Right down to the details

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Not only did Dennis Kowal Architects design this new children’s room, they designed the furniture too!

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What do you do when you need a child-sized chair that is fun and durable but nobody sells it?  Dennis Kowal Architects decided to design the chair and have it manufactured.    Because of the unique design, the chair can be flipped down for sitting close to the floor or used upright as a conventional seat.  Bright colors were added in an assortment of pastels to compliment the new children’s room.  A wood prototype was built by Dennis Kowal Architects to study the right height for a child and to understand ergonomics of the shape.  Once a comfortable profile was developed,  the design was modified for image and ease of manufacture.  Construction drawings were sent to Scotti Powers of Workplace Technology Furniture who manufactured the chairs in Vietnam for Dennis Kowal Architects.

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The children’s Story Room contains another type of Dennis Kowal Architects designed furniture.  Wall murals of bedposts, refrigerators, and comfortable chairs adorn the Craft and Story Room.   Children’s favorite characters hide behind every corner ready to pop out and play.  Exposed wood trusses and a small-scaled covered porch entrance provide a cottage-like location for adventure and make-believe.

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And when you can’t build the furniture, you can specify some very interesting stuff.  While the desk and bookcases were milled to Dennis Kowal Architects specifications including a special  grapevine inlay, this Young Adult area got some basket chairs and finger chairs to add the fun.

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These chairs were manufactured for Dennis Kowal Architects to complete the children’s room and are enjoyed by a variety of young people including Bob the Builder.

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Dennis Kowal Architects designs interiors right down to the fine details!

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Design wins 2013 Green Building Award

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The Virginia US Green Building Council (JRGBC) honored these offices with the 2013 Green Building Leadership Award.   Last year, the United States Green Building Council certified the project LEED Gold.

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Taking a 1960′s, 25,000 square foot building in Richmond, Virginia, Dennis Kowal Architects transformed the existing building into a modern office environment and training center.   With only small additions at both ends and an imaginative infilling of an underutilized open courtyard, the total gut-renovation put back an energy efficient and low VOC office environment.

Even interior offices have views and daylight thanks to the new plan layout (see below) and use of “borrowed lights”, windows that open to adjacent rooms with natural light.  Outside offices have operable shades to control the light and glare-free indirect lighting fixtures are used in the major spaces.  The changes in lighting and equipment reduced the energy use by 15% and occupant satisfaction and comfort has risen dramatically from the pre-renovation building.

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Low-flow plumbing fixtures reduced water usage by 30% and save 34,000 gallons of water per year.   All heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment and controls were removed and replaced with a new variable system with energy recovery technology. The deteriorated single-pane window units were replaced with double-pane, thermally insulated units with low-emissivity coating to reduce solar heat gain and the skylight is made of a highly insulated translucent sandwich panel.   The existing metal halide site lights were upgraded to new light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures and new vehicle recharging stations were added to the parking lot.

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The general contractor salvaged and recycled 87 percent of all construction and demolition debris, used regionally-manufactured building materials containing recycled content, and purchased wood products harvested from sustainably-managed forests.  Indoor air quality was protected from the start of construction and later by use of low-emitting building materials and furniture.  The owner is continuing with this effort using green cleaning products and equipment.

Even the old and leaking flat roof has been covered with a hipped standing seam metal roof that reflects the sunlight and lowers the heat island effect through the use of a reflective solar paint.

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The project was a team effort with Dennis Kowal Architects as the principal designer and disability expert.  DKA partnered with Mosley Architects of Richmond to provide the construction documents and LEED submissions.   Colorado Architect, John Dickerson, was the project’s hearing impaired consultant.   Together, Dennis Kowal Architects, office building designers, and specialist in the design for the blind and physically handicapped,  designed this award winning plan for the renovated administrative offices and training center for the Virginia Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired center in Richmond Virginia.

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Dennis Kowal Architects designs office environments with the occupants in mind.

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Humble on the outside and colorful on the inside

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Phase One of the Praise Presbyterian Korean Church features a multi-purpose worship space, fellowship hall and administrative offices.

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Like the Korean Culture, this new church is humble on the outside and colorful on the inside.  The Praise Presbyterian Church has services in Korean and English and is a mix of generations.  Since family structure is an important dynamic, the architecture of the new building exposes the elements of its structure.  The tops of columns branch out like a “family tree” and energy-saving translucent panels simulate rice paper screens.  The facility has a modern appearance and becomes an embracing backdrop for the colorful presentations of folk culture, classical music and worship.

Natural light floods the interior of the church and spacious hallways become galleries that are used for constantly changing exhibits and art.   The translucent wall panels are 4” thick and contain a clear spun glass insulation that allows light to pass without the heat.

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The structure of the unique stair case is fully exposed.  The stair is actually hung by suspension cables and floats three stories within the translucent stair tower.  At night, the stair towers glow and become a beacon of hope to the community.  Begun by a handful of college students meeting at Rutgers University, the church is now a large congregation of young professionals with their parents and grandparents.  The facility supports their church services, fellowship, and many musical performances by the talented congregation.

