Fixing and preventing defective buildings: a conversation with Western Architectural's Eric Hoff

Lofts @ The Round (image courtesy Western Architectural)

As the Portland area has burgeoned in both density and its commitment to building green over the past decade, a whole generation of new buildings have gone up with advanced facade and envelopes that often fail to deliver the efficiencies or even simple basic operations they were designed for. This has kept one Portland firm, Western Architectural, busy even as the profession has experienced a big decline in business.

Western provides what's called forensic architectural services. That doesn't mean they're doing chalk outlines or tracing DNA at crime scenes. Instead, they investigate construction and design defects in problematic existing buildings, such as the much-maligned Round at Beaverton Central, and advise firms on how to prevent their buildings from leaking water and air.

"Doing over 200 projects a year on the forensic side, we see a lot of stuff," says Eric Hoff, Western's president. "We have a large knowledge base of, ‘Here’s things you can do, and here’s things you want to do, and why.’" Did I mention Hoff testifies in a lot of court cases?

Lofts @ The Round post-renovation (image courtesy Western Architectural) 

"As an architect, it’s not like the old guild days where architects are all talking to each other with that knowledge of things that do and don’t work. It doesn't seem to move around well in the profession. All the young designers want to be the new great whoever, and they haven’t seen a lot. We see a lot of design come out where you can tell it looks great, but then it makes you say, 'Have you thought about this?'"

For The Round, Western helped design a new facade that replaced an existing metal facade. "The detailing of that is different from conventional siding," Hoff adds. "Typically the holes are found where you make a hole in the skin. There were also other areas because of the way the siding came together. It’s not an easy way to detail."

Lofts @ The Round post-renovation (images courtesy Western Architectural) 

For tenants of The Round, Western Architectural is validating the commitment they made and have thus far regretted. "They've invested heavily into condominiums plagued with shoddy craftsmanship, plummeting values, sky-high association fees and persistent court cases," Brad Schmidt wrote in The Oregonian in an August 14 story on The Round. "They've opened businesses in buildings with spendy rents, cramped parking, slow elevators and striking vacancies. These people admit the Round has a long way to go, but they're careful to defend their home. At the Round, frustration is mixed with hope. "

On any facade, the biggest risk of water and air leakage or unwanted temperature transfer comes where it is penetrated. "When you’re trying to bring different materials together, they’re usually difficult to interface together and to make them tight. It’s how you detail those connections. It’s been our experience that regardless of the materials there can be problems in how you get them to come together."

An increase in these sorts of connection problems has come from more mixed-use buildings, where the ground-floor retail has a different material feel from the rest of the facade: usually more glass. Green buildings can also create more facade penetrations through exterior materials such as sun shades and light shelves. "Usually those are structural attachments and penetrate the skin. There are ways to deal with that, but it’s things you have to think about. ."

It's not at all to say that Hoff is anti-green building or innovation. His point is simply about execution. He estimates that more than half of all LEED-rated buildings are not performing as efficiently as designed - and hopes Western has a niche making sure they do. What's more, Hoff says certain sustainable inventions such as rain-screen facade technology will ultimately better enable buildings in this climate to survive our rainy season.

The green building world is injecting a lot of new products into the market place. It’s such a rapidly evolving technology that it’s difficult to get buildings put together well that do function well. The profession is learning right now. It's just that on our side, we basically get to see all the problems."

Examing the attic ceiling using a camera scope inserted from the roof (image courtesy Western Architectural) 

Many clients, though, have come to hire Western or other facade experts before the design is completed. "They can be running ideas by us. 'Where do you see there could be issues we need to pay attention to?' They’ll talk about the materials they want to use and we’ll talk about our experience in the past with it. Sometimes I’ll say, ‘You need to tell me what you’re trying to do here because the drawing as I see it the building is going to leak.’ Then we can eliminate the issues before they happen.  You can draw an awful lot of stuff that you can’t build. What you can do with a pencil you can’t necessarily do with sheet metal strips, or afford to do it."

And as Hoff understands, for all the extra difficulty that may come with innovations, sustainable or urbanistic or otherwise, it's always worth it for us to push the envelope - pun intended. It's also necessary, though, to have firms like Western Architectural assuring the envelope bends but doesn't break.

Comments

[Eric]

How is LEED and its certifying agents working with the fact that some ostensibly green building technologies are not at all very green or sustainable when they require lots of remediation?

