is still possible to push the envelope on high-performance facade design. Old-school experience, deep research, and evolving design tools are not only making buildings more comfortable for their occupants but, by conserving resources, are improving the environment for all of us. n Michael Cockram is a freelance writer and director of Bowerbird Design in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The largely glass facade of the new headquarters building for Washington, D.C.’s water utility includes “sunglasses” to reduce heat gain while maintaining views. These consist of an exterior layer of suspended tinted glass that sits outboard of the windows by 3 feet.

The designers used parametric design tools to help shape the curvilinear skin, which was faceted into 4-foot-wide by 14-foothigh flat panels, primarily of glass. Adding to the complexity of the form, each successive floor of the south facade steps out 2 feet to create sunshades for the level below. SmithGroup drew on the expertise of its team of in-house specialists, referred to as a Technology in Practice (TIP) group, to help design many of the facade elements. For example, the TIP assisted in defining the ideal overhang for shading and determining the potential for glare and heat gain. Using a variety of open-source software tools, the architects and the specialists designed a system of automated interior blinds programmed to maximize beneficial light and reduce negative effects. The team digitally mapped areas of the south facade where transparency was important but heat gain was problematic. For these locations, the designers created an exterior layer of suspended tinted glass panels that function as “sunglasses” for the building, says SmithGroup principal Sven Shockey. Fastened to the overhang above, the laminated green glass is 3 feet from the face of the window and incorporates the tinted

NET SOLAR GAIN WITH “SUNGLASSES” AND METAL PANELS

Continuing Education To earn one AIA learning unit (LU), including one hour of health, safety, and welfare (HSW) credit, read “Face Value,” review the supplemental material found at architecturalrecord.com, and complete the quiz at continuingeducation .bnpmedia.com or by using the Architectural Record CE Center app available in the iTunes Store. Upon passing the test, you will receive a certificate of completion, and your credit will be automatically reported to the AIA. Additional information regarding credit-reporting and continuing-education requirements can be found at continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com.

Learning Objectives 1 Discuss glare-control and daylight-harvesting strategies for sites that dictate a less-thanoptimal solar orientation. 2 Describe digital tools useful in facade design, including those for understanding thermal performance and for daylight simulation. 3 Describe the components in a “perfect wall” system and explain how these are typically assembled.

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Courses may qualify for learning hours through most Canadian provincial architectural associations.

BUILDING ENVELOPE DESIGN

INTERIORS

LIFE SAFETY & CODES

PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS

RENOVATION AND RESTORATION

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EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT Providing excellent thermal and moisture protection for buildings, particularly in those that incorporate creative forms, requires the use of high-performance products that are properly designed into and installed as part of building envelopes.

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High-Performance Thermal and Moisture Protection Strategies Some advanced products are available to help create better buildings Sponsored by Inpro, Kingspan Insulation LLC, and TAMLYN | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP

he design of building enclosures continues to receive a great deal of attention by numerous design professions, building scientists, and product manufacturers. Some are motivated by meeting minimum building and energy codes in the most cost-effective manner. Others are seeking performance beyond code minimums to meet voluntary certification or rating programs, or simply to improve building performance over time. Some focus on thermal control in walls, roofs, and floors, while others are concerned with air and water barriers to protect the building and people. Still others look at the details of construction and how to incorporate appropriate continuity of barriers across some of those detail areas. The result of all of this attention has been an ongoing need for architects to stay abreast of advancements and improvements in this arena to keep up with the best options and assembly configurations for buildings under design or renovation. This includes being aware of some of the latest products and how they are intended to be used in order to create successful results. Based on all of the above, this course will examine some of the advanced, high-performance options for effective thermal and moisture control in building enclosures.

It will also highlight why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that manufacturer guidelines and best practices for installation are followed. DRAINABLE BARRIERS

The use of water-resistant barriers (WRBs) and air barriers (ABs), particularly in exterior walls, is not only required by codes but also critical to good performance of a building enclosure. The codes donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dictate how to achieve these barriers, they simply provide the criteria for materials to qualify as either one and require them to be continuous. At the same time, the established best practice is to be sure that water or moisture can safely drain away from an assembly if it does penetrate. In exterior walls, the most common way this is achieved is to create a space or gap between the outermost cladding (i.e., siding, masonry, rainscreen panels, etc.) and the WRB surface (i.e., sheathing covered or treated with a water-resistant material). Also quite commonly, the WRB surface contains an air barrier against unwanted exterior air infiltration. Hence, the gap separates the cladding from these barriers and allows the assembly to be considered drainable if it does become wet for any reason. If the barriers also

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Learning Objectives After reading this article, you should be able to: 1. Understand the significance of creating water-resistive and air barriers that also provide a needed air gap for drainage and drying of wall systems. 2. Assess the performance aspects of different types of advanced insulation products that create higher R-values in thinner assemblies. 3. Explain the importance of proper detailing and specification writing at areas that interrupt thermal and moisture barriers, including expansion joints. 4. Determine ways to incorporate principles presented into buildings as shown in case studies and best practices. To receive AIA credit, you are required to read the entire article and pass the test. Go to ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text and to take the test for free. AIA COURSE #K1904D

