Building Quiet Barracks at Fort Sam Houston

Building Quiet Barracks at Fort Sam Houston

Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas is the world's largest military medical training facility. As one of the U.S. Army's oldest installations - where the first medic recruit arrived back in 1845 - Fort Sam Houston is the country's National Historic Landmark with largest single-site collection of historic structures, over 900 buildings. These buildings document different eras and reflect evolving trends in Army planning and design.But Fort Sam Houston isn't only about preserving history and documenting "the way things were." Today, more than 27,000 military and civilian personnel work at the post and continuous new construction projects (averaging $30 million annually) co-exist right alongside the post's historic sections. One recent project involved the construction of four new METC (Medical Education Training Campus) dormitories to house 2,400 military medical personnel for short-term training and education. Plan of AttackThe project faced four main constraints that designers and contractors had to overcome. First, the barracks were limited by the size of the existing structure. Second, each unit had to meet the Army Corps of Engineers' requirement for the square-footage allocated to each soldier. Third, the construction technique had to deliver an STC rating of almost 50 in an area with frequent tank and artillery fire, jets, chopper noise and things that go "boom" in the night. Finally, the dormitory has to meet the strict requirements of Leader in Energy and Environmental design (LEED) Silver Certification. The contractor, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, decided to construct the new METC dormitories off-site in 682 modular sections. Because of the external building limitations, the first option to hit the cutting room floor was the traditional method of using resilient channels for party walls. It would have wasted critical floor space and was not a viable plan of attack. Instead, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers enlisted the aid of the QuietSolutions product line from Serious Materials, including soundproofing drywall. This allowed the project to conserve space on every interior wall by building just as if they were using regular drywall.Soundproofing drywall was deployed by the builder and performed under fire just like regular gypsum board - only better - and achieved the specified STC rating without sacrificing one square-inch of troop living space.How the War Was WonWhen the (construction) dust had cleared, Serious Materials' soundproofing drywall achieved an STC-rating of close to 50 while also providing the exact amount of livable of square footage per soldier within the limited exterior building constraints.Using soundproofing drywall instead of resilient channel also reduced labor costs by reducing installation time. Because soundproofing drywall installs exactly like regular drywall, no new product training was necessary and it saved time compared to the complex installation for resilient channel - additionally it helped earn points for LEED Certification.Mission accomplished.

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