Tech sent out the first renderings of one of the buildings for the Amazon-adjacent Innovation Campus. Definitely wouldn't fit in in Blacksburg but overall I think it's pretty cool. It's designed to be as efficient as possible when it comes to solar energy so that's neat.
Other than looking a bit like a Jawa Sandcrawler it's getting me excited about having a bigger Tech presence in the DC area. What are some your thoughts? Especially interested to hear from all the architects and civil engineers out there.
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happy that there WILL be Hokie Stone elements!
I think it's great if the college of Architecture got to flex it's muscles a little bit without the restraints of fitting in to campus. Hopefully the VTDC campus is keeping some of the design "in-house"
I'm an architect but typically care more about building science than pretty pictures. If the enclosure doesn't leak and the design achieves its goals, I'm ok with it.
Side note, SmithGroup is a top notch outfit. I've worked with their engineering team quite a bit over the years and found them to be more than competent and good members of the team. I think they'll do this project justice.
My understanding is that their goal is to achieve Net Zero energy consumption on the building. It sounds like they are using the same technologies that United Therapeutics used on their Net Zero building in Silver Spring. They mention geothermal wells, solar panels and a passive solar energy design. I haven't seen this drawings, but I assume they also are planning to use high insulation values (R20 and up on the exterior), building integration and automation that can controls fans, windows (whether they open, or can change tint to block sun), cooling and heating systems, and maybe some passive type ventilation.
If anyone is interested in reading about the United Therapeutics building that achieved Net Zero energy consumption, this article does a pretty good job explaining some of the technologies and design techniques used. These should be very similar to what VT will need to
use. https://www.hpac.com/columns/managing-facilities/article/20929857/the-un...
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
It was a very cool building to see at its finish, but an insanely frustrating construction project to be on. Nothing was square, vertical or flat in the exterior design making access difficult and dimensions hard to decipher unless the architect specifically provided dimensions every foot around the building.
I'm a civil/structural guy but now work for a restoration contractor, and my first thought was that I hope they get a good glass guy for that curtainwall. Also looks like it'd be hell to try to rig for any sort of restoration or remediation work in the future, but I know that's not really a design goal.
All-in-all though, if it performs well, it'll be a neat looking building. Sort of London Gherkin-esque (on its side).
Agreed. My first thought was I'm glad I'm not responsible for detailing that facade.
Regarding planning for future rehab/maintenance, you say it may not be a design goal, but I say it should be. I feel that designers have an obligation to think about things like that as an important part of their process. Too many don't, and it tends to lead to architect being a four letter word in the construction industry. But that's a topic for a different day in a whole different thread.
Oh, I definitely agree that it should be a design consideration, and to an extent it seems like the industry is shifting that direction, but a lot of the time it a 'later' problem. Once that sloped face starts to leak, good luck trying to wet-glaze it with any sort of efficiency.
I've been running into increasingly more buildings (albeit slowly increasing) that seem to have rehab in mind in terms of access, but then don't have standard things like roof anchors or structural roof members for tie-back points which is a whole separate issue. I'm working on a building now that has no anchors or accessible roof HVAC support structure to tie our rigging off to, so we've resorted to disassembling portions of the elevator penthouse so that we can anchor into the concrete framing.