Category: Company News

With any new construction technology, there are always early adopters, but only one can claim the designation of “first.”  With the construction of The Spark, American Family Insurance and the project’s design and construction teams can claim being the first in Wisconsin to incorporate concrete-to-concrete structural thermal breaks within a building assembly. … read more

Schöck North America is pleased to introduce its newest Regional Sales Manager, Carlos Garcia. Carlos currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and two children, and will be serving the Pacific Northwest region for Schöck.

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This may be a bit Engi-nerdish, but as an engineer, one thing I appreciate is good data communicated in a clear, concise way. If you want to understand the problem of thermal bridging at balconies and exposed slab edges and how design choices impact building performance and cost, then I recommend taking a look at this series of reports by RDH, a consulting firm specializing in building science.

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Schöck USA Inc is pleased to introduce its newest Regional Sales Manager, Nate Lambrecht. Nate currently resides in northern Illinois with his wife and two children, and will be serving Chicago and the Midwest region for Schöck. His professional background, as well as his proactive demeanor, makes him a valuable asset to the team. … read more

It’s hard to pinpoint an innovation or advancement in today’s world that isn’t due to improved technology. Building design is no exception. With its continual evolution, the limits and tolerances that we design and construct with, previously deemed “unachievable”, are now continually surpassed with each new building design – shaping it differently, building it taller, cantilevering it further, or designing it thinner.

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In June 2016, Schöck welcomed its New York City and Mid Atlantic Regional Sales Manager, Brent Chancellor, to the team. Brent currently resides in Jersey City, New Jersey but is an Oklahoma boy at heart having grown up in a suburb of Oklahoma City riding the range and roping tornadoes for fun.

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When our team sat down together to discuss the Lunch & Learn process for Schöck in North America, one word dominated our conversation: efficiency.  We believe in creating greater efficiency wherever possible; it’s been the guiding principle in our business since our founder, Eberhard Schöck, designed the first thermal break more than 50 years ago. So naturally, when we started fleshing out our process, making it as efficient and effortless as possible was our number one priority.

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In April 2016, Schock welcomed its first Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Christopher Ford, to its team. A New Jersey native and a Stevens Institute of Technology alum, Chris’ experience studying, living, and working in the Tri-State area makes him both an expert on the region and an exciting addition to the North American team.

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Recently with energy codes getting tougher and tougher, everyone is looking to come up with energy efficient ways to meet these codes. ASHRAE and IECC codes have been recommending continuous exterior insulation for a number of years and in the most recent versions have now made it a requirement. … read more

Patrick M.B Chan has a passion for finding solutions to reducing the environmental footprints of buildings as an effective means of tackling global warming.

After graduating with a Civil Engineering degree (B.A.Sc.) from the University of British Columbia, his primary focus and expertise has been exploring innovative ways to make building envelopes more thermally efficient in order to reduce the overall energy usage from these structures.  … read more

Hello! My name is Mike DeVries (the last part of my name rhymes with ‘breeze’…like the breeze coming off the Great Lakes). I joined the North American Schöck family in January of this year as the Midwest Regional Sales Manager. I live in Northwest Indiana, about thirty minutes outside of Chicago, and grew up on the South side of Chicago ­– a South side Cubs fan in a White Sox world! … read more

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will complete in 2016, occupying the last available space on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

The museum was presented with a common problem found in commercial building design; “How to connect rooftop equipment while avoiding thermal bridging and rooftop moisture issues.”

Construction at this site was similar to the Kimbell Art Museum and Contemporary Art Center in that they are especially sensitive to the concerns of air quality and humidity control due to the collections and various objects that are protected within.  … read more

Millennium Tower Boston is setting the bar high, creating a new level in standards for multi-use residential projects in Boston.
The luxury residential tower is rising 60-stories at 1 Franklin Street . Schӧck was on-site to provide guidance with installing Isokorb® structural thermal breaks in terrace slabs for each penthouse unit. … read more

Building envelope thermal performance is greatly affected by thermal bridging, or localized areas of increased heat flow through walls and roofs. Mitigating the impact of thermal bridging is not only necessary to reduce energy consumption but is also an important consideration for minimizing the risk of condensation on cold surfaces and for maintaining occupant comfort.

As part of new Building Envelope Thermal Bridging (BETB) Guide, various construction details have been analyzed to evaluate traditional thermal bridges and various solutions provided by Schöck Isokorb. Please find the report here.

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For the past two years, ENR’s Annual Construction Image Contest has featured projects which include Isokorb® structural thermal breaks selected in the winning images.

2014 Winner- Tower at PNC Plaza

The most recent 2014 winners include an image of the Tower at PNC Plaza in Pittsburg, photographed by Mark Beckett of Century Steel Erectors.

The Tower at PNC Plaza is currently under construction, yet the final steel beam was installed this week.

Mark Beckett was onsite at the ceremony of the final beam erection.

