Keel A/P

Really proud to have worked on this Senlac Road ‪#‎Toronto‬ project featured in blogTO. This is one of three newly built homes which all feature Cembrit facades. Skin + Bones Building Design Workshop Inc knocked out the facade layout like pros.

In an attempt to help mitigate rising housing costs, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to relax parking requirements on new transit-oriented development throughout the city.

Minneapolis previously had a one parking space per unit requirement for all development outside of downtown. The new ordinance does away with parking requirements for new developments with 50 or fewer units that are within a quarter mile of high-frequency transit. It reduces requirements for larger developments within a quarter mile of transit to .5 parking spaces per unit.

Council Member Lisa Bender, the ordinance’s primary sponsor, says the policy is meant to help Minneapolis deal with affordability before it becomes an intractable issue.

“It is still relatively easy to find affordable housing in Minneapolis,” says Bender. “But there is increasing pressure on the housing market … . We’re at a turning point where we need to start taking action so we don’t end up with a housing crisis in the future.”

Which is not to say there’s no need for more affordable housing right now.

“For the last five years, the city has been incredibly fast growing, particularly in the luxury apartment market,” explains James Lehnhoff, housing development director with affordable housing nonprofit Aeon. “We’ve seen non-subsidized, but affordable-range rents move up to be far less affordable for residents living in the city.”

Parking minimums have long been a hot-button issue among urbanists because they raise housing costs and, by providing vehicle storage, potentially encourage car use. Retired UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup once wrote that, “Minimum parking requirements in the planning profession are closely analogous to bloodletting in the medical profession.”

A 2014 study by Canada’s Victoria Transport Policy Institute found that parking minimums can raise rent by 10-20 percent. When developers satisfy parking requirements with expensive underground parking garages, the added cost gets passed along to renters and buyers.

According to Bender, parking requirements were a barrier to smaller, infill projects outside of downtown Minneapolis.

“There’s a lot of demand for smaller buildings in neighborhoods with underutilized or vacant parcels where you just couldn’t build a project with our previous parking requirements. Either you couldn’t make the numbers work or you literally couldn’t fit a parking garage on the site,” she explains.

Bender had hoped to eliminate parking minimums for larger TOD developments as well, but had to bargain down to the .5 spaces per unit requirement to get her ordinance passed.

“The compromise will have very little impact on what we see built in the market, but it had a huge impact on the political support for parking reform,” she explains. “It allowed us to pass the ordinance unanimously with a lot of positive feeling about changes we’re making and sets the stage for future reforms.”

Granted, the new policy is likely not going to eliminate parking minimums in the short term. Banks still often require developers to include parking in order to qualify for funding.

“Banks are investing in the property and have to know it’s going to work and be marketable,” says Lehnhoff.

Bender puts a number on it: “I’m being told by developers and banks that they’re not likely to go lower than .7 spaces per unit even. It’s going to take time for market to catch up to this policy change.”

But both she and Lehnhoff think the policy change is a critical first step toward getting developers and banks on board.

“Now we can have a discussion on the financing side and say look, don’t make us build all this parking. We don’t think it’s necessary. The city doesn’t think it’s necessary. It’s not necessary,” says Lehnhoff.

Unsurprisingly, Bender and her council colleagues have received a lot of feedback from car-owning constituents worried about the ordinance’s impact on their neighborhood streets.

But long term, Bender thinks this is going to help the market adapt to what city-dwellers want.

“These April showers will hopefully bring flowers and plenty more days allowing progress like this! Corey and the team at our Purcells build started out this clear blue sky day with one thing on their minds……ROOF. So you will remember the first step in weatherproofing and sealing this build was applying the v-force vapour barrier. Thus providing us with a ‘weathertight’ construction site. The next step was to apply Densdeck prime cover board. This fantastic modern roofing product boasts the benefits of being highly fire and thermal resistant, water resistant, and adds structural strength to the entire roofing system. Densdeck board is applied in accordance with local build codes (determined on a wind uplift calculation) with a minimum of 12 fasteners per board. Fasteners are carefully marked out and screwed in. At this stage, it is integral that the team move promptly on to the final membrane. No more boards shall be installed than can be covered with membrane and completed before the end of each day’s work or before the onset of inclement weather. Last but not least comes EPDM. This rubber membrane, specifically designed for low sloping roofing and therefore ideal for this Omar Gandhi design, is also perfect for use with green roof applications. The final photo shows the completed rubber roofing membrane carefully adhered with contact adhesive to complete this ‘mille feuille’ roof.”

