Month: February 2020

Over the last few years, advancements in technology have changed many aspects of the way we manage the construction of our projects. Our site teams are relying less on the physical paper plans and more on documents being stored digitally. To support the effort, Harkins’ project controls team has been deploying new technology solutions to take our projects digital. One example of this includes installing digital plan tables on our jobsites, an effort started by Harkins Project Engineer II Austin Achenbach.

These models convert a standard 55” 4k television into a touchscreen with an intuitive 10-point multi-touch display and offers full compatibility with planning and review software such as Procore, Adobe, and Bluebeam. The touchscreen makes it simple to flip through pages, zoom in to specific areas, and make notes where needed.

The plan table can be built for less than $1,000 using the following parts:

• 55” 4K television
• Mobile touchscreen cart
• Infrared touch frame
• Repurposed laptop
• Plexiglass sheet
• Wireless keyboard/touchpad
• Miscellaneous tape, Velcro, cables and cable ties

When used with the Windows Procore App, all project plans can be viewed, marked up, and shared with other Procore users without the need to reprint or transport paper plans. This has been the biggest advantage this advance has afforded to our teams. The ability to keep the as-built and redline information live on Procore has eliminated the need to duplicate that information on paper plans and reduced the chances of items being missed.

While many people will always prefer to flip through a multitude of pages while digging into a set of paper plans, it’s hard to deny the convenience and accessibility of the digital plan table and its role in getting us closer to a paperless workplace. Assembling a plan table takes only a few hours and the feedback received has been overwhelmingly positive. Here’s a time-lapse installation of a plan table, completed by our very own Network Manager Chris Thomas.

By Project Executive Mike Pryzbylkowski and Lead Superintendent Derek Geisinger

You hear of passive house buildings popping up everywhere from California to Pennsylvania, but what exactly is passive house? Passive House is a green building trend that focuses on design principles and construction practices to provide energy efficient buildings, creating a comfortable and sustainable building for owners and residents.

In 2003, the first home in the United States was built with passive house principles and the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) was founded. Since then, the market standard of PHIUS+ certified buildings focus on creating energy efficient buildings, while also considering occupant comfortability and indoor air quality.

FIVE PASSIVE HOUSE PRINCIPLES

To obtain PHIUS+ Certification, a passive building is designed and built in accordance with these five principles:

1. Employs continuous insulation throughout its entire envelope without any thermal bridging
2. The building envelope is airtight, preventing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air
3. Utilizes high-performance windows and doors
4. Uses some form of balanced heat and moisture-recovery ventilation
5. Uses a minimal space conditioning system

Currently, there are only five PHIUS+ multifamily buildings located in the State of Pennsylvania. Harkins’ Northeast Region is proud to be joining this short list of multifamily projects that are built with these concepts in mind. Located in Hatfield, PA, the Susie Clemens project will be a 60-unit affordable senior care building. Being developed by Advanced Living Communities, with Kramer + Marks Architects, this project will be implementing the passive house concepts to reach PHIUS+ certification. Steven Winter Associates, the PHIUS+ Rater, and the Susie Clemens project team have been working together through preconstruction and the project is currently in the precertification stages.

CERTIFIED PASSIVE HOUSE BUILDER CONFERENCE

In December 2019, Lead Superintendent Derek Geisinger of the Susie Clemens project attended the Certified Passive House Builder Training conference in Washington, DC. Derek worked with the PHIUS representative at the conference to review plans and details relating to this specific project. Along with utilizing an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) with a dehumidifier to provide heating and cooling, a continuously insulated slab, hot water recirculation pumps, reduced thermal bridging, and air sealing are also designed into the building.

One of the challenges the project team will face will be completing the whole building blower door test. PHIUS+ standards for the blower door test require the whole building be tested and the baselines for air leakage are more stringent than any other energy standard.

We look forward to building an energy-efficient, durable, and resilient building for the future tenants of the community. The team anticipates breaking ground in early 2020.

Ever wonder how the Harkins logo came to be? Legend has it that the nine triangles of our logo are based on a doodle drawn by our founder Mr. Harkins himself. Known for always carrying a day-planner, he would often be found scribbling down his thoughts and drawing pictures. Although not confirmed, we can only assume that the sketch started out as an “H” and the nine triangles build structures that represented our groups and our values.

THE HARKINS REBRANDING EFFORT

While the original triangle design remained unchanged for our first 50 years, after we hit our 50^th anniversary, our executive team was putting plans into place to prepare the company for even greater success as we embarked on the next 50 years. As a result, we took a fresh look at how we presented ourselves to the outside world. We surveyed our clients, employees, and industry professionals with “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Harkins?” One of the findings was how many people referred to us simply as Harkins. Although still technically known as Harkins Builders, Inc. as our entity name, we dropped “Builders” from our logo in December 2016. This was done in large part to separate ourselves from the multifamily builder we were known to be and increase the emphasis on our other offerings such as commercial and government.

The refreshed brand system retained our signature red yet subtly reimagines the mark on the left of the triangles. Our logo looks forward while staying grounded in history, just like us.