Architecture Ancillary Services: Energy Audits & Evaluations

With an increasing focus on energy consumption, energy costs, and energy independence many clients are focusing more and more on what they can do to save energy to reduce costs in their buildings - we can help with that!

It all starts with analyzing your current building envelope - what the foundation, wall, and roof construction is and the details of your current windows and doors. We also review your historical energy costs as that relates directly to the current energy efficiency of your building.

Armed with that information we can figure out your current insulation, how it relates to your current energy usage, and ultimately lead to suggestions for improvements in the building envelope to increase your energy efficiency and related reduction in energy usage and cost, resulting in an estimated cost savings estimate.

Additionally, we can partner with Prairie Engineering, PC to analyze your HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems to evaluate possible upgrades in those systems to realize even greater efficiency and energy reduction.

A full-blown energy audit will include all of these aspects to give you a 360 view of energy efficiency.

We also have the capability with our UAV services to map the exterior of your building with infrared cameras to identify specific energy weak points in your building envelope. With that information we can target specific areas of the building that may need further investigation or very clearly need added insulation or replacement of building elements.

We can also investigate alternative systems and energy sources to realize true sustainability with your facility, including anything from grey water recycling and rainwater capture/storage to ground source heat, wind, and solar energy to passive solar, mass wall, and daylighting design. We can help you accomplish your sustainability goals!

Ryan is a Vice President at Ackerman-Estvold and the architecture team lead and has been applying his trade in the region around Minot for the past 17 years. If you have any questions throughout this series or would like more information on a particular topic, by all means contact us and we'd be more than happy to have a conversation.

Architecture Ancillary Services: Building Evaluations

Working with existing buildings can be a daunting task - whether purchasing, renovating, or adding on, careful thought needs to be put into the approach, the intended use of the building, and if it's feasible to accommodate that use. Our architecture team can provide a number of services to help in this process and what the potential might be.

We can start by provide an existing facility survey (also termed "assessment" or "evaluation") that thoroughly analyzes the building's current conditions, structural integrity (foundations, floor/wall/roof structure), mechanical & electrical systems, condition of the exterior envelope (walls, windows, doors, roof) and condition of the interior spaces. Our environmental team can also provide asbestos surveys and phase I/II environmental to ascertain any potential health risks.

We can also assess the level of current building code compliance as well as ADA compliance - this can be a standalone service by itself if you're looking to make some code-required improvements or increase the handicap accessibility of your facility.

Armed with all that information we can provide a report detailing what improvements need to be made, what capital maintenance projects will need to be considered in the future, what opportunities exist that can be taken advantage of, and what potential costs could be. In the end this will help to assess feasibility of any project being considered and important items to consider in the re-use of the building for another purpose (adaptive re-use).

We can also preliminary design, planning, and 3D visualization services to help envision what the potential of the building could be along with the potential cost. We can also work through potential master planning and phasing of a potential project to fit your long term project goals with a phased approach.

Any of the services mentioned above can be provided on its own to fit your needs and they can be used prior to purchasing a building, during due diligence when purchasing a building, or with existing buildings already owned and operating out of…at any point we can provide valuable guidance for you as you consider any potential building project.

Ryan is a Vice President at Ackerman-Estvold and the architecture team lead and has been applying his trade in the region around Minot for the past 17 years. If you have any questions throughout this series or would like more information on a particular topic, by all means contact us and we'd be more than happy to have a conversation.

Architecture Ancillary Services: Master Planning & Feasibility Studies

Master planning can involve any number of activities, but primarily relates to master planning the build-out of a particular site or building over time.

For site master plans, we collaborate with our in-house civil engineers to effectively and efficiently plan the overall layout of a piece of property, including the parking, buildings, green space, and other site amenities as well as develop cost estimates for the different phases of the project. The intent with the master plan is to provide a guiding document that helps an owner to build different phases of the site and buildings on the site over time.

For building master plans, we take a new building or an existing building that needs to be built, added on to, or remodeled and determine how best to accomplish the project in a phased approach to spread the costs out over time. For a new building we'll develop the full end product of the building wanted in the end and then start to break it apart into manageable pieces that can be added on in the future. For an existing building we'll analyze the existing layout, determine what portions of the building should be remodeled when, or where and when additions could be added. Costs again are estimated for each phase of a building master plan. This approach gives the owner a lot more flexibility for incrementally financing a building project over time.

Additionally we can provide feasibility studies based on a site, building, or cost perspective. Site feasibility centers around taking a site, determining all the constraints from size and topography to zoning, setbacks, and easements, establishing a feasible building footprint and orienting it on the site, and determining required parking, landscaping, and greenspace to assess if a site can be physically used and then developing a cost estimate to see if it is financially feasible for a particular project.

From a building feasibility standpoint, we can review existing buildings to assess if they will meet a client's needs for a particular purpose. This includes reviewing the allowable use of the building, construction type, physical structural loading requirements, space layout, structure layout, fire-rated construction requirements, egress requirements, necessary renovations, or necessary additions to ultimately determine if a building is suitable for that use and then balancing that with a cost estimate for any required renovations or additions. From there an owner can make an informed decision on if that building is right for them.

Ryan is a Vice President at Ackerman-Estvold and the architecture team lead and has been applying his trade in the region around Minot for the past 17 years. If you have any questions throughout this series or would like more information on a particular topic, by all means contact us and we'd be more than happy to have a conversation.