Design and functional components

The new North Residence Hall is being constructed simultaneously with the Agriculture Engineering building’s renovation. These building compliment each other architecturally using brick veneer accented by large storefront style curtain wall systems and metal paneling. This building is designed to accommodate student residents while seamlessly incorporating plenty of community areas. This residence hall differs in style from the currently existing North Residence Halls as it bridges the architectural styles between the residence halls and lecture halls.

 

Applicable Codes

International Building Code (2009/2012), International Fire Code (2009), International Mechanical Code (2009), International Plumbing Code (2009), International Energy Conservation Code (2009), Uniform Construction Code (2009)

 

Zoning

State College Borough defines the project site for the new North Residence Hall as part of the “University Planned District”.

 

Building Envelope

Most of this building is constructed using a brick veneer for exterior walls and large storefront curtain wall systems that can prove difficult to maintain thermal comfort. The entire building envelope is constructed of concrete, masonry walls, cast-in-place concrete, structural steel frame, roof deck, waterproofing, insulated single-ply roofing, hollow metal doors and frames, aluminum entrances, aluminum windows, and glazing. These materials are designed to be environmentally friendly and energy efficient in order for the building to obtain a LEED-NC Silver certification for the building.

 

Construction

The new North Residence Hall is a very interesting and challenging project when it comes to site logistics. The first major challenge for this project was shutting down major foot traffic routes as well as the only parking lot for the North Halls district of campus. This minimized the size of the site in order to not interfere with students on campus. Another major challenge facing this project logistically is the concurrent renovation of the Agricultural Engineering Building. Due to the small amount of space provided both sites will be sharing site logistics once the Agricultural Engineering Building construction is underway. The construction managers must handle this very carefully by properly organizing non-conflicting deliveries as well as strategic site logistics so that the job sites do not interfere with one another must put in extensive effort. Both the Agricultural Engineering and new North Residence Hall are owned by Penn State and the AE firm for both sites is EYP Architects & Engineers, this will help conflict between schedules and logistics. See Appendix C for a view of the site logistics for the new North Residence Hall.

​

Structural

The new building construction will consist of a proprietary system of concrete slab on steel deck spans between steel stud bearing walls. Areas without bearing walls will incorporate traditional structural steel beam and column framing. All bearing walls for the project must be 6” IBWS indicated Infinity Bearing Wall System with 6” CFMF studs.

 

The steel framing materials will consist of W-shapes for the steel frame beams (ASTM A 992/A 992M), channels and angles (ASTM A 36/A 36M), plates and bars (ASTM A 36/A 36M), cold-formed hollow structural sections for the steel frame columns (ASTM A 500, Grade B), composite floor and roof deck (ASTM A 653/A 653M), steel pipe, welding electrodes, and steel bars for bar grating. The composite deck will be used for all elevated floors and will be a 2”, 22 gauge epicore MSR composite deck with an additional 3” normal weight concrete cover that will be reinforced with 6”x6” W2.9xW2.9 WWF.

 

Much of structural system for this project will consist of cast-in-place concrete members such as foundations, foundation walls, slabs-on-grade, suspended slabs, and building frame members. The slab-on-decks will be reinforced with WWF as stated in the previous paragraph while the building frame members will be reinforced with reinforcing bars (ASTM A 615/A 615M, Grade 60). A few examples of form-facing methods and materials that will be used for the cast-in-place concrete are smooth-formed finish concrete, rough-formed finished concrete, chamfer strips, form-release agent, and form ties. All formwork will be designed, erected, shored, braced, and maintained in accordance with ACI 301 to support vertical, lateral, dead, and live loads. All cast in place concrete will be placed using free-fall and shall not be placed at a free-fall height higher than 4’-0”.

​

Mechanical

There are a variety of mechanical systems used in the new North Residence Hall in order to provide a comfortable indoor air environment while remaining efficient. For all of the dwelling units that will be occupied by 1-3 students a 256 CFM fan coil unit will be installed to allow for student to have their own control over the temperature of the room. As for the common space in the building there will be use of air and water heating and cooling. Air heating and cooling will be used in corridors and common areas that will be serviced by a rooftop AHU while the water heating and cooling system will service all FCU’s and FTR’s around the perimeter of the building.

​

Electrical

A standard electrical system will be implemented into the new North Residence Hall. The main electrical room for the building will be located in the basement on the project-north side of the building. This electric room will be fed from the Warnock Commons electrical room using 100A-4G MI cables (used for emergency power) and (8) 750KCMIL cables (used for standard power). These cables will be fed from a new 800AF/800AT drawout circuit breaker that will be installed in the already existing GE ADK-10 switchgear (277/480V) along with a new 1500KVA transformer located in the basement of the Warnock Commons. The emergency power for the new North Residency Hall will also come from the already existing emergency unit substation in the Warnock Commons.

​

Fire Protection

A Wet-Pipe Sprinkler System will be used in the new North Residence Hall. This includes automatic sprinklers that are attached to piping containing water and this is connected to a water supply through an alarm valve. Water will discharge immediately from the sprinklers when they are opened. There will also be a Manual Wet-Type, Class I Standpipe System in place. This system includes NPS 2-1/2 (DN 65) hose connections. It has a small water supply to maintain water in the standpipes. Piping is wet, but water must be pumped into standpipes to satisfy demand. Maximum protection area per sprinkler head for the main occupancies is as follows: Residential dwelling units: Light Hazard/HC-1, Office Spaces: 225 sq. ft., Storage Areas: 130 sq. ft., Mechanical Equipment Rooms: 130 sq. ft., and Electrical and Data Equipment Rooms: 130 sq. ft.

​

Transportation

Residence may enter the new North Residence Hall through five separate locations on the ground floor, these entrances are accessible from the North, South, and East of the building. Three of the five entrances lead into vestibule on the northwest corner, northeast corner, and southeast corner that contain stairs to access all levels of the building. There is also a set of elevators located in the middle of the East side of interior space of the building. These elevators have access to all floors as well as the roof. The new North Residence Hall also has an underground path to the Warnock commons to run all electrical and mechanical systems.

​

Telecommunications

The main telecommunication room will be located at the northeast corner of the building where it will be fed by (four) four-inch conduits existing TMH 16 to the new telecom room. All student dwelling will have two data connections and one cable connection. Each floor will also contain four future portal gateway devices to be located above the ceiling.