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This innovative product effectively eliminates excess moisture and mitigates the damaging effects of mold and rot. Its unique, PATENTED DESIGN REMOVES AT LEAST 100 TIMES MORE BULK WATER FROM A WALL VERSUS STANDARD HOUSEWRAPS. This is achieved through the gap created by 1.5 mm spacers bonded to a high-performance housewrap that meets all drainage requirements of drainability. drainabilit

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Building wraps are widely used in residential and commercial construction because they provide an economical means to add a WRB and AB over a sheathed exterior wall. Advanced products provide greater performance and add the capability of providing drainage and drying in a wall assembly.

allow for vapor to pass from inside to outside while still resisting bulk water and air on the outside, it is considered dryable as well. It has been noted that traditional construction techniques such as masonry walls manage water and moisture by using a space or gap between the sheathing layer and the masonry veneer (cladding) to allow any accumulated water to exit through weep holes. Similarly, rainscreen installations use a gap between the cladding and the sheathing to allow water to drain away harmlessly and ventilate the space between the cladding and the sheathing that is covered with a WRB/AB. In any wall construction, failure of water to drain away can damage the cladding, or worse, the rest of the wall assembly. Thermally, there is also the increasing use of continuous insulation between the cladding and sheathing. This creates another set of surfaces that may require a gap for drainage and drying in case moisture or water find their way between the insulation and sheathing. Fortunately, the gap does not need to be very large (less than ¼ inch works) so there is little impact on the thermal properties of the insulation. One of the challenges then in designing an exterior wall assembly can be in finding a way to simply and economically provide all of the needed barriers and gaps in the right places. When it comes to providing a WRB, a high-performance, nonwoven building wrap made from a synthetic sheeting material is often selected. The advantages of a modern synthetic wrap product over traditional products (such as building paper) include a WRB that is more durable, and more easily sealed along the seams to create a continuous barrier over a variety of materials or different configurations. Further, if the synthetic WRB is tested for air infiltration, then it can also double as a continuous exterior air barrier meeting the code requirements for both WRB and AB in a single layer. When a high-performance building wrap is used as the WRB in a project, it takes advantage of several innovative advances in its development. First, as an engineered product, it creates a weather barrier behind exterior cladding to protect the sheathing and reduce water intrusion into the wall cavities. This is important in all wall

systems since all cladding will likely allow some degree of water intrusion at some point. It is also particularly important in rainscreen assemblies where water is expected to enter behind a cladding material and is allowed to drain away. Second, as a vapor-permeable or breathable product, WRBs allow water or moisture trapped behind it to escape, thus allowing any damp or wet materials to dry in a relatively short amount of time. During this drying, WRBs maintain their water resistance because they are constructed with pores that are large enough to allow moisture as a vapor to pass through but too small for water as a liquid to pass. Third, as an air barrier, a WRB will be an energy-efficient means to stop air infiltration and exfiltration through walls. A significant innovation in such highperformance building wraps has been the addition of integral spacers to very effectively create a manufactured drainage gap between the cladding and the wrap. The conventional means to create a gap in a framed wall system is to use furring channels or wood strips. This works, of course, but requires more labor, time, and cost to install that furring. The alternative that has become recognized as a best-practice solution is to use a drainable building wrap that provides its own integrated method of drainage. Specifically, at least one manufacturer creates this gap by bonding noncompressible propylene spacers that are1.5 mm thick (less than 1/16 inch) onto a high-performance WRB building wrap. Photo courtesy of TAMLYN

Drainable building wrap includes noncompressible spacers on the surface of the wrap to create a gap between the cladding and the wrap surface, which acts as both a WRB and AB.

A similar product uses 6.3-millimeter (less than ¼-inch) spacers bonded in the same manner for higher water-risk conditions, such as marine environments or heavy-rain climates. This deep cavity also lends itself to reservoir cladding products—products that shed water but also absorb some of it—especially stucco and thin stone. This integral gap design provides an effective drainage space or capillary break between the sheathing and cladding material. The depths are large enough to provide true drainage between the sheathing and cladding material but not enough to compromise thermal performance if insulation is installed over it. In essence, drainable building wrap acts as a full rainscreen system in miniature, without the added labor or cost. Further, it will work with all types of cladding systems, particularly those that can be moisture sensitive, such as wood or fiber cement siding. The economical beauty of it is that the cladding can be applied directly over this drainable building wrap, eliminating the labor step of installing the spacers as a separate component. When specifying drainable building wraps, it is important to recognize that there are literally dozens of building wrap products available with wide variations in performance and cost. While most are made from polyethylene or polypropylene plastic, they can vary noticeably in terms of water resistance, drainage efficiency, water-vapor transmission, or breathability. They can also be different in their ability to impede air flow, in their overall durability including tear resistance, and in cold-weather flexibility. In many exterior walls, flammability and smoke developed ratings are important too and need to be considered. Selecting a drainable building wrap that excels in all of these areas will assure best results overall. Beyond the product itself, sealing the edges and seams properly and fully without undue penetrations from staples or nails is critical for good performance and code compliance. Some manufacturers offer full sealing systems that use a compatible adhesive, sealant, or tape. This allows the edges to be held permanently in place, usually by using a hard roller or hand applicator to press the wrap and the tape together. Such products may also use fasteners with plastic heads that minimize the impact of the fastener penetrations and help maintain the barrier continuity. Equally important are the details of how the drainable building wrap deals with openings in the wall, such as doors and windows. Being able to flash and seal the wrap properly with window and door flashing materials will assure that water draining down the face of a drainable WRB will flow away properly and not enter behind other building elements into the wall. It will also maintain the continuity of the air barrier in the overall system. Installed properly, drainable building wrap effectively eliminates excess moisture and mitigates