[kitten]

does mr hoff understand that much of the construction detailing and such is not within the purview of most Architects? I am not suggesting that this is the best solution, but it is the truth. the execution of the design is not within hands of the designer.

[sut]

Proper detailing to prevent leaks or other defects is a very important issue, but to imply that green building is the cause is misleading. Those types of problems occurred long before anyone conceived of a green building, and while adding a sun shade can precipitate a problem, so can adding an typical awning or a sign. In my opinion simple lack of attention to detail causes the problems weather or not one is trying to be innovative.
That said, it should be obvious that a truly sustainable building shouldn't need to have its siding torn off and replaced. I'd love to see some sort of 'commissioning' process for the building envelope that verifies that the various construction trades responsible for the building envelope do proper installations. I've heard that an average building uses 2% more energy because of unwanted air infiltration through gaps in the envelope. That may not seem like a lot, but it adds up.

[Brian Libby]

Sut, if I made it seem like Hoff was implying green building is the cause of leaks and other defects, that's my mistake. In our talk, he was not doing so. Rather, I inquired about how sustainability figures into their work and may have been leading him in that regard. I just meant to explore how innovative technical and material solutions sometimes, by nature, don't have the test of time to benefit from, but are still worth it in the long run.

[MC at CCA]

As an architect I have been integraly involved with the design of bulding envelopes with and without envelope consultants. Condos were the biggest driver for firms like RDH and Morrison Hershfield to offer their services in the Portland market. Big time consultants who helped Canada work through what was a colossal mess at the time. Portland was fairly lucky to have its wave of high end condos lag even the Seattle Market which also suffered through its fair share of tented buildings.

For some of us incorporating appropriate detailing has become the standard, rain screen systems second nature. By neccessity the level of detailing has increased and improved with more three dimensional and sequencing drawings such as for window installation. Intersections and saddle details are a must. Developing and maintaing a quality review process is really important at all phases of a project. Deciding to check systems and details after the permit is issued does not work.

Many Archuitects got caught up in the feeding freenzy of condos in the past few years without the expertise or knowledge to pull it off.

I also agree that Portland is filled with many talented designers who, while creating spatial delights, may in fact be setting the stage down the line for litigation.

The reality is that proper detailing is not rocket science. but it does take a commitment by the entire client, contractor, architect team to make it a reality. There has been some movement towards providing a ten year whole building insurance policy like they do in Canada. which requires a number of provisions including third part review. Others with more insight can discuss this.

being proactive to prevent a tear off or tear down after ten years makes nothing but sense both finacially and environmentally. It is also true that many Leed certified buildings may actually be energy dogs. It is possible to have a building with 50-60% glass be certified and yet have a bulding envelope with an R-3 or R-4 average envelope performance. It would seem that reducing demand is a lot easier than building so called clean coal plants.

Sorry for the length but it is a fascinating topic.

[Russell]

I am concerned that kitten starts off her comment with the idea that construction detailing is not in the hands of the architect. In fact the exact opposite is true -- the detailing is in the hands of the architect. The famous (and sometimes infamous) line 'God is in the details' holds true to the detailing of any construction project - especially when trying to keep moisture out of a building. Without crossing the line of the 'means and methods' of construction, the details within the drawings and the information in the specifications should give clear communication to the contractor on what to build for any given project. Please understand, I am not suggesting that architects/engineers or their plans are perfect, but the goal should be to communicate, in the details, to what level of protection a building envelope should achieve. And that information is most assuredly in the control of the architect. Luckily kitten corrects her comment at the end by saying its the execution of the details that is the problem, to which I would agree that the architect has less control.

[MC @ CCA]

I also wanted to add that buildings, no matter how well they are detailed or the construction is executed, all require maintenance both near and long term to keep them working properly. As in the case of Condos we made it a contractual obligation that the developer pay for a maintenance and renewal manual that ultimately the HOA must follow. This document also gives the HOA a tool to develope budgets especially for big items down the road such as roof replacement. It is also great protection against litigation. A big issue that we see in a lot of the affordable housing stock in this town is due to lack of understanding about how to maintain projects and limited funds to pay for it. The older buildings that use a face seal or barrier approach to the envelope need a lot of attention.

[Rob]

"He estimates that more than half of all LEED-rated buildings are not performing as efficiently as designed"

More Than Half?!? Good lord.