The new EME420DDE 4-in. deep louvers—along with the 5-in. deep EME420DDE model—are designed to meet 55-mph impact tests, for applications in hurricane-prone regions. They have also earned Enhanced Protection ratings, qualifying them for use in such “essential facilities” as hospitals, jails, fire and police stations, and other buildings designated as emergency shelters.
MoreVery near Lake Michigan in Chicago, Northwestern Medical Center faced several challenges in bringing a new campus building to life. Designed by Perkins+Will, the project involves a phased construction where a 14-story base building is presently under construction; a 20-story tower addition is planned for construction in five to 10 years. Since the project is built-out to all property lines there are no at-grade landscape areas, which presented a particular challenge given the city’s Dept. of Stormwater Management permit requirement that the project account the total building mass and footprint. Translation: 10,000 cubic ft. of stormwater detention was required. Further, city code requi
MoreThe revolutionary FloodBreak automatic flood barrier is changing how flood mitigation projects are designed. FloodBreak will protect virtually any vulnerable opening, 24/7, without the need for human intervention or power. Permanently installed and nearly invisible, the flood barriers sit beneath entrances, roadways and other openings ready to deploy and prevent flood damage.
MoreThe PD-522FFR fire-rated flood door from PS Flood Barriers is a normal-use swing door, specifically engineered for interior and exterior openings requiring watertight flood protection, as well as a 90-minute fire rating. Always in place, this dual-defense door provides unmatched flood and fire protection while allowing pedestrian access. Designed for water-protective heights up to 11 ft., it meets hydrostatic, hydrodynamic and impact-loading requirements. It’s available in mild steel or stainless steel construction.
MoreAs everyone knows building envelopes have come under great security and for good reason, lives depend on it. Concrete has traditionally served as a non-combustible material. SlenderWall’s combination of a precast concrete facade with an insulated interior galvanized steel stud wall has passed the latest E-119-18a & E2226-15b ASTM tests. The SlenderWall composite cladding panel contained the fire and held its structural integrity for the specified 1 hour time period of resistance. SlenderWall’s closed-cell foam insulation is NFPA 285 rated and engineered fire stops are also integrated during installation. SlenderWall goes to great efforts with testing and research to provide a
MoreThe vertically deployed Flex-Wall is a high-strength flexible wall that can be deployed rapidly for flood protection of buildings or equipment. It is constructed from textile-based materials and metal posts that reside in a small container and are manually deployed. The Flex-Wall can be long to surround buildings or short to close off doorways. All parts and equipment are stored at the point-of-use for maximum efficiency in an extreme weather event.
MoreChannels cut along all four sides of new GreenGuard XPS Drainage Channel Board encourage drainage of any water that might happen to seep through a roofing assembly to the roofing membrane. The boards offer an R-Value of 5.0/in. of thickness and are available in a range of compressive strengths.
MoreStealthBond metal roofing is attached using a proprietary adhesive, rather than mechanical attachment devices, and has received Miami-Dade County Building Code approval. The three-part system incorporates a base level of metal strapping that’s secured to the roof deck, the adhesive that’s applied to that strapping and, finally, metal roofing panels that are laid into the adhesive for penetration-free attachment.
MoreThe promise of ventilated façades enabled by rainscreen technology to promote drainage and drying of wall assemblies is a powerful one, but it helps to know a little something about the not-so-sexy elements underneath. A tangled filament nylon core drainage mat, Sto’s DrainScreen is for use in above-grade vertical wall assemblies intended to lay beneath stucco, stone, siding and thin brick veneer. Easy to roll onto walls, water vapor moves freely through the mat layer to keep things dry and prevent water damage to façade materials.
MoreClass A, water-resistant NRP-FIRESTOP wall panels by Parkland are laminated and can be installed over painted walls, concrete block, plywood, insulating foam and even unfinished drywall. Installed with a tube-type adhesive to save time, the NRP-FIRESTOP also features flame retardancy. A variety of finishes are available: veneers, metallic, marbles, pebbled textures and even marker boards. Matching and contrasting moldings are available, or panels can be installed in a seamless construction.
MoreThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers AIT Barracks facility in Monterey, Ca is a four story, load-bearing, cold-formed steel structure that required a number of outside the box solutions to keep the project on time and on budget. From high seismic loading, antiterrorism requirements and a mix of cold-formed steel, masonry and structural steel, the project encompassed several very difficult design challenges. What makes this structure unique are the numerous lateral and vertical design considerations in addition to a massive coordination effort between trades through BIM and panelization. From a design perspective, the masonry wall was required to meet United Facilities Criteria (UFC) antiterroris
MoreUrban Riggers is making a splash—literally. A floating hub of shipping containers refitted as student housing for the University of Denmark was met with critical acclaim last month in Copenhagen, and is now the most de rigueur and affordable student accommodations in the city. “My oldest son needed a place to live when he was going to university,” Kim Loudrup, cofounder of the Copenhagen housing startup Urban Rigger told World Architecture News. “When we went online to see the availability for student housing in Copenhagen, it dawned on us that it was a nightmare.” Architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG and partner Kim Loudrup, CEO of Urban Riggers have become BMOC (big men on campus) for conceiving
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