Challenges & Solutions for Projecting Façade Elements
Monday, May 1, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Projecting facade elements — or those that project out beyond the normal plane of the thermal envelope such as parapets, overhangs, and wing walls — are difficult details to design for and oftentimes create performance issues, such as condensation in wintertime conditions. In this presentation, various parapet, overhang, and wing wall configurations will be discussed, including problems that occurred and detailing solutions. Items such as thermal bridging, thermal shorting, ventilation, flashing, and air leakage sites will be reviewed using actual details for buildings in cold climates. One case study presented will include a new Chicagoland healthcare building, where the three presenters – a BECx Provider, a facade consultant, and a general contractor – together helped to resolve the challenging detailing conditions.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify projecting elements that have increased risk for condensation.
- Understand how air leakage, thermal bridging, and thermal shorting at projecting elements creates risk for condensation.
- Understand that there are two different general concepts for detailing projecting elements.
- Identify various ways to minimize risk for condensation in projecting elements.
Steven Black
Power Construction Company, LLC
Steve Black is a professional constructor with 30 years of experience in the commercial and industrial construction industries. A LEED BD&C accredited professional, he has spent the majority of his career traveling around the upper Midwest and east coast building high performing buildings in the healthcare and data center markets with McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. For the last 12 years he is Power Construction’s Senior Quality Support Manager. While his primary focus is on enclosure and he also shares his years of field experience in mechanical and electrical systems with the project teams to ensure that the building performs as designed.
Elizabeth Cassin
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Elizabeth Cassin is a building enclosure expert and has extensive experience with building enclosure commissioning and peer review services, condensation investigation, hygrothermal analyses, and the investigation of and repair design for distressed conditions. Her specific expertise includes the evaluation of building enclosures with respect to their control of and response to environmental loads, including the performance of curtain wall and window systems, sloped glazing and skylights, cladding systems, air barriers, and insulation. Ms. Cassin has also performed investigations and condition surveys on numerous building types for a variety of building enclosure systems. Such investigations oftentimes result in the development of repair designs to remediate distressed or defective building enclosures. Ms. Cassin has been with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates since 2003, where she is currently Principal, Associate Director of Project Operations, and Midwest Region Director. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and licensed architect in Illinois, Iowa, and Kentucky.