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Soon, Dean Robert Camlin & Associates, Inc. will begin exterior renovations to our building, one of only two dating from the historic Brownstone period in Westminster. Using techniques according to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, our contractors will refurbish all 29 of our wood windows, paint and install new storm windows, and rebuild and repoint our brick façade. Preliminary tax credit applications have been approved for this work by the National Park Service, the Maryland Historical Trust, and the City of Westminster, for a total credit of up to fifty percent of the cost. If you own a historic building in need of renovation, please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about the tax-credit process, or historic restoration in general.
Also, if you have ever wanted to learn computer-aided drafting and design, I will again be teaching both beginning AutoCAD® and Revit® Architecture at Carroll Community College starting February 1st.
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| Architectural Jargon | Architects, like many specialists, have a vocabulary all their own. We hope this regular column will aid you in the translation. This month's theme: site design.
Base Course
The lowest (and often thickest) layer of pavement.
Bell
The enlarged end of a pipe (usually a sewer pipe) into which the spigot of another pipe inserts.
Compaction
The process of reducing voids in soil materials through vibration, tamping, and/or rolling.
Crusher Run
Ungraded aggregate (crushed stone in many mixed sizes) broken in a mechanical crusher, often used as a base course.
Curb-and-Gutter
Combination concrete curb and gutter pan used to direct storm water to an inlet or other catchment.
Cut and Fill
The grading process of excavating, moving the excavated material to another location, then using it as fill.
French Drain
A sump or trench filled with stone, which allows storm water to percolate into the surrounding soil.
Gabion
A wire basket filled with riprap stone, stacked with other cages as a retaining wall.
Metes and Bounds
Boundaries of land, expressed as distances and bearings.
Perc[olation] Test
A test to determine the rate at which soil absorbs fluid effluent.
Pile, Piling
A steel, concrete, or wooden column driven into soil or cast in place as structural support.
Swale
A depression in a grading surface used to direct stormwater.
Transit
A surveying instrument used for accurate measurement of horizontal and vertical angles, distances, and directions.
Zoning
Control by the government over the allowable use, population density, and design features of land and the buildings placed on it.
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We hope you enjoy this monthly newsletter. You are receiving it due to your professional or personal relationship with our firm. We want to keep you informed not only of what's happening at our firm, but in the world of architecture as we see it.
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Project of the Month
Many prospective clients ask whether we specialize in either residential or commercial projects. The answer is that we design both, but really enjoy unique projects.
The old aphorism, "Don't judge a book by its cover," would certainly apply to this addition, one of several we have designed over the years for the Random House distribution facility in Westminster. Initially called the High Storage Addition (but now known simply as Building No. 5), this was designed to accommodate pallets of books stored in racks twelve levels high, and accessed by specialized forklift trucks which are 65 feet tall. Because such a rolling elevator would wobble quite unsafely on a normal slab, the concrete floor in this building was installed using "Superflat" techniques to control its smoothness. Thus there are no joints in each 520-foot-long aisle strip, and each was formed using a single pour. Nor could the racks of books be braced against the 70-foot-tall walls, as normal deflection due to wind against the pre-engineered building structure would have made the aisles impassible. So we designed the building to sway up to 14 inches each way, while the racks remain plumb.
But that's not all that is hidden beneath the building's striped exterior. Due to unsuitable soil over two thirds of the building area, a veritable forest of over 300 auger-cast concrete pilings was drilled down to solid bearing up to 60 feet deep. These were connected at ground level by heavily reinforced concrete pile caps, themselves supporting concrete grade beams, which interfered with ready-mix trucks attempting to place the floor slab. as a result, the "Superflat" concrete mix had to be altered to allow it to be pumped. Yet another complicating factor was almost ten miles of plastic piping tobe cast into the floor, which would be filled with warm Glycol as a radiant heating system.
Given all that, I was glad when Random House allowed me to inject a small amount of architectural interest, by not only employing contrasting vertical stripes to break up the 550'-long horizontal stretch of the building, but also by gradually changing the color of the dark metal siding bands as they marched down the length of the building. Yet, there were still some people who asked if I had meant for the stripes to change color, or if the siding had faded during construction!
