Jones Pierce Architects

Passive Design

Jones Pierce — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:41:45 +0000

Towards a High Performance Architecture

In architecture school, the only studio class we had beyond design and theory was given by a sandal-clad professor reacting to the 1970’s energy crisis. Norbert Lechner had a passion for passive solar design and had each of his students create an adjustable stand to use in the college sun simulation model in an attempt to develop our studio designs with solar orientation in mind. Our passive solar education stopped after one quarter but the seed was planted to understand the importance of how the building and its design should adapt to the location and orientation of the site.

When “old school” passive solar house dwellers Mr. and Mrs. Day decided to transplant themselves from Montana to Big Canoe, Georgia, Jones Pierce was given a unique opportunity to design a passive house for the south. The Day’s lived in a passive-solar super-insulated home since the early 80’s and enjoyed $50 energy bills in a very harsh winter environment and hoped to continue this lifestyle.

The first step was to understand how to provide passive concepts in the southern climate accounting for differences like humidity, dew point location, sun angles, etc. We selected the Passive House over the passive solar strategy for the home because the focus is on insulation, mechanical systems and heat gain from the sun when desirable. The passive house focuses on the following concepts:

A Super Insulated Envelope
Thermal Bridge-Free Detailing
Air-Tight Envelope
Advanced Windows & Doors
Energy Recovery Ventilation (a constant ventilation system instead of a conventional HVAC system that consumes lots of energy)
Efficient Systems (water heaters, appliances, etc.)

Image from http://www.phalliance.com/learn/passive-house-education/what-is-passive-house-

As described on the Passive House alliance website, The Passive House is a quantifiable performance standard applied to any building project, producing radically less energy usage (80% less than conventional buildings), unparalleled comfort, and supreme air quality. Through the design the home operates in a balanced state and only uses heating and cooling at extreme peak temperatures, drastically reducing energy consumption.

We worked on our first passive house with the help of our Passive House Consultant, Jeff Dinkle. Jeff provided an energy model of our design to assist in prescribing insulation, air tightness, mechanical design and window specifications in order to insure the Day residence will perform to Passive House Criteria. Also on our team is the forward thinking contractor, Dan DeJiacomo, who has worked with us to plan different construction sequences to allow performance testing during construction of the home. We have learned much through the design process and are excited to see the Day residence begin construction in February 2013. Also on our plate are 2 additional passive homes currently in the design phase, one on Lake Martin, and one on Lake Arrowhead.

What is interesting about Passive House to us?

Pretty houses with real substance – Our passion is designing beautiful site specific lifetime homes for people in context with the surrounding environment. Sustainability has always been one of our 10 principles that we use to create better homes. Passive House takes prescriptive sustainability to another level backed by pure building science and performance testing.
Science not a check list – The Passive House design process uses energy modeling of our design and specifications to predict how the design will perform in a particular orientation and climate. The model returns energy performance data to determine if the house meets Passive House Criteria. A house designed to meet Passive House Criteria should perform up to 80% better than a typical structure. The process is not clouded by a point system checklist offered by LEED for homes and the EarthCraft program.
Energy modeling provides data for long term decisions -The Passive House energy model gives us a tool to help our clients make design and material decisions knowing operating cost over time vs. the initial construction cost.
Measured results – Passive House designs uses a 3^rd party passive house RATER to perform testing during construction and at project commissioning. We can verify for our clients that the high performance building that they paid for is performing as designed.
Passive survivability – What would happen if your house had no power available? Designing a home for as low energy usage as possible along with photovoltaic panels means you could potentially run the house “off the grid” if required by inflated energy cost or by necessity.

Our clients are designing lifetime homes. Passive House is a vehicle that insures our homes will provide a higher return on investment over a lifetime

J. Bryan Jones AIA, CPHC

Principal of Jones Pierce Inc. An Atlanta based Architectural firm specializing in custom home transformations and custom homes in fun places. www.jonespierce.com bryan@jonespierce.com

Jones Pierce is pleased to announce that Bryan is now a Certified Passive House Consultant

Virginia Highland Whole Home Renovation

Jones Pierce — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:02:13 +0000

Below are progress photos from a renovation project on Amsterdam Avenue in Virginia Highlands. The owners of the 1 story structure were expecting their first child and wanted to expand their 2 bedroom home but keep the historic integrity of the bungalow. By keeping the overall massing to a 1 1/2 story appearance from the street, the home continues to fit in with the other homes on the street and looks as if it could have always been this size.

