Georgia Institute of Technology professor Charles M. Eastman, long considered a research guru for computer-based building design and construction, displays parental pride in his latest brainchild: Georgia Tech's Digital Building Laboratory. Unlike Eastman's past efforts, starting some 40 years ago, the fledgling DBL, created in 2009 to help improve building design and construction through the aid of digital tools, is a collaboration among academics and players in the buildings-sector food chain. “This is industry and academia together,” says Eastman, DBL's director and a professor of both architecture and computing at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. “To me, it is so obvious that
A lawsuit over construction of a life-sciences building at a major university stands as the first known claim related to the use of building information modeling by an architect.
Guidelines for the performance-based design of structures to resist disproportionate collapse are under development by the American Society of Civil Engineers' Structural Engineering Institute. SEI expects to release a draft next year and publish the guidelines in 2013. “We are providing guidelines for those who wish to use them. We are not mandating use,” says Robert Smilowitz, chairman of the SEI's disproportionate collapse standards and guidance committee and a principal at structural engineer Weidlinger Associates Inc., New York City. “Our immediate objective is to provide a solid technical basis for designing structures that are more resistant to disproportionate collapse. It
It is lucky for Aqua Tower architect Jeanne Gang that developer James R. Loewenberg thinks the Oscar Niemeyer architecture of Brasilia, the half-century-old capital city of Brazil, is monotonous and static. If not, he might never have hired Gang for one of the four residential towers of the 28-acre Lakeshore East multi-use development in Chicago. And if that hadn’t happened, there would be no Aqua Tower. Related Links: On Her Precipice “Brasilia is the most boring place because all the buildings were done by the same person,” says Loewenberg, the co-CEO of Magellan Development Group and president of Loewenberg Architects,
Unlike many architects, Jeanne Gang, designer of Chicago's mesmerizing Aqua Tower, respects builders and lives for construction. Paul Treacy, the 87-story skyscraper's concrete superintendent, knows this well. Gang had a profound effect on Treacy during construction of her first tower, an innovative residential building that evokes a vertical landscape of rolling hills and ponds. And it is not only because the designer and the “super” bonded over means and methods for Aqua's 78 unique and undulating slab edges, which have extreme cantilevers of up to 12 ft. Gang also left a lasting impression with Treacy on the home front. “My
Work on the nation's first public repository for data on disaster and failure events is under way. The National Institute of Standards and Technology expects to launch a pilot website for a broad disaster database early next year. Events stemming from earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, community-scale fires, structural fires, storm surges, floods and tsunamis are included in the repository. Photo: Courtesy Nelson Architectural Enegineers Inc. Investigating engineer had to wait five years to sound alarm about flawed truss-joist product. “The effort will support development of standards and technologies for effective collection of data on disasters and failures,” in addition to
The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Jeffrey M. Baker, the visionary behind the nation’s newest symbol for sustainability, loves to recount the tale of the dreaded Kobayashi Maru test. For Baker, the fictional test from the “Star Trek” series is an allegory that became a guidepost during his 15-year crusade to develop a replicable model for the design and construction of affordable, ultra-green buildings.
ENR Award of Excellence winner Jeffrey Baker’s pet project—the ultra-green, ultra-affordable Research Support Facility (RSF) at the Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo.—is but a tiny example of the work funded through DOE’s Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. For Baker, the completion of the RSF last year signaled a second mission: to spread the word about the new model for affordable, energy-efficient buildings so that others might adapt it to their projects. Related Links: 2011 Award of Excellence Winner: Jeffrey M. Baker Closely Watched Building Lives Up to Expectations Risky ‘Golden’ Job Proves
One night in early March as well as the next day before dawn, the Dept. of Energy’s Jeffrey M. Baker wasn’t pleased when he noticed lights still burning on two floors of his pet project: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new, ultra-green office building in Golden, Colo. “The cleaning staff probably left them on,” said Baker, who oversees the lab. Photo: Dennis Schroeder/NREL Monitors Pless (left) and a colleague track the building’s energy use to see if it aligns with the energy model used for design. Related Links: 2011 Award of Excellence Winner: Jeffrey M. Baker Risky ‘Golden’ Job Proves
Haselden Construction and architect RNL put almost everything on the line for the Energy Dept.’s Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo. The firm-fixed-price contract, at $64 million, was risky, says Byron Haselden, even after terms were sweetened to include a $2-million incentive award fee and the contract adjusted so the team did not have to commit to a price in its proposal. Photo: Courtesy of Stantec Macey, Haselden and Andary (from left) are using the federal project to get more ultra-green work. Related Links: 2011 Award of Excellence Winner: Jeffrey M. Baker Closely Watched Building Lives Up to Expectations DOE’s