< Previous— Post Houston p/ THE POST HOUSTON STAIRWAYS ARE DISTINCT IN SHAPE, STRUCTURE AND MATERIALITY, BUT ALL THREE ARE INTENDED TO ENCOURAGE INTERACTION BETWEEN VISITORS. . . Atriums and Feature Stairs The building is organized around three interior voids created by cut-through sections. The resulting atriums – each featuring a sculptural staircase – bring light into the building's deep floorplates. Named X, O and Z, the atriums organize the ground floor into zones for culture and retail, a food market, and collaborative workspaces. A fourth void inserted into the eastern wing forms a 5,500-capacity music venue named the 713 Music Hall. The three atriums each contain a monumental staircase that leads visitors up to the roofscape and vistas back to downtown. The stairways are distinct in shape, structure and materiality, but all three are intended to encourage interaction between visitors. "Their paths are doubled, intertwined, and expanded to provide not just trajectories up to the roof but places for accidental encounter – each is an instrument to bring people together," OMA said.p/ 11 Case Study — Synergi LLC X Atrium / Retail Hall Post Houston’s retail atrium offers experiential shop- ping for visitors. Synergi’s “X” staircase work includes a specular/mirror lacquered brass picket guardrail with an extruded top flat profile rail and a brass tube handrail at the stair locations. Z Atrium / Theater Hall The Z stair guardrail includes clear, laminated tem- pered glass with SGP interlayer and aluminum glaz- ing shoe. Synegi's work includes the overlook glass guardrail on the wood-clad “Z” stair in the theater atrium. O Atrium / Market Hall Synergi’s “O” double-helix staircase connects the ground level of the market with the Skylawn. Syn- ergi’s scope includes the structural aluminum stair, aluminum cladding at the underside, and stainless- steel wire mesh guardrail system with stainless steel tube handrail and integral lighting within the mesh guardrail at the vertical posts. THE STAIRS' PATHS ARE DOUBLED, INTERTWINED, AND EXPANDED TO PROVIDE NOT JUST TRAJECTORIES UP TO THE ROOF BUT PLACES FOR ACCIDENTAL ENCOUNTERS – EACH IS AN INSTRUMENT TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER. Jason Long Partner, OMA “— Post Houston p/ 12 2023 DOUBLE HELIX O STAIR — IN THE MARKET / FOOD HALL ATRIUM 02p/ 13 Case Study — Synergi LLC— Post Houston p/ 14 2023 THE DOUBLE HELIX O STAIR IN THE MARKET ATRIUM 02p/ 15 Case Study — Synergi LLC The O Atrium The O atrium, also referred to as the market hall, features two stairs wound together like a spring that connect the market hall to the POST Houston rooftop known as the “Skylawn,” which gives way to an uninterrupted view of the downtown skyline. A set of suspended bridges connects the stairways to the second floor. Despite the atrium’s 53,000 sq ft of available space, stair design considerations prioritized maximizing the allotted ground level space for the roughly 30 food and retail vendors and kiosks anticipated to operate within the atrium. The resulting “O” staircase had to be optimized to fit within a relatively small footprint, utilizing a rarely- seen double-helix design to land double the impact in terms of vertical mobility for occupants. Design Intent The design called for all new elements in the O atri- um to look as though made from metal, resembling the brightness and luminosity of stainless steel. THE TRANSPARENCY THROUGH THE STAIR SYSTEM WOULD MAINTAIN THE VIEWS AND OPEN UP THE SPACE, WITH THE ENTIRE DESIGN FEELING LIGHTWEIGHT, ELEGANT, YET SIMPLE. This included the stairs, interconnecting landings and walkways, guardrail, and the surrounding sys- tem of stainless-steel elements—seating, counters, kitchens, and a floating mesh halo— that compose a family of kiosks intended to mirror the diversity of Houston’s food scene. The combined effect of the new components would draw light into the oth- erwise dark space and stand out against the solid, heavy feel of the preexisting concrete structure. Continuous interwoven ribbons of metal would create a fluid and ethereal feeling, like the fabric streamers of gymnasts, two ribbons floating in the air. OMA wanted viewers to be able to see steps through the bird cage wireframe guardrail to maintain the open feel but to appear smooth from the underside with cladding to hide the structure. The transpar- ency through the stair system would maintain the views and open up the space, with the entire