The proposed design incorporates a new second level with 2 additional bedrooms with a shared bath, an office/play room, and a new master suite all inside a new roof structure on the existing homes footprint.

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Buckhead Ranch Renovation

Jones Pierce — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:20:44 +0000

A client came to Jones Pierce after purchasing a dilapidated ranch home on a large 2 acre lot on the prominent West Wesley Road in Buckhead. The abandoned and boarded up home has been sitting open to the elements for at least 2 years!

The proposed design solution takes off the existing low slope roof and replaces it with a new steeper roof to allow for a new second level addition over the existing house footprint.

A painted brick home with timber accents pulls from a European style influenced by the architect Edwin Lutyens and his country houses.

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Archive Projects – Decatur Mixed-Use Development

Jones Pierce — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:27:55 +0000

A lot of building has occurred in the years Jones Pierce has been around. Development and housing exploded with growth in the 2000′s and hundreds if not thousands of projects were proposed with only a select few making it to fruition.

We had the privilege of working on several of those projects ranging from single family houses to large scale city developments, many that unfortunately only a select number of people were able to see.

One of those projects was a large scale mixed use development in the heart of Downtown Decatur at the corner of West Trinity Place and North McDonough Street on property owned by Dekalb County. Jones Pierce and a few other local visionaries came up with a conceptual design for a 2 block mixed use project that included retail & office space, a large local grocery store, hotel rooms, apartments/condos all built around an interior parking deck with plaza above, as well as a separate structure for a large book store chain.


Map of the proposed sites.	Diagram of 1 level of the project showing the different proposed uses.	Conceptual bird’s eye of the project.

Goals of the project included:

Change ownership of the county property to private to increase tax revenue for the city
Currently, West Trinity splits the city into 2 areas with the majority of the dense commercial district at the north. We proposed creating a new gateway at this prime intersection and a better link between the northern parts of the city and the city South of Trinity.
The building is designed to increase the public activity in this part of the city. The proposal includes large steps on each side of the building that forms an amphitheater which would encourage public gathering, and also be useful for the annual Decatur Beer Festival.

Below are conceptual renderings of the proposed project.

Who knows, maybe 2013 is the year for some of these projects to come back? Stay tuned for more of our archived projects that remain unbuilt.

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Big Canoe Renovation Part 2

Jones Pierce — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:15:08 +0000

Below are updated construction photos from a renovation to a Big Canoe home. The home originally had several chopped up rooms with small windows not taking advantage of the incredible views. Plans are to open up the public spaces add larger fixed windows, create 2 spacious master suites with larger windows, add a double height heavy timber porch off the rear of the home, and update the dated front of the home with a new stair tower and heavy timber entry porch.

Atlanta “Not so big house” almost complete

Jones Pierce — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:43:09 +0000

One of our most efficient homes we’ve designed yet, this custom home in Brookhaven, was designed with “Not So Big House” strategies. The home was designed in a changing neighborhood with several new homes already built or currently under construction replacing smaller dilapidated tear downs. Our concept for the southern colonial vernacular home was to position it on this prominent corner lot to look as if it had been there for decades and it was the original home the neighborhood was built around. With a limited budget, we put focus on the details on a large south facing front porch that doubles as the entry and an exterior public space that opens off the family room.

A few small finished touches and this home will be move in ready.

Brookhaven Custom Home Progress

Jones Pierce — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:27:36 +0000

The construction progress photos below are for a custom home we designed in Brookhaven off Lanier Drive. The exterior is almost complete with only the front porch columns left to install. Interior trim has begun.