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While the development of Boston’s Seaport District has been in full swing for some time now – It recently had a milestone in building innovation.

Watermark, in Seaport Square, is the first project in Boston to break the mold by building with structural thermal breaks for concrete balcony construction. The Watermark Seaport project features a six-story building and a 17-story luxury residential tower at a total of 275,000 square-feet with 300 apartments and 25,000 square feet of retail space. The project is  utilizing Schӧck Isokorb® structural thermal break technology for a concrete cantilever balcony overlooking the pedestrian walkways. … read more

The River is becoming known as Calgary’s ultimate luxury residential complex with construction well under way on the residential tower. Completion is expected in 2015 for the tower which will contain 38 homes situated within 16 floors containing one to four suites per floor and 11 three-story townhouses.

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The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has completed the installation of Isokorb® structural thermal breaks in their second project, the Champions Center.

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Normally cantilevered slabs and edges are considered extensions of the floor or roof levels of a structure. Often times however, conditions require a connection along vertical walls or areas where interiors floors are omitted because of stairways or mechanical shafts. These areas have the same potential problems with thermal bridging since there is an interruption in the continuous insulation layer.

For this Design Break, we explore details of a project in which Isokorb® thermal breaks were used in just such conditions, 15 Leonard Street located in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City.

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The Kiln Apartments of Portland, Oregon are positioned to be one of the largest mixed-use, multi-family buildings at such a high energy efficiency standards. With the target design goal to meet and exceed Passive House requirements, the Kiln apartment is said to be the largest Passive House project in the U.S.

At these aggressive energy efficient standards, the building is actually required to be 65-75 percent better than Portland’s industry leading building codes.

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), on the National Mall in Washington DC, broke ground early 2012. With a schedule to open in Fall 2015, the museum continues to progress towards becoming a flagship venue for ceremonies and performances, as well as a exhibition space for African American history and culture.

The NMAAHC was designed as a joint venture of Freelon Adjaye Bond and SmithGroup. Architect, David Adjaye was recently featured in an article in CNN,   noted as a “starchitect” for his international designs and awards. He is also known for his work at Sugar Hill in Harlem, the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo and Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

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For the design of the new Novartis research campus, CannonDesign teamed with Maya Lin and Toshiko Mori to produce a centerpiece in Cambridge, MA for the global leader of the pharmaceutical industry. Boston Globe titles it as, “one of ten projects that will change innovation landscape in Boston and Cambridge.”

Increasing the land lease with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Novartis is developing a $600 million, 550,000 square foot campus consisting of a lab, office and retail space. The new location will serve as the company’s worldwide research operations. Two new buildings and one existing building renovation will take place at the campus at Massachusetts Avenue. … read more

Construction activities of several multi-family projects in downtown Edmonton, AB are taking shape. We have our sights on the J22 Development at the corner of Jasper Avenue, and 122 Street as the installation of Schöck Isokorb® for balcony features will soon begin.

The J22 Development is a mixed use project beginning Phase 3, which includes retail/commercial office space on three levels and 200 rental apartment units spanning over 10 stories above. J22 is one of many multi-family projects filling the demand for downtown rentals. A recent report by Avison Young covered vacancy reports in the Edmonton Multi-Family including news on the J22 project and the highly sought after location.

Schöck Isokorb® structural thermal break connections will be installed in the J22 residential units to mitigate thermal bridging at the concrete slab to balcony connection.

Besides energy savings, another highly valued benefit of structural thermal breaks is occupant comfort. The use of Schӧck Isokorb® allows the wall temperatures around the balcony to be uniform and consistent.

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Bridges and barrier walls are often constructed of reinforced concrete, a material where the low tensile strength of concrete is compensated by the high tensile strength of steel. Steel rebar is commonly used within the concrete, however, certain properties of steel, such as electrical conductivity, magnetism, thermal conductivity, and most importantly, low resistance to corrosion, may negatively affect the performance of a reinforced concrete bridge.

Depending on the application and conditions of the structure these properties of steel can affect the performance of bridges. Corrosion control is crucial in reinforced concrete bridges, especially when exposed to de-icing salts. Corrosion of steel reinforcement in bridges causes increased maintenance cost, and if not properly maintained, it affects aesthetics and can lead to structural collapse.

These corroded bridges are found practically everywhere. The Gardiner Expressway in Toronto is a prime example of steel rebar corrosion, and was best described in an article by Dr. Paul Gauvreau on The Globe and Mail, “Toronto’s crumbling Gardiner: Bring on the engineering innovation.”

“…Gardiner was built with materials and structural details that make it prone to deterioration and difficult to maintain…”

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Steel is the most popular framing material for non-residential buildings in the US. As the AISC’s slogan goes, “There is always a solution in steel.”  It is sustainable and readily available, strong in both compression and tension, and allows acceleration of project schedules making it a cost effective construction option.

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