Proposal Overview

The Burrowes Building located on the Pennsylvania State University campus is a renovation project that was selected for use as part of an AE Senior Capstone Thesis. The purpose of the AE Senior Capstone Thesis is to test a Construction Management students’ knowledge they’ve obtained over the past 4 years in the AE program by researching and presenting on a construction project from beginning to end. This Proposal will cover four different analyses of the different building systems and construction methods of the Burrowes Building Renovation. These analyses were developed with the help of the 24th PACE Roundtable, project contacts, and faculty members. For each analysis the problem will be defined with background research performed, potential solutions, and the steps performed to help achieve a successful outcome.

 

                                               Breadth Topics

Overview

Part of the Senior Capstone Thesis requires students to demonstrate knowledge of other disciplines with breadth studies. Within the four analyses to be executed above there are opportunities for breadths to be performed in two different disciplines of Architectural Engineering. The breadths for this proposal will be a structural and a mechanical breadth.

 

Knuckle Structure Pile System Redesign

The first proposed breadth topic is to analyze the pile system used for the knuckle structures on the Burrowes Building Renovation. The chosen system for the project was sets of steel micropiles driven into the soil with a pile driver. This breadth will look at alternatives such as timber or concrete piles to determine if there are any cost or schedule savings by switching from steel. There will be calculations performed to determine if the alternative methods compare to the steel piles and determine if drilling or boring the piles will be a cheaper method.

 

Acoustical Sound Transmission Class Analysis

An acoustical breadth will be completed to analyze the acoustical implications resulting from the new cmu block structures built to house the mechanical equipment or between the basement and first floor. The basement houses the mechanical equipment and the first floor contains a mix of faculty offices, a general purpose classroom, and a sound booth. The anaylsis will look into how much sound is put off by the mechanical equipment and it will be determined if some remediation needs to occur to meet proper STC levels based on design standards.