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Architect: SOM
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Completion Date:2023
SOM has conceived a brand new house for the John A. Volpe Nationwide Transportation Methods Heart in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The curtain wall facade is roofed by vertical aluminum shades modeled after the wings and fins of aircrafts in a nod to the middle’s analysis focus: transportation. It stands to interchange the unique campus and consolidates the Volpe Heart’s varied packages inside one construction that’s safer and vitality environment friendly than its predecessor.
The undertaking was facilitated by a land swap settlement between the Common Providers Administration (GSA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how’s (MIT) Funding Administration Firm. Beneath this the GSA ceded 10 acres of the Volpe Heart’s authentic 14 acre campus in change for MIT’s assist growing a brand new constructing on the remaining 4 acres.
The Volpe Heart is situated in Kendall Sq., adjoining to the MIT campus. (Dave Burk)
The Volpe Heart is operated by the US Division of Transportation (USDOT), and is the division’s main analysis facility. Its authentic campus had been designed for NASA’s Digital Analysis Heart. NASA vacated the campus in 1970, after which it was turned over to the USDOT.
The unique campus had change into antiquated and SOM was known as in to design a brand new headquarters to consolidate the Volpe Heart’s varied packages inside one construction. The brand new constructing incorporates 410,000 sq. ft of house throughout 13 flooring. In lieu of the perimeter fence which enclosed Volpe’s earlier house, the agency opted for a extra discrete method for the brand new headquarters, surrounding the positioning with safety bollards and benches that double as automobile barricades.
Concerning the aesthetic composition of the brand new constructing, Chris Cooper, accomplice at SOM, informed AN that the agency tried to stability the “the formality and stateliness of a federal constructing whereas concurrently becoming inside a neighborhood of progressive tech giants.” Cambridge’s Kendall Sq. neighborhood, the place the constructing is sited, is primarily outlined by its proximity to MIT and the preponderance of expertise corporations which have arrange workplaces within the space.
The massing of the construction consists of a floor ground podium that has been set again to disclose a ten story tower which holds the workplace program. Gensler was accountable for the design of the inside workplace house. Throughout the podium are convention and coaching rooms, a restaurant and cafeteria, in addition to a day care middle for the youngsters of the Volpe Heart’s 1,300 workers.
The constructing plan was adjusted to accommodate the GSA’s blast security requirements, which required that the construction step again 75 ft from the road on all sides. Inside these parameters, the plan was additionally optimized for photo voltaic orientation. The east and west elevations have been minimized to remove glare and photo voltaic warmth achieve within the morning and afternoon.
Cooper elaborated, “we had a web site that was largely oriented north-south, nearly completely, which was an enormous reward, after which we stretched the constructing type so long as we might within the east-west instructions, maxing out the positioning placement.”
Alongside the east and west elevations, vertical aluminum shades cowl the curtain wall. They prolong outward from the facade at a exact diagonal angle. The white aluminum shades resemble the wings and fins of an airplane. By the usage of the shade system, SOM was in a position to obtain a 60 % discount in photo voltaic radiation alongside the east and west facade.
Much less intrusive horizontal fins have been put in alongside the southern elevation, paired with automated inside shades to fight direct daylight within the night. The curtain wall alongside the Northern elevation of the workplace tower didn’t require shading implements as a result of it by no means receives direct daylight.
Initially, the designers meant to specify ultra-high efficiency concrete (UHPC) for the fins, as an alternative of aluminum. A life cycle value evaluation revealed aluminum was a better option long-term. There was additionally concern that, on account of its decrease resonance, concrete fins would whistle within the wind. Wind tunnel checks have been carried out utilizing mock-ups constructed from each supplies.
SOM labored with Atelier Ten and R.G. Vanderweil Engineers to coordinate vitality modeling and price evaluation. Given the undertaking’s standing as a authorities fee, detailed costly justifications have been required for every determination made through the design course of. The Volpe Heart was additionally obliged to adapt to the GSA’s P100 requirements, which mandate that newly constructed federal buildings should final at the very least 100 years.
As an consequence of vitality modeling and price evaluation research, triple glazing was specified for the whole lot of the constructing’s curtain wall. This improved the thermal efficiency of the construction in addition to the blast resilience required by the GSA.
The constructing’s security options are specified by the Interagency Safety Committee (ISC) and enforced by the GSA. ISC was created in 1995 in response to the Oklahoma Metropolis bombing, which focused and destroyed a federal constructing.
The required 75-foot distance between the constructing and the road leaves room for panorama, and a land artwork sculpture from Maya Lin, the same, but diminutive, model of her 2009 work Wavefield for the Storm King Arts Heart.
The glazed foyer of the Volpe Heart was made shatter proof by the appliance of a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) lamination layer. This measure prevents the glass from changing into a projectile within the occasion of an explosion.
Strict security necessities additionally formed the design of the kid care middle. The GSA specifies that there will be no visible connection between the day care middle and the road for the security and privateness of the youngsters. Positioned on the southern finish of the positioning, the daycare is surrounded by an opaque wall. Nonetheless the house receives gentle from above, and a glazed partition was permitted between the daycare and the inside of the Volpe Heart.
The primary degree of the rostrum is devoted to the middle’s human elements labs, which check automobile security. Comprising 90,000 sq. ft, the laboratory areas known as for windowless house, which could possibly be reprogrammed to accommodate totally different types of testing. Autos enter the labs on the northern finish of the constructing, by 14-foot canopy-style storage doorways. SOM’s in-house branding studio designed a stylistic typeface for the numbers which designate exterior and inside doorways.
Above the laboratories sit flooring devoted to the middle’s knowledge science program and laptop labs which have been designated to be both opaque or semitransparent. These packages required much less daylight than the workplace flooring above, and in addition functioned to appease blast necessities, that are extra stringent on decrease flooring which can be extra susceptible to blasts. For this similar motive, the constructing’s mechanical techniques have been positioned on the highest ranges of the tower element.
The house afforded by the setbacks across the base of the tower quantity are used as terraces. A health middle on the sixth ground connects to the smaller of the 2 terraces. Photovoltaic panels have been carried out on the roof of the workplace element to supply an alternate vitality complement. On account of these vitality environment friendly implementations the constructing has achieved LEED Platinum certification.
SOM’s design for the brand new Volpe Transportation Heart has corrected the pitfalls of its predecessor, delivering a construction which is much less airtight and safer, with enormously improved vitality effectivity.
Challenge Specs
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