Salisbury University
Patricia R. Guerrieri Academic Commons
Greg Marshall / Construction Management / Senior Thesis
Salisbury University Guerreri Academic Commons
Building Statistics
Building Statistics Part I
The Salisbury University Library and Academic Commons is located in Salisbury, MD, on the Eastern side of the Salisbury University. This building will achieve a LEED gold rating upon completion. The building will feature a large 80 foot high atrium area topped with skylights and open beams, multiple workrooms, a teachers’ lounge, multiple book stacks, and a 147 foot tower with 48 cast iron bells at the top playing music to all of the University. Together this building totals 237,000 square feet.
Building Name
Salisbury University Guerreri Library and Academic Commons
Location and Site:
The Academic Commons are located at 1134 South Salisbury Blvd, Salisbury MD, 21801. The site is located on the main road in Salisbury, attracting much attention to its aesthetic façade.
Occupancy Breakdown
The Academic Commons are a mixed use building featuring areas fit for study, with multiple tables and computers, as well as multiple stacks of books. As well as featuring a large assembly hall for gatherings. The building also features multiple offices for library staff, as well as multiple rooms for group study or small classes.
Size:
This building will cover 237,378 square feet over its four story structure. There is a partial basement housing mechanical equipment, as well as a large atrium spanning over the four floors centered in the building. The building tops out as the highest building in the city of Salisbury at 147 feet tall.
The Team
The team working at the Salisbury University is some of the best professionals in the industry. The building is owned by the University and partially funded by Patricia R. Guerreri whom the building is named after. This building was bid in a design build fashion, where the owner contracts with the CM and the CM holds all other contracts. The CM for this project is Gilbane Building Company. The architecture firm is ASG (Ayers Saint Gross). The major engineering firm for the project is Cagley. There are many subcontractors working on the project. Some of the larger ones are Southland for the mechanical and plumbing package, Crystal Steel for the structural package, MC Dean for the electrical package and Mumford Miller for the concrete package.
Cost Information/ Construction Dates
This building was bid at $90 Million. As construction proceeded, it was requested that a change order for a 147ft tower be implemented. This tacked on a heavy additional cost to where the building is currently sitting at $120 million. The project began construction in April of 2014 with the demolition of the old Caruthers Hall building. Shortly after in May of 2014 was the official groundbreaking ceremony that kicked off construction. The building is expected to be completed in May of 2016.
Architecture
The main design features of this building were based around giving students a space that provided adequate study room, with a balance of free space to get together and talk, or enjoy a lunch from the café area connected on its southwestern corner. The building also wanted to give a welcoming and astounding feeling to all that drive by or come inside. From the outside, the building is wrapped in a primarily brick veneer, broken up frequently by walls of cast stone as well as glazed curtain wall. The building also was focused on letting in as much natural light as the design would allow. On the first second and third floor there are punch windows located nearly every 5 feet. In many areas there are 5 foot wide curtain walls spanning two stories high. As soon as one begins to walk into the building they will be drawn in by the grand entrance way. The entrance is a four story cast stone entrance including four cast stone pillars, and a fourth floor terrace emanating radiant bright light just above the inscribed building name. As you walk through the doors you will begin to notice the 80 foot high atrium that covers the center of the building. Located at the top of the atrium are exposed steel beams shining off of the 40’x10’ skylight above. At the western end of the atrium is a curtain wall spanning the entirety of the atrium with exposed steel cross members on the exterior of the curtain wall, giving the large glass wall a broken up feel. The four floors are then broken into different occupancies with computer labs, study spaces, faculty offices, teaching areas, a café with seating, a library, and a full assembly room.
Architecture
The main design features of this building were based around giving students a space that provided adequate study room, with a balance of free space to get together and talk, or enjoy a lunch from the café area connected on its southwestern corner. The building also wanted to give a welcoming and astounding feeling to all that drive by or come inside. From the outside, the building is wrapped in a primarily brick veneer, broken up frequently by walls of cast stone as well as glazed curtain wall. The building also was focused on letting in as much natural light as the design would allow. On the first second and third floor there are punch windows located nearly every 5 feet. In many areas there are 5 foot wide curtain walls spanning two stories high. As soon as one begins to walk into the building they will be drawn in by the grand entrance way. The entrance is a four story cast stone entrance including four cast stone pillars, and a fourth floor terrace emanating radiant bright light just above the inscribed building name. As you walk through the doors you will begin to notice the 80 foot high atrium that covers the center of the building. Located at the top of the atrium are exposed steel beams shining off of the 40’x10’ skylight above. At the western end of the atrium is a curtain wall spanning the entirety of the atrium with exposed steel cross members on the exterior of the curtain wall, giving the large glass wall a broken up feel. The four floors are then broken into different occupancies with computer labs, study spaces, faculty offices, teaching areas, a café with seating, a library, and a full assembly room.
