DYLAN FRIDAY MECHANICAL OPTION
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING SENIOR THESIS
BUILDING STATISTICS
Building Name: Aspen Art Museum
Location: Aspen, Colorado
Site: 637 E Hyman Avenue
Occupant Name: Aspen Art Museum
Occupancy Type: Public Art Museum
Size: 33,000 square feet
Construction Duration: October 2012-August 2014
Number of Stories: 3 above grade, 1 below
Overall Project Cost: $45 million
Project Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Project Team:
Owner’s Representative: Mike O’Connor
General Contractor: Turner Construction www.turnerconstruction.com
Construction Manager: Turner Construction www.turnerconstruction.com
Design Architect: Shigeru Ban Architects www.shigerubanarchitects.com
Architect of Record: CCY Architects www.ccyarchitects.com
Structural Engineer: KL&A, Inc. www.klaa.com
Climate Engineer: Transsolar Inc. www.transsolar.com
MEP/IT/AV Engineer: Beaudin Ganze Consulting Engineers www.bgce.com
Civil Engineer: Sopris Engineering LLC www.sopriseng.com
Fire Protection: Simplexgrinnel www.tycosimplexgrinell.com
Landscape Architect: Bluegreen www.bluegreenlandscape.com
Elevator Consultant: Lerch Bates www.lerchbates.com
Acoustical Consultant: D.L. Adams Associates www.dlaa.com
Lighting Designer: L’Observatoire International www.lobsintl.com
Food Service Consultant: Katz Company www.thekatzcompany.com
Architecture:
Designed by Shigeru Ban Architects, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a strikingly contemporary design for the traditional mining town. Relying heavily on the idea of transparency to encourage those passing by to enter, the AAM also allows visitors to admire the beautifully historic town of Aspen and the surrounding mountains from within the building’s footprint. A few of the building’s key elements include a stair case that climes up the exterior and interior of the museum’s East façade, an all glass elevator known as the “moving room”, as well as café/event space on the third floor whose walls retract to allow an uninhibited connection with the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains and fresh air.
Second floor gallery space. Photo taken by Dylan Friday.
Visitors may choose to enter the building at ground level on the North side or by ascending the staircase on the exterior of the East façade. From the ground level entrance, visitors can walk along the North and East perimeter of the building to gain access to the museum’s central core of art galleries. There are 2 galleries on the basement level, 2 at ground level, and one larger gallery on the second level. The ground level also serves as a home for the museum’s educational workshop, a small retail space, and a studio apartment for visiting artisits while their work is on display. Back of house, storage, and spaces for art preservation are dispersed throughout.
Interior stiarcase (left) and mirrored exterior staircase (right). Photos taken by Dylan Friday.
Applicable Codes:
Building Code: 2009 International Building Code (IBC)
Mechanical Code: 2009 International Mechanical Code (IMC)
2009 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC)
Fire Code: 2009 International Fire Code (IFC)
Energy Code: 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)
Plumbing Code: 2009 International Plumbing Code (IPC)
Electrical Code: 2008 National Electric Code (NEC)
Zoning:
As illustrated in the diagram below, the AAM is located in the C-1 Commercial Zone.
In addition to commercial zoning requirements, all buildings in the city of Aspen must comply with maximum height restrictions of 3 stories above grade at no more than 46 feet tall. Furthermore, the area of conditioned space on the third floor was limited to a maximum of 50% of the gross parcel area for the building site.
Building Enclosure:
Building facades:
A glaze curtain wall system was used on the corners of the building facing the street with Triple Insulated Low E Glass. A white, composite metal panel (cmp) was used on the south and west facades of the museum. The typical construction for these two exterior walls is illustrated below.
From design documents sheet M-807 and M-805 (from left to right).
From design documents sheet M-807 and A-414 (from left to right).
Sustainability Features:
Sustainability was incorporated throughout the design of the AAM, but it is most apparent in the robust lattice screen that covers the building’s North and East facing glass facades. Continuing the natural feel of the wooden elements, the elaborate structure of the custom, open-frame wooden roof trusses provided a sustainable method of supporting the glazed curtain wall and heavy snow loads accumulated during the harsh winter season. Day-lighting was also used abundantly throughout the lobby, workshop, and gallery spaces. Mechanical energy demands were reduced through the use of energy recovery ventilation which pre-conditions 100% of the building’s outdoor air. Building electricity is supplemented with a 66 photovoltaic panel array on the roof. Additionally, 46% of Aspen’s electricity comes from hydroelectric dams. Of the remaining 54%, 53% counts toward renewable through a credit purchasing program form a wind farm in Nebraska, and the remaining 1% comes from the combustion of landfill gases.
