Just a brief update to let you know the 8th Sisters status.

Final Holyoke Planning Committee and Building Official approvals and permitting have been completed for all three buildings: Hygge House, Paper House, and 8th Sister. This Fall, each will arrive at their permanent homes in Holyoke: 808 Dwight St., 800 Dwight St., and 160 East Dwight St., respectively.

Hygge House and Paper House are in Holyoke already at temporary sites near their final destinations. On one day, later in September, the 8th Sister will be transported to Holyoke and all three will be placed on their new foundations (full foundations for Hygge and Paper; piers for the 8th Sister). Then the final details for all three will be completed and a celebration will be held as the three buildings await the arrival of their first occupants and Holyoke will have three more Affordable Houses!

Since the completion of this year’s DesignBuild cohort’s Build tenure, we have set up the interior with multiple posters, models and drawings and have had multiple visitors.

Dave Wallace from Pella Windows & Doors of Western & Central Massachusetts came to check out our window and door installation and was very complementary about the quality of our installations. Many thanks to them for their substantial donation of eight triple glazed window and two doors from the Impervia line!

We had a visit from Eversource Sustainability Energy Efficiency Executives, Tim Simmonds and Andrea French, to see what we are about and how they might be able to support us.

D.A. Sullivan and Sons, Inc. (DAS) team of Cicely Hislop (COO), Sarah Ouimette (Accounts Manager), Andrew Fleming (VP of Pre-Construction), and Toby Brown (General Superintendent) spent time with several of the 2024 Cohort along with Vice Chancellor Shane Conklin, CNS Dean Mike Fox, Executive Director of Operations Patti Cromack, and CNS Development Director Eden DuPerier. All enjoyed strawberries and ice cream as a small thank you for DAS’s generous gift to the UMDB Construction Manager Fund. Mark Sullivan (President of DAS) was unable to attend, but was missed!

UFP Industries Dave Deforest (Director of Operations) and Sean Simmer (Vice President of Operation, Northeast) are visiting later this week. They have been repeated supplier of our truss needs!

The new UMass Dept. of Architecture graduate students are also on campus later this week for New Grad Orientation and will be having a visit.

Once the semester begins the Associated General Contractors Student Chapter (led by our own UMass DesignBuild 2024 member, Felix Agbo) will be visiting early in the semester.

We’ are excited to share the final updates from the 2024 UMass DesignBuild project! This last week has been incredibly productive, as we wrap up the “8th Sister” for its future residents!

The weather did not treat us any better as we completed our final week of the Build. The heat and humidity has been relentless all summer and continued, so we pivoted to the 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM work schedule to beat the worst of the heat on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Despite the adversity!

On the Exterior: Siding Boards were completed, Siding Battens were installed, Horizontal Bleached Cedar Siding under the front porch, donated by East Branch Studio, was installed, and Brise Soleil Screening was prefinished.

On the Interior: Insulation was completed, Electrical and Mechanical odds and ends were wrapped up, Clay Plaster finish was applied to the Straw Bale Section (under the expert guidance of Mike DeSorgher of Yeoman DesignBuild) , and Hempcrete Insulation (under the tutelage of Tom Rossmassler of Hempstone) was demonstrated.

As this incredible journey came to an end, there is immense pride and gratitude for the hard work, dedication, and creativity demonstrated throughout the project. The “8th Sister,” designed and built in collaboration with OneHolyoke CDC, will soon help to provide affordable housing in Holyoke, showcasing how small homes can be comfortable, spacious, and beautiful.

Thank you for following this journey.

We hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

Of course, all work already begun continued and headed toward completion, i.e. Electrical Rough-in, Board and Batten Siding Install (just the Boards at this point; Battens come next), Deck Framing, and Front Porch Ceiling Framing. You have probably seen enough of those photos. 🙂

Three exciting events happened. First, Mike DeSorgher, principal, of Yeoman Design Build instructed the team on the installation of Clay Based Plaster on our Compressed Straw Bale Wall section. Scratch Coat is on and drying. Next week the Finish Coat.

Next was the arrival of the TimberHP Batt Insulation that will be installed in the Eighth Sister. Happily it coincided with a visit from Scott Johnston, TimberHP Sales Manager. Mr. Johnston has been instrumental in the product being donated to our project — an enormous boost to our economics.

Finally, this week we harvested the White Ash Boards that were originally used in Professor Peggi Clouston’s Timber Grid Shell constructed in 2016. The boards showed some discoloration from their storage but were structurally undamaged. We resurfaced approximately 1400 Linear Feet of product that will be used as the perimeter skirting of the Eighth Sister, needed to conceal the Helical Peers it will be supported by as it will not have a basement. The boards will also be used in the Brise Soleil that will be installed on the East and West sides of the Front Porch. Great to use repurposed product, especially one that will sequester Carbon.

Next Week the 2024 DesignBuild Students will finish up there 8 weeks on the Build it seemed like it just began! See you in a week!

The reason it was a short week is because last week the students voted to work on Saturday, a sixth workday for the week. The purpose of that Saturday replacing the Friday after Thursday, July 4th Holiday, allowing us all to have a four day weekend. Although last Saturday it did not seem like such a “good deal”, when Wednesday Wrap Up happened and all looked forward to four consecutive days off, it seemed like a great deal!

We had a busy three days —- see images below!

There will be more about our Siding choice as we move forward. We were very fortunate to have rk MILES Building Material Supplier, our perennial envelope material benefactor of whom we are enormously grateful, connect us with BlueLinx Building Products. The Board and Batten Siding we are using is a prefinished engineered wood product produced by LP SmartSide which besides giving the 8th Sister an excellent look offers outstanding benefit to our Carbon Accounting.

Back to a Five Day Work Week next Week!

This week has been full of progress and special moments as we continue to bring the “8th Sister” to life.

On Monday, we had the honor of welcoming UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes, Vice Provost Shane Conklin, and CNS Dean Michael Fox to our build site. Their visit was an exciting break from our morning routine. It was just the three of them and us! The schedule was for them to arrive first thing in the AM and stay for less than a half hour; however, we were all so engaged that almost an hour went by showing them the project and answering questions related to not just the Build itself but to the importance of the sustainable building materials we are researching/using (Straw Bale & Wood Fiber Insulation) and the impact of our program on the affordable housing crisis in Holyoke, MA.

After our visitors departed, we completed the Pella Window installation and then moved onto the Pella Door installation.

On the exterior, once all windows and doors were in place, students began working on fabricating window and door casings, installing strapping as attachment for the siding, installing window and door flashing, installing and flashing the rear deck and front porch ledger boards, framing overhangs on the eave ends, and installing fascia on all sides in preparation for the drip edge and rolled roofing.

On the interior, electrical continued, final truss insulation infills were completed, and “stays” to hold the TimberHP Batts in place were installed along the trusses insuring the support for the 9″ of Wood Fiber insulation that will be installed later next week.

On Thursday, we had a surprise gourmet lunch sent over by the Chancellor! While lunch is always enjoyed as a chance to take a break from the morning’s work and spend time with the team all together —- this was definitely the best DesignBuild lunch ever!

To cap off this week we had our annual 50% Completion Celebration (delayed a week because of last weeks heat wave) at Professor’s Fiocchi’s house. We wrapped up work at 3:00 PM, got cleaned up, and joined our team, faculty, friends, and parents for a festive gathering with plenty of good food —- and ice cream 8 flavors and toppings!

It was a wonderful way to reflect on our achievements and recharge for the work ahead!