News

In early August 2017, a natural gas leak at the North Campus, which houses the Upper School (grades 9-12), triggered a devastating explosion that tragically caused two fatalities and injured nine others. In addition to the human loss, a large portion of the facility sustained extensive damage that lead to a partial building collapse.

In early April 2018, Empirehouse began a collaborative design dialogue with Mortenson Construction to establish early schematic design budget targets and logistics review. Although the scope of work was not clearly defined, the relationship between Empirehouse and Mortenson, along with our combined expertise in complex façade integration and aggressive schedule completion began to work through the rough order of magnitude cost considerations and logistics concerns. Not long after these discovery sessions, Empirehouse had the opportunity to connect with the talented team from Cuningham Group Architecture. During this collaborative effort, Empirehouse took the opportunity to understand the teams overall design intent as well as the owners needs and expectations for the project. The flow of information was critical to the early design effort, as Empirehouse worked directly with Mortenson and Cuningham Group Architecture to provide pre-construction engineering, integration detailing and full scale mock-up review for assistance in selecting the appropriate glass substrates as well as a bird- friendly silkscreen design that will accentuate the façade aesthetic rather than deter from it. At this point, Empirehouse began to work within the building model to isolate and refine connection detailing and design details for consistency and accuracy in an effort to complete an early production set for material procurement.

The architectural glass and metal features that were included in Cuningham Group Architecture’s final design will include a custom horizontal line pattern silkscreen feature at the exterior glass to accommodate the bird-friendly construction requirement, a large flat slope skylight system (1/4”/1’-0” overall slope) with a trapezoidal configuration, ultra-high performance aluminum curtain-wall and storefront glazing systems to satisfy current NFRC performance criteria and an abundance of interior glass to allow passive light transfer throughout the classroom spaces.

The Minneapolis Public School district sought a flexible, modern headquarters, but also one that wasn’t too fancy for the tough economic times. As a Certified DBE woman-owned business, Empirehouse was proud to be one of the women-owned businesses participating on the Minneapolis Public Schools building project. We strive to have women and minorities on all of our job sites. On this project, we greatly exceeded the 13% minority and 7% female work force requirements.

Scope:

• Curtainwall
• Windows
• storefront,
• Entrances that maximize natural lighting.

The University of Minnesota Microbiology Research Facility opened in January 2016 and includes labs and office space for the study of infectious diseases and to support the ¬development of new drugs and vaccines. The 80,000 sq. ft. facility is also home to the Department of Microbiology as well as other faculty from across the Academic Health Center.

Empirehouse was awarded the architectural glass and metal contract by Mortenson Construction to provide over 26,000 square feet of ultra-performance thermal composite and multi-sided structural glazed aluminum curtainwall, entrances, a skyway, decorative structural glass, and a glass railing system. The architectural glass selected includes a high visible light transmission gray tint with a high-performance low ‘e’ coating and argon gas-filled air space for improved u-value performance.

Scope:

• ultra-performance thermal composite and multi-sided structural glazed aluminum curtainwall
• Entrances
• Skyway
• Decorative structural glass
• Glass railing system.

The U of M Bell Museum of Natural History features complex glass and glazing systems as four-sided structural glazed, dual cantilever box curtainwall and monumental span curtainwall systems with a total glass area of approximately 16,000 square feet. The expansive curtainwall systems surrounding the facility offer natural daylighting and were glazed with bird-friendly low-e insulated glass to help birds avoid unexpected collisions.

Scope of Work: 

• Four-sided structural glazed, dual-cantilever box aluminum curtainwall systems
• Monumental span curtainwall aluminum curtainwall systems
• Aluminum thermal entrance doors
• Exterior glass railings
• Vestibule and glass entrance
• Interior diorama glass displays
• Skylight
• Virtual Design Construction (VDC), Thermal and 3D modeling

Unique Features: (4-7 on every projects)
 

• Complex “fly-by” extended jamb and parapet bypass conditions while maintaining aesthetic continuity.
• Technology also addressed curtainwall corner transitions, systems integration and alignment with conjoining sections of the building, and detailing of the green roof vestibule which was added later in the project.
• Bird-friendly low-e insulated glass will help birds avoid unexpected collisions.
• 3D modeling for curtainwall corner transition designs at the southwest main entrance.The bottom curtainwall façade glass lites transitioned to an outside corner while the third top glass lites ran-through to create a soffit above the entrance.