Menu
WDP was hired by Virginia Tech under our term contract as the Building Enclosure Consultant to the Owner for the new Signature Engineering Building (later named Goodwin Hall). Goodwin Hall is a 5 story, 155,000 SF, LEED Gold certified structure which includes classroom, office, and laboratory spaces.
As the Building Enclosure Consultant to the Owner, WDP performed peer review of the building envelope design, provided submittal review, and performed water and air infiltration testing on window units as well as construction observation of the building envelope. As part of construction observation, WDP developed daily reports and lists of building envelope-related problems and aided the Owner & Architect in developing solutions.
This project exhibited a complicated series of interlocking stone masonry, precast panels, windows, and metal panels for the building enclosure. Each floor was required to be seismically isolated. The building air and water management surfaces were required to be highly complex to fit around these elements and remain continuous. WDP played a key role in assisting the A/E and Contractor in developing solutions while taking care to keep the Owner separate from design liability. This was done through our early identification of potential problems, through rigorous tracking of each issue until resolution, and through the performance of field verification testing. When building conditions with complex geometry surfaced, WDP was able to quickly sketch 3D models based on field measurements and surrounding architectural details and present them to the A/E and Contractor to facilitate discussion and convey possible solutions to complex problems that are difficult to visualize. WDP’s goal in all cases was to detect and convey a problem to the designers prior to construction.
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA