Name: (confidential)                                   Site: (confidential)                                Occupant: (confidential)

Function: Museum                                      Size: 140,000 sq. ft.                              Height: 130 ft.

Number of Stories: 7 stories above grade  Dates of Construction: June 2016 – Spring 2018

Project Cost: ~$165 million                         Project Delivery Method: Design Bid Build

Owner: (confidential)                                  Architects: Hickok Cole, Roger Stirk Harbour and Partners

Structural: SK&A                                         MEPFP-Telecom Engineer: Vanderweil Engineers

Civil Engineer: Wiles Mensch Corporation

Landscape Architect: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects

Elevators: Lerch Bates

 

Architecture:

The new building will house the International Museum with allusion to the contents of the museum through its architecture. It is moving from its former home in the District where is has been since 2002. The outside will offer a “glass veil” that will be draped in front of a “enclosed black box exhibition space.” The “veil” and “black box” will be visual cues evoking the secrecy and mystery associated the exhibitions. Through this detail, the flow of people can be viewed from both interior and exterior perspectives. The building intends to contribute new energy to the area as the first of many projects to enhance the district. The prominent façade angles out over the street and public space, disrupting the building line, which will be clearly visible down much of the street.

​

Codes:

2010 ASHRAE 62.1 – Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

2007 ASHRAE 90.1 – Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings

2012 International Building Code (IBC)

2012 International Fire Code (IFC)

2012 International Plumbing Code (IPC)

2012 International Mechanical Code (IMC)

2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)

2013 NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers

2013 NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems

2013 NFPA 14, Standard for the Installation of Standpipes and Hose Systems

2013 NFPA 17A, Standard for Wet Chemical Extinguishing Systems

2014 NFPA 70, National Electrical Code (NEC)

2013 NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code

2012 NFPA 90A, Standard for the Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilating Systems, for technical requirements for duct smoke detection, and fire and smoke damper locations.

2012 NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, for technical egress requirements in lieu of the technical egress requirements of the IBC.

2013 NFPA 110, Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems 

 

Zoning:

For zoning, this facility will serve as an immediate and multi-faceted catalyst for transformation for the Children’s plaza where it is located and with the long-term vision for the Southwest Ecodistrict. The zoning authority is DCOZ. No historical requirements are necessary.

 

Building Envelope:

Design features include a glass "veil" suspended in front of an enclosed "black box" exhibition space that will allow the movement of people to be visible from both inside and outside, contributing to new energy along 10th Street. This sense of veil and black box reflects the Museum’s espionage-related themes of secrets revealed and hiding in plain sight. The new building significantly expands exhibit and educational space and adds an intimate theater along with unique event spaces.

 

Roofing:

The building has a gravel covered roof for drainage and has a skylight building is gravel and houses the mechanical system and a large skylight of curved glass that goes down into the atrium space. The structure for the roof is comprised of various slopes and parapets. There is a roofing neoprene layer with metal flashing on a concrete slab. There is a garden roof system as well.

​

Sustainability features:

The building is built under the considerations of LEED v2009. The building must obtain a minimum of LEED Silver rating as required by the local authority having jurisdiction. It will focus on systems. This building features innovations in mechanical system delivery due to the architectural mandate of the design. The mechanical system is an air cooled, chiller system with energy recovery air handling units.

 

Construction:

Construction for the building began in June with an agreement reached between the developer and the owner after 18 months of negotiations. It is expected to open to the public in spring 2018. Initially, the current building at the site was demolished and then reinforcement of the existing facilities below the site began using micropiles that are meant to reinforce the column footings below street level for the retail area below the building and parking garage below the retail level. The plaza will then be landscaped and constructed with the building structure. Outriggers are to be installed on the roof with multiple anchors and lanyard locations for tie-off points for workers. The project delivery method is IPD.

 

Electrical:

The model for the building contains nearly 1300 devices with a total wattage for the building being a little less than 54000 W. The building is serviced by dry type transformers. All elevators are scheduled to the same circuit breaker. Panels have lots of spare space for additional electrical loads to be added in the future. The majority of lighting fixtures are 277V with a few fixtures at 120V. The primary electric equipment and an emergency power generation is within the fifth floor plant room

 

Lighting:

Controls are put in place for most spaces in the museum part of the building. Manual wall switches are installed in the office area as well as storage, janitorial, communications, copy room, and the phone room. There are occupancy sensors for stairs and corridors.  In back of house, local wall timers control the spaces, but can manually be turned on. The lighting fixtures are LED with one fixture type as fluorescent.

 

Mechanical:

The 6th floor will house the majority of major equipment for the whole building as the central plant. The cooling of the system is based in a central plant of air cooled chillers. This was decided based on value engineering discussions.  The two distribution systems for the chillers will be variable flow primary with variable speed drive pumps each. The condenser water system will utilize a two cell induced draft cooling tower, free cooling plate and frame heat exchangers and three (3) open loop centrifugal condenser water pumps with variable speed drives. The condenser water pumps and heat exchangers will be located in the fifth floor mechanical room. The open loop condenser water distribution system will circulate condenser water from the cooling tower to the plate and frame heat exchanger or chillers using three (3) centrifugal pumps (2 duty, 1 stand-by).  Air Handling Units are set-up to deal with ventilation requirements and cooling. Ceiling, Wall and Floor mounted displacement ventilation are utilized throughout the building based on the ceiling heights and anticipated high occupancy levels to aid in reducing energy consumption while still maintaining comfort. Floor by floor air handling units were selected in the final design. Heating relies on high mass natural gas condensing boilers with 3 variable speed centrifugal pumps.

 

Structural:

Below the museum, micropiles are inserted into the foundation n to retrofit the plaza structure being that the museum will be above a retail and below that, parking garage space. The design is based on the soil boring data from the geotechnical report. The micropile design is intended to support 200 kips axial compression and 140 kips axial tension loads. No lateral load or moment are considered. For framing, the building is framed with wide flange girders with spans typically at 27’-9”. Girder sizes have a depth of 30” with hatched areas in the building plans indicate a 3” 18GA metal deck with +3-3/4” concrete (7-3/4”). The outer veil is made of largely self-supporting glass

 

Fire Protection:

Fire pumps are supplied electrical by different supply conductors depending on their required horse power. Multiple pumps are required in this area due to the low water pressure that is present in the city. NFPA occupancy classifications for the building are Light Hazard, Ordinary Hazard I, and Ordinary Hazard II. Standpipes are located in risers near stairwells. The overall system is dry.

​

Smoke detectors are applied in elevator related spaces and mechanical rooms with motors as well as stairwells related to emergency exits. Heat detectors are located in elevator machine rooms and hoist ways with duct mounted smoke detectors placed in return air systems that had over 2,000 cfm on the supply side or 15,000 cfm return air risers serving 2 or more stories.