In 1986, Pulte Homes in Tucson was plagued by customer complaints and even law suits for construction and material defects in their homes. Today, customer satisfaction is above 90% and the Pulte division is the 2001 Energy Value in Housing Award (EVHA) Builder of the Year. What happened?
100 Pier 4 Tower is a twenty-one-story high-rise tower of over 1 million square feet in the historic Boston Seaport. The glass and steel building offers 369 luxury apartments, a hotel, 10,000 square feet of retail space, 20,000 square feet for civic use as well as below-grade parking.
Hanover CambridgePark luxury apartments were constructed in a podium style construction with 4, wood-framed stories over an elevated concrete deck. Located in North Cambridge, near the MBTA’s Red Line Alewife station, the complex offers one- and two-bedrooms units, and many high-end amenities including two courtyard spaces with a pool. As part of an integrated team, BSC was brought on board as the enclosure consultant in the Design Development phase of the project.
The Old Colony public housing project underwent a major redevelopment that replaced 1940s-era brick low-rise housing units with new mid-rise and townhome apartments as well as a community center. As part of an integrated design and construction team, BSC provided consulting services on the durability, energy efficiency, and constructability of the building enclosure, beginning at the earliest stages of design. This included participation in design charrettes that established building enclosure goals and determined the particular assemblies that would meet those goals.
The Mallett House is a two-story wood-framed house located in downtown Freeport, ME and is one of several worker cottages built in 1886 for employees of the local shoe factory. It is currently used as a community center and office space. BSC guided the design team in the deep energy retrofit of the house, carefully assessing the existing condition to determine which retrofitting approaches were appropriate and what, if any, additional measures were needed to preserve the durability of the individual components of the building.
Historic New England owns and/or manages historic properties scattered throughout five states, with the goals of preserving and presenting New England heritage, and educating the public. They have consulted Building Science Corporation on multiple projects, typically looking at the goal of reducing energy consumption while without the use of irreversible methods on the historic fabric of the building, as well as not compromising durability. All of these projects involved a field evaluation of the building, followed by analysis and recommendations.