Archinect - design/buildLAB

Hydrostop and Open House

2014-04-27T16:42:44-04:00

This past week, we began working on the application of Hydrostop to our roof panels. Hydrostop was not only generous enough to donate the entire system for our building's roof, but they sent out a representative, Alan Geer, to teach us how to apply the layered coats. Alan also took the time to show us how to "Hydrostop" the areas around our roof drains!

We had to work together and quickly to properly apply the first coat, but our methods improved greatly over the course of the day.

On Friday, we shifted gears and set up for our open house! We invited everyone out to our prefab facility to get a little taste of what we do. We were pleased to see faculty and staff from various parts of the university, students, donors, friends, and parents come on out for tours and a presentation of the project.

The grill was set up in true design/buildLAB fashion with a little help from Frankie the forklift!

At lunchtime, we fired up the grill and had a BBQ for our guests...

..and then preceded to take aw...

Open House This Friday

2014-04-19T13:19:14-04:00

The design/buildLAB would like to invite you to its annual Open House on Friday, April 25 from 10am-4pm! All are welcome for a BBQ and presentation of the Fieldhouse Project at our prefabrication facility (ESL, 4076 Prices Fork Rd, Blacksburg). Hope to see you there!

Public Design Unveiling

2014-04-13T23:24:00-04:00

It has been a busy week for our studio! As prefab powers on, we have completed the ceiling on all of the roof panels and are ready to apply the final layer of sheathing and the roof membrane!

"Steel Team 6" began prefabrication of the screen and steel bents. Last year's student design team even came out to help with the welding! Meanwhile, the assembly of the building's formwork powers on in the wood shop.

We were delighted to attend the Opening Day festivities put on by the Clifton Forge Little League on Saturday, where we were invited to unveil the fieldhouse design to the public.

With our model, material samples, and renderings in stow, we were able to walk the little league participants through the experience of the project.

Sporting our new design/buildLAB baseball tees, we were easily recognizable if any league participants had questions.

Our renderings helped the patrons better picture how some of the areas of the fieldhouse could be used.

Excitement was evident among those at the...

Prefab Week 1

2014-03-23T21:36:09-04:00

This past week we started prefab out at ESL! It was refreshing to say goodbye to our computers and get our hands a little dirty! (Some people really needed it...)

ESL was one beautifully organized circus. With no time to waste, we split up into teams so that we could simultaneously produce elements for the building. Our first items to be tackled were the roof panels, cabinetry, and formwork.

Happening around ESL all at the same time was LVL and joist marking...

Cutting of joists and LVLs.....

Cutting of blocking...

Cutting of formwork and cabinetry in the wood shop...

And assembly of the roof panels. By the end of the week, those roof panels were almost starting to look as good as us!

Presentation of a Single Fieldhouse

2013-12-15T13:45:34-05:00

This past Friday, we invited the Clifton Forge Little League Board to Virginia Tech for a presentation of the single design of the fieldhouse and master plan we have been working on as a studio!

The presentation covered all of the considerations that have gone into the design of the site and building, ideas that are in development, and a showcase of each part of the fieldhouse (concession area, pavilion, restrooms, and landscape).

To aid with the presentation of the building, we utilized detail models of "cool doors" and drain ideas, hailing some "ooh ahhs" from the clients.

We had some material and color samples to help the little league board better visualize the the building. Materials and color will continue to develop in the next phase of the process.

We were pleased to receive positive feedback from the board! It's hard to tell who is more excited about the project between our studio and the little league, but we would say that's a pretty good sign!

After...

Presentations to Ronald Rael and Board Members

2013-11-19T15:31:22-05:00

Last week was a busy one, as we had two different presentations at the end of the week.

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to present the three schemes that we created by merging the best ideas from our previous eight proposals to visiting architect Ronald Rael. Ronald Rael is a professor at UC Berkley, an author, and founding partner of the award-winning practice, Rael San Fratello. The feedback we received will undoubtedly impact our design process.

On Friday, we presented these same three schemes to members of the Clifton Forge Little League Board.

Their input helped us identify the strengths of each scheme.

After receiving input from both Ronald Rael and the Clifton Forge Little League board members, we made a list of the highlights of our three schemes.

This list will inform our process as we come together to arrive at one final design.

Presentations to Ronald Rael and Board Members

2013-11-19T15:31:14-05:00

Last week was a busy one, as we had two different presentations at the end of the week.

On Friday, we presented these same three schemes to members of the Clifton Forge Little League Board.

Their input helped us identify the strengths of each scheme.