The Academic Commons expects to receive a LEED gold based upon completion. The project implements a 100% recycling effort for all waste materials. The building also is built to use minimal artificial lighting, as well as having a large green roof terrace located on the fourth floor, North West side. The windows of the building are built with solid sun shades on the exterior, and automatic lowering sun shades based upon heat and time of day.
Typical Wall section cuts. Photo courtesy of ASG architecture
Occupancy Breakdown by building area. Photo courtesy of Sasaki.
Building Statistics Part II
Project Scheduling and Construction
Although the official ground breaking ceremony occurred in April of 2014, construction, and planning practices for the Commons occurred much earlier. In April of 2013, a year before breaking ground, the notice to proceed with preconstruction began. After the first package of construction drawings were officially approved, the demolition of the old library hall on campus had begun to make room for the new and improved academic commons. Demolition began in early March of 2014. Shortly after the push on site was to have new duct banks dug and relocated to allow official construction on the building. The duct banks were completed by May of 2014. Over 370 piles next had to be driven into the soft sand of the construction site. The piles were driven 49 feet into the ground. On average, 20 piles were driven per day. Upon completion, a small basement area had to be dug out, dewatered, and retaining walls put into place. With Salisbury being located very close to the ocean, the ground water levels were much closer to the surface then most were used to. Creative pumping and retaining strategies had to be implemented to safely dig the basement.
Steel Construction and Exterior Enclosure
Steel began to be set in late October of 2014 with the last beam being placed by February of 2015. With a strong push to begin closing in the building immediately behind slabs being poured; the studs, sheathing and waterproofing were working through the cold winter to stay on schedule. Even with the push to complete work, Salisbury saw one of the worst winters it has in recent years. Snow fell heavily a minimum of two days a week. This slowed construction to a halt. As spring came, most crews worked 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. At this time, construction was 2.5 weeks off of schedule. With the push to work longer weeks and longer days, by the end of July construction began falling back on track. Work was only 6 days off of schedule at this time with almost a year left before turnover. By July of 2015 permanent power was turned on. If the project manages to stay on track, the café will be going through startup and testing by October 2015. The Academic Commons are expected to be turned over to the owners by July of 2016.
Building Systems Summary
The 237,000 square foot space is heated and cooled through an air vented system. The system is composed of six, 15,000 lb. air handling units located on the roof. Much thought and effort was placed into the structure of the building which had to support this load. Two equally heavy air condensers are located in the basement of the building. A large drop in area of the basement had to be left unfinished to allow these units to be placed in the basement. This became an increasingly large problem due to the amount of rainwater that continually flooded the basement.
The building will be lit mostly by fluorescent light fixtures housing double T8 tubes throughout the building. Windows all have built in marble sun shades on the exterior of the building, which also frame out the windows. The marble pieces are designed to extend just long enough to block sun in the summer during peak hours but let in enough sun to heat the building when necessary. Additionally the windows all will have automatic interior sun shades that rise and fall based upon time of day and heat of building. The large atrium area will be lit by single incandescent bulbs all hanging down at different heights on white cords from the ceiling of the atrium. This gives an aesthetic effect as well as lights up different vertical areas of the atrium. In addition, there is a large skylight located at the top of the atrium that covers the entirety of the atrium ceiling. The glass skylight is located at a 45 degree angle facing south to allow in maximum light when needed. The skylight also has a slightly tinted glazing to keep any direct light from blinding those walking throughout the building.
Additional Systems
The building will house three elevator shafts all custom built to fit the extended sizes of this building. Two of the elevators will span from floor one to four, with the third elevator spanning from the basement to level 4. The building is equipped with a water sprayer fire protection system that will be a wet system.
LEED
This building is expected to receive a LEED Gold award. This will be achieved through recycling plans and other point boosters, but most importantly through the large green roof terrace located on the north west of the building, as well as through automatic window shades that move based on temperature, sunlight, and time of day.