Warren Woods Site Visit
Despite the unprecedented weather in southwest Michigan this winter due to the polar vortex, the Warren Woods Field Station construction crew, led by Michael Klinger, has pushed through the bitter cold temperatures to make headway on the building shell. The cold presented many obstacles to construction, most notably the delay in getting the Triple glazed aluminum clad PVC windows delivered to the job site from Germany. Eventually the delivery truck made it to the site, and within three days most of the windows were installed and air sealed. This represented a milestone in the construction, allowing the interior finish work to begin in earnest, as well as the application of the exterior siding. 
The day that I visited the site, the temperatures never exceeded 10 degrees F and there was over two feet of snow on the ground. The tight angular form of the building, which is currently wrapped in black UV stable building paper, looked beautiful in contrast to the white surroundings. The standing seam metal roof, which was being installed during my visit looked great, with the length of the 70’ roof articulated by the of the Galvalume roofing. At the low end of the structure, the screen porch is wrapped in plastic, the last bit of the building façade waiting to be clad. 
The window installation went smoothly, and the glazing made a huge difference on the indoor temperatures of the building, as the south facing glass soaked up the suns winter rays, warming the interior even without the roof insulation. The visual connections from the interior of the building to the site also became apparent with the windows installed. The panoramic views framed by the long horizontal windows of the surroundings are a lens to appreciate the site’s beauty. You can read more blog posts about the Warren Woods Ecology Field Station here.
