I stumbled across this on the web today looking for a new keynote file for revit. The keynote file RevIt ships with almost seems like a “feaux” CSI format. Where some things match, others don’t or are missing. This file is the full, up to date, MasterFormat list of standard keynotes for RevIt. Download it here: 2004_masterspec_csi_keynotes. Just load it into your library folder, change the default keynote path, and you’re good to go.
Well my studio class for the semester has finally come to a close. 6 days of all nighters and one big-ass model later, it’s done with. This has become one of, if not my most favorite project I believe. It encompasses a fully functional (and designed) museum, 600,000 SF of office & residential space, parking, mechanical systems, and all that jazz in a 600′ tall package. Fun! My concept was to use active wind patterns on the site. The tower is oriented parallel with the prevailing winds, and uses a venturi based shape to accelerate wind speed, utilizing the increased velocity to drive wind turbines to help power the buildings. Based on conservative calculations – the tower would be able to provide 95% of it’s own power during the summer, and 120% of it’s own power during the winter. To offset the effects of poor solar orientation (which comes as a result of proper wind orientation) – there is an automated skin system which adjusts a series of vertical louvers throughout the day to keep the building shaded, yet open to views when a facade is not exposed to solar radiation. The inner skin between the building is made out of a fine expanded metal mesh with 30% aperture opening to let in daylight, yet maintain a relatively low level of drag ont he wind in order to promote performance. Mechanical exhaust and exchange air is also mixed inside of the skin, drawn out by the natural low pressure zone formed between the two buildings.
The question came up during my review about why I hadn’t utilized solar as my main power supply. Solar power would be able to provide about 1MW of power for about 6 hours per day (or 6MwH per day) if the design utilized the entire southern lot line. Using wind power, the tower produces 2Mw with the wind blowing (33% of the time – or 660kwh per hour), both day and night (24 hours) – accounting for a grand total of 15.8MwH per day (if you do the math, that’s more than what solar would produce).
To accommodate the musem compositionally – two large service cores per tower act as utility/circulation backbones, as well as structural columns. To keep floor thickness feasable, the system utilizes an indirect cantilever every 14 floors, who’s truss carries the subsequent floors below it using 3″ steel cables on grid. These structural floors also house mechanical equipment – which accounts for about 400 tons of cooling.
Residential spaces are pushed to the east and west sides of the tower, and granted a 5′ circulation corridor on the inner faces of the towers to provide an accoustical buffer to the noise the wind turbines would produce (though vertical axis turbines are known as the quietest in the world). Tenants are also granted access to a sky-garden every 14 floors, which would house community gardens, as well as a smaller multi-use space to be utilized for meetings, or a clubhouse & fitness room function for residents.
The museum was intended to stay minimal in appearance, as the tower was the primary design driver. It’s formed out of a series of simple boxes, skinned to only let in a mix of northern and southern daylight (no sunlight). The main lobby (the largest of the 5 boxes) functions as both that for the tower and the museum – the lower portion being for the museum (also containing gift shops and access to storage and restoration areas), the upper portion being for the tower (providing access to residences, offices, and museum offices). Outdoor courtyard space is also provided for a multitude of functions, including outdoor markets, performances, etc.
I still need to photograph my physical model of this thing – but should have that online Monday or Tuesday. Also to come soon is a rendering revealing how all the mechanical systems are itnerconnected and woven through one another – a portion modeled in RevIt MEP (rest of the project was RevIt Architecture) I didn’t get to finish.
update: some photos of the model
So by now I’m sure everyone has heard of BIM (Building Information Modeling). For those that haven’t – it’s the stormt that’s changing the way Architects are documenting and visualizing their designs. Just to clarify – BIM is not 2D drafting, and it is not 3D modeling – these are just a fractional components of the power BIM software encompasses. Programs like RevIt understand how the buildings you design go together, and what changes and mofifications mean. Whereas in cad, you draw two lines to represent a wall, in RevIt, you use a tool to tell the program where a wall goes, it is modeled in 3d, shows up in wall schedules, the windows it contains are fully detailed, and when you need a wall section – you use another tool to tell the program where and a fully materialized, fully detailed section shows up in your set – one that’s actually pieced together correctly. You can then automatically update your energy models for the building (Which RevIt MEP can do easily), which updates your HVAC and register sizing, etc etc etc (you get the point, I could go on for quiet a while like this). When you annotate your new view – you click the pieces that are supposed to be annotated, and RevIt automatically knows what they are and lets you lay them out the way you want. When you make changes to the model (which can be done in 3d, or in any of your ortho views) – it is automatically tracked back to every last detail drawing you’ve ever drawn up. When your model changes, and it affects your consultants, they get an alert on their screen point them to where things are changed. If you have a duct going through a beam – it’ll definitely tell you that too. RevIt is construction documents – done the smart way. If you’re still questioning wether or not BIM is the way to go – get someone to give you a demonstration, you’ll be amazed.
I’ve finally had a chance to use this wondweful program for my Construction Documents class. In comparison to the conventional means I use at work – RevIt is about 10 times faster (for a team learning the program at the same time), more accurate, and exports drawings more precise than just about any drawing that you can export out of the office (in case you were concerned about compatibility with your consultants). It didn’t take me long to adapt it for my studio projects as well – yes, revit can make beautiful presentation drawings – dont let anyone fool you, it just takes some Illustrator work. I will never switch back… if only I could get the office I work at to switch over as well. I’ve uploaded a sample workset done entirely in revit. There are some oddities in it due to us still learnign the program as we went along – but dont let that fool you; I promise it wont be a problem next time 
Photomontage
Sep 1
The folks at work had asked me to do a photo montage of a project we’re doing for a client. This building has already been built, however due to a good ammount of east and northeast facing glass solar light and heat gain are major issues.
I took a set of plans from our designer conveying a proposed shade screen and how it related to the existing building (which we also had plans for as we designed that as well), and used them as overlays to create an exact 3d model of just the building facade with the screen using Google SketchUp.
The next day I set out and took some photos of the building, making mental notes of the exact spots where I took them from and the height of the camera. I took this information back into SU, and used an imported site plan to locate where the camera was, using image EXIF data to calculate focal distances, apertures, sensitivity shutter speeds, and cloning these into the V-Ray for SU rendering engine I’ve fallen in love with. I turned off all objects except shade screen related items, and presto! out rolled imagery I used to overlay on the photos I took earlier, which matched perfectly.
All in all total modeling time was about 90 minutes, rendering took about 10 minutes for each shot, and photoshopping maybe another 15 per shot.
Welcome!
Aug 19
Well it’s about time I got my website up and running again. I’m still working with some features and ironing out some bugs, but it should be up to full functionality soon. I’ll be uploading stuff regarding hobbies in the off-road world, architecture & photography. Check back soon!