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the damaging effects of mold and rot. It is a costeffective product, particularly when it is manufactured to be installed in any position, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Overall, this approach has been shown to have the same drying capability of a 3 ∕8-inch rainscreen wall. This is important because there is growing recognition among building scientists and building codes that exterior walls need to drain and dry. That means, going forward, building wrap products will increasingly be judged by how effectively they provide positive drainage of water from the wall. Choosing the right building wrap, then, requires an understanding of the product’s key attributes, including things like water resistance, durability, vapor permeability, and drainage. Brian Keith, an architect at JHP Architectural Designs in Dallas, says, “Critical to the success of any design is the detailing and construction of it. We have been impressed with the drainable building products we have specified due to their complete system approach.” HIGH-PERFORMANCE INSULATION IN THINNER ASSEMBLIES

Incorporating insulation into walls, floors, roofs, and other areas of a building enclosure is required by code and needed in order to control heat loss or gain in a buildings. The design challenge has often been balancing the need to meet R-value targets for the insulation with the thickness of the construction assembly (i.e., walls, roofs, etc.) required to incorporate that level of insulation. The default approach for many is to use some type of fibrous insulation in batt, blanket, or loose form installed between wood or metal framing members. Since such insulation is generally available with R-values in the range of R-3 to R-4 per inch, framing depth has increased in many projects to accommodate the need for more inches of insulation to meet the targeted total R-value. For places where still more insulation is needed, then continuous insulation is added outside of the framing or in some other manner (as in continuous roof insulation over a roof deck) that is similarly built up by the inch to achieve the needed total R-value. Of course, part of the struggle is the recognition that increasing thicknesses also increase construction costs, not just of the construction assembly itself but also the details of things that integrate with them, such as windows, doors, skylights, etc. This issue is particularly exaggerated on existing buildings that are being renovated. Hearing the outcry from designers and contractors for ways to achieve higher thermal values in less thickness, product manufacturers offer a number of options. There are various types of insulation on the market, but it is important to note that they have different circumstances where they are best fit to be used. In that light, we look at three types of advanced products in the following sections.

XPS insulation is a commonly used rigid foam insulation board with very good insulation and moisture-resistant properties.

Extruded Polystyrene Insulation There are a number of different types of rigid foam insulation made from different types of plastic foam and with different facings on them, or no facing as the case may be. One that has been in common use for some time is extruded polystyrene insulation board, commonly abbreviated as XPS. It is made by extruding thermoplastic polystyrene foam through a machine to form it into continuous boards that are cut to length (just like some metals are extruded for other purposes). This produces a comparatively dense insulation product with closed cells compared to the somewhat lighter expanded polystyrene (EPS), which can have an open-cell structure. Because of this makeup and the extrusion process, XPS offers superior cold-temperature performance when compared to many other insulation types. Specifically, it typically provides R-values on the order of R-5 per inch, meaning that it can achieve higher overall total R-values in less assembly thickness than fiber-based batts, blankets, or loose-fill. XPS insulation also offers superior moisture resistance compared to fibrous insulation, meaning that it does not absorb water nor lose its R-value rating when wet. Because of this, it is often considered to be a superior choice for masonry cavity walls, below-grade walls and floors, and in inverted roofing applications. These are all moisture-prevalent applications, and XPS is often chosen to be specified in these circumstances. There are other rigid foam insulations, such as polyisocyanurate insulation, that may claim a higher R-value per inch, but those are not as well-suited for situations where moisture is a concern. Many designers find XPS to be a reliable and reasonably economical insulation solution when the total costs of different assemblies are compared.

