Objective
To help realize Rice Management Company’s ambitious goal of transforming the historic Midtown Sears Building into a showstopping innovation hub that would serve as the heart of Houston’s new Innovation District – a place for startups and industry titans alike to meet and share ideas.
Background
In 2018, Gensler – the project architect – called Griesenbeck for help with the design. The design vision included creating a breathtaking five-story lightwell at the center of the building but achieving the open space design while satisfying Houston’s fire and life safety code requirements proved challenging for the 266,000 square-foot multi-use space.
After bringing experts from McKEON and the City of Houston together with stakeholders, it was decided that two H200 bi-parting horizontal steel fire shutters would meet both the design vision and code requirements.
Solution
The two sets of McKEON H200 bi-parting horizontal steel fire shutters installed measured 127' 8" L x 19' 8" W and 110' 11" L x 26' 8" W (tip to tip) and weighed a grand total of 72,000 lbs. The shutters are 2-hour rated UL 10B and operate during power loss. Using these shutters prevented the need to use fire barriers on multiple floors and meant natural daylight from the skylight at the top of the lightwell reaches all five floors.
PROJECT DETAILS
Project Type:
Commercial
Manufacturer:
Product:
Auto-Set H200 Horizontal Acting Steel Fire Shutter
Architect:
General Contractor:
Client:
Location:
Houston, Texas
Photography:
Griesenbeck
Completion:
January 2022