Entry 12: Foundation During Final Exam Week

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As all of you are currently busy with final exams this week, I just wanted to show you some of the most recent photos taken on Monday the 11th. The concrete has been poured for the footings and the wooden boards that you see the men working on are the frame for the wall of the basement, which will be filled later with concrete.

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Best of luck on finals and be sure to check out the blog over break as Jordan will be keeping everyone up to date.

-Scott

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Entry 11: The Basement Foundation

Hello blog faithful,

Here's the latest on construction, written from our team member, Chris. If you were wondering what will be happening over winter break, have no fear, our team member, Jordan, lives in enemy territory and will bless us with his blogs and photos as construction moves along. Here's what's going on:

Wide angle view of the dug up site.

The excavation of the basement floor continued this week. Because the topsoil was rather weak, as is commonly found, it was removed altogether and hauled off the site. The topsoil will not be saved and used for landscaping, either. Duke University has certain specifications for the soil mixtures used on its property (a special blend reffered to by most as "Duke Soil"), and so a new batch of soil will be created to meet these guidelines.

Some steel used in the foundation.

And while the soil quality further below the surface is also poor in some local areas, Ray Pruitt, the project superindendant, described that the soil they found on the site was actually quite good. After doing numerous soil borings, it was initially feared that rock may have been present below the surface. But after the intial phases of excavation, only a hard, clay-like material was discovered. That material is actually preferable for construction because it compacts and holds together well.

Construction workers on site.

In the meantime, construction crews are working on the footings for the home, and hope to start pouring the concrete walls of the basement by the end of the week. In the photo above, note the orange painted lines in the background. These are the boundary lines for the walls of the house.

In other news, another safety orientation for Duke students was held today, increasing the number of certified visitors to 7. Look out for future orientations, which will most likely begin after we return from winter break.

Entry 10: After Turkey Day

Hello reader,

I went to the site today at 10am with Tom Rose to check out the latest scoop and here’s what I found. Today the digging continued from last week (thanksgiving break). The entire hole should be dug up by Friday and Monday the cement trucks are scheduled to come. Tom, Ray, and I worked out logistics for locations of the security cameras. It was a beautiful day and the mud was soft yet firm enough to walk on. Some photos of my visit are provided below. Notice the muddy tracks. The next safety orientation time is in the works, so expect to receive an email in the near future.

Snapshots of My Visit (click to enlarge)

Entry 9: Construction Breaks Ground

Construction Breaks Ground!

During our Tuesday OAC meeting (which is now in the trailer on site), I witnessed the first signs of construction! I think the most important thing I got out of the meeting that I want to share is the most recent schedule. It is as follows:

• Today, the digging will remove all of the top soil.
• By the middle of next week (pending fair weather conditions), the basement will be dug up.
  
• Following is a 3 week process will begin for the footers.
• With all of the delays, we are currently only a week behind schedule because landscaping prep work was finished before permit was completed.
• This projects a completion date of Sept. 17th, 2007*

*Note: With this date, the safest advice I would give anyone interested in living in the house would be to plan for the Spring Semester of '08.

Entry 8: Pre-Construction and Safety Orientation

Hello Smart Home community,

I apologize for not keeping more frequent blogs concerning the construction, but the truth is that there hasn’t been anything to write about. However, have no fear – good news is here in this recent blog entry! Also, have a great Thanksgiving!

So, from last time I wrote, I mentioned that Bovis has started working on the site. They have cleared the shrubs and preserved some of the trees (see photos below). A few other things have passed that should be brought to attention. Firstly, a permit was acquired last Monday (11/13), which gave BLL the green light on official construction. Secondly, 8 video cameras with night time infrared sensors were donated along with 2 DVR’s to record the activity of the site! I will let you know when they are set up. And finally, all primary building materials were ordered and we expect initial construction to move smoothly. The timeframe is at the beginning of next week, the basement will be dug up and the foundation will be installed. More updates will follow.

Members on site (from left to right: Kareem Lee, Tim Gu, Mark Gu, and Jordan Woodson).

Example of Tree Protection on site.

View of construction site.

Because of future heavy equipment and activity on the site, safety is a big concern. Wavers handed out in the Mid-Semester Presentation will be used for going to the site. If you are interested in visiting, you must be cleared through a safety orientation led by Ray Pruitt, superintendent of the site. It is important to remember that the site is Bovis’s until construction is finished, so we must follow their rules.

Safety orientation in Trailer by Ray Pruitt.