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Phenolic Insulation In some cases, even higher R-values per inch are needed for code compliance or performance specifications. An alternative is rigid thermoset phenolic insulation, which is produced by mixing high-performance solids and phenolic resin with a surface acting agent. It is manufactured by a process in which a plastic foam forms an insulating core between two facers with a fiberfree closed-cell content. European formulations of phenolic insulation have been in use for several decades in both residential and commercial construction. Phenolic insulation offers an extensive range of premium-performance insulation products for wall, floor, soffit/structural ceiling, rainscreen, and concrete sandwich wall-system applications. With an R-value of up to 17 per 2 inches of insulation (i.e., approximately 8.5 per inch), it is the thinnest among commonly used insulation products on the market. In addition to its superior insulation properties, phenolic insulation is based on a fiber-free, rigid, thermoset phenolic insulation core that resists moisture as well as water-vapor ingress. It also exhibits excellent fire performance with very low flame spread and smoke developed ratings when tested in accordance with ASTM E84/UL 723: Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials. In terms of environmental impact, phenolic insulation boards are available that are manufactured with a blowing agent that has zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and low global warming potential (GWP). By resisting moisture and water-vapor ingress, it also eliminates problems that can be associated with open-cell materials that absorb water and can result in reduced thermal performance. Similarly, phenolic insulation thermal properties are unaffected by air infiltration. The products are safe and easy to install, with no fibers that can irritate human airways and harm health. The high R-values of phenolic insulation can help to reduce the build-out depth of residential and commercial wall systems, potentially leading to added rentable or sellable space on the interior. It is designed to offer a thin solution for common exterior wall continuous insulation applications. It will also help to reduce the length of fasteners and bracketry in commercial wall assemblies. This product has many applications for cavity wall, rainscreen, and soffit applications. When installed correctly, phenolic insulation is known for providing reliable long-term thermal performance over the lifetime of a building. Vacuum Insulated Panels A new and very innovative insulation product is known as vacuum insulated panels (often called a VIP). This is a next-generation insulation comprising rigid panels with a microporous core, which is

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evacuated, encased, and sealed to form a thin, gastight envelope. It provides outstanding R-values by virtue of the literal vacuum formed in the panel all in an ultra-thin insulation solution. This product is designated as being applicable specifically to commercial roofing applications, offering thermal resistance values up to five times greater than XPS. For example, a 1.6-inch VIP product has an amazingly high R-value of R-46. Clearly, this is a solution for those times when space is tight and reduced thickness is critical to success. As a means to substantiate these performance claims, manufacturers use ASTM C1667: Standard Test Method for Using Heat Flow Meter Apparatus to Measure the Center-of-Panel Thermal Transmission Properties of Vacuum Insulation Panels, which is the only test method designated by ASTM to be used specifically for testing center panel thermal resistance of VIPs. ASTM C1667 further states that VIPs fall outside the scope of the more commonly known test method ASTM C518: Standard Test Method for Steady-State Thermal Transmission Properties by Means of the Heat Flow Meter Apparatus. All vacuum insulated panels should be tested according to these protocols, and results of those tests should be made available from the manufacturers as part of the normal project submittal process to confirm the tested R-value results. Note that testing is based on the center of the panels. For edge conditions, calculations can be performed per the ASTM protocols to determine results. These high R-values allow the roof insulation buildup height to be drastically reduced. For renovations or reroofing projects with heightrestricted situations, such as parapet height and door threshold limitations, VIP insulation allows designers to meet code while eliminating the need for architectural renovations to accommodate the roof insulation system. It is worth noting that the products are also more than 90 percent recyclable by weight. Manufacturers of insulation often offer multiple products. Therefore, many offer thermal calculation support for many products, and with some roofing insulation, they also offer a design service and installation support. This helps the architect be quite up to date on the innovative insulation board technologies that offer a higher R-value in minimal thicknesses, allowing for thinner wall system profiles. Andrew Wilson, commercial manager for Kooltherm & OPTIM-R with Kingspan Insulation LLC, sums it up this way: â&#x20AC;&#x153;High-performing insulation can help cut energy bills and makes for a very efficient building. Using a high-performance insulation product will allow for a building to go well

Expansion joint materials and systems come in many types and configurations. Selecting the appropriate ones for any given building project not only helps maintain the structural integrity of the building, but it also helps assure that the continuity of thermal and moisture barriers is maintained.

above the energy code, and for someone who owns a building, the payback will be great over the life of the building.â&#x20AC;? ADDRESSING DETAILS: EXPANSION JOINTS

