Anthem House is a 9 story, 530,000 sq ft residential building located at 900 E. Fort Ave. in Baltimore, MD. There are 292 dwelling units consisting of 25 studio apartments, 171 1-Bedrooms, and 96 2-Bedroom units. Along E. Fort Ave. retail spaces are available for lease. A lobby and a leasing office is on the first floor of the building. Amenity spaces for the residents are a fitness center and pool deck on the 3rd floor, a patio and courtyard on the 4th floor, and a rooftop terrace on the 9th floor. Parking is available in a garage located in the lowest level of the building.
Features and Amenities
Anthem house has a green roof amenity space on the 4th floor. This space is an open grass lawn surrounded by a patio. There is a double sided fireplace connecting the patio to an interior amenity lounge with a pool table.
The fitness room connects to the pool deck on the 3rd floor exterior amenity space. The infinity pool extends out toward the Baltimore skyline and overlooks the harbor below.
Anthem House was designed to meet LEED Silver certification. The application process will begin now that the building is open and occupied.
Construction Data
Planning was begun for Anthem house in January of 2014. The project was delivered mainly through a Design-bid-build process. The main structural system of the building was contracted as a Design-build project with Infinity Structural Systems. Bozzuto Construction bid the project with a Guaranteed Maximum Price Contract. The total budgeted cost was effectively estimated at $101 Million dollars. Ground breaking was in June 2015 and construction was completed in July 2017.
Project Team
Design Codes and Zoning
Anthem house was designed under the local Maryland Comar 05-02-07 code 2012 ed. and the 2013 Baltimore City code. National codes used were the 2012 IBC and 2010 ADA Standards.
From the IBC, the uses of Anthem House classify it mainly as R2 – residential. The other uses consist of the following: A2, A3, B, M, and S2. Based on these uses the building is to be fully sprinkled, except in the open parking garage on the lowest level.
The construction type is 1B, which is non-combustible construction. From this type, the area of the building is unlimited, and the height is limited to 11 stories or 160 ft.Anthem House is 9 stories and 110’-6”.
The Zoning Code of Baltimore City was also used during design. The site is classified as M-3 on a 2012 zoning map, which is an industrial district. However, on the construction documents, the zone is designated as a B-2-4.
There are no historical requirements for the site.
Exterior Façade
The exterior façade consists of several different materials supported by a typical cavity wall assembly built of 6” metal studs. The walls of the parking garage have a concrete wall supporting the façade.
The façade materials used are metal panels, fiber cement panels, brick veneer, and precast veneer. The elevation shows how the materials are combined on the façade.
Roofing
The main roofing is Thermo Plastic Polyolefin (TPO) Roofing. Green roofs and ballasted roofs are also used on the building. Metal Standing Seam Shingle Roofing is applied to the vertical surfaces of some roof parapets. The remaining parapets have brick veneer or fiber cement board applied to the vertical face.
Electrical
The apartment units are supplied with 6000A, 120/208V, 3 phase (3PH) power. Two meter banks are located on every other floor and are controlled by 1200A, 3PH breakers. Each unit has is metered and is supplied with 100A, 120/208V, 1PH power for lighting, receptacles, kitchen and mechanical equipment within the unit.
The house systems for Anthem House are powered by 277/480V, 3PH. The incoming utility line provides 1200A to the main distribution board which powers the house lighting, common space mechanical equipment, and elevators. The elevators, emergency lighting, and the fire pump are also connected to an emergency diesel generator that is able to provide 350kW, 480V, 3PH power in the event of a power outage.
Lighting
Lighting fixtures in the units are typically compact fluorescent lamps with a 2700 color temperature. LED lamps are used for decorative lighting purposes in the kitchen and dining room.
Throughout the common spaces, LED lamps are used in most fixtures with the remining being fluorescent tubes or compact fluorescent lamps. The exterior and courtyard lights are LED.
Mechanical
Each apartment in Anthem House has a dedicated mechanical system which is controlled by a digital, programmable thermostat in the apartment. Located in the apartment is an air handling unit (AHU) which provides 1000 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of supply air with 85 CFM of outside air to each typical unit. Each AHU is connected to its own heat pump (HP) on the roof which uses R-410A refrigerant to meet the heating or cooling demand. The AHU can also provide 4.8kW of auxiliary heat if required.
Each amenity and common space is conditioned by an AHU which is connected to a rooftop heat pump. These spaces receive a total of 9450 CFM of supply air from 6 AHU/HP pairs. Outside air into the corridors and amenity spaces is provided by 4 rooftop AHUs, with a combined capacity of 13880 CFM.
Fire
The emergency generator is connected to all of the fire alarms and visual lights in the building. Fireman’s communications jacks are located on every floor and are also powered by the emergency generator. Fire alarms are located in every unit and in all common spaces and corridors. There are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors located throughout the building as well.
Stairwell pressurization is used to prevent smoke from entering the stair towers in the event of a fire. Pressurization works by using fans to create a positive pressure inside the stairwell which forces air out of the stairwell openings. This outward draft prevents the smoke from being drawn into the stairwell. In Anthem House, pressurization fans are provided for all stair towers, each fan is 3 horsepower and provides 3400CFM of airflow.
Transportation
There are five stair towers in the building servicing all eight residential and parking levels. Additionally, there are five elevators in three locations throughout the building.
Structural
The six residential floors are built from a proprietary system called the Infinity System. A 2” metal deck with a dovetail corrugation pattern is topped with 3½” of normal weight concrete. Light gage metal stud bearing walls support the deck which has an average span of 12’. Lateral resistance is provided by CMU shear walls around the stair towers and by shear panels located within the bearing walls. The shear panel are patented by the infinity system and use cross-bracing and metal strapping to reinforce the light gage studs.
At the three parking levels at and above grade, the structure is a concrete flat slab with concrete columns, and transfer beams to support the light gage walls above. The shear walls on these levels become cast-in-place concrete and are augmented by concrete moment frames. The foundations are both shallow strip and spread footings and deep driven concrete piles.
Read the Building Statistics Report as a PDF file by clicking the image.