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The acoustically tuned multipurpose room has movable seating and can transform into a gymnasium.  The carpeting is a “true bounce” carpet that performs naturally for basketball and other sports.  Sophisticated lighting, sound, and video systems give the facility great flexibility and use.

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Dennis Kowal Architects design buildings that resonate with the culture of the organization.

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OZ comes to New Jersey

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This dreamy new Library creates a world of its own on a mountaintop in Mt. Olive,  home to John Neill the illustrator of the famous Wizard of Oz books.

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Mt. Olive, rich in iron deposits, attracted a number of famous artists who enjoyed the peaceful, wooded landscape and natural materials they could use in their art.  The foreman of the Louis Comfort Tiffany studios, the sculptor of the Atlas Statue at Rockefeller Center, and the illustrator of the Frank Baum Oz books all lived here.  Given  an eight acre site with sweeping views, DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS was sure to include generous windows, natural  stone materials, and a tribute to John Neill, the illustrator of the famous Oz series.

The Library is “V” shaped  with an adult and children’s wing.   The local history section displays some of the original Oz books while the children’s wing is entered through a stone gateway that depicts the lion, the tin man and the scarecrow.  The Library interior reflects the agricultural history of the town with barn-like exposed heavy timber trusses and a carpet embroidered with Olive branches!

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The Children’s room features cloud-like light fixtures, a story room that looks like a cottage, and stone pillars that divide the sections.  The custom designed shelving units have end display cases that feature books and themes.   Residents feel that the Library is a perfect complement to their community.

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.Yellow brick appropriately covers the floor at the entrance to the Children’s wing.		John Neill first illustrated Dorothy as blonde and about ten years of age.

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Huff and Puff and blow your house down

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Just 100 mph winds snaps this roof off a standard code house in this test chamber.  DKA is designing a new fortified home along the Jersey Shore using inexpensive techniques that exceed the new building codes.   These techniques were used on the house on the right and building envelope stays intact under test.   Click on the picture to watch a video of the test.

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Simple design changes which add only 1% to the cost of materials for a new home or office can make all the difference in the world during a storm.    Some of the changes will be code required, but some of the changes must be requested by the Architect during the design process; these include high-wind rated shingles, high-wind rated siding, exterior doors that don’t blow in under high winds, 5/8” thick roof sheathing, and ring shank nails which have better holding power.  The insurance industry is the largest consumer of roof shingles and following these practices can reduce losses and claims.  If you lose your roof during a storm, it doesn’t much matter whether the rest of the structure remains, the contents and structure will be ruined anyway.

Stephen Malyszka of Dennis Kowal Architects completed a seven hour training day on redesigning safely for Hurricanes, Flooding, and Seismic activity.  Hurricane Sandy which affected 11 states and will be known as the second largest weather event to ever affect the United States has caused everyone to focus on better design practices when rebuilding.    Stephen is currently designing a home in Belmar, New Jersey, just two blocks from the coastline and at the center of the land fall during Hurricane Sandy.   Belmar lost all but 20 reusable feet of its boardwalk and had significant damage to many of its homes due to wind and storm surge damage.  Houses must be designed to resist lateral movement of storm surges that try to push a house off its foundation, braced against the toppling wind pressure and tied from roof to foundation with a continuous load path structure.     Foundations and pilings must be protected from scouring during riverine or coastal flooding and decks and porches often require and independent structures allowing them to break away cleanly from the main structure.

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The tattered boardwalk in Belmar showing the destructive power of the storm against an engineer’s best design efforts.		Belmar flooded from both the ocean side and bay side.
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Welcome to Belmar and a pile of debris that once constituted a lot of houses.		DKA is practicing fortified house design to prevent the kind of damage seen after Hurricane Sandy.
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Dennis Kowal Architect believes that beautiful homes are also safe homes.  No one expects a disaster. Too often short cuts during construction compromise a structure.  DKA provides construction administration to monitor construction and enforce quality.

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Stephen Malyszka of Dennis Kowal Architects attends an in-depth training on reinforced house design.

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Dennis Kowal Architects improves the way we build!

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Does lightning strike twice!

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More than ornament, lightning rods played an important role in building safety for over a century and long before the invention of electricity.  DKA is restoring such a structure.  American lightning rods in the 18^th century were pointed like this one while the British counterparts thought a metal ball at the tip was more likely to attract the lightning charge.

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Apparently, lightning strikes twice often, because it was common in the late 18^th and early 19^th Century to add 4 1/2” decorative glass balls to the top of lightning rods to inform the owners if their barn had been struck by lightning.  The lightning strike would break the glass and the owner would know to check the conductor cable and ground connection, as well the structure, for damage.  Restoration is underway on four lightning rod terminals that adorn the historic Hendrickson-Atchly Farmstead (shown above) as one small part of the 18^th Century Farmhouse historic restoration.  Two lightning rod terminals were somewhat intact and two terminals were badly damaged and missing components.

Dennis Kowal Architects did not want to lose this piece of history and determined to restore the lightning rod terminals.  After showing the existing broken rods to a blacksmith, the firm was told that they couldn’t be re-tapered.  It was suggested that tapered rods could be duplicated by working from new material.  Dennis Kowal, preferring restoration over duplication, said “If specialized blacksmith skills are needed to restore the lightning rods, I will learn those skills and restore the rods myself.  This piece of history should be saved and not lost or replaced with a modern look-alike if at all possible.”

