© Maxwell MacKenzie 2009

Patriots Plaza II and III, located in the heart of Southwest Washington, DC, have been awarded LEED Core & Shell Gold Certification, making them part of the largest speculative office project in the District to receive a LEED Gold rating. Haynes Whaley’s engineers collaborated with the project team, including Trammell Crow Company, Gensler, B&A Consulting Engineers, and Helix Constructors, to design a facility that meets new government security standards, is marketable to private sector tenants, minimizes the impact to the environment and is energy efficient. Patriots Plaza II and III perform 14% better than ASHRAE 9.1, utilized over 20% of recyclable and regional building materials, and recycled more than 80% of the construction waste.

Patriots Plaza is a three-phase, 1 million sf office complex that is more than 80% leased by the General Services Administration for multiple U.S. Government agencies, including the FBI, FEMA, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our engineers provided structural design services for the entire complex, which was the first market-driven urban complex designed to meet post 9/11 security standards for a Level IV facility. Patriots Plaza’s high security features include progressive collapse avoidance, a hardened structure to resist blast loading, special column designs in the below-grade parking garage, and intricate detailing of reinforcement to increase the ability of the structure to confine damage and withstand attack.

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.

Fannie Mae Technology Center

Fannie Mae’s Technology Center in Urbana, MD is celebrating its 5th anniversary and the $1.7 million in energy savings it has realized as the first LEED certified data center in the nation – as reported in a recent Fannie Mae News Release. Haynes Whaley prides itself with being the structural engineer of record on this premier facility. Our staff worked at an accelerated pace with other project team members, including Gensler, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Mark G. Anderson Consultants and Holder Construction Company, to design the 247,000 sf data center and office facility to LEED standards. With no guidance from previous LEED data center projects, the design team faced a multitude of challenges, but close collaboration and an innovative spirit resulted in success. In addition to incorporating energy-saving features into the design, regional materials were utilized, and 80% of the construction waste was recycled during construction. All of these factors contributed to a more environmentally responsible structure and to the facility’s LEED certification. Since the completion of the Fannie Mae Technology Center, Haynes Whaley has continued to be committed to sustainability with LEED Accredited Professionals on our staff. Many of our projects are working toward or have earned Silver, Gold or Platinum LEED certification.

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.

MD Anderson and Vaughn Construction, as well as the project team of WHR Architects and Haynes Whaley Associates, celebrated a significant milestone with the topping out of Mid-Campus Building 1 (formally named the Administrative Support Building) on December 22, 2009, nearly one year to the day of the record-setting MAT foundation pour. The topping out celebration took place on the 5th floor of the building. Nearly 1200 attendants were on hand to enjoy the food, presentations, and hoisting of the 21 foot and 26 foot trees on top of the building.

The 26-story, $350 million project, currently scheduled for completion in 2012, will serve as home to the various MD Anderson employees who are currently occupying eight locations around the Med Center, as well as set the precedent for development and architecture for future Mid-Campus expansion. In addition to the MAT foundation concrete pour of 17,500 cubic yards on December 19, 2008, the building used another 105,000 cubic yards of concrete, 15,000 tons of rebar and 680,000 lbs and 200 miles of post-tensioning cables.  The project averaged 385 cubic yards of concrete per day, 7 days a week, with nearly 13,000 concrete trucks visting the site over a one year period.

The completion schedule for Project Heartbeat redefined the term “fast-track.” The project was kicked off by the design/builder, Linbeck, in late March 2009 and the building needed to be ready for occupancy by October 1st, 2009, leaving only 6 months for design and construction. Haynes Whaley Associates was engaged right out of the gates by providing Linbeck and the architect, Philo Wilke Partnership, with several bay studies for layout and pricing so that the most economical and architecturally efficient scheme could be chosen.

Due to the long lead-time for structural steel, it was decided to issue an early structural package in mid- April. The rest of the structure, including foundations and concrete tilt-up panel drawings, was issued three days later.

Just as the initial dust settled, an unexpected twist was thrown into the mix. The afternoon before drilling commenced for the foundations, Haynes Whaley was notified that the building square footage had been reduced. Haynes Whaley quickly responded and produced a revised foundation plan by the end of that day, as well as a revised roof plan and panel drawings a few days later.

The resulting project has been a success and is on schedule. It is instinctive to think “it can’t be done” when presented with what seems like an insurmountable task. Project Heartbeat serves as a great example of how a team can really work together and do the “unthinkable.”

In the early morning on Sunday, July 12, 2009, a helicopter lifted the last 30 ft section of the pipe-shaped spire into the air. Two steel workers, perched high up in a temporary “crow nest,” efficiently completed the bolted splice connection before the helicopter released its precarious load. This completes the final installation of the iconic architectural tiara and spire design atop the new Methodist Hospital Outpatient Center. The architectural design was accomplished by WHR Architects. The general contractor for the project is Hensel Phelps Construction Co..

The 1.6 million square feet new outpatient care facility is located in the Texas Medical Center at the intersection of Main, Fannin, and University. The project is a new 25-story facility that will provide 23-hour outpatient care services. The project consists of a basement that houses a high-bay truck court and two below-grade visitor valet parking levels, 12 levels of above-grade parking that offers parking for approximately 1,200 vehicles, and 11 levels of programmed spaces that contain state-of-the-art imaging, surgical and diagnostic suites, laboratories, offices, and support facilities.

The exterior architectural design of the Outpatient Care Center features a three-side curvilinear building perimeter, modeled after the Wankel combustion engine, gradually emerging from a rectangular building base. The Wankel shape terminates above the building’s roof in the form of a sloping screen wall with heights above the roof that vary from 12 ft on the east side to a maximum of 52 ft at the western-most building corner. The screen wall is crowned with a “tiara” that is shaped by a varying-geometry open lattice work with stainless steel panels finishes. Three pipe spires, located near the apex of the screen wall, further accentuate the tiara design. The tip of the tallest spire measures 565’-6” above the street level.

The spire sections consist of large-diameter steel pipes with prefinished high-performance paint coating to prevent corrosion. The pipe sections are spliced via bolted connections that have been designed in collaboration with the architects to achieve the desired appearance and yet offer the ease in field installation without welding that would have compromised the paint coating. Except for the last section of the tall spire, all sections were erected with the project tower crane. It was decided to dismantle the tower crane and to erect the last section with a helicopter because the spire final height would have been in conflict with the crane boom.

The unique design of the tiara and spires atop the building will make the Methodist Outpatient Care Center unequivocally the new landmark in the Texas Medical center.

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.