design feeling lightweight, elegant, yet simple. initial renderings— Post Houston p/ 16 2023 a series of spatial and structural interventions within the former warehouse would transform it into an inviting space with social connectedness in mind architectural drawingp/ 17 Case Study — Synergi LLC A MASSIVE MIXED-USE SPACE FULL OF DESIGN JUXTAPOSITION – INDUSTRIAL AND REFINED, RAW AND POLISHED, HISTORIC AND PROGRESSIVE... The stairs’ design originally called for a steel structure encased in stainless steel cladding. The complexity of the design, tight deadlines, and budget constraints led OMA to seek out assistance from Synergi, who engaged the team in a design-assist process to optimize the stair and bring the vision to life within budget. Project Challenges Design Intent & Budget Constraints During early design-assist meetings, Synergi realized initial materials selection would ex- ceed the budget for the project as drawn. Initial estimates projected the stair would be costly to execute without compromising the design intent. Additionally, it was determined in early design discussions that the joints and seams of the stainless steel cladding would result in staircases that felt too segmented. Through its design-assist process, Synergi set out to find alternate solutions that hon- ored the original design intent. Pandemic-Related Construction Delays Under a tight timeline to begin with, the proj- ect faced further setbacks in the beginning of 2020 as the industry began to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. As Synergi moved to remote work in March of 2020, vendor letters were received daily informing of potential de- lays due to closures and/or shutdowns. The length of these closures would determine the impact to the project schedule. — Post Houston p/ 18 2023 While Synergi's design-assist process can ul- timately save months in scheduling and mil- lions in construction costs, these benefits are not the process’s goal at the start. At its core, design-assist is a conversation between a project’s key stakeholders about vision, design intent, and constructability. The initial objective of the process is to understand the design and constructability aspects prior to actual construction. This collaboration al- lows the team to mitigate potential conflicts and limit scope creep, ensuring each project is clearly defined and value engineered for efficiency before construction begins. EMPLOYING SYNERGI'S DESIGN-ASSIST PROCESS FOR THE PROJECT DESIGN-ASSIST CREATES THE CONVERGENCE OF EXPECTATIONS AND PRIORITIES FOR THE DESIGN AND SCOPE, PROVIDES PREDICTABILITY AND COST SAVINGS, AND IMPROVES THE BOTTOM LINE FOR THE OWNER.p/ 19 Case Study — Synergi LLC At its core, design-assist is a conversation between a project’s key stakeholders about vision, design intent, and constructability. workshop screenshots Synergi worked with the project’s contractors and design team over the course of weekly meetings to think though the potential risks and arrive at the highest quality and most efficient design possible. A live schedule of the project’s key milestones was cre- ated and discussed at the beginning of each design workshop to make sure that the project remained on track and to implement corrective actions as needed. An initial engineering analysis uncovered the key design considerations that needed to be addressed. These concerns were recorded in an “open items” log that the Synergi team monitored throughout the entire design-assist process, fact-checking the engineering, checking all plans and options for ad- herence to the budget, ensuring details would not derail the project or schedule, mitigating the risk associated with each item, and verifying how each item affects the engineering of its environment – all while honoring the original design intent as closely as possible. The findings of this intensive stage were placed in an open book pricing matrix and updated with real cost and time estimates. Not only did this result in more informed decision-making as the project continued, but it also created flexibility to move dollars around the project to the items that have the highest priority in the design intent. Lead-time items were identified and pre-ordered if they posed a risk to the schedule. The so- lutions most in line with the design direction were identified and fully engineered (stamped and sealed). Continualyly up- dating the pricing matrix allowed easy tracking of the project budget.Next >