Retrofit Team >>
OWNERSHIP TEAM//Mac Jordan, Doug Williams and Claire Haslam, Heather and Tom LaGarde, Margaret Jemison,
www.rivermillvillage.com
ARCHITECTS//Fred Belledin, AIA, and Chris Johnson, Clearscapes,
www.clearscapes.com, and Will Alphin, Alphin Design Build,
www.alphindesignbuild.com
GENERAL CONTRACTOR//Charlie Wilson, CT Wilson Construction,
www.ctwilson.com
CIVIL ENGINEER AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNER//Sungate Design Group PA,
www.sungatedesign.com
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER//Fluhrer Reed PA,
www.fluhrerreed.com
SYSTEMS ENGINEER//Sud Associ- ates PA,
www.sudassociates.com
STEEL FABRICATION AND ERECTION//Buckner Cos.,
www.bucknercompanies.com
Belledin’s goal, and that of the owner-
ship team, was to restore the mill in a way that contributes to its beautiful landscape and rectifies any previous damage the mill may have caused. “There are stories that the Haw River would run red or blue, depend- ing on the color of the dye being used that day,” Belledin says. “Like a lot of mid-century industrial projects, the mill didn’t have the strongest relationship with the environ- ment, so it was important to all the owners to reverse that cycle.” The design team started by introduc-
ing daylight to minimize artificial lighting requirements as much as possible. Windows of specific heights were carefully oriented and sunshades were integrated where necessary to mitigate heat gain. “All the windows are operable, so natural ventila- tion can be utilized whenever possible,” Belledin says. Wilson adds: “In the event center, we
Retrofit Materials >>
HIGH-EFFICIENCY WATER-SOURCE HEAT PUMPS//ClimateMaster,
www.climatemaster.com
WINDOWS WITH PPG INDUSTRIES’ SOLARBAN 60 LOW-E GLAZING// Winco Window Co.,
www.wincowindow.com
SLIDING DOORS WITH PPG INDUSTRIES’ SOLARBAN 60 LOW-E GLAZING//Acadia Windows & Doors,
www.acadiawindows.com
STOREFRONT WINDOWS// Tubelite,
www.tubeliteinc.com
CONCRETE COUNTERS CONTAINING RECLAIMED GLASS// Meld USA,
www.meldusa.com
ENERGY STAR KITCHEN APPLIANCES// Bosch,
www.bosch-home.com
LOW-FLOW FAUCETS// Grohe,
www.grohe.com/us
SINKS/TUBS//Kohler,
www.us.
kohler.com, and American Standard,
www.americanstandard-us.com
WATER FILTER/CONDITIONER// WaterCare,
www.watercare.com
ZINC CLADDING// Rheinzink,
www.rheinzink.us
CASEWORK// Merillat,
www.merillat.com
ELEVATOR//KONE,
www.kone.com
RETAINING WALLS// Keystone Retaining Wall Systems,
www.keystonewalls.com
26 RETROFIT // March-April 2013
basically removed the whole exterior wall on one end to create a wall of windows that goes from the ground floor all the way to the roof. The windows mimic the metal windows you see in a lot of old mills.” From an energy standpoint, the team chose geothermal heating and cooling. Wa- ter is heated through use of a solar-thermal system on the roof. The team also repur- posed the mill’s existing water-treatment plant so secondary water uses, such as toilet flushing, will rely on graywater. Rainwater is being collected in cisterns
for irrigation; water that isn’t captured is directed through a series of rain gardens before flowing into a constructed wetland and finally into the Haw River. In addition, the ownership team reused
as many of the leftover textile materials inside the upper mill as possible and hired Saxapahaw artisans to fabricate these ma- terials into unique furniture and fixtures. “One of the locals crafted furniture for the model condo units from sections of wood beams that couldn’t be reused in construc- tion,” Wilson remembers. “There were old spindles that were repurposed into light fixtures. Old scales and controls for the textile equipment were reused as decora- tive elements.” Haslam adds: “The mill workers would
roll yarn bins down the aisles and toss spools of yarn; those bins are the façade of The Eddy Pub’s bar. There are also steam valves that are our draught towers and
spools are our draught handles. Redwood slats from the cooling tower make up a couple textured walls in the pub.” In addition to capturing the history of
the mill through thoughtful design and reuse of materials, Wilson’s team used by- gone construction techniques in areas that needed reconstruction. “The southern end of the building—closest to the river—had settled, so we had to rebuild the timber. It had been put together with old 60 penny [6-inch-long] nails and railroad spikes. We put it back the same way, so there were a lot of guys with 5-pound hammers driving nails all day.” As Wilson alludes, soil compaction under
portions of the buildings was the most costly and challenging surprise. Because the mill is located on the bank of the Haw River, much of it was essentially built on fill. Some compaction was expected based on visible settlement of the structure, accord- ing to Belledin, but the extent was not fully revealed until the construction team began cutting out portions of the original floor slabs. Although the north end, farthest from the river, had not settled much, the con- struction team soon discovered the space that would contain the Haw River Ballroom, in the middle of the mill, had voids under the slab. As the team moved south toward the river, conditions worsened. “We ended up cutting out most of the slab of the residential building closest to the river and rebuilding a lot of its timber structure to deal with the unsuitable soil it was built on top of,” Belledin recalls. In addition, chemicals used for decades had deteriorated the rebar in the ballroom space’s elevated concrete slab and made it structurally unstable. Fortunately, Williams sees the positive aspect of this surprise. “Prior to cutting the ballroom’s slab out, we thought we’d have some rentable space under the ballroom but we ended up losing that square footage, which totally changed the look of the ballroom and actually was a blessing,” he explains. “We left a line in the ballroom where the floor had been; it has an artifact quality and is lit in a way that high- lights where the old concrete beams came out and were chopped off. It has become a nice feature.”
Community Creation Jordan had relied on government incen- tives to develop the lower mill into loft
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