UNIVERSITY RESIDENCE HALLS
A PA C A S E S TUDY
Engineered Wood Solution Is Academic
When the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) required two new student dormitories on what is known as a commuter campus, the university teamed up its architect, BOKA Powell, and its structural engineering firm, Walter P.
Moore. These two firms embarked on a two-phase project that resulted in a pair of three-story structures, clad in
brick in a palette that blends with the adjacent academic buildings. Arlington Hall at 175,292 square feet is home
to approximately 600 residents. The 137,000-square-foot Kalpana Chawla Hall is home to 430 residents. Inside, the
living quarters are arranged as suites of two or four single bedrooms, with a shared common area and bathroom.
These sister buildings share one very important structural element that solved a number of potential construction
problems: the use of engineered wood products including plywood, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beams/girders
and columns, and glue-laminated (glulam) beams for girders and truss chords.
“I was sold on engineered wood from the get-go,” says Vicki Ford, P.E., principal, Walter P. Moore and Associates,
Inc. “We were trained to consider construction and the construction process. For steel there is a lead time, and its
installation requires a group of ironworkers – versus a crew of framers. Our first thought was to use a wood product, so we wouldn’t hold the framers up waiting for a piece of steel to arrive. Our second thought was expense.”
Although less expensive than steel, natural timber would not have worked on these projects, because the sizes
would not have met the depth criteria required. “It was a general understanding of the wood industry, not a
cost-comparison study, which led to our decision to use engineered wood,” says Ford.
Project
Plywood provided the strength needed for the lateral-load resisting system for a three-story wood-framed building, built to institutional standards. “Engineered wood provides strength beyond standard wood studs and can be
installed by the same workforce,” Ford comments. “We wanted to use a material that
worked with the main structural material, for the efficiency of having the same workSummary
force install it, instead of recruiting a specialty sub-contractor.”
PROJECT:
lington
University of Texas at Ar
& II:
I
lls
Ha
(UTA) Residence
na
lpa
Ka
d
Arlington Hall an
Chawla Hall
SIZE:
312,292 square feet
COST:
$37.2 million
LOCATION:
Arlington, Texas
OWNER:
University of Texas
EER:
STRUCTURAL ENGIN
Walter P. Moore
ARCHITECT:
BOKA Powell
OR:
GENERAL CONTRACT
Clark Construction and
Austin Commercial
COMPLETION DATES:
July 2000 and July 2004
Plywood provides the strength needed for the lateral load resisting system in this three-story
wood-framed dormitory on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington.
©2008 APA – THE ENGINEERED WOOD ASSOCIATION • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • ANY COPYING, MODIFICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR OTHER USE OF THIS PUBLICATION OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY APA IS PROHIBITED BY THE U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS.
At Kalpana Chawla Hall, LVLs provided the main ribs at the hip roof over the student
lounge. There, the architect wanted as high a ceiling as possible.
“On many projects, the repetitive members are rather shallow,” Ford explains, “but
you end up with more load at the beams and the girders. To keep the whole roof
system the same depth, we used LVLs, which allowed us to meet the architectural
constraint – again, with the same workers using the same type of connections. This
solution allowed for a slim ceiling/roof profile that, in turn, permitted higher windows and more natural lighting into this common area.”
Encompassing a student lounge and a game room, the common area is a large open
space with lots of windows to encourage people to gather. “With this design, traditional studs won’t work in a load-bearing wall,” Ford notes. “Engineered wood
allowed us to span over the 10-foot-wide windows and also frame the corners where
your walls are essentially just windows – again, using the same work crew and without introducing steel.”
Load-bearing stud walls were sheathed with
19/32-inch APA Rated Sheathing at interior and
exterior shear wall locations.
At Arlington Hall, glulam trusses were chosen for their strength and beauty. “The architect proposed exposing the roof members at
the multi-story game room/lounge to create a striking architectural feature,” says Ford, who notes that the glulam beams made the
room feel more comfortable and accessible.
“Glulam provided strength beyond wood joists and LVLs, and could fit into tight spaces where the depth of the structure was a
major factor, considering the standard eight-foot ceiling heights. They are able to go wide, not just deep,” Ford continues.
Glulam was used for the chord members with a tension tie rod and post. The connections
were designed by Ford’s team, incorporating the aesthetics preferred by the architect.
The fundamental structural components of the two dormitories used engineered wood
extensively as well. The roof framing consisted of open-web trusses at 24 inches oncenter, covered by plywood sheathing. Exterior wood frame walls included load-bearing
stud walls and 19/32-inch-thick, APA Rated Sheathing, at interior and exterior shearwall
locations. Oriented strand board (OSB) was used as the exterior wall sheathing.
The floor proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of the job.
“By going to LVLs, the increased load could be carried using sizes typically associated with dimension lumber,” Ford says.
“These dorms are not straight links of
LVL beams in the roof structure resulted in a
We have field representatives in many
slim ceiling/roof profile which allowed for larger
major U.S. cities and in Canada who
buildings,”
she
notes.
“They
have
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lot
windows and more natural lighting.
can help answer questions involving APA
of ins and outs with halls that turn, and
and APA EWS trademarked products.
For additional assistance in specifying
so forth. Consequently, you’re trying to
engineered wood products, contact us:
marry framing from different directions. We set a standard floor depth of 16 inches.
A PA H E A D Q UA R TE R S
7011 So. 19th St.
We used LVLs and glulam because we needed to pick up multiple loads and work
Tacoma, Washington 98466
with longer spans yet maintain a 16-inch depth.”
(253) 565-6600 Fax: (253) 565-7265
■
The abundance of engineered wood in the project was nothing new for Ford, who
was introduced to wood’s design advantages in a class at Clemson University. “When
addressing lateral needs in wood construction, wood structural panels are the most
efficient and cost-effective means of creating a horizontal and vertical lateral force
resisting system,” says Ford.
Since the second dormitory was completed in 2004, Ford has gone on to specify wood
in several other projects “for the dual purpose of creating an architect’s vision and carrying structural loads. Often I’ll use it as a piece of a project, rather than the entire project,”
she says, telling of a client who wanted a library with a vaulted ceiling that resembled a
cathedral or a mountain lodge. “In that case, we used glulam for the arching ribs.”
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