The first Safety orientation occurred yesterday (11/17) and 6 people were certified including myself to access the site. Future dates for those interested will be set up. In learning about site safety, proper attire such as leather-upper boots, long sleeves, and a hard hat are required on site. Bovis has been kind enough to lend visitors with hard hats and possibly goggles. After you fill out some paperwork and listen to Ray’s overview, you will be given a card with the number for the site as well as a sticker that acts as a form of clearance for the site. Check out my official Smart Home sticker below.

ID Sticker for Safety Orientation

Entry 7: Bovis Sets Up

Bovis has started work on the Home Depot smarthome site, and is currently working to prepare the lot for smart home construction. Bovis has placed a temporary trailer on site to run operations from in addition to constructing a fence around the entire site. Over the next couple of weeks expect to see the shrubs around the site taken down, and after that the foundation will be laid followed by framing. As noticeable changes to the construction site will be eminent, expect to see more updates (with pictures included); these updates should occur at least every week.

Entry 6: Leed Certification

Hello readers. This entry covers the meeting from Tuesday September 26^th 2006. It was the first meeting after our project had agreed on a GMP, Guaranteed Maximum Price, with Bovis Lend Lease for around 1.95 million. The main points from this meeting were then to discuss the next steps now that the project has a green light, and also update us on our projected LEED Certification Status.

For those of you who don’t know, LEED (Leading in Energy and Environmental Design). Our representative in the project, Isaac Panzarella, provided a presentation on comparing the original goals with the current status of building the Smart House. To give you a brief overview of LEED certification, a building must meet a range of points earned from various categories such as Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation and Design Process. The total amount of points you can earn categorizes the level of certification ranging from certified, to silver, to gold, and finally to platinum. If you walk into the atrium at FCIEMAS, you can see a very large plaque on the wall by the windows like the picture below showing a Silver LEED-NC certification. Our original goal for SmartHouse was to achieve Platinum status, which is a very difficult task to achieve with a limited budget. After reviewing all of the items on the list, we were able to speculate that the SmartHouse will achieve a gold certification if not higher.

As far as the current status on Construction, we concluded that shop drawings need to be approved by Frank Harmon Architects and a permit needs to be given by the city of Durham. Here are some estimated time points according to Bovis; Expect to see some physical presence starting around Monday, October 2^nd (which includes basic cleaning of the site – i.e. removing shrubs). Then, by the end of October, the foundation should be underway and the framing is expected to be up by mid. December. Remember to be aware that these dates are subject to change.

Entry 5: Dirt Will Move

If I could summarize this entry in three words, the phrase would be “Dirt Will Move.” That was the outcome of today’s meeting at the Duke FMD building with Bovis LL, Frank Harmon Architects, and all the other players involved (see Entry 1 for a schematic representation). Everyone involved with the project has devoted more time than expected and the current quote is still higher than the budget. In order for a contract to be settled on between Duke and Bovis LL, these fiscal issues still must come to an accord with both parties. The issue of the meetings is to find ways to lower the projected quote, while preserving the integrity of the house. One example of this is switching the complex framing to a conventional framing. A decision like this takes time because the architect must review the plans, consult with his engineers, and change the plans. I cannot say that we will be finalizing a contract very soon; however, today’s meeting concluded with approval of beginning initial site work very soon. If you’re as excited from reading this as I was when I heard the news in the meeting, (I quickly jotted down a note to see if Tom Rose and I could check out the site pre-construction) you’re jumping up and down.

There are many issues to be solved and future entries will keep you updated, but here are photo’s below from my visit earlier today of the Smart House site.

Photos Taken Before

Evidence of Future Construction

Entry 4: Hitachi Visit

The Japanese technology company Hitachi recently donated a variety of systems to the Duke SmartHouse. These systems include Finger Vein Authentication devices, Smart Cards, and the world’s smallest Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) µ-Chips. All together the donation is worth over $22,000. The CEO of Hitachi and his senior engineer met with representatives from the Duke Smart House to introduce the technology and get feedback and ideas from SmartHouse members. A new team has been created to handle the technology that Hitachi donated. Jack Sullivan and Tim Gu, the head of Industry Relations, are responsible for contacting Hitachi and securing their donation and involvement with the Duke SmartHouse.

SmartHouse members learning to use the technology that Hitachi donated.

Entry 3: Japanese Green Building Founder Visits

Today, a special guest visited Duke University from Japan. Mr. Ishiguro is the Founder and Vice Chairman of the Green Building Council in Japan. He is also a founder and president of an international green commissioning company based in New York, which is where we got the connection (Duke Alum) to arrange a visit. Smart House President Mark Gu presented a brief overview of the Smart House project, which followed with a question and discussion session. Then, we gave Mr. Ishiguro a tour of the Clean Room construction site in CIEMAS. Mr. Ishiguro and his group were very much interested in learning more about our project. In Japan, they work on various commercial green building projects by studying the efficiency, quality, and methods used in construction.

