Carpenters Center goes live with LED Display

The Carpenters Union went live today with a major component of the Carpenters Center: a 32’ H x 21’ W transparent LED display. The display is located at the South side of the building and is visible to traffic traveling north along I-93.

A striking component of the building’s façade, the display is made up of horizontally-oriented LED sticks, offering superior brightness, contrast, and image quality. The display is perfectly suited for photographic images, both black and white and full color. It can handle millions of colors.

The horizontal orientation and spacing of the LED sticks allows for 53% transparency, while supporting an average of 40mm resolution. Technology evaluations provided the necessary image quality at viewing distances of 150’, or equal to the distance that passing cars will be viewing the display from the highway.


Looking out to the Expressway from inside the building.

There are only one or two transparent LED installations in the US which are approximately half the resolution of this display and 1/3 the potential brightness - making this sign clearly visible in the middle of the day.

The Carpenters Center display will meet all Federal Highway mandates including the minimum length of time an image must be displayed, known as the digital billboard’s “hold time.” The industry’s average digital displays hold time is 8 seconds.

Federal Highway Administration regulates digital display’s brightness by mandating that all digital displays be adjusted to compliment ambient light levels. This display’s brightness levels will be scheduled by a content delivery system that is able to adjust the brightness of the display to match the ambient light levels. This will ensure that the display’s brightness is appropriate to the time of day and seasonal light levels.

Selection and implementation of the LED Display was done with strong consideration given to its impact on the surrounding neighborhood. The display will have no paid advertising content and the brightness levels will comply with the regulations mentioned above.

"We want the sign to send a message about who we are, what we do, and our connections to the communities we live and work in,” notes Mark Erlich, NERCC Executive Secretary-Treasurer.

Then and Now

March 5, 2009


October 23, 2009

Sidewalk poured, landscaping to begin

At the end of last week, S&F Concrete poured a section of sidewalk connecting the Pavilion to the city sidewalk as well as the patio adjacent to the Pavilion. Additionally, they poured the sidewalks adjacent to the parking deck and prepared the area for landscaping.

Tress will be planted along the perimeter of the patio and alongside the ramp entrance to the parking deck.

Asphalt to be placed at parking deck

Last week, a crew working with S&F Concrete completed the final pour at the parking deck. Asphalt is scheduled to be placed this week in the lower level of the deck up to the ramp.

As explained in an earlier post, visitors will enter from Dorchester Ave and drive on to the top level of the parking deck. The entryway ramp will be centered to the parking deck. The ramp itself is 32 feet wide, to accommodate traffic in either direction coming in and out of the garage, by approximately 25 feet long.

The upper parking deck will have 46 parking spaces and there will be 43 spaces in the lower deck. There will be an additional 6 spaces separate from the parking garage at the North end of the building.

The majority of the parking deck, including the entire upper parking deck is a concrete surface. One section, however, from the base of the ramp at the south side of the parking deck down to the lower level and the first section of the parking decking will be bituminous asphalt. In the lower level of parking deck along the abutter’s side, two vent windows were put in place to create cross ventilation. Asphalt will smoke and burn during a fire, so fire code requires proper ventilation in areas asphalt will be used.

Due to the concrete retaining wall along the north section, the lower level in this area of the garage will be concrete, which will crack under heat but will not smoke/burn as asphalt does.

The blueprint below highlights the area of the ramp and lower level of the garage that will be covered in asphalt instead of concrete. The pink highlights indicate the vent windows along the abutter’s side of the garage. The rendering below the prints shows that the Expressway side of the lower parking deck will be open, allowing air to move freely into the space.

Facts about the Exterior - Cedar

As previously posted, Sunrise Erectors also began installing cedar siding between windows on the West side of the building. Cedar accents were selected to help this side of the building conform to the look of the residential neighborhood. The cedar will be installed between windows on the third floor and in a section along the bottom of the windows on the second floor down to the Pavilion level.

Here is some information about the cedar being installed:

• The western red cedar has a custom tongue and groove shape, giving it a unique appearance and stronger interlocking connection than typical tongue and groove products.
• The cedar is from 100 year old trees and has roughly 15 rings per inch, making it a long-lasting product with an expected lifetime of 50 years.
• The cedar sealant is a water-soluble silicone based water-proofer that is less harsh on the environment than oil based products and emits no VOCs.

Information provided by Sunrise Erectors.

LED Display Installed

At the end of last week the LED display was installed at the Carpenters Center.


Crews unload a section of the LED display.

The sign is 32’H x 21’W and arrived on site in 5 separate sections. The display is made up of horizontally-oriented LED sticks, seen below in a close-up photo.






The sign has superior brightness, contrast, and image quality, while allowing for greater than 50% transparency and supporting an average of 40mm resolution. Technology evaluations provided the necessary image quality at viewing distances of 150’, or equal to the distance that passing cars will be viewing the display from the highway.




Although it is 50% transparent, it is capable of displaying a 400 x 600 pixel image. The display can handle millions of colors.

The display will be the highest-resolution transparent LED display in the world and will be seen by over 280,000 viewers per day. There are only one or two transparent LED installations in the US which are approximately half the resolution of this display and 1/3 the potential brightness - making this sign clearly visible in the middle of the day.

The Carpenters Center display will meet all Federal Highway mandates including the minimum length of time an image must be displayed, known as the digital billboard’s “hold time.” The industry’s average digital displays hold time is 8 seconds.

Federal Highway Administration regulates digital display’s brightness by mandating that all digital displays be adjusted to compliment ambient light levels. This display’s brightness levels will be scheduled by a content delivery system that is able to adjust the brightness of the display to match the ambient light levels. This will ensure that the display’s brightness is appropriate to the time of day and seasonal light levels.

Information provided by Sensory Interactive.

Facts about the Exterior

• There is over 27,000 square feet of insulation and membrane on the building.
• There are 866 metal panels total, and their typical dimensions are roughly 2’ x 15’.
• The largest panel sits at the top corner of the sloped wall near the highway: in addition to the face of the panel, it spans 45 inches over the parapet.
• Most corner panels need their own box truck to arrive on the site without incurring any damage.
• The paint colors for Carpenters Center metal panels took months to refine to achieve the level of gloss and shine that we see on the building today.
• Some vertical members of the entry pavilion curtain wall weigh upwards of 700 lbs each.
• The largest pieces of glass weight over 200 lbs each.

Information provided by Sunrise Erectors.

The Exterior of the Carpenters Center

From Suzanne O’Leary, Assistant Project Manager, Sunrise Erectors:
The Carpenters Center exterior is comprised of metal panel rainscreen, cedar tongue and groove rainscreen, curtain wall and storefront systems.

Alucobond panels are the primary material in the metal panel rainscreen, which we receive in the form of flat stock. The rainscreen acts as a second shell to the building, protecting the first layer from weathering and heavy moisture. Any moisture that does penetrate the rainscreen is allowed to dry out through various vents.

Sunrise Erectors fabricates each panel and piece of furring from flat material in their shop in Canton, MA before assembling and installing it. The panel colors were meticulously formulated and have a substantial amount of metallic fleck, adding to the range of each color as go past the building, similar to car paint.

Photo Recap - September

68%!

As of September 30th, construction of the Carpenters Center is 68% complete!