Beauty in Assembly

posted by Matthew Bushey

I just came across this fascinating video of the manufacturing process of one of the most iconic chairs of our time:  the Series 7 chair by Fritz Hansen.  This chair was designed in 1955 by Arne Jacobsen with a simple, graceful profile and a minimal number of parts.  The manufacturing process, however, is a complicated series of steps that involves man and machine.

The film itself is beautifully made as well:  a five-minute black-and-white homage to the creative process of product manufacture.

All Five

Welcome VBSR members!  I know what you're thinking: "You told me there were five, but you only gave me three!"  Well, now you can read the entire article: follow this link to jump to last summer's blog post, Top Five: Systems Furniture.  You can also look up all ten articles from the Top Five series by searching for "top five" in the search box to the right.

Singapore - Part II

posted by David Epstein, AIA, LEED AP

This is the second post from David's recent trip to Singapore.  You can read the first one here.

I was encouraged on my recent trip to Singapore to visit the Marina Bay Sands Hotel by Moshe Safdie, the architect who became famous for Habitat 67 in Montreal. The Marina Bay project is no less impressive.

At $6.2 billion US dollars, it is billed as the most expensive casino property in the world. The project features a 2,560 room hotel, convention center, shopping mall, museum, theaters, restaurants, and casino. Easily the most unique feature is the SkyPark, a 340m long platform that connects the three towers at the 57^th story and includes a 150m infinity edge swimming pool, restaurants, and observation deck. The SkyPark is detailed to look boat-like and appears as if a large ship fell out of the sky and landed on the three hotel towers.

The three 57-story hotel towers are each constructed of two vertical banks of hotel rooms that splay apart at the bottom. The spaces are connected together to create a light-filled atrium at the ground floor:

The best surprise was discovering the Wind Arbor installation on the atrium walls. Comprised of thousands of suspended stainless steel panels, the Wind Arbor panels flutter in the wind and sun, and transform the hidden breezes into a visible liquid (see video below). I instantly recognized this as the work of Ned Kahn, an artist from the San Francisco Bay Area and old college friend.  It was great fun to make that connection halfway around the world.

Heritage Flight Week, Day 5

White and Bright

For the final day of Heritage Flight Week, we take a look inside the main hangar bay, the space that is the heart of the whole operation.

Aviation is an energy-intensive industry, with a heavy carbon footprint.  In fact, the aviation industry as a whole accounts for 3% of all global carbon emissions.  As you’ve seen over these past few days, the Heritage facility has taken extraordinary measures to counteract this impact and promote a sustainable model for the industry.  This is evident in the main hangar bay, where aircraft is stored, repaired and maintained.

The main hangar bay is designed to maximize daylighting and exterior views for the benefit of the maintenance workers.  Twelve overhead skylights and large expanses of glazing on the east and south walls provide abundant natural light and allow for views to the exterior.  Large scale ceiling-mounted circulation fans at the high hangar bay minimize stratification of conditioned air and improve indoor air quality.  Finally, all the interior surfaces in the 32,000 sq.ft. hangar were painted white to maximize the ambient light level and minimize the need for artificial lighting through much of the day.  Many days, the artificial lights aren’t even needed, and further power is conserved by relying solely on natural illumination.

A building energy model was used to compute the projected energy savings from all of these energy and environmental initiatives: the efficiency improvements to the building shell, the mechanical and electrical loads, and the power generated by the on-site renewables.  According to the model, the Heritage Aviation facility is realizing a 38% energy savings over a standard commercial building of the same size.  Actual data from the first year of operation indicates even better energy performance.  The facility has now been in operation since January, 2010, and during this time, the building has seen a savings in gas and electricity consumption of 54% over a conventional office/warehouse building.

Beyond the very real financial savings are a number of intangible longterm benefits, including employee retention and morale.  The end result is a quality facility that benefits the employees, clients, and community.

Heritage Flight Week, Day 4

A Vermont Landscape rendered in carpet

 

Today we look at how the interior furnishings, finishes, and lighting support the environmental mission of the Heritage Aviation facility, while creating a high-quality, contextual experience that is a welcoming respite for travelers stopping in Vermont.

The furniture in the lobby and elsewhere in the building is hand-crafted by Vermont artisans, with local wood and low-VOC finishes.  Custom detailed FSC-certified wood veneers and locally-quarried stone clads the walls for a look that is gorgeous and green.

