The New York Times posted a story about Houston in today’s online edition titled “36 Hours in Houston.” Included among the “must-see” stops was Rice University’s Brochstein Pavilion, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners and structurally engineered by Haynes Whaley’s Wally Ford. Author Denny Lee had this to say about the Brochstein Pavilion:

 The skyline goes up, up, up every year. But notable architecture also takes place near the ground. The campus at Rice University — a neo-Byzantine maze of rose-hued brick and cloisters — got a new glass heart in 2008, when the Brochstein Pavilion (rice.edu/brochstein) opened near the central quad. A Kubrick-esque box with floor-to-ceiling windows, the pavilion houses a cafe and media lounge, and has a fine-mesh trellis that extends like a mathematical plane in space. The structure is only one story, but it feels much taller — proof that not everything in Houston has to be big.

For the full article, click here: 36 Hours in Houston.

One major supplier of these buildings, Cover-All Building Systems, recently reached out to their customers with a warning regarding the structural integrity of some of their buildings related to combined wind and snow loadings. 

http://www.coverallfacts.net/

Haynes Whaley has recently been involved evaluating some of these very specialized buildings.  Based on our experience with this type of building, we recommend that owners hire a structural engineer to properly evaluate their existing buildings.

With that, I would like to describe the “behind-the-scenes” and under-the-ground elements that made this project an engineering challenge from day one.

The structural foundation system for the entire project was designed using drilled and under-reamed piers founded at a depth of about 20 feet below existing grade.  There is a new connecting underground utility tunnel that links all of the structures with MEP services and connects to the existing tunnel system on campus.  Construction started with the two dormitories and even though Civil drawings indicated where the underground utilities were supposed to be, other existing utilities were found during pier construction.  As a result, we designed below-grade transfer girders with a few additional piers to redirect the weight of the five-story building columns into the ground.

Because of the expansive soils found throughout the site, the ground floor slabs were all structural, two-way flat slab designs, isolated from potential movement of clayey material that can swell or shrink with the change in moisture content from seasonal conditions or underground utility issues.  Load-bearing CMU walls, starting at the 2nd floor, continue to support a structural, two-way slab design.  The finish surfaces of the load-bearing CMU walls and concrete slab structure are exposed to view and required strict quality control to insure a quality finish and uniform coloration.  Fly ash mixed with concrete, is a pozzolan product that can make the concrete stronger, improve durability, and make the concrete more resistant to chemicals.  This was an important aesthetic issue since the concrete surfaces were to be left exposed.  A common percentage of fly ash added to concrete is around 25% but on this project, 50 to 70 percent fly ash content was used because of its performance qualities.  Fly ash is also a cost-effective resource and when added to concrete, the amount of cement that is necessary can be reduced.

The dining halls each have their unique shape but common structural framing elements.  Duncan’s dining hall is rectangular with interior, turned solid timber columns supporting, turned and tapered branches supporting the wood roof structure.  The exterior perimeter framing supports the roof structure and consists of wood flitch columns, detailed to be an integral part of the window system.  McMurtry’s dining hall is a circular design with twelve solid wood turned columns, 10 inches in diameter. Glue-laminated flitch beams with a 1 inch steel plate, along with an outer tension ring and inner compression ring were designed to create this column-free space that is 74 feet across in diameter.  Both structures utilize a high strength cabling and bracket system that is nearly invisible to the eye to provide lateral bracing for the structures.  Perimeter grade beams were designed to incorporate the below-grade mechanical distribution system that heats and cools the spaces.

The center structure to the project is the kitchen/servery where the students from both colleges interact at mealtime.  The exposed concrete ceiling structure is also a structural, two-way slab system and designed to integrate the lighting system and decorative recesses.  The 2nd floor structure is supported by 18 inch diameter concrete columns in the servery area and by load-bearing CMU walls in the kitchen area.  The second floor has a couple of libraries and private dining rooms for school functions.  The roof structure consisted of shallow steel framing members to create large open spaces for meeting.

The Master’s houses have the same foundation system and were constructed with load-bearing metal stud walls.  Some flitch columns and glue-laminated beams were used to lighten the structure and provide large, uninterrupted interior spaces.

Communication and an overall understanding of cooperation among the contractor, their subcontractors and design professionals made this project a success.

Haynes Whaley’s latest Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory project was recently featured in the Spring 2009 edition of Gilbane Construction’s “Bulletin”.  Our firm provided the structural engineering services for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.  This recently completed project was the first new facility built for the Department of Homeland Security.  Along with Gilbane Construction, we worked with Perkins + Will (Atlanta and Houston), Affiliated Engineers, Inc., ccrd partners, and other national firms on this critical project.  The mission of this facility is to serve as the lead lab with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the event of a bioterrorist attack on this country.

This was Haynes Whaley’s third BSL-4 project.  Our previous experience with the unique construction requirements for high-containment lab areas was a great benefit to this effort.  As an example, we were able to reduce the concrete curing requirements for the concrete containment walls based upon our experience with the two previous projects.  NBACC presented many other unique structural design challenges, including the ability to resist progressive collapse and the use of a micropile foundation system.

Texas Construction’s annual “Top 40 Projects” was recently published in their June 2009 edition.  Haynes Whaley Associates had six projects in this year’s listing:

     #8   Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus

   #15   Texas A&M University Health Science Center

              Campus Phase 1

   #26   The Legacy at Memorial

   #31   IAH Terminal C Ticketing, Baggage Claim and

              ITT Level Remodel

   #33   Texas A&M University Health Science Center

              at Round Rock

   #39   Three Eldridge Place

This follows last year’s 2007 “Top 40 Projects” which also included 6 projects by our firm.

The Menil Collection proved to be an important architectural and structural achievement, and showed the way that a new generation of modernist buildings could be more compatible with their surroundings.