Page 49 - Fall_2017

ArchDC Fall 2017.qxp_Fall 2017 8/10/17 1:07 PM Page 47

and ducts, often awkwardly worked around structural elements, requirements, which often led to redesigns. There was also an
which themselves have clunky components and connections. immense amount of field coordination, Noonan reports. McInturff
Sprinkler piping and heads are often especially ruinous from an referred to the building as “a really big Swiss watch,” and noted
aesthetic standpoint. (As McInturff indicated, these problems also that “[Noonan and Mogensen] both deserve enormous credit, as
exist in more conventional buildings, of course, but are hidden does Meridian Construction and their tenacious foreman.”
above dropped ceilings or behind walls.) One approach to this The owners’ own offices in the building are now operational,
problem is to accept and even celebrate the somewhat random, and they are vetting tenants for the rest of the space. The focus is
organic character of these overlapping systems. The other is to on companies for which the word innovative makes sense: research
resist it, attempting to bring order such that all the elements and development, entrepreneurial start-ups, tech companies, and
contribute to a deliberate overall composition. potentially “creative class” firms such as advertising companies.
McInturff’s team clearly fell in the second camp. The extent Much as shopping center owners actively seek the right retail
to which virtually all the systems and their details are organized mix, they are seeking office tenants that will make for a good fit.
and tamed is nothing short of amazing. Noonan and Mogenson The owners want, and the design of the Greencourt
designed the project using a BIM (Building Integration Modeling) Innovation Center encourages, a breaking down of boundaries
program, which is a digital, three-dimensional version of the between tenants. “That’s how innovation happens,” said
building. BIM models are common nowadays, but including all Chervenak, emphasizing the broader benefits. But perhaps
the structural connection details and the actual components of most of all, this is Chervenak and Yu’s workday home. That’s
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in the model is so always the main reason an architectural client, whether
complicated that it is rarely executed. The McInturff team not only residential, institutional, or commercial, goes through the
composed everything exactingly, but had to learn (from their trouble and expense to get exceptional design. “And I love it,”
engineers) the code requirements of each element, and then in Yu emphasized repeatedly.
many cases learn (from tradesmen and subcontractors) practical

HOME IS WHERE THE INNOVATION IS 47