5.4.7 Arts Center
Studio 804 prefabricated and completed a LEED-Platinum community arts center for this tornado-ravaged town in just four months.
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Photo courtesy of Studio 804
Image courtesy Dan Rockhill/ Studio 804
If you wanted to settle in a fine place that is safe, secure, and filled with friendly people, you could hardly do better than Greensburg, a town on the plains of southwest Kansas, where one’s sense of well-being can be threatened by little other than occasional bursts of severe weather. Unfortunately, such was the case when, in just a few minutes on May 4, 2007, a category EF5 tornado blew most of it away.
The students of Studio 804, the intensive design-build program at the University of Kansas’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, sought a way to contribute to Greensburg’s rebirth. In December of 2007, they accepted an invitation to construct a small arts center, with space for a gallery, classes, and live performances. It would be LEED Platinum, as are all public buildings constructed after the storm.
Students enrolled in Professor Dan Rockhill’s full-time, one-semester, graduate-level class had to accomplish the work in four months, in time for the one-year anniversary of the storm. Studio 804 has a national reputation, having built nine single-family homes in nine years. Its students do the design work; provide labor, including skilled work such as plumbing and wiring; raise money; develop the budget; keep the books; and solicit donations of building materials.
The 5.4.7 Arts Center, named to remember the date of the storm, has modest requirements, and the plan is simplicity itself: Starting with the gallery, a meeting room, lobby, kitchenette, and bathrooms are arranged linearly, in that sequence. The directness of the plan belies the building’s complex detailing; its construction technique; and the additional systems, energy modeling, and commissioning that are required of LEED-rated buildings. The building’s site is flat, and so the structure itself was raised on a 3-foot-high plinth to give it prominence.
PeopleOwner: Designer-Builders: Personnel in the firm who should receive special credit: Engineer(s): Norton and Schmidt, Kansas City, MO. General contractor: Photographer(s): CAD system, project management, or other software used: Revit
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ProductsStructural system: Exterior cladding: Wood: Seal Once; Sikkens Roofing: Other: Greengrid – Green roof blocks Windows: Glazing: Skylights: Velux Doors: Wood doors: Lynden Sliding doors: Lowen Upswinging doors, other: Hydroswing Hardware Interior finishes: Paints and stains: Sherwin Williams Wallcoverings: Homasote Special surfacing: US Gypsum; Valspar/ Sika Floor and wall tile (cite where used): Toto - bath wall tile Carpet: Mohawk group HVAC vents: Architectural grill Countertop: Richlite Lighting: Downlights: Con-Tech Controls: The Watt-Stopper Plumbing: Hand Dryer: Dyson Add any additional building components or special equipment that made a significant contribution to this project: Insulation: Central Fiber Site: Bollards: Landscape Forms Grass: North American Turf Other: Eco-ter Stabilagrid Active Systems: Wind Turbines: Kestrel - turbines, Xantrex - inverter, Standard Renewable Energy Appliances: Whirlpool HVAC:
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