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First invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, the lightning rod works by allowing the lightning charge to reach the ground through an external cable that is isolated from the structure. (Note how the cable is held off the metal roof by ceramic stand-offs.)  Without this diversion, the lightning would pass through the less conductive elements of a building like the timber.   Lightning that uses the wood superstructure for grounding super heats the wood moisture as it attempts to pass through and causes destruction and fire.		This Kretzer Brand lightning rod is missing some isolators, the glass ball, and the vertical tip also known as the Franklin rod or air terminal.   It was hoped that two badly degraded lighting rod terminals could be restored.   After no success in finding someone able to repair the existing lightning rods, DKA decided to restore them with their own hands.
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Dennis J. Kowal AIA,  apprenticed as a blacksmith in Guillford Connecticut to master the art of re-making the missing iron components.		The lightning rod is inspected for missing components and damaged welds.  Work begins by re-forging the missing pointed air terminal.
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Pieces of 100 year iron from abandoned cabling in the original lightning grounding were reclaimed for reworking into the air terminals.  The iron was heated in a coal forge to 2500 degrees which allowed it to be drawn and re-shaped.		Dennis drew the ends to a taper and then forged a point.   The metal can only be worked a few seconds at a time before it must be reheated; otherwise the metal fractures instead of yields.

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Kretzer Brand lightning rods were manufactured in St. Louis Missouri.  The glass balls came in dozens of colors and finishes to personalize the lightning rods and were often sold by salesmen traveling from farm to farm by horse and carriage. The glass globes in this project were actually clear when originally installed and are a bit rare.   Today, collectors value and collect these glass globes.  The lightning rods on this house were probably installed in the early 1900’s because they match the patent drawing from the Kretzer company from about this time period.  Nearly finished, the lightning rod now has ceramic isolators, a glass ball, and a restored air terminal.

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Thomas Edison endorses the concept of a lightning rod in this letter used in a 1919 Michigan Cass City Chronicle newspaper ad stating “…I would say that in my opinion a building may be protected from lightning by a properly installed system of continuous conductors of ample capacity, WELL INSULATED FROM THE BUILDING.”		Sidney D. Kretzer received patent number 42173 in 1912 for this lightning rod which matches the design of the rod on the Atchely Farmstead.  Sometimes weather vanes and attractor balls were added to the top.  There have been over 329 patents for lightning rods since the 1850’s.

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Contrary to popular belief, lighting rods do not “attract” lightning any more than the plumbing vents, old TV antennas, or any other roof structure.  Instead, lightning rods re-direct the energy (when lightning does strike) keeping it outside of the structure and running it safely to ground.  Church steeples, often the highest point in town, do have a deserved reputation for being struck by lightning.  Early Americans knew to stay away from them during storms.

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DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS are preservation architects that are serious about preserving the great and small buildings of our history.

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DKA to design a safer Daycare in Connecticut

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Discussion about school safety used to center around round edges and the ability to wash and clean surfaces such as this previous DKA design for a nursery school.   After the string of school tragedies that recently culminated in the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, schools now have emergency crisis plans including lockdown drills.  

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As life would have it, Dennis Kowal Architects is designing a Day Care and Nursery School in Connecticut just blocks from the St. John’s Cemetery where one of the Sandy Hook students is now interred.   Safety was already a priority for this project, but the madness that occurred at the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School  has naturally prompted more discussion and design.   Some of the design features being incorporated into the plan include moving the parked cars away from the building and locating the playgrounds directly outside the school doors as much as possible creating a land buffer.   Also, fire walls are being used inside to compartmentalize the facility and unrelated uses are being moved out of the classroom zones to reduce the amount of casual intrusions.

Disasters don’t always strike the same way twice, so an effective design approach considers natural disasters, a variety of attacks, and various vulnerabilities.   Since the 1999 Columbine massacre, many agencies such as FEMA and the Department of Education have provided schools with design guidelines;  such as not selecting sites in a depressed land area which would tend to collect and hold toxic gases in the event of a spill.    Common sense has resulted in limited entry points with controlled access and administration or other supervision close to the entry.   Some schools mark the exterior windows with the interior room numbers for quick navigation by first responders.

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DKA designed this classroom with two interior exit doors and one door that opens directly to the playground for ease of supervision and safe movement.		Safety provisions in this religious education wing, such as the DKA Dutch door solution prevent parents from entering classrooms when they sign out for their children.  Color coding from floor tiles to the matching color chairs and carpets help small children navigate; whether an emergency or normal day.
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Earlier designs for the Noroton Presbyterian Church classrooms included two level playgrounds attached to the building and a glass stair tower that provided instant views around the entire five acre site as well as over the playground areas.		Translucent window shades were used in this Maryland classroom by DKA to allow natural light while eliminating direct views in from outside.    Emergency crisis plans typically involve covering classroom windows, locking the doors and having students pause in silence under their desks.
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DENNIS KOWAL ARCHITECTS designs safe environments for learning!

 

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