Controlling thermal energy and moisture in buildings is clearly a multifaceted task, although it is fairly straightforward to comprehend when we are talking about the middle or primary areas of walls, roofs, etc. It is critically important, however, to pay attention to the detail areas. On larger buildings, expansion joints are one of those crucial details since they represent an intentional break in the structure to allow for the movement of different parts of the building due to thermal expansion and contraction, seismic loads, or other conditions. Since those expansion joints typically interrupt the thermal, moisture, and air barriers in a building, how they are treated and addressed will determine the continuity, or not, of these barriers across the expansion joints. Different types of buildings will utilize expansion joints in different locations and in different ways. Some may use them on exterior roof or pedestrian decks in a horizontal location. Others may incorporate them into walls in a vertical fashion. Some may be connected to concrete structures, others to steel, or some to a hybrid system. Either way, they all will incorporate a gap that needs to be

filled with some sort of expandable material that is appropriately secured to each side of the gap. Depending on the durability and the appearance of that filler material, they may then be left exposed or covered over with a metal cover system. From the standpoint of thermal and moisture protection, the key to successfully maintaining the needed barriers often comes down to the selection of the material or type of system used to fill the gap in the expansion joint. We will look at some of the more common choices below and comment on their suitability for different building applications. Closed-cell foams. Closed-cell foams are very watertight and do not allow the moisture to enter the body of the foam. This is the best application for horizontal runs where water could pool. These are tougher to compress but can be placed under tension or pulled to expand quite well. The other key advantage of closedcell foams is that they take well to heat-welding of seams. This renders a monolithic installation that reduces the risk of water infiltration. Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com

Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is a nationally known architect, consultant, continuing education presenter, and prolific author advancing building performance through better design. www.pjaarch.com, www.linkedin.com/in/pjaarch

PRODUCT REVIEW

High-Performance Thermal and Moisture Protection Strategies Kingspan Insulation LLC Image courtesy of Kingspan Insulation LLC

Image courtesy of Inpro Corporation

Inpro

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Kingspan Kooltherm

Exposure to water destroys fire blankets and their ratings. The Fireline™ Water Guard® blanket features an integrated waterproof silicone cloth that protects the blanket system and fire rating during and after construction of open structures, such as parking facilities and stadiums. The 1-, 2-, and 3-hour rated floor systems can accommodate joint widths from 2–32 inches wide.

Kingspan Kooltherm® offers an extensive range of premium performance insulation for wall, floor, structural ceiling, precast, tilt-up, and rainscreen applications. It has a fiber-free rigid thermoset phenolic insulation core and offers the highest R-value per inch among commonly used insulation. Kooltherm exhibits excellent fire and smoke performance.

www.inprocorp.com

www.kingspaninsulation.us

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TAMLYN Moisture Management

TAMLYNWrap™ Drainable WRB 1.5 and TAMLYNWrap™ Rainscreen 6.3 TAMLYN has brought two moisture management products to the market with TAMLYNWrap™ Drainable WRB 1.5, which gives a noncompressible drainage plane, and TAMLYNWrap™ Rainscreen 6.3, which provides a vented drainage space. Pairing with these is a complete system of flashing, double-sided seam tape, and flashing boots for circular wall penetrations. www.tamlyn.com

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Architectural Castings for Walls and Ceilings Material choices provide versatility in design for both interiors and exteriors Sponsored by Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions | By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP

he design of building exteriors and interiors involves making a lot of choices and decisions, particularly around architectural details. In new construction of commercial and institutional buildings, those details may be for exterior facades, interior ceiling and wall treatments, or other features. Sometimes, those details can be selected from readily available off-the-shelf products that are fabricated and fit into a project. In other cases, it makes more sense to specify projectspecific products that fit into the unique design and construction of a building. In building renovation projects, particularly historical restorations, custom pieces may be needed to match existing exterior or interior building features and details. In all of these cases, architectural castings can provide an effective solution since they can be fabricated from a variety of materials, allowing them to be used for both interior and exterior design. They provide design versatility with material and finish options for all types of walls and ceilings. In this course, we will explore architectural castings and see how an understanding of their variety and properties can help architects use them very effectively in virtually any type of building.

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Architectural castings, such as this one at the U.S. Census Bureau, can provide dramatic and durable features to building interiors and exteriors and be fabricated from a variety of materials. All photos courtesy of Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions

Learning Objectives After reading this article, you should be able to: 1. Identify and recognize the characteristics of architectural castings as an alternative to traditional concrete, stone, and gypsum materials. 2. Investigate the design potential and innovative opportunities to incorporate architectural castings made from GRG, GFRC, FRP, and cast stone. 3. Assess the functional contributions of architectural castings as they contribute to green and sustainable design. 4. Formulate an assessment of the relevant cost saving considerations when specifying and designing with architectural castings. To receive AIA credit, you are required to read the entire article and pass the test. Go to ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text and to take the test for free. AIA COURSE #K1904C IDCEC COURSE #CC-108687-1000

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ARCHITECTURAL CASTINGS OVERVIEW

Fundamentally, architectural castings are jobspecific, shop-fabricated building elements that are used to enhance and complete a building design. While historically such elements may have been made from plain plaster or solid concrete, today they are more commonly made with stronger and lighter composites reinforced with glass fibers. These modern materials create lightweight, decorative (nonstructural) building elements. Such materials can be cast into molds and used on building exteriors including architectural features like cupolas, columns, light coves, fountains, decorative figures, finials, and even cladding or rainscreen panels. Interior wall castings have been made to create decorative wall panels, specialty trims, moldings, niches, pediments, columns, ornamental details, and many more items. Similarly, ceilings can benefit from architectural castings in the form of curved soffits, decorative ceiling panels, vaults, domes, coffers, cornices, beams, brackets, or ornamental ceiling details. Essentially,

