G-Gans Project, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo's cavernous G-Cans Project is one of several flood-management projects included in the AIANY report, "Post-Sandy Initiative." Related Links: New York City's Proposed Zoning Changes for Flood Zones Intended To Align With Other Rules Seven months after miles of New York and New Jersey waterfront were slammed by Superstorm Sandy’s surge, the area's design and planning groups are calling for the creation of a pan-regional entity to organize and lead the effort to deal with flood-resilience and climate change. They also are trumpeting the need for other reforms to eliminate myriad obstacles to climate adaptation, including
Related Links: AGC Level of Development Specification AIA Contract Documents Enthusiasts of building information modeling have developed a standard specification that they say will help eliminate poor communication and misunderstandings within project teams using BIM. The 132-page document, coming out this summer, will offer users a common language for determining the specific content of design, construction and fabrication BIMs.The 2013 Level of Development Specification, which is being formulated by the Associated General Contractors (AGC) BIM Forum, will be available free of charge. It is intended as an attachment to any contract as an aid for practitioners to specify and articulate
The four U.S. groups representing the interests of about 40,000 structural engineers have formed a coalition to promote structural-engineer licensing—a somewhat controversial subject among professional engineers. To date, 11 states have some form of SE licensing, which the structural groups maintain is critical for public safety."It is very important for us to really speak with one unified voice on the issue," said Sam A. Rihani, the 2013 president of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), at the group's 2013 Structures Congress, held on May 2-4 in Pittsburgh and attended by
The BIM Forum of the Associated General Contractors has released for public comment a draft specification for levels of development of building information models. Interested parties have until June 7 to comment on the draft, which has been under development for two years by a committee of about 20 people.The 132-page document defines and illustrates characteristics of model elements of different building systems at different levels of development. It is intended as a reference to enable practitioners to specify “with a high level of clarity” the content and reliability of BIMs at various stages in the design and construction process.
Photo by Nadine Post/ENR Vacca (left) spent March 27 offering advice to a future structural engineer, Lehigh University graduate student Megan A. Toumanios. Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal The Harman Group Inc. Aquinas Realty Partnership As structural engineer Jan Vacca stopped in her office to grab coats and bags before heading to a jobsite in Philadelphia, she apologized for the clutter to graduate student Megan A. Toumanios—Vacca's "shadow for a day." Clutter aside, the eye-catcher in the office that morning was the desk wall, which is papered with pithy sayings.VACCA"Angry people do not
Related Links: ASCE Metrolpolitan Section City of Hoboken The mayor of Hoboken, N.J., supports region-wide storm-surge resistance in the long term but is pushing for added local protection in the short term. Experts at a recent forum on Superstorm Sandy's impact in the New York-New Jersey area agreed: Plan regionally but act now locally."There has to be protection on a local level plus a regional approach," said Dawn Zimmer, Hoboken's mayor since 2009, at the "Impact of Sandy's Storm Surge on NY/NJ Infrastructure" seminar, sponsored by the ASCE Metropolitan Section and held in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 8-9.The densely populated
Photo Courtesy of NREL Building that will explore ways to integrate renewables into the grid is up and running. The Research Support Facility may soon produce as much power annually as it uses. Related Links: NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility NREL Research Support Facility 2011 Award of Excellence Winner: Jeffrey M. Baker: Conservation Crusader Though more than six months late, the U.S. Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., flipped the switch earlier this month on the final section of its nearly 2.5-MW photovoltaic system to power DOE's ultra-energy-efficient Research Support Facility. Turning on the 1.1-MW PV
Image Courtesy of Stanford University Passive rooftop nanostructure would be only tens of microns thick and could eliminate active cooling, say Stanford University researchers. Related Links: Stanford University School of Engineering Stanford University researchers are counting on prototype testing of a nanotechnology-based passive solar cooler to demonstrate that their analytical computer model is more than just smoke and mirrors. If brought to market, the rooftop daytime cooler, which would keep temperatures down in buildings and single-family homes bathed in full sunlight, might eventually make chiller-based air-conditioning systems a thing of the past."It is hard to say when [the cooler] will
Related Links: Building Owners and Managers Association A $100,000 study sponsored by building-owner interests has concluded there is no positive correlation between mandatory building-energy labeling and energy use. The six-month project was a response to increased interest among cities in passing legislation mandating energy scores and energy-efficiency programs."The biggest surprise to me was that we found, in what was a … comprehensive review of [labeling studies], no empirical evidence that these mandates have any effect on energy use," says Robert N. Stavins, co-author of "An Economic Perspective on Building Labeling Policies" and a professor of business and government at Harvard
Related Links: $2.1B United Nations Renovation Complicated by Working Within Operational Campus United Nations Architectural Record: Revival of an Icon It's not always easy to be a copycat. The team that recently replaced the curtain wall of Manhattan's United Nations Secretariat Building knows that from experience.At first, the mandate from the U.N. sounded simple enough: replicate the wall so it would look exactly as it did in 1950, when the 39-story office tower opened.The original wall was designed by a team that included the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier. The recent project, completed last June, "was basically a chance to work
