Floor-plan Differences
Early 20th-century school buildings, like Doan School, often were built in an elevated fashion requiring people to climb stairs to enter them. Doan School’s 1950s addition, however, was built at a lower elevation than the original structure; the differing elevations presented a challenge to accommodate accessibility and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. To meet the requirements, Fluker specified a double-sided elevator where people enter one side and exit the other side at a different elevation.
A unique feature of Doan Classroom Apartments compared to other multifamily buildings in Cleveland is its 45 different living-space floor plans. Project Manager Brian Pasek with Marous Brothers Construction says all non-structural partitions were removed. “We started with a blank slate, then repurposed spaces and redesigned from there,” he notes.
“I don’t think there is one unit that is the same in that building,” Fluker adds. “A few are similar but for the most part every unit on each floor had a different configuration because of what we inherited to work with. We had to work around the infrastructure to make the spaces happen.” Some similarities exist between units, of course. For example, all the kitchens have similar layouts so the same cabinets could be installed throughout.
“You never know what you are going to have with an old building,” Pasek says. “Even though layouts might seem the same on paper, that is not always the case. Each unit is unique in itself.”
Conscious of seniors needing to move freely in their homes, Fluker also followed universal-design techniques, which ensure space can be used by all people without the need for adaptation or specialized design. He says honoring the existing fabric while creating spaces that meet today’s needs was challenging, but all of the rooms work well.
Heating and Cooling
The many different rooms within the Doan Classroom Apartments building presented heating-and-cooling challenges. Cleveland-based Denk Associates Inc. was hired as the project’s mechanical engineer.
“We were going into a turn-of-the-century school building that wasn’t air conditioned,” remembers Joe Denk Jr., P.E., LEED AP, principal of Denk Associates. “Now that building is completely repurposed for residential and needs air-conditioning, heat and individual controls in each of the suites, which is something the original building was never intended to have.”
Denk explains a traditional rooftop-mounted system wasn’t feasible because the necessary louvers on the building exterior would have compromised the historic façade. Instead, the project team opted for a variable refrigerant system to heat and cool each unit and replace the aged boilers and through-the-wall air-conditioning units. “The system doesn’t have extensive ductwork connected to the outside unit,” Denk says. “We could pass piping through the building without too much trouble. It integrates nicely and smoothly.” Each apartment has individual heating and cooling controls.
VRF systems provide precise control for indoor environments by moving refrigerant to the zone to be heated or cooled. It can simultaneously cool some zones while heating others and allows for individual controls. The ductless system also simplifies and streamlines installation, particularly in applications like Doan Classroom Apartments where existing infrastructure would have made a ducted system difficult.