The Casting Process The process of creating architectural castings is fairly similar regardless of the type, size, or materials used. It starts with the architectural drawings indicating the specific design and locations where the castings are needed. The manufacturer then takes the following steps: Shop drawings: Once a project is procured, the first order of business is to prepare a comprehensive set of shop drawings referencing the architectural drawings and any additional information provided. Shop drawings typically include plans, elevations, sections, and installa-

tion details. Castings manufacturers understand that each component is unique both in terms of architectural design and, in many cases, installation. Hence, the goal of shop drawings is to ensure design intent and provide practical construction details to facilitate installation. The drawings are submitted to the architect for approval before manufacturing can begin. Pattern and mold making: Once the approved shop drawings and final site dimensions are received, a pattern and mold must be made before casting can begin. Commonly, computer numeric control (CNC) programmers produce a 3-D file of the cast part using CAD/CAM programs. These programs are used to rout a model in wood or foam to the exact proportions needed with extremely high tolerances. Once the pattern is assembled and checked for accuracy, a mold or negative is made from the pattern by laminating resin or pouring rubber over the pattern. In this way, the mold is an exact negative of the part. Control flanges are mounted on the mold to manage part thickness and facilitate installation. Fabrication: With the mold finalized, fabrication can begin. The casting ingredients are mixed to precise proportions. The liquid mixture is sprayed into the molds while introducing glass fibers to reinforce the part. Once the mold is sprayed, the back of the part is tooled to remove air. The manufacturing process is complete, and the part is allowed to dry into a solid while it is still in the mold. Once dry, the part is removed from the mold and visually inspected for quality and accuracy. Air pockets or other surface imperfections are repaired at this point as needed. Surface finish: Most castings can be supplied in a smooth, paint-grade finish that requires a field-applied coating, or they can be integrally pigmented to a selected color or even sandblasted to achieve a look of stone or precast concrete. Castings are available in a range of standard colors, and custom color matching is also possible. If texturing is part of the final look, that can be achieved either by sandblasting after the part is removed from the mold or casting with molds that have texture built in, such as a water ripple or wood grain texture.

Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com

Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions is the leader in the design and manufacture of innovative commercial and residential ceiling, wall, and suspension system solutions. armstrongceilings.com/commercial

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Architectural castings are used on exteriors for a variety of reasons, including this rainscreen cladding on The Cooper Union in New York City designed by Morphosis.

any defined shape or feature that is part of an interior or exterior design can be cast from the appropriate material and incorporated into the final construction. Castings are available in standard choices for shape and size or, where desired, fully custom pieces can be designed and fabricated to suit new construction or renovation projects. Architectural castings are used on a wide range of buildings. They provide distinctive looks, including the creation of unique figures, logos, mascots, etc. for commercial buildings, such as retail, hospitality, casino, sports, and entertainment venues. They add character and personality to institutional buildings as well as the ability to address acoustics in Kâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;12 schools, higher-education facilities, government buildings, courthouses, transportation buildings, churches, and temples. With any of these building types, you can incorporate standard or creative, custom-designed castings to support the overall design intent of the building or highlight specific spaces, such as lobbies, reception areas, or communal spaces. For historical restoration projects, castings have proven to be invaluable since custom historical shapes can be easily and readily replicated to match the existing building and bring back its original glory in compliance with Historic Preservation guidelines. The use of architectural castings is thus well suited to support the imagination and creative capacities of any designer, current or past. Since castings are nonstructural elements, if columns need to be only structural with no decorative or concealing treatment, then architectural castings are not appropriate. Other than these few circumstances, when the design of any other building condition needs some distinct components to create or restore the proper style, establish a preferred or new look, or simply tie a design together in a durable manner, architectural castings are a cost-effective, highly customizable choice.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION This concrete deterioration is due to rusting of the reinforcing steel.

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Concrete Waterproofing with Crystalline Technology Crystalline chemicals improve concrete durability, lower maintenance costs, and extend building life cycles Sponsored by XYPEX Chemical Corp.

rom foundations, f loor slabs, and exterior precast panels to water treatment facilities and underground urban infrastructure, concrete is one of the most commonly used building and construction materials. However, due to its composition—a mixture of rock, sand, cement, and water—concrete is often susceptible to damage and deterioration from water and chemical penetration. These deleterious effects can be avoided through the use of crystalline waterproofing

technology, which effectively improves the durability and lifespan of concrete structures, thereby reducing long-term maintenance costs. This course explores how crystalline technology provides a high level of performance to concrete mixtures, materials, and structures, and what design professionals need to know in order to specify and understand how this chemical technology will enhance building projects. Continues at ce.architecturalrecord.com