After receiving input from both Ronald Rael and the Clifton Forge Little League board members, we made a list of the highlights of our three schemes.

This list will inform our process as we come together to arrive at one final design.

Community Design Presentation 2

2013-10-26T21:10:36-04:00

This past Friday, we hosted the second community design presentation of the fieldhouse to be built for the Clifton Forge Little League this spring. There we presented eight different schemes for the layout of the master plan of the site, as well as architectural designs of the fieldhouse.

Community members and participants of the league of all ages came out for the presentation at the Clifton Forge Fire House and gave their feedback to the eight designs presented.

The various perspectives and feedback from the community members that attended was very valuable and will help us as we progress toward a final design.

From here, we will recognize similar architectural ideas between the projects and use the feedback and ideas given by the community to collaborate on three more schemes. From these three schemes, the entire studio will work toward a final design that will be presented to the community later this semester!

Community Design Presentation

2013-10-22T15:30:49-04:00

Preliminary Design Presentation

2013-10-13T22:48:39-04:00

The design/buildLAB hosted the first design presentation of the fieldhouse this past week for the board members of the Clifton Forge Little League. Each student presented a design of the filedhouse and master plan of the site.

The board members offered feedback as to what design aspects they found interesting and what would make the facilities more functional for the little league. The enthusiasm the board members shared has motivated the design/buildLAB forward into the next stage of the project.

From here, a program will be established for the project and the students will collaborate in pairs to form new designs that further respond to the needs of the little league and the site. A second design presentation will be held in Clifton Forge, VA on Friday, October 25!

The Project

2013-09-22T14:00:57-04:00

Clifton Forge Little League Field House

September 2013

The Virginia Tech design/buildLAB and the Clifton Forge Little League are pleased to announce that they will be partnering on the design and construction of a new field house, including concessions and restrooms, during the 2013/2014 academic year.

The new field house will be located at the Col. Tom Dotson Park in eastern Alleghany County. The project is funded largely by a $90,000 grant awarded by the Alleghany Foundation this past spring. Local fundraising efforts by the Clifton Forge Little League, and volunteer services from Branch Highways Inc. and from the VA Tech design/buildLAB all come together to make this project possible.

Over the next several months, students will be conducting research and organizing community interviews, particularly with little league families and volunteers for the league. Through their research and collaboration with the community, the students will develop a range of designs for the ...

Hello World!

2013-09-09T19:08:00-04:00

We are the 2013-2014 design/buildLAB of Virginia Tech! We come together from across the world united in the same passion for design, architecture, and education. This year we will continue the design/buildLAB's tradition of conceiving and realizing a built architecture project that is both educational and charitable in nature. Word of mouth is already spreading excitement through the community with whom we are collaborating! We can't quite reveal what we're up to yet, so you will have to keep an eye out on the blog for what is up next!

About our team:

Mitch August

Age: 20

Hometown: Centreville, VA

Interests: I've played baseball since the age of four, I enjoy lifting weights, chillin' with my boys, and long walks on the beach

Forrest Bibeau

Age:20

Hometown: Okinawa, Japan

Interests: Backpacking, exploring, racquetball, trying new things

Ellie Burns

Age: 20

Hometown: Baltimore, MD

Interests: Old Bay. Crabs. Berger cookies. Ravens. Orioles. Balt...

Come Join Us!

2013-06-09T21:31:07-04:00

Join us on Wednesday, June 12 at 6:30 PM to celebrate the completion of our bridge project!

There will be people to meet, speeches to hear, and a beautiful bridge to admire!

The Magic of Sod

2013-06-08T00:38:12-04:00

As we near the end of this project, we've all been putting in hours and hours of work to make sure it gets done. Everyone has been commuting to Clifton Forge from Blacksburg every day, some even leaving after their summer school classes to go work on the bridge.

We had hoped to finish the bridge today, but the rain yesterday had other plans for us. It set us back a few days and now we expect to finish up early next week.

While driving home on Wednesday in low spirits because of the amount of work left to complete, Marie said something that gave us hope: "Just wait until the sod gets here. It's such a moral boost for everyone."

Today, the sod arrived. And over the course of 9 hours, the site transformed from a mud pond into a grassy park. It definitely was a moral booster to see the site in all of its green splendor. We left the site in high spirits tonight, and are ready to go back tomorrow and Sunday to finish up the bridge.

The gravel paths look so crisp now, it ...

Crane Day

2013-06-05T00:32:03-04:00

Months of designing, planning, and construction came together today as we craned the bridge into place. It took us all day, but each piece of the bridge has been placed and bolted!

