Key Design Features
Green Roof - the green roof was one of my proudest parts of the building. While I believe that many building of this scale would discourage occupants from going on the roof, I wanted to instead encourage it and show it as part of the convention center. I believe that it would give unmatched views of the city, as well as provide a great idea for visitors about what a green roof is actually like, as it is something that is less common.
Unique Materials on Each Level - I used unique materials in both walls and floors on each level. My thinking here was to be able to make the building an example of just how many ways sustainabitily can be considered, and that they all are not only feasible but practical even for larger buildings.
Space Organization - Something that I wanted to prioitize was the way that the space were organized. Placing family focused areas on lower floors to minimize the amount of stairs that young kids would have to climb. I also placed offices and work spaces on the top floor to keep the offices away from the rest of the center.
Glazing and Exterior Spaces - I tried to maximize both natural sunlight and exterior spaces on the building to allow for fresh airflow to help increase air quality, as well as natural heat as the light will be able to be absorbed into darkers walls and floors that it illuminates. This also helped me to light interior spaces with lacking walls and ceilings.
Exterior Fire Escape - I was pretty proud of my exterior fire escape. As interior staircases and elevators were limited, I believe that it was essential for the safety of the occupants to have an exterior fire escape to help move people to safety in case of emergency.
Big Successes
HVAC System - The HVAC system very easilly could have been placed as a big struggle for me, as it was and ended up being the most time consuming part of the project, but in the end it was something that I was the most proud about. I used a large air controller which had two supply ducts and a single, large, return duct. I don’t believe that I had any colisions in what became a very complex system.
Structural System - The structural system was a success for me in the opposite way. Because my building was nearly identical level to level the structural system was very simple and could be copied form the first level up allowing for easy modeling.
Exterior Envelope - I was very proud of hte exterior envelope as I had to utilize new materials and think through the materials and their thickness is making custom walls. This along with my green roof and exterior glazing provided a overall envelop that I was proud of.
Big Challenges
System Calculations - Something that I struggled with nearly every step of the way was getting accurate calculations for systems loads. This began with the energy, then the air supply and return, and lastly the lighting. I would say that I spent most of my time on this project figuring out accurate calculations.
Electrical System - I spent a lot of time on the electrical system and similat to the load calculations was a bit of a time consumer for me. I had many little issues, the one driving my most crazy was not selecting “place on vertical faces” which caused me nearly an hour of agony over an incredibly simple mistakes, but the lighting system was also difficult for me due to a lack of interior walls and ceilings, limiting the placement of lighting components.
Elevator Shaft - The elevator shafts are always difficult for me, as are modeling elevators in general. The space needed is always larger than I anticipate and so I had to edit the walls on all the floors as well as the shaft sizes, which became a large waste of time.
Lessons Learned
Have a great plan - one of the things that I thought allowed me to be succesfult was having a well documented plan for spaces and a strong idea and concept that I believed in for the project. I believe that it was an essential piece of my success.
Learn by watching, not by doing - something that caused me a lot of agony was that I oftentimes learned by doing, rather than by wacthing the tutorials with great intent. This led to a lot of wasted time and I would have been much better off learning before trying.
Making custom components - one of the greatest skills that I improved on in revit was making custom components such and walls, floors, and stairs. And this proved to be a useful skill throughout the project as it simplified much of the adding familes and such that can be time consumers for me.
