Drexel Main Building - Fire Systems Info from Mr. Taylor

The Main building has conventional wet sprinkler and hose riser fire protection. No suppression systems are installed in Main. Randell, Curtis,, and Alumni have standpipes. There is a small stove hood suppression system in the prep kitchen near the Museum on the third floor of Randell, and another suppression system in the data center in Curtis. The fire alarm system in Main is a relatively new addressable system with pull stations, smoke detection where required and sprinkler interface. The system coverage extends to all four buildings. To learn about the security system they should contact Drexel’s office of Public Safety. I don’t know who would be the appropriate contact but I believe they have a contact directory on their website. 

A2 - Generating Floor Plan Assumptions

Question:

I am finishing up Assignment 2 for AE 390, and haven't had any luck finding the first floor plan for xxxxxx. I know the rubric says to show the first floor plan, but would it be acceptable to show the floor plans for the other floors I found?

Response

I urge you to create a rough floor plan even if you don’t know the details.  You can start from an upper floor plan.  Particularly for office buildings you can guess that they will probably have:

• Lobby opening on at least one main street
• Loading/Service area
• Parking garage entry if there is a garage below
• Retail stores along a significant portion of the main streets
• Elevators – obtainable from upper floors
• Exit stairways – obtainable from upper floors

Review of A1 and Looking Forward to A2

Hello Class! 

I have just a few comments regarding the areas that most people lost points for during the first submission. Please check your rubric comments from the first assignment, even if you got 100, because many of you received extra credit. Please make sure you address those issues for A2.

1. Make sure you are completing the work in BOTH the "Average" column and the "Excellent" column. In order to receive full credit, as stated on the rubric, the Excellent column says "Average + ... " right at the top.

2. I felt that the majority of you did a great job (!) recognizing the purpose of the assignment sequence as being similar to the design field and how a structural system must be completed first before the mechanical systems. It is also always a good habit to look at all the design options before settling on the final one. Some of you lacked detail on this section and therefore lost points.

3. Double check all spelling/grammar! I will not be as lenient on the group assignments with spelling/grammar as there are multiple people that can now check for grammar and spelling mistakes. I recommend typing up your paragraphs in Microsoft Word first, as I know the wix.com sites don't have a great spell check feature.

4. Make sure your website looks cohesive (i.e. fonts, color scheme, etc). Especially when you will be having multiple people contributing to the design of the website, presentation is important.

5. Late submissions will automatically lose 5 points moving forward. Please remember to submit your URL by 2:00pm on the due date.

6. Friendly reminder to complete your Teamwork Assessments within 24 hours of your submission. It is an EASY 10 points! I recommend completing it right after you submit your website, so you won't forget.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions!

A2–Energy Flow

Question

In your suggested assumptions for assignment two you list energy flow for South and East/West facing surfaces. Are these for windows & translucent surfaces only or for the entire façade? Thanks for your help.

Response

Normally one would mean the entire surface area.  You may well want to calculate the flow for each surface type and then add them.

Building Systems – Rules of Thumb

Site

• Site - to Consider
• Zoning
• Setback
• Parking Requirements
• Height limitations
• Relationship to other buildings
• Shading issues
• More in other countries than US at the moment

Architecture

• SF/ Person - 200-400
• Circulation % of building 15%-50%
• Exiting requirements
• 2 separate exit paths (protected) with 20' of exit from room or suite
• Floor to Floor
• 9' in apartments/hotels
• 12-14+ in commercial

Structure

• Depth of Beam in 1/12 of Length
• Ie. Depth in inches = Length in Ft
• This is conservative - often 2/3 to 3/4 of this
• Studio Companion is great Resource
• Design Loads
• Live Loads
• Gravity
• 40#/SF residential
• 80-100#/SF commercial
• 250#/SF+ for storage and other special conditions
• Snow - up to 30#/SF
• Dead Loads
• Self-weight
• Lateral Loads
• Live
• Wind - 90mph ~ 28#/SF
• Seismic
• Blast

HVAC

• Duct velocity - 800FPM to 3,000FPM
• Chiller Sizing - 200-400 SF/Ton
• Ventilations - 10-40 CFM/person - depending on activity
• Equest is great resource for first approximation
• Design Temperatures
• Indoor
• 72-78 DegF depending on age, season, culture
• Outdoor
• 14 DegF Winter
• 90 DegF Summer

Electrical

• Typical feeds (in Philadelphia) 13.2KV 3-phase
• Typical in-Bldg voltages
• 480/277 - motors and lights
• 208/120 - Convenience, portable appliances, some lights
• Emergency System
• Range from corridor lights only (2fc -> battery packs)
• 100% backup
• Duplicate feeds from separate substations
• Emergency Generator
• Depends on purpose of building, client desires
• Increasingly will see tied to alternative energy &/or electrical storage (batteries mostly)

Other Systems – Non-Exhaustive list

• Geotech
• Fire Protection
• Stormwater
• Lighting
• Circulation
• Transportation
• Plumbing
• Security
• Telecom

A1a–Revit Assignment Questions

Question 1

I am using the 2015 version of Revit Architecture. Will this be acceptable to upload when I am finished with my model or do I need to save it as an earlier version?

Response

Yes, you may upload any version of the Revit model.  For grading purposes the PDF and the word document are critical – the Revit model is primarily backup.

 

Question 2

Also for clarification, there is no website associated with this assignment correct?

Response

Correct – No website.

AE Rules-of-Thumb and Calculation Tools

The following may be of assistance in ROUGH approximations.

AE Rules of Thumb – Google Sheet with rules of thumb for several systems

AE Calcs Spreadsheet – Basic Calculations for several systems.

• Note that it’s part of the AE-Resources website – Which may have other useful tools
• It’s in the Excel group of AE Tools

Remember that these are only to give you a rough estimate.  They should never be used for actual design.