Rebuilding Amherst College with a 21st Century insulating air barrier system
Energy efficiency and speed of installation drive architect’s spec
Amherst College, in Amherst, MA looks exactly how you might imagine a traditional New England campus. That’s why, when it came time to modernize, the college and its architectural firm, Shepley Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott of Boston, decided to rebuild with a design of its place and time that would maintain the same high standards of construction.
But following tradition did not prevent the design team from specifying a 21st century approach to the performance of the building envelope. Nothing illustrates this better than the choice of BASF WALLTITE® insulating air barrier system in combination with ZERODRAFT® foam sealants. Project manager, Shaun Landon described the construction: “medium density spray polyurethane foam insulating air barrier and one part urethane foam sealant and said it provided a tight, efficient, high-performance building envelope.”
“I’ve been on the design team for the rebuilding of James and Stearns residence halls, right from the conceptual design stage,” says Landon. The two buildings compose the east side of Amherst’s historic quadrangle, each approximately 36,000 square feet. The buildings are steel-frame construction with concrete block back-up and a brick veneer.The design includes wood windows and copper roofs. The water table is granite and there is granite veneer where the basement is exposed.
The architect’s original plan for the Massachusetts-mandated air barrier system was a liquid-applied vapor barrier with rigid insulation on top. But Shepley Bulfinch is one of an increasing number of New England firms who are focused on air barrier systems that are sympathetic to the highest expectations of field quality control.
“We are recommending spray foam on many projects” says Landon. “We brought in the construction manager early in the process to view a spray foam application on another building. He accepted it with open arms. We then recommended spray foam to Amherst College, whose facilities team had not seen the concept before. They quickly realized that this was not only a quality air barrier and insulation product, but that the schedule would benefit as well.”
“We are concerned about building envelope failures in the North East where we have dramatic temperature changes throughout the year” Landon explains. “Whenever you have warm air coming out of the joints, in the winter for example, the performance of your building envelope is at risk. It’s difficult to make sure that every joint in a building is impermeable. With spray, you remove that problem.
Shepley Bulfinch is now designing a third building at Amherst. “We will be using a spray polyurethane system,” says Landon, “Not only is it an efficient installation process, it allows us to perform our field inspections with greater confidence.”