Primary Engineering Systems:
Structural
The Aspen Art Museum is supported underneath its basement level by a network of spread footings. Moving up to the at-grade level and the two elevated levels, the floor is supported by a one of two methods. The 9” concrete floor slab of the art gallery spaces is supported by 21” deep cast in place concrete beams on the ground floor and reduces to 12” deep beams on the first and second floors. A 10” flat concrete slab supports the non-gallery spaces of the building, however, each of theses three levels take full advantage of a post-tensioned cable system to minimize structural depth and increasing ceiling height in the Art Museum. On floor of the third level, additional reinforcing steel members are added around the skylights. Several cast-in place concrete shear walls resist the museum’s lateral forces.
A custom open frame wooden roof truss designed by Shigeru Ban supports the roof of the AAM, and it is connected to the third floor slab by a series of inverted steel tripods. These tripods are composed of HSS5x0.375 hollow structural steel sections and are reminiscent of branching trees, which compliment the natural texture of the intricate wooden trusses. The triple glazed curtain wall and the attached exterior woven screen is suspended from the wooden roof structure with the help of additional concrete and steel reinforcement.
Electrical
Power enters the art museum at a building utilization voltage of 277/480V through the main disconnect located in a small cubby along the ally on the south side of the building. There is also a tap into City of Aspen’s emergency power supply in this same location. From here, all power runs through the main electrical room on the basement level, where it is distributed to one of four transformers. Power is supplemented with 66 photovoltaic panels on the roof, each of which 4 feet long by 2 feet wide. Photovoltaic inverters are located just one level below, in the mechanical room on the third floor.
Lighting
The museum has intense lighting demands with 17,500+ square feet of gallery space. This demand is reduced through the use of LED and fluorescent lamps, in combination with adjustable track lighting. The track lighting allows a fewer total number of luminaires to accommodate the same variety of exhibits that are displayed throughout the museum. While the gallery spaces are largely closed off from daylight in order to better control the lighting around the exhibits, the museum circulation, lobbies, and café are lit predominantly with day light that enters the building through the glazed curtain wall.
Construction
Construction began in October of 2012 and ended in August of 2014, lasting a total of 23 months. Although the building was completed on schedule, several violations were cited for contractors working on Sundays during the final stages of construction. Filling nearly every square inch of its already tight footprint, the Aspen Art Museum had severely constricted staging areas, which was particularly problematic for the exterior woven screen and the finishing tradesmen. Additional schedule complications arose when the rupture of a post-tensioned cable caused damage to a nearby building and vehicle.
Turner Construction was both the general contractor and construction manager in this traditional design-bid-build project. The total project cost for the 33,000 square foot art museum was $45 million ($1,363 per square foot). The building was privately funded through Capital endowments and pledges of community members and art enthusiasts. An additional $25 million dollars was raised for building operations and programming allowances.
Mechanical
The cooling demands for the art museum are served by a 100 ton water cooled chilled water plant. Although this cooling system is not typically implemented in a building of this size, but the peak design load for special events at the museum justified the additional cost and capacity to select the more efficient water-cooled chiller. A 2000 MBh natural gas fired boiler serves the museums heating demands, including the hydronic snowmelt system that circulates the exterior pedestrian paths of the building and the patio on the third floor.
On the air-side, the majority of the airflows are served by air handling units located in the basement mechanical space. Single zone fan coil units supplement as needed throughout. All outdoor air is preconditioned before being distributed to the air handling equipment with the use of an energy recovery ventilator. Ventilation is tailored to the needs of each space through the implementation of demand-controlled ventilation, which regulates carbon dioxide levels in each space and increases the percentage of fresh air supplied as necessary. This is done with the use of variable volume devices at the point of distribution.
Additional Engineering and Support Systems:
Fire Protection
Per requirements of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the Aspen Art Museum is protected by sprinklers on each floor and is equipped with smoke detectors and an alarm system. Fire dampers are also installed at the penetration of each 2-hour fire rating.
Transportation
The museum is equipped with one elevator for the patrons and a larger freight elevator for back of house operations. The freight elevator is used for transporting large works of art from the loading dock to the various gallery, conservation, and storage spaces throughout the building. The primary elevator is a focal point of the museum’s main entry. Made of all glass and steel, this corner elevator is commonly referred to as the moving room. The elevator was custom designed by Lerch Bates elevators, and is an iconic feature of the museum.
In addition to the elevator, museum guests are invited to ascend the building’s exterior, similar to how one would ride a ski lift, before perusing their way down through the museum’s interior. Two additional stair cases for emergency purposes are located on the north and south western corners of the museum.
Telecommunications
The museum is equipped with telephone and data outlets in all of the administrative office spaces as well as in the small retail room, the café on the third floor, and the visiting artist’s living quarters at ground level.