While not typically considered a software developer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is turning some heads with a Web-based product developed in-house to improve the design review process. The Corps and several other federal agencies are using the software to manage design reviews on hundreds of new construction projects. And users say the new tools are shaving weeks off project schedules and thousands of dollars off total costs. The Design Review and Checking system (DrChecks), developed at the Corps' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Ill., links designers, reviewers, project managers and other interested parties via the Internet to
The forecast called for snow, the first storm of the season even though it was mid-January. Construction crews rebuilding the Pentagon had been working 20-hour days, six days a week and were making remarkable progress toward their goal: rebuilding and reoccupying the damaged portion of the Dept. of Defense headquarters on Sept. 11, 2002, the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attack. A snowstorm was not going to stop them. MANAGEMENT SCHOOL Design is intended to encourage student-faculty interaction. (Photo courtesy of Case Western Reserve University) It's not his biggest, wildest or most unorthodox design. But architect Frank O. Gehry still
It is said that the trick to riding a tiger is finding a way to dismount. The U.S. construction market has provided contractors with a wild ride over the past eight years. For most of 2001, the industry was bracing for a major recession. But overall, the market did not meet those dismal expectations. Some segments are off significantly, but others are holding steady, or even showing modest growth. Many contractors now are guardedly optimistic that they will be able to manage a soft landing as the recession ends. Overall, construction revenue for ENR's Top 400 Contractors rose 3.2% in
(Photo courtesy of Etkin Skanska) Public school construction in the U.S. has long been a juggernaut that almost couldn't be stopped. Fast-growing regions have rushed to keep up with the needs of their bulging school-age populations, older communities pressed to expand and modernize aging educational infrastructure, and many in between have been targeted by courts and legislatures for disparities between rich and poor. In recent years, billions were earmarked by well-heeled states or approved by generous voters to jump start the largest school construction effort since the 1950s Baby Boomer days. Today, school-related capital programs in many towns, cities and
On a recent ride down Interstate 95 southbound in Springfield, Virginia Dept. of Transportation spokesman Steve Titunik's vehicle passed through the tangle of looping overpasses and underpasses that connect with I—495 and I—395. A tractor—trailer loomed abruptly up from the merging I—495 Capital Beltway lane, inches from Titunik's vehicle. "That's what this project is going to fix," Titunik said. (Photo courtesy of the HNTB Corp.) The project, named the Mixing Bowl for its loopy geometry, has been no picnic for its contractors, designers and the financially strapped VDOT. But VDOT officials and the Mixing Bowl's engineers and contractors are valiantly
A second industrial revolution may be under way in Dearborn, Mich., where the Ford Motor Co. is implementing an ambitious plan to transform its 85-year-old River Rouge manufacturing complex into what CEO William Clay Ford Jr. calls a "model of 21st Century sustainable manufacturing." Plans for the $2-billion metamorphosis include a new 600,000-sq ft truck assembly plant that will accommodate flexible manufacturing techniques and several site initiatives aimed at managing stormwater and cleaning soil of pollutants. But the project's best illustration of sustainable principles is the decision to invest in the existing facility rather than abandon the contaminated Rouge Complex
Designers of beddington zero energy development, a housing complex about 20 kilometers from the center of London, have taken on the challenge of transforming suburbia. Within its five blocks of terraced buildings and gardens, the development, nicknamed BedZED, includes 82 homes, 18 mixed work living units and 1,560 square meters of pure workspace. Its density is about 400 habitation rooms and 200 jobs per hectare. If that density were replicated throughout the U.K., it would cut urban sprawl by 75% and eliminate the need for development of greenfield sites, claims Bill Dunster, the project's locally based architect. Along with efficient
High performance does not necessarily mean high-tech, a point illustrated by the $7-million, 42,000-sq-ft Newport Coast Elementary School, which opened in March 2001. Overlooking Newport Harbor, the school uses daylighting and natural ventilation strategies to take advantage of the Southern California climate. "There is nothing outrageous [about this project]. It is just sensible design," says Kerry Parker, senior associate at mechanical engineer TMAD Inc., Ontario, Calif. The campus has gable-roofed, wood-framed structures clustered around courtyards and two types of classrooms. Linear classrooms have operable windows on the east and west, allowing natural lighting from two sides and cross ventilation. Back-to-back
Waves of optimism are coursing through the veins of green building enthusiasts. Thanks to a growing track record of success, a proliferation of government incentives and grant programs and honed marketing strategies, sustainable projects are popping up in all shapes, sizes and building types�from schools to industrial plants to complete communities. Institutional and investor resistance to environmentally responsible development has so eroded that the greeners of America are predicting that in a decade or so, environmental construction will simply be a matter of course. "It would not surprise me" if it became the norm within the next decade, says John
The headquarters building for the chesapeake bay Foundation, in Annapolis, Md., is an extension of the owner's mission to protect and restore the health of its surroundings. "Our expertise is the Chesapeake Bay and how to save it," says Chuck Foster, the foundation's chief of staff. "The building is part of that," he adds. The $7.2-million, 32,000-sq-ft facility, on a 31-acre water-front site, is composed of two double-story, loft-like sheds�an office building and a conference center�that are raised above the ground on pier foundations. Both volumes have glazed south-facing fa�ades with operable windows to take advantage of prevalent bay breezes
RSS