Loyola University Chicago is a private university founded in 1870 as St. Ignatius College. It comprises of four campuses, Lake Shore, Water Tower, Health Sciences and John Felice Rome Center in Italy, and is home to 11 schools and colleges.

The design challenge arose in the Institute of Environmental Sustainability, a state of the art, LEED certified institute facility that features a residence hall (San Francisco Hall) looking out onto the research facility - a huge atrium and aquaponics greenhouse.

Code mandated that there needed to be fire protection between the dormitories and the beautiful greenhouse view, therefore Fire rated rolling doors (sometimes called rolling shutters) were required.

We recommended our advanced fire closing system, AlarmGard. This is wired directly into a central alarm system, closing the shutters as soon as the alarm sounds for immediate protection. In addition, after an alarm drill, the shutters can be programmed to automatically reset without human interaction.

To maximize the aesthetics on the outside of the dormitories, we also recommended using our tube motor. This minimizes the how much the coil protrudes above the shutter (and is much less than a regular motor). With the AlarmGard system, there are also no unsightly chains or links on the outside of the building, as with a regular fusible link alarm system. All these together make the outside of the dormitory as neat as possible.

If you need help on your design challenge contact us here.