An ICF Condominium Tower Design

As the Insulated Concrete Form system continues to gain traction in the concrete construction industry, at the same time buildings constructed with ICF continue to gain in height. VRT would like to contribute a generic design for the ICF tower, a template for a residential condominium tower of some 20 stories well suited to the ICF strategy. The template building shown below draws on the great Louis Sullivan's skyscraper scheme first expressed in his 1891 Wainwright office building in St. Louis. Now it's VRT's contention that the flat featureless facade characteristic of so many ICF buildings leaves something to be desired. A building needs definite style, proper proportions,

should have a definitive base - middle - and top, and be so planned as to cue passerby's as to its purpose. The flat featureless facades deriving from the International Style and seen in so much ICF construction fail in this regard. While such facades may simplify construction and reduce cost, more often than not such buildings are monotonous and suffer a significant reduction in curb appeal. Such facades make for cartoonish buildings which fail to complement their surroundings. VRT believes urban residential architecture ought to revisit the festive capitalism aesthetic of the Gilded Age when buildings beautified their neighborhoods and stoked the human spirit, engendering in their beholders a sense of confidence, civic pride, and optimism - the latter being perhaps the greatest of American virtues.

[ Is not the very essence of the American spirit an unbounded faith in a belief that no marvel of engineering which can be devised cannot also be constructed given sufficient will and ingenuity ?]

In any case it is precisely the festive capitalism of New York's Gilded Age which produced the great rooftop gardens found atop many a Manhattan hotel no better example was there than the marvelous rooftop oasis of the old Astor Hotel, located in today's Times Square. The Astor by the way was actually the second incarnation in the great Astor Hotel lineage the first being the exquisitely fanciful Waldorf-Astoria at 34th and Fifth. The 34th street Astor captured the very soul of Gilded Age Festive Capitalism. Tragically this most enchanting building gave way in 1929 when the Empire State Building replaced it, an edifice while exceptionally tall is by comparison rather dull. At an rate VRT has tried in its own small way to channel the wonder and beauty of the Astor Hotel rooftop garden in an interpretation splitting the rooftop space into an enclosed section set up like a greenhouse enclosing a large hot tub, tables, bench sofas and chaise lounges, and a fully

outdoor section with rose arbors, fountain, and with tables and chaise lounges as well. In this way the rooftop is usable year round and in bad weather. As shown the building has around 30 units. The living spaces have 12 feet ceilings, the bedroom ceilings are around 7 feet situated above the living space. In this regard VRT follows Frank Lloyd Wrights concept for his Usonian house, deliberately overemphasizing the living room while diminishing emphasis on bed rooms. With this design chases and storage / loft space becomes available as depicted in the drawing set. Shown below is the living space whose centerpiece is the very large format projector movie screen, a favorite luxury item of VRT. Consumer models now offer multi thousand lumen lasers making almost theater sized screens feasible. Furthermore VRT places emphasis on the inside of the living space in opposition to the excessive and seemingly maniacal windowization / glassification besetting many a residential tower design just at present. While VRT has no animus against glass

per se, the problem is once glass is placed everywhere - and floor to ceiling glass at that - there's precious little space left for much of anything else such as things you really need for living, for convenience, to say nothing of the luxuries. Decorating such a space becomes even more a makeshift exercise. With most interior spaces the architect leaves you on your own to contend with four blank walls. Making one wall floor to ceiling glass merely compounds the difficulty in furnishing the space, which leads me to another idea favored by VRT, Frank Lloyd Wright's all built-ins, fitted furniture scheme. VRT is committed to creating useful usable interior space where the tenant's move in feels more like checking into a hotel. Everything has been thought of and fitted out - no clunky furniture to schlep in and try to arrange. At the same time using Wrights spacial organization strategy engenders in the tenant a deep sense of what Jay Appleton termed 'prospect and refuge'. Wright achieved this spatial sense with his multiple ceiling heights and cove like recessed spaces of which VRT has taken note. To get an idea see the drawing below. And I hasten to point out that the space over the low ceiling decks is not merely an unused void. To the contrary

in the space above the kitchen is a loft suitable for lounging and sleep, a play room for young kids - or for storing suitcases, trunks, boxes and so forth.

The long space above the builtin sofa bank serves as a chase housing ventilation ducts, electrical runs, refrigerant piping, DWV piping, and water supply lines. And let me just mention that VRTs MEP strategy is to keep all vertical piping mains outside the residential units, housing them in the core part of the building containing the elevators and fire stairwell. The drawings shown below illustrate this idea. In this way any MEP maintenance for the building as a whole does not require disrupting and intruding on a tenants unit. Also note the black insulated refrigerant lines two of which connect to a wall mounted

HVAC unit. VRT is something of a student of HVAC technology and is keen on the VRF concept. The drawback is the fact that an awful lot of copper piping is needed to hook up a wall unit based system. As an alternative VRT is keen to explore the possibility of a hybrid system using high velocity air handlers with narrow diameter flexible ducts. VRT believes this might be the best of all worlds. It minimizes copper requirements - no long multiple copper piping runs are necessary - which reduces the total volume of refrigerant and thus reduces the potential health threat of leaky refrigerant lines. One such manufacturer is Spacepak which I believe offers a refrigerant based air handler along with zone control so each room can have its own

thermostat. Also part of the MEP lineup is the amazing Geberit DWV system which offers both simplicity of design and space saving in comparison with conventional DWV design. Now the astute observer might pick up on the fact that kitchen sink and dishwasher are well below the main horizontal DWV line. VRT solves this with a mercerating pump such as are used in basement kitchens and baths. Finally note that the elevators stop on all floors so that if need be people can take the elevator from their main living quarters up to the bedroom / laundry / bath level. Whether you would want to take the elevator down to the living area in your pajamas and bathrobe is another matter entirely - and perhaps best left to the CO-OP board busybodies to rule on.

The Drawing Sets Are Listed Below

MEP and ICF Drawing Set