In May, an extensive topographic survey was produced by the civil group of Morrison-Maierle. This survey will aid in designing our master plan and the infrastructure to support it. This master plan will include the main home, guest home, shop, orchards, ponds and solar array field. The master plan will be a major topic of discussion during our next charette. Lee Tavenner, of Solar Plexus, performed a solar path analysis in order to evaluate the sites solar exposure throughout the year.
June was spent working alongside the folks of Strata out of Missoula, MT (http://www.stratageotech.com/). Strata provides professional environmental, geotechnical, construction inspection, and construction material testing services for industrial, transportation, commercial, public works, and residential clients throughout the northwest. As we continued to work with MM engineering, it was our goal to have Strata inform us as to the geologic makeup of the homesite, the earth & rock we would encounter upon excavating, and more importantly how we could start to plan for excavating / foundation efforts as well as identifying structural engineering design requirments to insure the stability of our home well into the next century. Among various tasks, several holes were dug by a hired backhoe operator in aiding to identify the fractured bedrock, decomposed granite, and other rock make-up of the substructure below. Samples were identified to define the physical and engineering properties of the site. Through the comprehensive field work, Strata was able to evaluate and make recommendations concerning site prep & earthwork, excavation characteristics, site surface drainage, estimated foundation settlement, structural fill requirements, and other pertinent operations. With securing their services, we now have the information necessary to better prepare / design the infrastructure of the future build.In early August, I attended a geothermal workshop in Oklahoma (http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/). We don’t want to rule out our options but at this time we are considering a closed loop geothermal system, for climate control, powered electrically through grid-tied design with solar PVs supplementation. We are in the process of monitoring the wind velocity throughout the year to determine if wind generated electricity is an option in order to supplement the solar. Morrison–Maierle’s mechanical group has developed an energy model based on the preliminary design. This model is providing quantitative data illustrating the efficiency of the building envelope and the performance of various mechanical equipment options. We will be able to compare alternative construction assemblies with respect to energy efficiency, costs and sustainability.
We have made some head way concerning the Request for Qualifications (RFQ). Among the candidates, some have specific experience and qualifications that we’re looking for. With our design team in place we’ve decided that the traditional design- bid-build model is not the best approach for this project. We have contracted with a project management consultant to provide construction management services. They will provide cost analysis and critical path scheduling. We plan to contract with a number of the G.C. candidates to provide portions of the work and sub-contract other areas of the work through the design team.
On August 18th we held a small meeting to evaluate the information provided by the energy model. We still have a lot of decisions to make and we will discuss these during the upcoming charette. By that time we plan to have more information available to present to the team with the intent to make some concrete decisions and move forward with the design. It is our plan to work out the details and engineering this fall and winter with the expectation of a spring ground breaking.
I promise not to delay in further developments, as the projects is now really heating up with new developments sure to unfold at regular intervals.
All the best,
Tim
