While sustainability advocates push the benefits of green construction, more designers, contractors, owners and insurers are now confronting the risks behind those claims. Potential risks associated with emerging green demands have represented a gray area but as more claims and lawsuits land in court, details are becoming clearer. Although risks are often project- and location-specific, owners, constructors and designers of green buildings are finding some consensus, says New York City-based insurance broker Marsh in a new report. The study, “Green Building: Assessing the Risks,” identifies and ranks 10 key areas of green-building risk, five of which could be the most
CityCenter, the still-under-construction megaresort on the Las Vegas Strip, faces mounting challenges in reaching completion. The project, touted as the nation’s largest privately funded development, has tried unsuccessfully for months to obtain a $1.2-billion loan to finance the final leg of construction. Now its partners are fighting in court. The $9.2-billion CityCenter, which includes 19 million sq ft of hotels, homes and entertainment space, broke ground three years ago. On March 23, project partner Dubai World, a conglomerate owned by the Dubai government, sued developer MGM Mirage in Delaware Chancery Court. The timing couldn’t be worse: MGM Mirage is cash-strapped
Officials suspect work on a new 3.9-km metro line as the most likely cause of the early afternoon collapse of the city’s historical archive building in Cologne, Germany, on March 3. Buildings adjacent to the six-floor archive structure, which was erected in 1971, were demolished. By the morning of March 4, two people were thought missing, though no injuries had been reported. A Cologne city hall spokesman says the collapse occurred over a few minutes as ground beneath the archive caved in. The buildings were some 20 meters above new twin tunnels of Cologne Transport Company’s (KVB) North-South line, due
The structural performance of a single-story, wood-stud frame with brick veneer during a Jan. 26 shake-table test at the University of California, San Diego, offered no surprises. However, the structure’s masonry veneer showed distress in places, and that did surprise researchers. The full-scale earthquake test was the first of two designed to help engineers use performance-based design to improve the seismic behavior of masonry and wood buildings, common in residential and light-commercial construction. Related Links: Testing the Strength Of Brick Veneer Seismic Researchers Shake the Brick Veneer “We believe that under many circumstances veneer can help structural performance,” says Richard
In an attempt to build a strong case for sustainability, the U.S. General Services Administration is making its green practices public. GSA recently released a collection of case studies and best practices called “Sustainability Matters,” which offers examples of how the agency and its partners have executed sustainable strategies in acquiring, operating and maintaining GSA buildings. The 220-page publication is intended to help firms that work with the agency meet or exceed GSA’s sustainability goals. The agency has steadily increased green initiatives in recent years as it has faced looming federal mandates. These include the Energy Independence and Security Act
The new Green Building Certification Institutes, sister organization to Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council, is about to launch a total overhaul of the exam system for professionals seeking accreditation to design and build green buildings according to USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, known as LEED. The overhaul, announced at USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, Nov. 19-21 in Boston, creates a tiered-credential and specific tests for different types of buildings. GBCI, formed last month, will take over credentialing and building certification from USGBC in January. Peter Templeton, USGBC’s former vice president of education and research,
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