As you walk through the building, you will notice a unique pattern underfoot.  The main circulation and function spaces are treated with a modular carpet tile by Tandus called Manufactured Landscapes.  These 24” x 24” earth-toned tiles are arranged with a conscious randomness, so that the lines and textures form an abstract representation of an agricultural landscape, as it would appear when viewed from a passenger’s window of a chartered jet flying above.  The modular tile is also an “Environmentally Preferable Product”, with a third-party certified platinum rating.  The carpet and backing contains 48% recycled content, 10% post-consumer.

The interior lighting and mechanical systems are designed to save energy, while providing individual comfort and control.  In fact, those two things go hand in hand.  Individual lighting controls are provided at all workstations, conference rooms and staff rooms with dimmable circuits and daylighting controls that can be overridden locally.  Individual thermostat controls are provided at workstations, as well as at all conference rooms and staff rooms.  We find that providing this level of lighting and thermal comfort control by individual occupants promotes productivity, comfort and well-being.

Heritage Flight Week, Day 3

A Porous Parking Lot with a Monster Tank

We continue with Heritage Flight Week with a look at how this Aviation facility is dealing with storm water management.  For typical buildings, rainwater falls on the roofs, driveways and lawns and is channeled away: a valuable resource that is treated as a waste product.  At Heritage Aviation, 100% of the rainwater that falls on the site is captured, treated, and reused.

The south parking lot at Heritage is not your typical sea of asphalt.  This parking lot has a porous concrete surface that is designed to absorb all of the rain that falls on it,  eliminating the erosion and polluting affects typically caused by excess stormwater runoff.  The surface is capable of absorbing all the rainfall based on a 100 year storm.  At 87,117 sq. ft., this is the largest pervious parking lot in Vermont, and it is one of the largest in New England.

Runoff rainwater from the roof flows into a huge 35,000 gallon underground storage tank.  This includes rainwater from the high hangar roof and anything more than the 1" retained at the lower vegetated roof.  The captured rainwater is then used for landscape irrigation and for washing aircraft.

The last piece of the puzzle is a bioswale (rain garden) stormwater collection area that captures any remaining rainfall, when the underground storage tanks are full.  All of these strategies together fully protect the site from storm water runoff and foreign contaminants.

Heritage Flight Week, Day 2

A Green Roof, best viewed from above

For a facility that is located at a major airport, the view of the building from the sky is often appreciated just as much as the view from the ground.  Passengers flying with Heritage Flight, as well as those travelling on commercial airlines out of Burlington Airport, have a clear view of the roof of Heritage Aviation.  And this roof is very “green”, in more ways than one.

The roof is home to a 10-panel 65.2 MBtu solar thermal domestic hot water system and an adjacent 120-panel 25.2 kW solar photovoltaic array.  The upper roof of the main hangar is finished with a highly reflective white membrane that reduces solar heat gain.  But the most striking surface on the top of the building wraps around 3 sides of the upper roof.  This lower level features a 13,742 sq.ft. "green" roof, with several varieties of sedum covering the surface of the building like a lush canvas.  The colorful plantings are arranged in a waving pattern and can be seen from the rooftop observation deck or from the air as you fly overhead.

The vegetated roof retains the first 1" of rainfall that falls on it, with the excess directed toward underground irrigation tanks.  When installed, this was the largest green roof in New England, and it remains today the largest in Vermont.

Heritage Flight Week, Day 1

The Nation’s First Airport Wind Turbine

Today we kick off a 5-part series on one of our most recent success stories.  This is Heritage Flight Week on the Truexcullins blog!  …It’s kind of like Shark Week, only instead of watching Discovery Channel shows on the most fearsome predator of the sea, you will be diving into a new aspect, each day, of the Heritage Flight Aviation facility at the Burlington International Airport.

The project started with the complete reconstruction of a vacated 1954 hangar.  The original structure was formerly occupied by the Vermont National Guard and has since been repurposed and transformed into a 75,800 sq. ft. aviation services facility.

The building has been open for about a year now, and we just received word from the USGBC that the project has been officially granted LEED Gold Certification.  This is the first LEED Gold aviation facility of its kind in the country, and as you’ll see over the next week, there are a lot of good reasons why it earned this top prize.

