Located just eight miles from downtown Dallas, the Trinity River Audubon Center seems a world away, sitting on 120 acres within the 6,000-acre Great Trinity Forest—the largest urban hardwood forest in the U.S. It seems only natural that the 22,000-sf facility would be designed to blend in with its wooded surroundings, but the architects’ decision to clad parts of the building in cypress was an unexpected choice.
The locally sourced cypress was selected “for its beautiful appearance, as well as its natural rot resistance and longevity,” says Gary DeVries, project manager for Brown Reynolds Watford Architects, the Dallas-based design firm that collaborated on the project with Antoine Predock Architect, Albuquerque, N.M.
The center has three wings—each expressing a different site element: forest, prairie, and water; the cypress siding was used on the exterior walls, fascia, and soffits of the center’s education or “forest” wing. An exhibit hall, gift shop, and administrative offices occupy the other two wings. Black anodized aluminum panels, concrete tilt-up, pre-weathered metal panels, and rough sawn boards were used to clad other sections of the building.
The three wings are tapered, angled, and cantilevered, sometimes to extremes (in one instance, a cantilevered canopy extends 48 feet) so that from the air the facility resembles a bird in flight. The building’s visual movement made it difficult to frame so the concrete subcontractor and the steel fabricator had to precisely coordinate their work. Because of those angles, the glazing contractor had to contend with creating a curtain wall with vertical framing installed on a cant ranging from 70 to 90 degrees, some of which varied between the 70 and 90 degrees on the same elevation. Moreover, curtain wall framing members ranged in height from 10 to 20 feet.
Ultimately, the team decided it was easier to custom fabricate the curtain wall on site. It took five months to fully enclose the building. Fortunately, the cypress cladding went up without a hitch, according to Jared Hicks, LEED AP, project manager for general contractor Sedalco, Fort Worth, Texas. “The building slopes a lot, there are large elevation changes, and the architects wanted boards running true horizontal in some places and running with the slope in other places,” says Hicks, “but installation was standard tongue and grove and the siding went up pretty easily.”
Hard to believe, but the building’s dramatically angular architecture wasn’t the most difficult problem the Building Team encountered. It was rain. And more rain. “In June the rain started coming and it didn’t stop, which is very unusual for us,” says Hicks. The team was only able to work six days that month and lost more than 130 days to weather over the course of the project. The Trinity River swelled to within 10 feet of finish floor and made the entrance to the job site impossible. Given the extremes of weather, the team was granted an extension and completed the $12.5 million facility one month before the center’s planned grand opening.
Visitors to the center have access to classrooms, indoor and outdoor museum exhibits, a discovery garden, and a below-grade aquarium designed to look like it’s part of the adjacent pond. Sedalco created more than two miles of nature trails, which included construction of bridges and boardwalks. They had to tread lightly, however, because they were under orders to disturb as little vegetation as possible. All equipment had to fit on the trails, which were only six feet at their widest. Steel erection and deck framing for the bridges and boardwalk wound up having to be completed without equipment.
The center has submitted for LEED Gold certification, with features such as the locally sourced cypress and other sustainable woods (including pecan millwork and wall paneling and bamboo floors), a partially vegetated roof, rainwater collection, and insulation made from old jeans contributing to the center’s sustainability. Perhaps the most significant green element is the building’s former brownfield site. Despite its location within a forest preserve, the land had been used for more than 15 years as an illegal dumping ground, and site remediation cleared away 1.5 million tons of trash. Native hardwood trees and prairie grasses now grow in place of trash piles. BD+C
Related Stories
| Feb 11, 2011
Kentucky’s first green adaptive reuse project earns Platinum
(FER) studio, Inglewood, Calif., converted a 115-year-old former dry goods store in Louisville, Ky., into a 10,175-sf mixed-use commercial building earned LEED Platinum and holds the distinction of being the state’s first adaptive reuse project to earn any LEED rating. The facility, located in the East Market District, houses a gallery, event space, offices, conference space, and a restaurant. Sustainable elements that helped the building reach its top LEED rating include xeriscaping, a green roof, rainwater collection and reuse, 12 geothermal wells, 81 solar panels, a 1,100-gallon ice storage system (off-grid energy efficiency is 68%) and the reuse and recycling of construction materials. Local firm Peters Construction served as GC.
| Feb 11, 2011
Former Richardson Romanesque hotel now houses books, not beds
The Piqua (Ohio) Public Library was once a late 19th-century hotel that sat vacant and deteriorating for years before a $12.3 million adaptive reuse project revitalized the 1891 building. The design team of PSA-Dewberry, MKC Associates, and historic preservation specialist Jeff Wray Associates collaborated on the restoration of the 80,000-sf Richardson Romanesque building, once known as the Fort Piqua Hotel. The team restored a mezzanine above the lobby and repaired historic windows, skylight, massive fireplace, and other historic details. The basement, with its low ceiling and stacked stone walls, was turned into a castle-like children’s center. The Piqua Historical Museum is also located within the building.
