The International Living Future Institute’s drive to increase participation in its sustainable-building programs is gaining momentum.

The American Institute of Steel Construction’s group reviewing problematic built-up plate girders in San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center is considering the girders’ design detail—where the brittle fractures occurred. The team will also look into a similar girder failure at the SoNo Collection mall in Connecticut.

The current pandemic has disrupted the market and design practices. But will its impact last beyond simply a market dip?

The only group in the U.S. and Canada that collects and disseminates lessons from failures, errors, mishaps and safety issues is calling for reports on structural and jobsite hazards arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teams are working behind the scenes on longer-lead time COVID-19 retrofits and conversions for hospitals, hotels and dormitories. Many of these are aimed at increasing the supply of coronavirus-patient intensive care units and airborne infection isolation rooms to protect health-care workers.

For design professionals, supporting the ongoing COVID-19 surge in the number of hospital beds needed is a matter of urgency. 

Team building (W)rapper’s ribboned exoskeleton, which is not self-supporting until it is done, relies on falsework for stability during steel erection.

Design professionals are mobilizing to provide advice and guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care facility practitioners are also warning officials that haste in creating temporary treatment centers can create unintended negative consequences.