One of the most visible signs of its environmental excellence is the 100 Kilowatt commercial wind turbine standing tall at the southeast corner of the parking lot, with a blade diameter of 21 meters. According to Heritage Aviation, they are generating 15% of their energy needs, saving 200 kW Hours per 10-hour daytime shift every day, with most of that power coming from the wind.

What is most notable here is that this FAA-approved wind turbine is the first community-scaled wind turbine installed at a general aviation facility in the United States. In the past, concerns about possible visual interference with air traffic control or flight patterns may have prohibited the siting of wind turbines at airport locations, but this installation marks a turning point in the attitude toward renewable energy and the acceptance of wind energy technology (at least on the part of FAA regulators).

PechaKucha Burlington Vol. 2

Be sure to join us this Thursday, Feb 10th at 6pm for the Second PechaKucha Night Burlington, to be held at the Fleming Museum.

If you made it to the inaugural PechaKucha (pronounced "peh cha cha") night back in November, you know that it's a quick and concise format where designers of all disciplines present 20 slides, for 20 seconds each.  It's engaging, diverse, and fun.  Here's the scene from that first night:

See more photos from the first PKN here. 

Admission this Thursday is $5.  For more information, visit the Events Page at the Fleming Museum website, or www.pecha-kucha.org

We'll see you there!

New Faces at TruexCullins

Over the past couple of months, we have welcomed eight new people to our staff. These full- and part-time architects, designers, and interns have joined us to assist in a range of ongoing projects, in both architecture and interior design.

Meet the newest members of our team!

Emily Gold of Pawtucket, RI has joined TruexCullins as a designer in the Interiors Studio. Gold is a graduate of Becker College in Worcester, MA, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Interior Design. Gold is currently pursuing her NCIDQ and LEED certifications. She is currently working on two hotel renovation projects; the Hillside Cottages at the Casa Madrona Resort and Spa in Sausalito, CA, and the Lodge Units at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing, NY, on Lake George.

Anne Barakat of Ripton has joined the TruexCullins Interiors Studio to assist with the restaurant renovations and new Spa at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. Barakat has 12 years of experience as a designer, project manager, and consultant on residential and commercial projects, with a focus on branded interiors and high profile retail environments. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Barakat recently relocated to the Middlebury area from New York City, where she worked for Pompei AD. Barakat holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Terra Lyons of Shelburne has also joined the TruexCullins Interiors Studio to assist with the restaurant renovations and new Spa at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. Lyons has 7 years of experience in the interior design industry and is currently an Allied Member of ASID. Prior to joining TruexCullins, Lyons worked as an Interior Designer for Birdseye Building Company in Richmond, VT. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from UVM and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design from Harrington College of Design in Chicago, IL.

Joshua Chafe, LEED AP, has joined TruexCullins as an architectural designer to assist with the documentation of the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Swanton, VT. Originally from Boston, MA, Chafe graduated from high school in Northfield, VT and holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture degree from Norwich University. He is currently the Assistant Director of the Young Architect's Forum of Vermont.

 

Andrew Chardain of Burlington has joined the architectural design team at TruexCullins to assist with the renovation and expansion of the King Arthur Flour campus in Norwich, VT. A native of Newfane, VT, Chardain is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture.

 

Carol Stenberg of Burlington has rejoined TruexCullins as an Architect in the Education Studio to assist with the 190 Chelsea Street Building at the Vermont Law School. She attended the Boston Architectural Center and is a licensed Architect in the State of Vermont. Stenberg is also a Passive House consultant.

Sarah Hackett of Burlington has joined TruexCullins as an intern in the architectural division. Hackett previously worked for three years in Washington D.C. as a Legislative Assistant for United States Senator Patrick Leahy. Hackett interned for TruexCullins in the fall of 2010, working in both the marketing and architecture departments. This spring she is continuing her internship, working exclusively in architecture. Hackett earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dickinson College majoring in International Business and Management.

Meredith Astles of Burlington has joined TruexCullins as an intern in the Marketing department. Astles is a graduate of Saint Michael’s College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing. Astles’ former experience includes internships with Her Look Enterprises in South Burlington and fashion designer James Lakeland in London, England.

Happy Kids

When we saw this delightful poster from the kids at the Hinesburg Community School, it made our day.  The renovations to the Kindergarten and grade school classrooms were completed just this fall, and from the looks of it, the kids love their new space!

This is a poster made by one of the 2nd grade classrooms at the school.  You can click the image to enlarge it and read what the kids have to say.