Arcadia Flats
Kalamazoo, Michigan
AWCI Member Contractor: The Bouma Corporation
The following project was submitted to AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Quality Awards program in 2021 in the EIFS category.
After receiving the design intent for this project, The Bouma Corporation provided a solution to the schedule hurdle requiring EIFS work during the winter months across six stories. Months of detail work using BIM were put in before the first panel was ever produced, allowing panels to be designed to fit properly in their final installed locations.
The project included the façade at Arcadia Flats, Western Michigan University’s new residence hall. It was constructed using 206 prefabricated exterior wall panels that were 48 feet tall. All the prefabricated exterior wall panels were manufactured off-site and shipped to the job ready to be installed, creating a smaller, more condensed staging area on the job site. With an average panel install time of 37 minutes, this process resulted in reduced congestion on the site and created less jobsite interference with fewer workers onsite compared to the traditional stick-built construction method that would have been used. In addition to space savings, the offsite panel construction also eliminated the scaffolding, lifts and waste normally present onsite during EIFS construction, creating a much safer work environment.
The exterior panel design incorporated a framework of structural in-house fabricated metal stud framing, exterior sheathing and vapor barrier, and mineral wool cavity insulation between composite Green Girts. The design finished off with corrugated metal siding and a smooth Milano finish at the window bump outs. Window blocking and frames were also set and sealed in the factory. Bouma’s design team successfully created a uniform, seamless architectural window detail replacing metal.
In the end, materials used on this job included 5,000 square feet of EIFS involving four colors. There were 448 windows and 424 foam shapes. The Bouma Corporation team completed the 70,600-square-foot job in 1,152 man-hours (56 workdays).
The Bouma Corporation is a national commercial interior finishing contractor with headquarters in grand Rapids and a branch office in Traverse City, Mich. The company offers services that include framing, metal studs, drywall, acoustical ceilings, spray fireproofing, flooring, exterior building finishes and more. Visit www.boumacorp.com to learn more about this AWCI member’s company and work.