The old bridge was removed yesterday and carted away to its new home today, making room for the ramp to be installed. It took a bit of work to get it into place, but the ramp successfully made it into its proper location.

Pumped up on an adrenaline rush from successfully placing the ramp, we moved on to placing the stair and preparing the town side retaining wall for the bridge. The stair was soon bolted into place, and we focused our efforts onto getting the bridge in place as well.

Seeing the bridge in the air was surreal- All of us have studied the CDs and know the construction of the bridge like the backs of our gloved hands, but watching it fly through the air and then span Smith Creek blew us away. Our design for the Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge is now a reality.

For the ...

Installation

2013-06-01T00:21:35-04:00

The hub made it safely to Clifton Forge this afternoon, and was moved to its final resting place on the site. Everything lined up almost perfectly, and with a few taps from the sledgehammer, the entire piece fell into place.

After it was bolted into place, we checked to see how level it was. The entire hub in both directions was perfectly level- a testament to our design and craftsmanship of the hub and to our design of the concrete formwork and foundation.

Testing and Loading

2013-05-31T08:51:48-04:00

We've met with one of the professors in the college of Architecture, Mehdi Setareh, many times over the course of this project to help design our bridge. Yesterday, he came out to ESL to test the deflection of the bridge piece.

He had Stephen run across the bridge for one test, then had everyone in the studio weigh themselves and stand on the bridge in a line. Uniformly loading the bridge this way helped Mehdi better calculate the deflection.

We also found a way to get ahead of schedule yesterday by loading up all of our prefabricated pieces for shipping!

Our original shipping date was June 3rd, but all of the pieces of the bridge were finished to the point of being able to ship yesterday. So, we decided to load everything up early and start taking pieces over today! The hub will be put in place this morning in Clifton Forge, and our bridge piece will ship over on Monday.

We had to move it out of the high bay with two fork lifts moving in synch with each ot...

Hard Work Pays Off

2013-05-29T21:28:51-04:00

Everyone has been working diligently to get the bridge pieces ready to ship to Clifton Forge on June 3rd. So far this week, we've accomplished a great deal of work! There's still a lot left to do, but with the deadline in sight, we're all doing everything we can to make sure we meet it.

The bridge and ramp pieces have both been decked and the handrails and guardrails are almost finished.

The treads, handrails, and guardrails have all been installed on the stair piece.

The hub has seen the most work this week! The frame has been welded, the posts have all been attached, and the entire piece has been craned into the air. Next, the columns were moved into place and welded to the steel frame. Today, the hub was primed and will be ready for paint in the morning!

And finally, the site in Clifton Forge is nearly ready for all of the pieces to be delivered on Monday! It has been graded and the foundations are all in place.

Pouring Concrete

2013-05-24T23:14:59-04:00

We've gotten a lot done this week- the Blacksburg Crew has been hard at work welding, decking, and painting, while the Clifton Forge Commuters have finished setting up the concrete formwork.

This week, we were able to pour the concrete foundations for the bridge!

Formwork

2013-05-19T21:39:43-04:00

Members of the studio went to Clifton Forge to survey the site and install concrete formwork for the foundations of the bridge.

While Marie used the backhoe to dig holes for the formwork, the students used surveying equipment to measure the proper depth for each piece.

While some students dug, others cleaned up the site by cutting brush and removing tree. It looks so much more open now!

Meanwhile, the students back in Blacksburg finished welding the bridge and the ramp. Once the rain dies down, we will be able to paint the steel!

The Design

2013-05-14T17:06:43-04:00

You've seen the pieces of our bridge over the past few weeks- all the steel, wood, and welding that is going into making this design a reality. Very soon, all of the pieces will be ready for assembly and the design will become a reality. The Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge is more than just a bridge, though. Through our design, we are helping Clifton Forge bridge the gap between the historic downtown and Church Street.

When coming up with a design for the bridge, we kept the Masonic Amphitheatre in mind. The design has similar elements to the Amphitheatre, as well as a similar material palette. We wanted to make sure the bridge felt like a part of the site, like it fit in with the Amphitheatre and the town.

We are using reclaimed white oak from the old tire warehouse that used to occupy the site in the bridge, as well as new steel beams and a custom railing design. Integrated within the railing system are LED light fixtures to guide visitors along the bridge at night.

...

Trust in the Truss

2013-05-13T23:19:11-04:00

After many days of squaring, leveling, and welding, the trusses are complete on both the bridge and the ramp!

We've now moved on to welding the guardrail posts to the I-beams, and fabricating the wood guardrails.