Learning Objectives After reading this article, you should be able to: 1. Understand how crystalline technology works with concrete to provide highperformance waterproofing qualities. 2. Explain the difference between porosity, permeability and the mechanics by which water is absorbed through concrete structures. 3. Discuss how crystalline waterproofing technology improves the durability of concrete structures and reduces maintenance. 4. Identify appropriate crystalline technology product applications for various types of concrete construction. 5. Analyze how crystalline technology admixtures can impact building life cycle and project construction costs. To receive AIA credit, you are required to read the entire article and pass the test. Go to ce.architecturalrecord.com for complete text and to take the test for free. This course may also qualify for one Professional Development Hour (PDH). Most states now accept AIA credits for engineers’ requirements. Check your state licensing board for all laws, rules, and regulations to confirm. AIA COURSE #K1812Z

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

New and Upcoming Exhibitions Leonardo Ricci 100: Writing, Painting and Architecture Florence April 12–May 26, 2019 The work of Italian architect Leonardo Ricci (1918–94), author of Anonymous (20th Century), is featured through over 60 original pieces, including paintings, drawings, sketches, photographs, and models as part of a nationwide celebration of his centenary. At the Santa Maria Novella. More at smn.it. Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial New York May 10, 2019–January 20, 2020 More than 60 projects will be featured in this exhibition (co-organized with the Cube design museum in the Netherlands) to demonstrate how designers are collaborating with scientists, engineers, environmentalists, academics, and others to find inventive and promising solutions to the environmental and social challenges confronting humanity today. More information at cooperhewitt.org.

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dates&events Ongoing Exhibitions Dimensions of Citizenship: Architecture and Belonging from the Body to the Cosmos Chicago Through April 27, 2019 This official U.S. entry from the recently concluded 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale is on view in its native country for the first time. Devoted to exploring the notion of citizenship today and the potential role of architecture and design in creating spaces for it, the entry presents seven unique installations, each created by a team of architects and designers. At Wright wood 659. For more information, see wrightwood659.org. The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism San Francisco Through April 28, 2019 The exhibition brings together original sketches and drawings from the designers of this Modernist beach development on the Northern California coast. Archival images, current photographs, and a full-scale architec-

tural replica are also on display. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. For more information, visit sfmoma.org. David Adjaye: Making Memory London Through May 5, 2019 Through the British-Ghanaian architect’s work, the exhibition addresses how a building can shape the public’s perception of events, and how architecture, rather than words, can tell stories. At the Design Museum. More information at designmuseum.org. Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak New York Through May 18, 2019 The exhibition presents the work of one of the most important Polish architects of the 20th century. Through models, films, and photographs, visitors can learn about GrabowskaHawrylak’s studies in the 1940s and her involvement in almost all stages of the reconstruction and creation of Wrocław, in what is the first comprehensive presentation outside Poland of her work. At the Center for Architecture. Visit centerforarchitecture.org.

dates&events Nari Ward: We the People New York Through May 26, 2019 The exhibition features over 30 sculptures, paintings, videos, and large-scale installations made throughout the Jamaican artist’s 25-year career. It also highlights the continued importance of New York, particularly Harlem, to the material and thematic content of his art. At the New Museum. More at newmuseum.org. Hugh Kaptur: Organic Desert Architecture Palm Springs, California Through June 17, 2019 Exploring the visionary designer’s body of work, this exhibit places him in the context of his Desert Modern peers through archival drawings, models, sketches, slides, period photographs, and ephemera. At the Palm Springs Art Museum. Visit psmuseum.org. Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project Washington, D.C. Through July 28, 2019 The exhibition delves into the innovative design and construction of three cities born

Find these and many more available Lunch & Learn presentations at

ce.architecturalrecord.com/ee Creative Freedom Through Targeted Acoustics 1 AIA LU/HSW PRESENTED BY: CERTAINTEED CEILINGS

Sharp Cornered Stainless Steel Profiles for Architecture, Building, and Construction 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 PDH PRESENTED BY: STAINLESS STRUCTURALS

Moisture Management for Multi-Family, Mix-Use and Light Commercial 1 AIA LU/HSW PRESENTED BY: TAMLYN

Managing Daylight with Automated Solar Control 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 GBCI CE HOUR; 1 IDCEC CEU PRESENTED BY: DRAPER, INC.

The New Benefits of Designing with BIM 1 AIA LU/HSW PRESENTED BY: GRAPHISOFT NORTH AMERICA

Code Considerations in Fire Rated Glass 1 AIA LU/HSW PRESENTED BY: SAFTI FIRST FIRE RATED GLAZING SOLUTIONS

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

out of the Manhattan Project, tracing their precedents in the Bauhaus and other early modern schools of architectural thought. The show looks at daily life within those cities and how it was shaped by their physical form. At the National Building Museum. Visit nbm.org. Prisoner of Love Chicago Through October 27, 2019 The exhibition, which examines human experience by attempting to capture the intensities of love, fear, and grief, features artist Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death, a film that explores the African-American experience in the 20th and 21st centuries. The work is set to the gospel-infused song “Ultralight Beam” by rapper Kanye West. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. For more, see mcachicago.org. HOOPS Washington, D.C. Through January 5, 2020 This exhibition presents photographer Bill Bamberger’s images of private and community

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dates&events basketball courts around the United States and abroad. A selection of photographs takes viewers from the deserts of Arizona and Mexico to the playgrounds of South Africa. At the National Building Museum. Visit nbm.org.

