CLT in Student Housing: RISD Makes a Material Case

Posted on November 1st, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, Lectures

NADAAA Principal Arthur Chang will speak at ABX 2019 next week on the use of mass timber and the IPD process in our recently completed North Hall project for the Rhode Island School of Design. He will be joined by Annie Newman, Director of Planning, Design & Construction for RISD; David Odeh, Principal of Odeh Engineers; and Joubin Hassanein, Director of Shawmut Design and Construction’s New England Group.

TH15 – CLT in Student Housing: RISD Makes a Material Case

Thursday, November 7th, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Room 160A, BCEC

AIA Course Credits: 1.5

Register Here and Use the code “SPD” for a 10% discount.

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North Hall Ribbon-Cutting!

Posted on October 14th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, Events

This weekend we celebrated the opening of RISD’s new North Hall with School leadership, students, faculty, and friends. Thank you all for joining us! Photos below of President Rosanne Somerson, NADAAA’s Nader Tehrani, Trustee Gabrielle Bullock, Student Alliance President Catherine Park, and Shawmut Construction’s Chris Maury are by Matthew Watson, an ’09 RISD alum.

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North Hall in the Press

Posted on October 11th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, Press

Recent press on North Hall:

The Architect’s Newspaper

Structure Magazine

Building Design + Construction

High Profile

New England Real Estate Journal

Providence Business News + Another Providence Business News

Construction Specifier

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North Hall mention in New York Times

Posted on October 4th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, Press

Frank Lowenstein, Brian Donahue and David Foster write for the New York Times on how CLT can help solve the climate crisis. RISD’s recently completed North Hall is cited as a case-study. Read the full article HERE.

“Across North America, trees stand ready to help us solve the climate crisis. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their wood. One way to respond to a challenge from the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, to seek “bold action and much greater ambition” on climate change is to protect forests from development, improve forest management and use sustainably harvested wood to build tall buildings. This will allow us to pump carbon from the atmosphere and store it both in forests and in cities. It will also support rural economies, improve wildlife habitat and create more affordable housing. This opportunity arises from cross-laminated timber, or CLT.”

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RISD North Hall Opening Celebration!

Posted on September 20th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, Events

Join us on Saturday, October 12th at 60 Waterman Street, Providence, RI as we celebrate the opening of North Hall, RISD’s newest residence hall in more than 30 years. Share in the festivities, enjoy seasonal refreshments and tour the building. The celebration is from 11am-12pm with tours running from 12pm-2pm. Please RSVP by Friday, October 4!

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New RISD Res Hall Opens!

Posted on September 6th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL

NADAAA has been working with the Rhode Island School of Design and a collaborative team of engineers, consultants, and contractors on the new North Hall on RISD’s Freshman Quad. Incoming students moved in this past weekend to start the fall semester in a residence hall that underpins the specific needs of art and design students.

“We are excited to open a new residence hall that so fully supports RISD’s unique form of education, meeting the needs of today’s students—a generation unlike any before them,” notes President Rosanne Somerson. “This new residence hall demonstrates our collective dedication to contributing to a sustainable planet and ensuring student health and wellness—both priorities of our new strategic plan.”

Read on via RISD’s post HERE and stay tuned for more!

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BRICK FACADE COMPLETED AT RISD

Posted on June 27th, 2019 by Dara Lin

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, construction

The brick facade on the RISD residence hall is officially complete! Next up, the shingled facade — the installation of these lightweight cement fiber panels is 20% complete. The building is due to open to students by the end of August.

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RISD construction timelapse

Posted on March 29th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, construction

September 2018 through March 2018

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New England’s First Hybrid CLT-Steel Res Hall Structure

Posted on February 13th, 2019 by Katie Faulkner

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, construction

Image above from Odeh Engineers

NADAAA’s new residence hall project for the Rhode Island School of Design is going up at 60 Waterman. The team celebrated the ‘topping out’ on January 23rd.  Neighbors, friends and the RISD community were invited to sign the final beam before it was hoisted to the 6th floor. In keeping with tradition, a small tree was placed on the beam.  The tree, a gesture to the Scandinavian forest spirits, will remain atop the structure until the building is enclosed. After a string of freezing cold days, the building was resplendent during the ceremony, its golden cross-laminated timber (CLT) deck glowing in a steel frame. More than one person commented that it was a shame that the building could not remain that way.

Most architects are acutely aware of the paradox that in trying to build our best civilization we are among the planet’s greatest producers of waste. Construction garbage accounts for a disturbing percentage of the world’s refuse.  Hence the excitement around the potential of CLT construction.  Made of plies of kiln-dried soft-woods, CLT is poised to make a significant impact to the market in the near term.  It can be cut to size in a factory, shipped, and installed without modification. The biggest financial challenge to using CLT tends to be logistics (e.g. how far is the job from the production facility), and with new plants coming online every few months, that may cease to be a problem.

60 Waterman was designed to take advantage of CLT’s dimensional stability and a maximum truck bed size. Five-ply planks were driven from Canada, 8 feet wide and 50 feet long. Due to the relatively light weight, the manufacturer fit many planks on a truck, so there was minimal strain in getting material to the erection crew. Weighing much less than precast concrete planks, CLT is capable of greater coverage, going up faster using a smaller crane and less fussiness than precast concrete plank. The building structure was complete in less than three weeks. CLT has no camber – it is joined to adjacent planks with a spline.  If the CLT needs to be modified, it can quickly be cut with a chain saw. Try that with concrete.

Using an Integrated Project Delivery, NADAAA worked with Shawmut Construction and subcontractors to coordinate a central utility spine in the corridors. Mechanical feeds and sidewall sprinklers afford maximum ceiling height and flexibility of layout for the bedrooms. Perhaps the most exciting thing about 60 Waterman’s design is the warmth that wood ceilings will bring to the building interior.  That simple gesture is the byproduct of a design process driven to optimize construction time, budget control, and minimize material waste.

Along with the construction partners, NADAAA collaborated closely with structural engineer Odeh Engineers, Inc. to evaluate numerous options for the superstructure. The team ultimately chose the hybrid CLT system due to its inherent sustainability, beauty, and speed of construction. When this building opens in late August, it will be the first hybrid steel-CLT residence hall in New England, although likely not the last.

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RISD RIGHT NOW

Posted on January 7th, 2019 by Nicole Sakr

Posted under: _RISD NORTH HALL, construction

Foundations in and steel going up on the new residence hall!

Photo by Odeh Engineers

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