We've been using our new dado blade for the table saw to route out notches for the steel supports, LED lights, and a drip edge in each piece of wood being used in the guardrail. It creates a LOT of sawdust, but also creates a beautiful end product. This 100-year old reclaimed white oak is gorgeous, once you plane it and trim it a bit!

Public Presentation of our Pedestrian Bridge Design

2013-05-07T22:40:55-04:00

On Friday, half of the studio went to Clifton Forge to present our bridge design to the community. The audience participated with questions and comments, and a number of people volunteered to help with the landscaping portion of the project. The presentation was very well received!

Facing a crowd required preparation...

Back in Blacksburg, everyone was hard at work drilling holes in the steel beams with a mag drill and planing wood for the handrails and guardrails.

A Week of Steel

2013-05-04T21:57:12-04:00

Our bridge finally became a tangible reality this week with the delivery of our steel. On Monday, all of our barstock, columns, C-channels, and angles arrived at studio. We set to work cutting everything to size.

On Wednesday, our steel I-beams arrived at ESL. We were all so excited to finally see the main pieces of steel arrive! Everything seems so real now that we have all of the structural members.

We cut our 3/4" steel plates on the plasma cutter, and have been prepping the handrail posts for our post-tensioned cable system. Soon, all of the pieces of our bridge will be ready for assembly!

Join us for the Unveiling for the Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge!!

2013-05-02T13:10:00-04:00

Join us on Friday, May 3 for the public unveiling of our design for the Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge! We will be at the Masonic Amphitheater at 5:00 PM in Clifton Forge, VA, to present our work and answer questions.

Concrete Coring and Testing

2013-04-29T12:54:31-04:00

In order to use the existing concrete retaining wall as a structural foundation for our bridge, we needed to make sure that it was strong enough to withstand the forces exerted by the bridge. Four of us went to Clifton Forge on Friday to take samples of the concrete retaining wall at the site. Mark Folks from United Rentals joined us and taught us how to use the concrete coring drill.

We took three samples of concrete from the wall and brought them back to Blacksburg. On Saturday, we tested the samples to figure out the bearing capacity of the wall. We used the Quickie Saw to square up our samples, and then headed to RDF to use their testing facilities.

We used a concrete testing compressor to calculate the amount of force each sample could withstand before failing.

We knew that the wall had to withstand 3,000 psi for us to use it as a foundation for our bridge. We tested each sample in accordance with ASTM C39, and after calculating the bearing capac...

Intro to Welding

2013-04-19T23:20:14-04:00

In preparation for the construction of our bridge, six of us went out to ESL on Thursday for an introduction to welding. Only Anna has welding experience, but we couldn't expect her to weld the entire bridge by herself, so all of us will be learning the basics of mig welding.

Steve Bickley was our teacher on Thursday. He went over how to properly clean and assemble the torch, how to turn on and off the welding machine, and the basics to welding. We all practiced on pieces of scrap steel in the shop, first welding on a flat surface, and then welding two pieces together. After some practice, everyone got the hang of it, and we saw some pretty decent welds!

Red Lining

2013-04-10T15:19:08-04:00

This morning, Keith and Marie met us in studio at 10:30 to begin red lining our drawings. We talked about everything that needs to get done by Friday in order to make this bridge a reality. So, we're working very hard right now to fix all of the errors in our drawings and make everything perfect for construction soon.

We've taken over the side room in Burchard Hall and turned it into our construction drawing work shop.

Getting the Ball Rolling

2013-04-09T16:14:36-04:00

Today, we met with two representatives from United Rentals to begin talking about the kind of tools we'll need on the job site.

The plan is to build our bridge in three sections in Blacksburg, transport them to Clifton Forge, and then crane them into place. In order to make this happen, we'll need a massive crane, a saw that will cut through the concrete retaining wall, and oodles of other equipment. So, we will be working with United Rentals here to order the equipment that will help make our bridge come to life.

Presentation

2013-03-29T15:31:46-04:00

Last week, Keith and Marie left us unattended while they attended a conference in San Francisco. We were given instructions to work on our bridge. We all worked very hard (and struggled at times!) but finally designed our bridge for the Amphitheatre site. When Keith and Marie returned, we showed them our progress. They were very impressed with how much we had accomplished in their absence, which made us all feel very proud.

Yesterday, members from the Clifton Forge Community came to Blacksburg for the presentation of our bridge design.

We spent two days making a model, a technical site plan, and a few watercolor renderings for the presentation. Everything turned out very well, everyone spoke very well, and the project was well received!

Now, we begin the long process of making construction documents.