Lectures, Conferences, and Symposia Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman Los Angeles April 3, 2019 The principals of San Diego–based Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman will discuss their work—much of which involves investigating issues of informal urbanization, civic infrastructure, and public culture in Latin America—at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. More information at arch.usc.edu.

The conference will focus on current social, environmental, urban, cultural, and architectural issues in Latin America. Twelve prestigious Latin American architects and urbanists will lecture, including Mónica Bertolino, Guillermo Garita, Orlando García, architecture critic Fredy Massad, and Columbia University professor of architecture Pedro Rivera. At the City College of New York Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. More at ssa.ccny.cuny.edu. Living Future Õ19 Seattle April 30–May 3, 2019 This conference, on regenerative design, will bring together leading green thinkers and practitioners to share their insights on building socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative communities. Over 1,100 from around the world are expected to attend. See unconference.living-future.org.

Mundaneum XIII-International re_UNION on Architecture: Pan Americas New York April 4–5, 2019

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Competitions Radical Innovation Deadline: April 3, 2019 This contest challenges designers, architects, hoteliers, and students to pioneer compelling ideas in travel and hospitality. Finalists will be flown to New York to compete in a live event held in the fall of 2019, where they will pre sent their ideas. Audience members vote to determine the winner of the grand prize of $10,000. See RadicalInnovationAward.com.

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Deborah J. Norden Fund Deadline: April 21, 2019 This competition awards up to $5,000 annually in travel grants to students and recent gradu ates in the fields of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies. Applicants must submit a proposal (maximum: three pages) that describes the objectives of the grant request and how it will contribute to the appli cant’s intellectual and creative development. More information at archleague.org. E-mail information two months in advance to areditor@bnpmedia.com.

Ken Sanders + DI Strategic Advisors Ken Sanders, FAIA and former managing principal at Gensler, has joined DI Strategic Advisors as the new managing principal of strategic operations. DI Strategic Advisors helps A/E/C firms navigate both the greatest opportunities and challenges of running a successful enterprise. Reach Ken at: whenstrategymatters.com

a DesignIntelligence initiative Q4 2018

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Architectural Record Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest Architectural Record - ICFF Architectural Record Record On The Road Boston Architectural Record BST Global Webinar Architectural Record AEC BuildTech Arktura LLC Armstrong World Industries ASI Group B+N Industries, INC.

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Hormann High Performance Doors

Sonneman

Huntco Supply

Steel Institute of New York

Inpro Corporation

139

Stonhard

Kawneer

2, 3

Sub Zero Group, Inc.

Kingspan Insulation

137

Thermory USA

Kingspan Light+Air | CPI Daylighting

120

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Ultra-Tec

Unilock

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146

Laminators Incorporated 132

128, 129 53 CV2, 1 37 123

Landscape Forms

USG Corporation

Lonseal

Versico Roofing Systems

Lorin Industries

Viewrail

modular Arts

Vitro Architectural Glass (Formerly PPG Glass)

NanaWall Systems

Nathan Allan Glass Studios, INC.

147 CV3

Belden Brick Company

National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association

Benjamin Moore

NYSERDA

B-K Lighting

Ornamental Metal Institute of New York

C.R. Laurence Co., INC.

Petersen Aluminum

Cascade Coil

Raydoor

CAST CONNEX

RH Tamlyn & Sons

Doug Mockett & Company, Inc.

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Western Window Systems

46 127

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

APRIL 2019

snapshot

PROJECT

THE PAINTED HALL, OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE

LOCATION

GREENWICH, LONDON

ARCHITECT

HUGH BROUGHTON ARCHITECTS WITH MARTIN ASHLEY ARCHITECTS

designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor, the Painted Hall is one of the most important Baroque interiors in European architecture. Sir James Thornhill painted the murals, including the one on the west wall that celebrates the arrival of King George I and the Hanoverians in Great Britain. Exposure to sunlight and humidity through the hall’s point of entry, however, damaged the paintings. Recently, Hugh Broughton teamed up with Martin Ashley Architects to move the entrance to the undercroft below. As the paintings were restored to their former glory, the subterranean entry chamber was fitted with a shop, café, and a glass doorway to the hall. Broughton also installed a heating system and solar shading to preserve the artworks. “Our key strategy with the Painted Hall was to make any work that we did as invisible as possible,” says the architect. “The star of the show is the paintings.” Justin Chan

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Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Concourse E • Singer Architects • David Griggs & Scott Parsons – Artists • David Laudadio – Photographer

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