We love innovation and are really excited about the new Firestone self adhered EPDM and TPO roof membranes. 

Keel has signed on with Ridley Windows & Doors and will now be offering Kolbe Windows & Doors in Nova Scotia. I had the pleasure of visiting the 1.2 million square foot factory for a tour and product training. Above are some of the highlights. The options are nearly limitless and the quality is second to none. 

A highlight is their new VistaLuxe product line which was developed in collaboration with architects who specialize in contemporary projects. As a result, it meets the aesthetic of clean lines & multiple units with large expanses of glass, while offering a warm, organic wood interior.

A great blog post by Matt Risinger regarding the "perfect wall". This is an topic of discussion that often comes up in our world and Matt sums it up nicely. 

"What if I told you I could build a house that would have a life cycle of 500 years? A house that would be so durable that the usual issues of rot & decay would take generations to break down this house… I’d like to introduce you to “The Perfect Wall” by Joe Lstiburek & Building Science Corporation. This blog post is a summary of an article that Joe wrote and is available for free on their website from this link.   

It wasn’t that long ago that houses were built from rocks. Think about the Roman Colosseum, that structure has stood the test of time! Rocks were an separator between the outside and the inside. Rocks are certainly durable, but they aren’t great at keeping the weather & water out of a house. Construction has evolved and houses today need 4 basic layers to control the inside from the outside. 

These four control layers (in order of importance) are:

a rain control layer (water) an air control layer (air) a vapor control layer (vapor) a thermal control layer (heat)

This order is really important because if you can’t keep the water out of your building who cares what insulation you’re using. If air is leaking into your building who cares about your vapor control layer. The best location for these layers is outside the building. When we had buildings made of rocks there wasn’t much issue if the rocks (structure) got wet, but now that our houses are mainly wood & steel we need to move these control layers outside of our structure.

But what about the insulation, aren’t we typically putting that inside the house? Yes, but is that the best place for it? Will it protect the structure from the heat/cold extremes if it’s outside? What if we put the insulation on the OUTSIDE of the building, then it would do a terrific job of protecting the structure from expansion, contraction, corrosion, decay, & UV. If it’s a chilly day outside, would you put your fleece jacket on your body OR would you eat your fleece jacket so it would be in between your ribs? That’s not a perfect analogy, but you get the picture. Insulation on the outside makes perfect sense. 

Next, let’s talk about air control. Doesn’t air carry with it moisture? When air leaks into our buildings it tends to drop that moisture when it hits a condensing surface. Water is bad for both wood & steel’s longevity so we need to do a good job controlling air if we want to control water in our buildings. It’s also important to control air flow through our building because of what the outside air might have floating among it. In Texas we have some nasty allergens, pollens, molds, etc. If air is leaking into our buildings those nasties are coming along for the ride. Once we control the air flow we can properly heat/cool, dehumidify, filter, and bring in fresh air when we want to & on our terms. The best place to control this air flow again is outside of our structure. That’s the Perfect Wall! The rain, air, and vapor control layers are all outside the structure; then the thermal control layer is outboard of those layers. That Insulation layer outboard of the other layers means that the control membrane also gets protected from heat/cold extremes.

Standardization and variation are inherently compatible - David Wallance @FXFOWLE on #modular #edgeofpractice

Having just returned from a short trip to Austin to visit the crew at Delta Millworks (Shou Sugi Ban) and check out Jack White at the Austin Music Hall, I'm ready to go back already.

Austin is known as the "Live Music Capital of the World" and had a population of 885,400 as of July 1, 2013, according to the Census Bureau.  Austin is ranked the No. 1 market for millennials – Americans born after 1980 – in terms of concentration, which is 1.2 times the national average, according to a recent Nielsen study. The city is a top spot for the “Creative Class,” which includes “workers, intellectuals and artists who … will help drive future economic growth,” according to the study. The slogan "Keep Austin Weird" has come to embody the city's offbeat culture, including its vibrant music and restaurant scenes.

So if you're looking for great BBQ (possibly the best in the world according to some), fantastic live music, great architecture and really nice people head down to Austin. You will not regret it. 

Eric Stotts and Devin McCarthy, DSRA Architecture present a BIM Case Study from Halifax, Nova Scotia.