Site Visit to Northside Residence Hall at Washington State University

  

Site: Northside Residence Hall  Location:  Pullman, Washington State Budget: $32,600,000...so far Project team: Architect: NAC/Architecture Mechanical Engineering: MW Consulting Engineers Electrical Engineering: NAC/Architecture Structural Engineering: DCI Engineers - Spokane/Seattle/ Portland Design Builder: Graham Construction & Management, Inc. Landscape Architect: Kathy Shultheis      Today I had the chance to visit a construction site on my campus at Washington State University. The Washington State University is constructing a new dormitory that will house 300 residents. We approaching the entry of the site as it was still under construction. There is still quite a bit more time until the site's complication date, but I believe that too truly understand how to design buildings, one needs to be able to imagine its construction from the ground up.       When I moved through the building up to the second floor, I was exposed to some of the "bones" of the structure. The contractors seemed to of had a problem with the architects design because they had to change a type of material that was specified for a support joint. The material that was chosen instead was glued wood panels (as seen in the image below).      When walking through the corridor on the second floor, I asked our guide "Tom Golden and Louise Sweeny" some question about the construction of the site. The first question was about the structures LEED certification. The Louise said that they where aiming for a LEED Silver certification, this is not required for university structure's  but the designers believed that this was an important aspect of the structure.

     As I was walking through the buildings I saw that some rooms on the floors where accessible for people with the need for a wheelchair. The hall ways where at an exceptionable size, but the overall hallways design was quite abstract when thinking of how it will be used. There were many strange angles all throughout the design.

     When I saw where the master plan was kept, it made me think of how easily it could be damaged.
This could be from water to ware and tare. There has to be a better way to keep plans on site that will be keep in better conditions.


     All and all the site visit was a lot of fun. I learned how this site was being constructed and some different ways they where going about it. Not too riveting, but interesting none the less.




Uris Giron