After the tour was finished, we discussed what our relationship will consist of in the future. Mr. Ishiguro would like to return to the US and test the energy efficiency and design of our Smart House right after it is built and 2 years later to draw a comparison. He is very concerned with environmental friendly materials and methods for the building. He was most impressed by the fact that our Smart House will be for the residential market — most of the technologies applied in the current market are used with commercial buildings. We put an emphasis on the fact that our Smart House will serve as a testing site and laboratory for future home related technologies.

All in all, the meeting with the visitors was an educational and rewarding experience. To quote Tom Rose, Program Director of the Duke Smart House, “What I took away from it [the meeting] that was so interesting, was that it seemed like there were cultural differences between the United States and Japan that created a different basis for green building in both of our countries...and that basis didn't necessarily support green building in Japan and he [Ishiguro] was coming here to figure out what can be done to change that, so I was really happy for the Smart House to be a part of that.”

Entry 2: Documents!

Today, I had the chance to go over the construction documents for the house. What are included are a gigantic project manual (well over 1,000 pages) and a set of blueprints. If any one is interested in taking a look at the plans, feel free to contact me and I’d be glad to show you. Let me please advise you not to come to me so that you can find which bedroom to choose when you move in because I have no say in that issue. I don’t think I have the time to read through all the construction documents because they are so inclusive of every detail. But, the actual concept and design of the house is much easier to understand with the complete documentation.

Entry 1: Who's Who?

Welcome to your inside access of the Duke Smart House! In this entry, I will try
to accomplish three aims: meet the players involved
in the construction, provide a glimpse of what’s been going on behind the scenes, and paint a rough sketch of what’s to come.

On April 21^st 2005, the public witnessed the ground breaking ceremony for the future Duke Smart House. Now that over a year has passed and nothing has appeared on the site of land, many of you must be wondering what has happened to the Smart House and will it ever be built? I have the answer for you – YES. You see, the delay has been caused by a number of factors, which if I attempted to explain, would lose your attention. So, the good news is this: everyone is pushing for the construction of the Smart House, and I feel it will be sooner than you may think.

Firstly, it’s time everyone be made aware of who runs this operation behind the scenes. For any construction project, you have three categories. See the chart below for a visual demonstration. The owner is the one who wants to build the house, pays the bill in the end, and will ultimately use the house. In our case, it’s a bit complex who is the owner, but the main point is Duke University will be the easiest way to think of the owner. Under Duke and Pratt, there are the fiscal donors (anonymous at the moment) and the users which will be you, the student. Then the owner finds someone to design the house. We have Frank Harmon Architects and their engineers at our side creating the blueprints and devising the layout of the house. Now once the design is approved by the user, the builder is hired for actual construction. In our case, Bovis Lend Lease will be handling that role and subcontracting parts for the house. We also have the Duke Facilities Management Department (FMD) representing Duke on the project for construction, since it will be a university building.

If that sounded simple, here’s where it gets complex. Imagine sitting in a room with 15 or so powerful Project Managers, VP’s, and Engineers discussing every aspect of this new facility. Not only do things have to be agreed upon within the three categories, but money is a huge decision factor and the cause of most delay. The Duke Smart House will be a pioneer in the industry; therefore it is completely custom designed. When the project is through, there will be enough documents related to fill up a standard double dorm bedroom (thank god it’s stored digitally). I’m talking pages and pages of items that need to be discussed. Take my first meeting for example. The meeting started at 8 am in the morning and didn’t finish until noon. Meetings like this have been going on for over a month and a half approximately once or twice a week!

So, if you’re asking yourself at this point in the entry: when can I expect to see some progress? I would most likely say sometime in October (a month away). Once it begins, the construction might go a little slower than one would expect only because everything is custom and the details for acquiring materials is a system in its own. For instance, steel is a building material that takes approximately 16 weeks from request to delivery for use. The house will be equipped with many green technologies and these systems could take some time to set-up, but we will be working on it to make sure the house is built as quickly and accurately as possible.

This is only my introduction and first entry. I will continue to share my thoughts and inside view of the construction process so that you feel part of what may someday be your home.

Welcome to the site!

Hello. This will hopefully become the official blog of the Duke Smart House Construction update. All entries posted will be taken from the construction log. I need some time to get it set up and explore the features, so hang on.