Under Construction: The Educare School in Washington, DC

A $12 million, state-of-the-art Educare School is getting ready to open in Washington, DC.  The school features a state-of-the-art HPL rainscreen facade installed using Cladding Corp’s F1.10 System and will provide early childhood education aimed at closing the achievement gap of children in poverty.  The Omaha, NE based firm RDG Planning and Design is the architect of record, boasting a wide variety of early learning projects that consider the interconnection between sustainability and early-childhood learning.   

The F1.10 Rainscreen System is part of a holistic approach to the exterior envelope – integrating cladding materials with an engineered sub-framing assembly.  Rather than isolating the design of the cladding material independent of the entire wall assembly, the F1.10 system uses Cladding Corp’s “System5” approach using scientific principles and elements required to create an effectively designed drained and back-ventilated rainscreen assembly.  To see a video installation on YouTube of the F1.10 system – click here.

Design with Fastening Approach in Mind

The F1.10 provides a visible, face-fastened attachment approach for fiber cement, fiber concrete and HPL (high pressure laminate) panels.  The attachment method is with exposed rivets.  It is ideal for concrete substrates with panels in landscape orientation.  The rivet approach guarantees high pull-out values and ease of installation, two of the most critical elements when considering attachment method.

Design with Insulation Requirements in Mind

Roxul CavityRock® is a non-combustible, water repellent insulation board specifically engineered  for cavity wall and rainscreen applications.  As a continuous insulation (ci) product, CavityRock provides excellent thermal performance and minimizes the thermal bridging phenomenon so often exhibited by steel stud wall construction.

Design for Thermal Linear Expansion

A critical feature of the F1.10 system is that all wall brackets have elongated holes allowing for thermal expansion of the aluminum profiles.  The length of the profiles is determined by the storey-height or panel separation.

Design with Fixed and Sliding Points in Mind

The fixed point wall bracket carries the dead weight and wind loads to the load-bearing wall.  In contrast, the connection between a sliding point wall bracket and vertical aluminum profile is designed to be a sliding connection in elongated holes.  As a result, the entire system works together for expansion and contraction, as well as wind pressures and dead load.

This new Educare School, funded by a unique consortium of private and public partners, will provide direct services to 175 infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families in the Parkside Community.  It will also serve to spark improvements in early childhood programs throughout the District by spreading evidence-based practices and creating new champions for early learning.