PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: LESSONS FROM THE DUKE ELLINGTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS PROJECT

Project Name: The Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Project Location: Washington, D.C.
Firm Name: cox graae + spack architects
Project Type: 600-student facility
Project Area: 265,000 square feet of new and renovated space
Completion Date: 2017

The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (DESA) in Washington, D.C., is one of the world’s foremost public schools, created to offer gifted children of all races and backgrounds equal access to a superior education in the arts. The D.C. school was founded in 1974, but the building itself was built in the 1890s and underwent several renovations and repairs over the years. In 2011, to bring the building into the 21st century but still preserve its historical character, DESA held an international design competition.

A D.C. firm called cox graae + spack architects (CG + S) was awarded the project after they submitted an inspiring design created through BIM technologies. The design captured many of the values the school was looking for: an innovative blend of functionality, aesthetics, and historic preservation. The story of DESA is an example of how all the best parts of a BIM project worked together to create an example of human-centered architecture that meets the highest terms of aesthetics and sustainability. It is, just as importantly, a near-perfect illustration of the strength of BIM workflows and the way the BIM process transforms not only a building and the occupants with it but also the designers, engineers, and contractors working on the project.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

When coming up with the concept, the design firm had to think about balancing historic and modern. There were historic constraints from the beginning—and they were significant. The front part of the building, with its stately columns, had been historically documented and marked for preservation. Attached to the historic front would be a modern theater. In the back, two stories of historical building would be added onto. In other words, there were several points where old sections of the building needed to meet new sections, and the process would require sleeving steel through walls, getting the envelope to work, and making the seams between buildings watertight.

The firm first created a point cloud of the historic building in its existing form. That design was fed into BIM software where it was turned into a 3D model and used as a starting point for the project. Working with the historic preservation office, they were able to show how a new theater and additional floors could be constructed without destroying the important historic aspects of the building. Being able to show from the beginning how the construction and aesthetic design still supported the documented historic elements of the building helped get the preservation office on board. Because the BIM model was readable, the historic preservation office could approve the design with confidence in a timely manner.

The result: Passing through the historically preserved front, visitors discover a geometrically stunning 800-seat performance theater as the beating heart of the building. This is gracefully surrounded by original brick walls, columns, and balconies, with a full-span skylight roof casting directed light throughout.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Duke Ellington’s legacy included aspiring to excellence—in the way he played music, in the way he refused to play to segregated audiences, and in how he saw musicians as not just entertainers but global leaders. CG + S wanted to embody that idea of the responsible artist by being responsible designers. From mechanical and lighting studies to technology exploration and integration, the firm used a variety of BIM tools to test hundreds of ideas within its detailed BIM model.

By doing so, CG + S and its client were able to incorporate a wealth of environmental features that work to inform and inspire students daily and provide learning opportunities about sustainability. Many of these sustainability features resulted in Ellington being awarded LEED Gold status. But a lot of the features were created without reward, including gray water systems and more natural light, showing other schools and designers what’s possible when you go beyond the expected—even on a limited budget.

COLLABORATION

Central to Ellington’s success was the AEC team’s decision to embrace fluid collaboration via BIM. Faced with a project that was not only fiercely complex to build but also had a tight deadline that could not slip, CG + S used every advantage the software offers to bring all disciplines together at the early design phase.

As a prototypical and complex project, it needed collaboration. Instead of pushing documents down the line and waiting for feedback every step of the way, everyone was in the virtual room creating together. A major part of the building design involved building a steel model for the theater. In BIM, the designing, engineering, and fabrication happened almost simultaneously. Designers and engineers could exchange files back and forth in a readable format. The files could be put in the model and checked to see if they worked. All partners were invited to contribute inside of the model, or remotely via IFC, with the structural engineer building the theater’s complex steel structure. All fabricators and detailers directly input ideas that led to far greater efficiency on-site.

VISUALIZING DESIGN

Creating the design wasn’t the first step in the BIM process for DESA. Designers were able to model a variety of concepts through the 3D model and take clients on a journey. They could provide super sophisticated but simple visualizations that gave the client a sense of what the design could be and feel like.

Visualizing design continued throughout the entire project and was key in breaking down the usual silos created by specialty jobs. Communication of the vision was conveyed to the hundreds of mechanics working on the building as well as drywallers and other installers. The 3D models provided them with a legibility—aesthetic, mood, layout, and general context—that is often lost in translation with traditional documentation. Every person on the project could see and anticipate how their part of the project fit with everyone else’s in a holistic view. And because contractors were in on the modeling from the beginning, they were able to contribute to the conversation and be on board with decisions.

On a practical level, the theater structure alone was so complex that without 3D visuals as a reference, teams would struggle to understand how all of the pieces fit together and how to coordinate their schedules for peak efficiency. Over the course of the project, visualization tools rapidly generated 3D briefings, studies, and interactive BIM tours accessible from any device. This prepared the project to embrace 3D documentation capabilities, which became essential not only to provide detailed, accurate guidance to each partner but also to ensure perfect alignment throughout construction.

TRANSFORMATION

The experience of successfully working on such a major endeavor in a collaborative way transformed CG + S. The approximately 33-person firm accomplished a project that might have been handed to a firm many times its size. In this way, the firm was able to maintain its culture and intimate client focus but still be powerful enough to achieve the complex project within the allotted time and budget.

Taking out inefficiencies, such as duplication in documentation, and creating a synergy around one model helped energize the firm. In collaboration, they were able to gain invaluable knowledge about a whole-building system and the challenges other stakeholders face during projects. And they got to experience the best kind of challenge—one in which they were set up for success through a set of tools that allowed them to stretch their creative muscles in ways they never imagined. Many of the firm’s designers have been inspired to step it up for future projects, fueled by the spirit of collaboration.