Green Roofing - It's American

As one of the first beautiful days of spring in the mid-Atlantic settled in, a group of 40+ volunteers from the Urban Land Institute, U.S Green Building Council, and DC Greenworks gathered to assist American University with retrofitting one of four green roof projects on their campus in the District of Columbia. The day began with a talk on crane and roof safety, a tour of an existing green roof at the University, and a speech by the Director of Sustainability describing American University's aggressive goal of going carbon neutral by 2020. With that accomplished, the volunteers were separated into working groups and organized for the day of construction.

Mature Green Roof at American University

Blowin' (Cellulose) in the Wind

Friday, October 22 marks the first day of insulation at The Village at Tom's Creek lot 210. The homeowners have worked with Progress Street Builders to select an insulation portfolio that will utilize blown cellulose in all exterior walls and expanded polystyrene foam in the roof-line, band, tub surrounds and behind interior fireplaces. According to the project superintendent, insulation can begin once roofing progress reaches 75% and all exterior weatherproofing is in place to make sure that no moisture will penetrate the foam, cellulose or fiberglass and cause mold issues later on. The following pictures show the process of blowing cellulose insulation into exterior walls:

Coming Out of the Ground

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot114

Fresh pictures from the jobsite!

On Friday, September 10th a subcontractor was on-site to install the concrete formwork in peparation to pour the foundation walls. The work took roughly a day and utilized a large crew of laborers. The concrete crew was onsite the following Monday to pour the walls, and the formwork was removed on Wednesday. Check out the following pictures to see the process as it evolved in front of my eyes. Unfortunately, I was not on-site to capture the actual pouring of the cement - my favorite step in the process.

VT Academic and Student Affairs Building - Foundation Observations

The new Academic and Student Affairs Building at Virginia Tech is under construction just a short walk from the Department of Building Construction. What a great opportunity to observe the construction process from ground breaking onward. The finished building will include 77,301 finished square feet in 3 stories and will house two floors of dining and one floor of classroom space at a cost of just over $45,000,000. The schematic photos of the building show a green roof and rain gardens, leading me to the conclusion that cutting edge green technology was an integral part of the design process. Although construction is scheduled to take until summer 2012, I will be chronicling some of the important milestones as the foundations are constructed through December 2010.

Gettin' Dirty

Today I began a new side project for the semester - field laborer for Progress Street Builders, a semi-custom home builder headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. I will be working directly under the assistant superintendent on 3 houses in various stages of construction, and my duties will include carrying, lifting, pushing, digging, hammering, screwing, mixing and every other possible dirty job on a construction site. By integrating directly into the outfit that is building these houses I hope to be in a position to observe the construction process and gain some valuable skills in wood-frame construction techniques. Through this position I will be able to apply some of the concepts and theories from the classroom to a working construction site, and its a heck of a lot better than sitting inside!

I have several objectives for taking this position:
1. Hands-on application of classroom concepts.
2. Observation of 3 working construction sites.
3. Developing useful life-skills (carpentry, masonry, etc.).

The three houses in Tom's Creek Neighborhood that I will be assisting with are in the foundation, framing, and finishing stages of construction:

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 114

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 210

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 211

Throughout this semester I hope to make semi-regular updates to this blog to document important milestones in the construction of a house.

Progress Street Builders

Atlanta Summer Happenings

Sustainable development should encompass living, working, and playing through a compact urban footprint that prioritizes safety, mobility and community. This is a simple recipe for creating places that have character and contribute to a healthier planet, but our auto-centric, individualist culture has necessitated the growth of modern cities in a less compact and less healthy pattern. My summer project, through Hill International, has been to work on a project that is reinventing the "normal" development pattern in one of the most traditionally sprawling cities in the world - Atlanta, GA.

The "Green Screen"

An innovative exterior shading device has been installed on the south facing facade of the Breakell, Inc. headquarters in Downtown Roanoke. The custom-made device includes two steel pipes bent to form a wave-like appearance. The pipes are permanently attached to the building through anchor plates that penetrate the wood siding and connect to the frame of the building. The pipes alone are not expected to have much of a shading effect on the building, which is where the project gets pretty interesting. Through a fit stroke of genious, Stan Breakell specified wisteria bushes to be planted below the devices and connected via wires to the shades. The plan is for the wisteria to grow up the wires and fully encompass the steel piping.

The use of plants as shades allows for super-shading to occur in the warm spring and summer months while allowing plenty of natural light into building. When the leaves disappear in the fall and winter months, the shading devices will allow for passive solar heating of the building. The indirect benefits of this new vegetation include aesthetic improvements to the building and a small reduction in the building's CO2 footprint via reduced operating costs and the natural processes of the plants. Overall, this solution to solar shading tackles multiple issues through creative thinking.

More info on living facades and passive shading:
verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com