The house was originally designed for the family several years ago on a different property. After purchasing a new property in 2011, the client came back to us to help them site adapt the original house and tweak the plans and elevations as needed for the new lot. The 2 story house was designed to be modest from the street with a lower roof line similar to a large 1 1/2 story home.

Big Canoe Renovation

Jones Pierce — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:13:16 +0000

A renovation to a 1980′s home in Big Canoe is underway. The home originally had several chopped up rooms with small windows not taking advantage of the incredible views. Plans are to open up the public spaces add larger fixed windows, create 2 spacious master suites with larger windows, add a double height heavy timber porch off the rear of the home, and update the dated front of the home with a new stair tower and heavy timber entry porch.

Framing and rough-in is currently underway. The project is being built by Vann Custom Homes.

Monastery Prayer Path

Jones Pierce — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:24:26 +0000

Construction has begun on the 1st plaza along the Prayer Path at the Monastery. A series of 5 plazas will line the path from the Monastic Heritage Center to the Monastery and Abbey Church. Each plaza will feature rough-sawn board formed concrete walls with blue stone panels/plaques commemorating donors and/or their loved ones.

The following are water color renderings of our proposed design for the Prayer Path and individual plazas. The water colors were done by Iain Stewart.

To help the Monastery with their fund raising efforts for this project, we were asked to create a brochure to show the different renderings and the donor recognition options. (click to enlarge)

Here are a few construction progress photos of the first plaza under construction

The raw concrete walls were created with formwork made from rough saw timber to express the natural woodgrain. The inset areas will hold bluestone plaques with names honoring donors and/or their loved ones. The goal is for the formwork to be able to be reused for building the next plaza.

Bluestone panels:

Stay tuned for more progress photos.

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Browse through Monastic Heritage Center images

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Marietta Ranch Progress

Jones Pierce — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:21:25 +0000

A Marietta owner came to Jones Pierce to help him update the front of his home without doing a full design package in order to keep fees down. After first sending us photos of the front of his home, we came up with 2 design solutions and presented him with renderings of each. After choosing the craftsman version and using his measurements, we created a much smaller drawing package which only consisted of a few exterior details and an exterior elevation. This is a prime example of our goal for all projects, no matter the size nor budget, to be able to use the services of an architect.

Here are some construction progress photos of the changes starting to take shape:

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Big Canoe Renovation Progress

Jones Pierce — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:56:44 +0000

A few progress photos from our Big Canoe project currently under construction. Lots of big changes are taking place, including a new heavy timber entry porch, a new 2 story heavy timber rear porch, significant interior renovation, and new larger windows.

These photos help show existing conditions with construction progress photos.

	Tearing out an old greenhouse on a floor level in between the first and basement floors and bring up the floor level to create a new upper level porch as well as a terrace level porch below. 2 floors for 1.
	The interior has lots of small windows with vertical separations. We are taking the old out, and adding windows twice as wide and about 18″ taller to create larger expanses of glass to take advantage of the view.
	A room with one of the best views in the house didn’t have a single window. We are blowing out the walls and adding huge 8′x6′ windows facing the view. This room will be a sitting area off the terrace level master.
	The existing master was small and had small windows. We took out the wall to the right, and opening up the corner to the view with huge windows.
	Another shot of the existing small windows and the new rough openings of the bigger, larger, better windows.
	The terrace level had non-usable outdoor space thanks to an old green house with a floor system halfway between the 2 floors. We are knocking that out, the walls to the left and adding a lower level porch. The wall to the right will open up with large windows in a sitting area off the terrace level master.
	All this work to open up the interior, to make bigger windows, and to add more porches, is because of this incredible view.

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St. Marlow Residence Complete

Jones Pierce — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:26:46 +0000

Our project in Duluth, inside the St. Marlow Country Club is complete. The project included a backyard transformation with a new pool, firepit area, patio, and deck. A new entry that removed a 20 foot tall west facing window wall replacing it with a new double entry and portico. And a full basement renovation. Our team included Core Landscape Architects and Keiffer Phillips Patricia Brown Builders . Final professional images still to come.

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http://www.coreatlanta.com/