AMEAL MOORE NATURE CENTER

Additional Info

Award Winner : Blazer Industries, Inc.

Architectural Excellence : The building is located in hill country near Riverside, California. One side of the street is fairly new residential while the other side is undeveloped and serves as a nature area with hiking paths. The building will be used for nature displays and as a teaching and learning center for plants and wildlife in the area. The interior is one large open room plus two restrooms and a mechanical room on the end. The roof on one side is higher than the other to allow for clerestory windows which in turn bring in a lot of natural lighting. Sola tube skylights bring in additional natural lighting. Open wood trusses in the cathedral ceiling provide architectural beauty to the interior space. The stone wainscot and stucco type exterior finish fit well into this California location.

The building was built with two basic modules and five roof modules for the clerestory portion of the roof.

Cost Energy Effectiveness : To be fair, it is probably debatable as to whether it was cost effective to build this project modular. The multiple roof mods coupled with transport from Oregon to southern California certainly caused additional costs. However, it did stretch the envelope regarding what can be done modular. Very little site work was required.

Occupied Date : 12/6/2013

Owner Firm Name : AMEAL MOORE NATURE CENTER

Production Start Date : 8/19/2013

Project Location City : Riverside

Project Location State Name : CA

Technical Innovation : The challenge to constructing this building using modular construction was the tall roof section with clerestory windows and an open ceiling. This made one module too tall to transport. We could not build a single roof mod because it would be too wide to transport due to the overhangs. The solution was to build 5 floorless roof mods. A temporary roof structure was built inside the lower mod for transport. The building was completely assembled in the factory to make sure everything would fit properly. Locator pins were used to insure the roof mods would fit properly on site. The roof mods were then removed for transport. The building was built to the current California energy code. Insulation was R-30 floor, R-19 walls and R-30 roof. The HVAC system utilizes one of Bard’s Q-Tec units. The building was finished completely in the factory except for the mod line close up work which includes the stone wainscot, Stuc-o-flex siding, metal roofing, drywall finish, tile and flooring.

Total Square Feet : 1080