flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

FacadeRetrofit.org: A new database for tracking commercial and multifamily façade upgrades

Multifamily Housing

FacadeRetrofit.org: A new database for tracking commercial and multifamily façade upgrades

The site allows users to submit information about new projects, or supplement information on those already posted.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | August 5, 2015
A new database for tracking commercial and multifamily façade upgrades

Photo: Dallas's Centerpoint Energy Plaza is one of the façade retrofits listed on the site. Ken Lund/Creative Commons

Add to a growing list of buildings databases FacadeRetrofit.org, whose goal is to provide information about large commercial and multifamily buildings that have undergone or are undergoing building façade retrofits from 1950 through the present.

Currently in beta test, the site was developed by the University of Southern California School of Architecture and the Advanced Technology Studio of Enclos, a façade design and engineering contractor.

The site includes an online form through which users can submit projects. USC researchers will vet those submissions for accuracy and completeness, and gather additional information as required. The researchers eventually intend to develop “precedent” projects into detailed case studies. 

As the site becomes robust, its developers anticipate that it will provide a fuller catalog of what drives façade retrofits, such as component or system failure, energy performance, or aesthetics.

Users can search the site by a project’s completion date, including a handful of projects that won’t be done until next year or later, such as the seven-story Herbert C. Hoover Federal Building, which is scheduled for completion in 2021.

Projects can also be found by country, state, city, and building type. Projects are searchable by height, stories, total square footage, and retrofit type (i.e., overclad, reclad, selective enhancement or replacement), as well as by façade design, rating, goals (such as acoustic performance or energy efficiency), activities (like life-cycle assessment or zero-net-energy ready), and systems changes or upgrades.

BD+C clicked randomly clicked onto several façade retrofits posted on the site, and found the information offered to be pretty basic. For example, click onto “Centerpoint Energy Plaza,” and you find that it’s a 53-floor office-residence tower in Dallas completed in 2014. AECOM was the design architect, and the retrofit type was selective replacement. The original building had been a 47-floor office tower that was retrofitted as part of a renovation in 1996.

There are many other projects listed without any information at all other than their names and, occasionally, their floor count. The site allows users to add updated information, and to upload images of the projects.

As the site becomes robust, its developers anticipate that it will provide a fuller catalog of what drives façade retrofits, such as component or system failure, energy performance, or aesthetics. The developers also expect the site to provide users with materials, technologies, system designs, and constructability considerations employed in these projects; a taxonomy of retrofit classification, scope, and scale of the intervention; and pre- and post-building façade retrofit analyses, including energy performance, indoor environmental quality, and even building occupancy.

Last October, the developers received a $20,000 grant from the East China Architectural Design & Research Institute, a leading China-based architectural design firm, with 10,000 design and consulting projects under its belt. The grant came through the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Seed Funding Initiative, which chose this project out of 30 proposals from 11 countries.

Related Stories

| Mar 12, 2014

London grows up: 236 tall buildings to be added to skyline in coming decade, says think tank

The vast majority of high-rise projects in the works are residential towers, which could help tackle the city's housing crisis, according to a new report by New London Architecture.

| Mar 12, 2014

14 new ideas for doors and door hardware

From a high-tech classroom lockdown system to an impact-resistant wide-stile door line, BD+C editors present a collection of door and door hardware innovations. 

| Feb 27, 2014

PocketCake lunches CPU designed for virtual reality simulations

The company's Virtual Reality Simulation Converter Assembly is three times more powerful than the average high-performance computer and allows for up to eight people to experience a virtual reality simulation at the same time.

| Feb 20, 2014

5 myths about cross laminated timber

A CLT expert clears up several common misconceptions and myths surrounding the use of wood as a building material.

| Feb 14, 2014

Must see: Developer stacks shipping containers atop grain silos to create student housing tower

Mill Junction will house up to 370 students and is supported by 50-year-old grain silos.

| Feb 14, 2014

Crowdsourced Placemaking: How people will help shape architecture

The rise of mobile devices and social media, coupled with the use of advanced survey tools and interactive mapping apps, has created a powerful conduit through which Building Teams can capture real-time data on the public. For the first time, the masses can have a real say in how the built environment around them is formed—that is, if Building Teams are willing to listen.

| Feb 5, 2014

7 towers that define the 'skinny skyscraper' boom [slideshow]

Recent advancements in structural design, combined with the loosening of density and zoning requirements, has opened the door for the so-called "superslim skyscraper."  

| Feb 4, 2014

Must see: Student housing complex made with recycled shipping containers

Architect Christian Salvati's new structure is just the first step in bringing shipping container construction to New Haven, Conn.

| Jan 29, 2014

Historic church will be part of new condo building in D.C.

Sorg Architects unveiled a design scheme for 40 condos in a six-story building, which will wrap around an existing historic church, and will itself contain four residential units. 

| Jan 28, 2014

First Look: BIG's Honeycomb building for Bahamas resort [slideshow]

BIG + HKS + MDA have unveiled the design for the new Honeycomb building and adjacent plaza in The Bahamas – a 175,000-sf residential facility with a private pool on each balcony.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Curtain Wall

7 steps to investigating curtain wall leaks

It is common for significant curtain wall leakage to involve multiple variables. Therefore, a comprehensive multi-faceted investigation is required to determine the origin of leakage, according to building enclosure consultants Richard Aeck and John A. Rudisill with Rimkus. 




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021