| Feb 11, 2011
Justice center on Fall River harbor serves up daylight, sustainable elements, including eucalyptus millwork
Located on historic South Main Street in Fall River, Mass., the Fall River Justice Center opened last fall to serve as the city’s Superior and District Courts building. The $85 million facility was designed by Boston-based Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc., with Dimeo Construction as CM and Arup as MEP. The 154,000-sf courthouse contains nine courtrooms, a law library, and a detention area. Most of the floors have the same ceiling height, which will makes them easier to reconfigure in the future as space needs change. Designed to achieve LEED Silver, the facility’s elliptical design offers abundant natural daylight and views of the harbor. Renewable eucalyptus millwork is one of the sustainable features.
| Feb 11, 2011
Research facility separates but also connects lab spaces
California State University, Northridge, consolidated its graduate and undergraduate biology and mathematics programs into one 90,000-sf research facility. Architect of record Cannon Design worked on the new Chaparral Hall, creating a four-story facility with two distinct spaces that separate research and teaching areas; these are linked by faculty offices to create collaborative spaces. The building houses wet research, teaching, and computational research labs, a 5,000-sf vivarium, classrooms, and administrative offices. A four-story outdoor lobby and plaza and an outdoor staircase provide orientation. A covered walkway links the new facility with the existing science complex. Saiful/Bouquet served as structural engineer, Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers served as MEP, and Research Facilities Design was laboratory consultant.
| Feb 11, 2011
A feast of dining options at University of Colorado community center, but hold the buffalo stew
The University of Colorado, Boulder, cooked up something different with its new $84.4 million Center for Community building, whose 900-seat foodservice area consists of 12 micro-restaurants, each with its own food options and décor. Centerbrook Architects of Connecticut collaborated with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects and foodservice designer Baker Group of Grand Rapids, Mich., on the 323,000-sf facility, which also includes space for a career center, international education, and counseling and psychological services. Exterior walls of rough-hewn, variegated sandstone and a terra cotta roof help the new facility blend with existing campus buildings. Target: LEED Gold.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Iowa surgery center addresses both inpatient and outpatient care
The 12,000-person community of Carroll, Iowa, has a new $28 million surgery center to provide both inpatient and outpatient care. Minneapolis-based healthcare design firm Horty Elving headed up the four-story, 120,000-sf project for St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital. The center’s layout is based on a circular process flow, and includes four 800-sf operating rooms with poured rubber floors to reduce leg fatigue for surgeons and support staff, two substerile rooms between each pair of operating rooms, and two endoscopy rooms adjacent to the outpatient prep and recovery rooms. Recovery rooms are clustered in groups of four. The large family lounge (left) has expansive windows with views of the countryside, and television monitors that display coded information on patient status so loved ones can follow a patient’s progress.
| Feb 11, 2011
Grocery store anchors shopping center in Miami arts/entertainment district
18Biscayne is a 57,200-sf urban retail center being developed in downtown Miami by commercial real estate firm Stiles. Construction on the three-story center is being fast-tracked for completion in early 2012. The project is anchored by a 49,200-sf Publix market with bakery, pharmacy, and café with outdoor seating. An additional 8,000 sf of retail space will front Biscayne Boulevard. The complex is in close proximity to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the downtown Miami entertainment district, and the Omni neighborhood, one of the city’s fast-growing residential areas.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago architecture firm planning one of China’s tallest towers
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners was commissioned by developer Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. to design a new 294,570-sm mixed-use tower in Tianjin, China. The Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower will be located within the city’s newly planned business district, and at 439 meters it will be one of China’s tallest buildings. The massive complex will feature 134,900 sm of Class A office space, a 400-key, five-star hotel, 55 condominiums, and 8,550 sm of retail space. The architects are designing the tower with multi-story atriums and a high-performance curtain wall to bring daylight deep into the building, thereby creating deeper lease spans. The project is currently finishing design.
| Feb 11, 2011
Two projects seek to reinvigorate Los Angeles County medical center
HMC Architects designed two new buildings for the Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Center as part of a $360 million plan to reinvigorate the campus. The buildings include a 120-bed hospital, which involves renovation of an existing tower and several support buildings, and the construction of a new multi-service ambulatory care center. The new facilities will have large expanses of glass at all waiting and public areas for unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles. A curved glass entrance canopy will unite the two buildings. When both projects are completed—the hospital in 2012 and the ambulatory care center in 2013—the campus will have added more than 460,000 sf of space. The hospital will seek LEED certification, while the ambulatory care center is targeting LEED Silver.
