CASE STUDY: GLASS

Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency

Photo courtesy of Guardian Industries Corp.

This 12-story, mixed-use public housing development located on I Street in Sacramento, California, is the home of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA). It also includes 108 units for the elderly and/or disabled, known as Riverview Apartments. Constructed in 1975, this 98,000-square-foot retrofit required significant upgrades. A $10 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant supplemented by $4.5 million from the SHRA funded the project, which included roof repair, water penetration prevention measures, building sealants, replacement of utility infrastructure (water, sewer, storm drain, and natural gas), new electrical and mechanical systems, and window and window wall system replacement. The building team chose new, energy-efficient clear glass for the building’s 26,000 square feet of curtain wall. The glass was selected based on its ability to deliver high light transmittance, while reducing solar heat gain and provide a neutral appearance most similar to clear, uncoated glass. The glass offers notable improvements over the existing building performance, including a visible light transmission of 68 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.38, all of which ease the load on the upgraded HVAC system.

CASE STUDY: FENESTRATION COMPONENTS

Buffalo Public School #69 Houghton Academy

Photos courtesy of Technoform North America

Houghton Academy replaced the aging, inconsistent windows (shown on the first floor) with a unified look, dual color finishes, and high performance (shown on the second and third floors).

Constructed in 1924, Buffalo Public School #69 Houghton Academy was designed by the Associated Buffalo Architects Inc. The U-shaped floor plan surrounds a courtyard in the rear and a Classic Revival style entrance in the front. The auditorium and gymnasium are situated at the four-story center of the building with three-story wings accommodating classrooms and future additions. The brick and stone structure is punctuated with large window bays. Over time, the windows were replaced in piecemeal fashion without preserving the architectural integrity of the building. This resulted in inconsistent window types, trim, and colors.

Christine Hentz, architect with the Buffalo Board of Education, elaborates, “In the 1970s, the windows were replaced, many with sliders on the bottom and aluminum panel infill. The windows on the front elevation around the courtyard were replaced about 15 years ago along with the east and west elevations.” In 2007, Houghton Academy underwent a major renovation, adding 25,500 square feet and bringing the school’s total square footage to 99,890. Hentz says, “New windows were installed in the new addition that resembled the originals, but we didn’t get new windows in the existing corridors of the buildings.” In 2012, approximately $500,000 was allocated for window replacement and masonry repairs on the school.

Houghton Academy’s new windows now consistently match the historic aesthetic with different color finishes on the interior and exterior using a structural thermal barrier system. Along with the appropriate aesthetic, thermal performance and smooth operation were top priorities for Houghton Academy’s 125 new windows. The use of a structural thermal barrier creates a highly effective thermal break that helps insulate 500 times better than aluminum. Because it expands and contracts at a rate similar to aluminum, the barrier delivers long-term durability and water-tightness in a properly assembled profile. It also resists heat distortion and withstands most chemicals used in the construction industry. Using the thermal strip for aluminum separation lowers conductivity, thereby reducing the windows’ thermal transmittance (U-factor), while increasing condensation resistance. Low U-factors allow broad expanses of vision glass to meet Model Energy Codes.

CASE STUDY: CUSTOM WINDOWS

Cardozo High School, Washington, D.C.

Photos courtesy of Graham Architectural Products/Bryan Becker Photography

Built a century ago in 1916 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Francis L. Cardozo Senior High School had undergone a dramatic renovation, reopening its doors in 2013 as a LEED Silver school. Adding to its strikingly fresh appearance were 1,100 custom windows—a mix of double-hung and fixed fenestration products. The completed project was so extraordinary, the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office/Office of Planning gave it the Historic Preservation Review Board Chair’s Award, citing “its exceptional design work in restoration, rehabilitation, and new construction affecting a historic District property.”

Cardozo was originally designed by William B. Ittner, referred to by one author as “the most influential man in school architecture in the United States.” The building—the city’s longest continuously operating public high school—is a landmark in a city full of them. It sits on a two-square block parcel high on a hill, with breathtaking views of our nation’s capital and its monuments. But time had not been kind to it, and the District of Columbia Public Schools had not been able to maintain the building. As a result, the necessary renovation was no small project. All told, it involved the complete modernization of 355,400 square feet of existing historic infrastructure and a 42,000-square-foot gymnasium addition. Compounding the challenge was the building’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and the need for National Park Service (NPS) approvals.

For window expertise, the design team turned to a custom window manufacturer because, as window design consultant Randy Boardman explained, “They specialized in historic windows—AW-rated historic replication windows—and they do a lot of school work.” Boardman was able to design a workable solution that featured custom panning designed and delivered by the custom window company. The manufacturing team was then able to overcome a tight timeline, one that Lee Becker, FAIA, of Hartman-Cox Architects, described in one article as, “Start-to-finish, design and construction, 18 months.” Even with a time squeeze and the need for an NPS blessing, things went smoothly. As Boardman explained, “I deal with historic people all the time—National Park Service, Historic Preservation Review Board, the Fine Arts Commission, the Georgetown Board—all different people with different ideas, and we have submittals and mockups and struggles and challenges and tweaks…but this one, we put our mockup in, and they blessed it. We were just part of the solution.”

Keith Walter, president of Heavy Commercial Windows, agreed, saying, “It was a very historic job with a tight schedule, and we knew we had to get things done, so everybody worked together to pull it out. In this day and age in this business, you don’t really have a lot of time for people who don’t know what they’re doing.”

Perhaps as a testament to the outcome, when the U.S. Green Building Council’s Maryland and National Capital Region Chapters went looking for a place to hold their 2014 regional Green School Summit, one location stood out above the rest: Francis L. Cardozo Senior High School in Washington, D.C.