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Want To Try Designing Your Own House? (pt. 4)
This is the fourth in a series of notes on house design I've written for my architectural
BIM class at Carroll Community College. Please see the previous months' articles for the earlier paragraphs--or, read the full article on our Facebook page.
Utility Rooms: In addition to the kitchen, other service areas
may include a clothes-care center with laundry equipment; a garage or
carport; and an area for mechanical equipment.
When locating the clothes care center, keep in mind where
clothing and linens are used in the home. To minimize steps, consider
locating this area close to the bedrooms. Because it may be likely that
this area will be used for pressing, folding, and mending clothes in
addition to laundering and drying, this room should be light and
pleasant, with durable and washable finishes. A deep sink should be
included along with a washer-dryer pair, and it may be desirable to
include base and wall cabinets with a countertop, and hanging space for
clothes.
The garage is a major storage space in any home plan, with a
minimum 20' × 20' size for two cars-though it is desirable to allow for
additional storage space for yard-care equipment. The floor should be a
minimum of 4"-thick concrete slab on grade, sloped to allow for
drainage out the main door(s). These doors should be a minimum of 8'
wide × 7' high, though 9' wide is more common and other sizes are
available; the most usual type is the sectional overhead door with a
motorized opener for convenience. The driveway should provide for
adequate vehicle maneuvering in and out of the garage. The interior
person door and any common walls or ceilings against the dwelling must
comply with Code for fire separation.
Equipment rooms should be planned to contain, at a minimum, a
central air-handling unit and a water heater. An air-conditioning
system or heat pump will also require an outdoor condensing unit (this
will be buried underground in geothermal systems). Homes without access
to public water must also plan on space for a well tank, and for a
fire-protection tank and pump (for the required sprinkler system). If
your home will include a pool, allow space for the pump, treatment, and
filtration system; if it is an indoor pool, plan on a dehumidification
system. Larger homes may justify more than one air handler, each
located central to the volume they are conditioning; each air handler
should have a matching outdoor condensing unit. HVAC and water-heating
systems may be supplemented by wood stoves and solar water panels,
respectively. Boilers may be used to heat water for hydronic floors;
the fuel may be oil or gas, which require interior or exterior storage
tanks. Most air-conditioning and heat-pump systems use electricity for
power. This can be supplemented with photovoltaic panels delivering
current to an inverter for AC power.
Bedrooms:Even if you are designing a house for one person or a
childless couple, it is a good idea to have at least 2 bedrooms in case
of visitors (though apartments can commonly have only a single
bedroom-or even no bedroom). Bedrooms are usually grouped together for
privacy in a separate wing or floor level of the house. Master bedrooms
may be separated from the other bedrooms to afford parents privacy from
their children. Master bedrooms usually have direct access to a master
bathroom, while the other bedrooms share access to a separate bathroom.
Common bed sizes are single or twin (39"×75"); double (54"×75"); queen
(60"×80"); and king (76"×80"); other variations exist, but be careful
or your occupants may have to purchase custom sheet sets. Every bedroom
should contain enough room for a bed, night stand for each occupant,
chest of drawers, dresser, and clothes closet. Clothes closets should
be 24" minimum depth, or 84" for a double-loaded walk-in closet, with a
minimum of 72" clothes hanging space. Closets should be located on
interior walls, so as to afford more opportunity for windows while
contributing to better privacy between bedrooms and other interior
spaces. Bedroom doors should be a minimum of 30" wide, but preferably
36" to allow easier accessibility and furniture moving. At least one
window in each bedroom must be sized for emergency egress.
(to be continued next month)
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We hope you've enjoyed our newsletter. If you have comments on anything you've read here, please drop us a line. And of course, if you have a project in mind you'd like our help with, let us know that too. We'd love to hear from you! Sincerely, Dean R. Camlin, AIA, LEED® AP
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