Building Design & Construction articles from November 2006

Building Design & Construction archives from November 2006

Standard Adds Safety Measures for Power Doors.
November 1, 2006... Joe DeSisto, Contributing Writer Major updates to the ANSI standard for automatic doors will change the way Building Teams specify and design sliding and swinging doors. One year ago, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)...

Glazed Brick Primer.
November 1, 2006... Dave Barista, Managing Editor Glazed brick has been a mainstay in building construction for more than 4,000 years, cladding some of the world's oldest pyramids, the ruins of Babylon, and ancient ruins of Greek cities. While...

Green in the Windy City: A sample of Chicago's sustainable architecture in the works.
November 1, 2006... Staff Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting an exhibit, 'Sustainable Architecture in Chicago: Works in Progress,' that presents several green projects currently in design or construction by Chicago-based architects. The projects...

Hofstra University breaks ground on graduate residence hall.
November 1, 2006... Staff To help ease its housing crunch, Hofstra University broke ground on a $23 million residential building for law school graduate students. Designed by Hillier Architecture, New York, the five-story, 80,000-sf facility will feature 58...

Cal Poly expands design school with $24 million addition.
November 1, 2006... Staff Construction is under way on a $24 million expansion and renovation to California Polytechnic State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design building. Designed by Austin Veum Robbins Partners, San Diego, the...

Disney World to get twins.
November 1, 2006... Staff Twin hotel-condo towers are being developed on 10 acres off of Lake Bryan in Buena Vista, Fla., just less than one mile from the entrance to Disney World. Designed by Adache Group Architects, Ft. Lauderdale, Krystle Towers will...

Murphy/Jahn designs affordable housing on the near north side.
November 1, 2006... Staff Insulated stainless-steel panels and high-performance glass will wrap a concrete-framed structure, providing a low-cost, sustainable solution for the Mercy Housing Lakefront affordable housing development on Chicago's near north...

Mission to cultivate healing--and produce--in it's new green home.
November 1, 2006... Staff A massive vegetated roof will top the new, 156,000-sf facility for Pacific Garden Mission, a Chicago rescue mission that provides food, shelter, clothing, medical/dental care, religious services, and counseling to destitute...

Bird-friendly environmental center in Calumet.
November 1, 2006... Staff Planned on a brownfield industrial site that is a major migratory route for birds, the 29,000-sf Ford Calumet Environmental Center will be wrapped with a screen made from reclaimed steel rebar designed to keep birds from crashing...

Tower will require zero energy.
November 1, 2006... Staff Architects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have grand plans for a new corporate headquarters tower near the Pearl River in Guangzhou, China. The tower's shape will funnel wind down the vertical face of the structure toward...

Chicago River will help cool Hyatt Regency hotel.
November 1, 2006... Staff As part of an extensive renovation and expansion planned for the Hyatt Regency hotel's lower levels, the design team, led by Gensler, is designing a geothermal system that will use the Chicago River to help cool the building in the...

LEED Platinum Ronald McDonald charities house coming to Austin.
November 1, 2006... Staff Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas is aiming for LEED Platinum for its new 13-room house and administrative office in Austin. Designed by local architect Eckols & Associates, the 28,500-sf, four-story...

Oxnard College breaks ground on a student services building.
November 1, 2006... Staff Design work is under way on a $26.3 million student services facility at Oxnard (Calif.) College. The 40,000-sf facility will consist of a two-story student services building and a one-story foodservices building located at the heart...

Chicago gets another condo tower.
November 1, 2006... Staff Leopardo Construction, Chicago, has been awarded the general contract for the construction of an 80-story, 900,000-sf mixed-use condo/retail tower on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. When completed in 2010, Park Michigan will reach 855...

Green building '06in perspective.
November 1, 2006... Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief It's been a rollicking year for new developments in the green building movement. Consider the following milestones just through early November, as 10,000+ get ready to converge on the Denver Convention...

Editors' Picks.
November 1, 2006... Staff A flexible sensor faucet Staff Optima Lino faucets are equipped with the latest sensor-operated, water-saving plumbing technology. Models with the Integral Spout Temperature Mixer, which are intended for hospital rooms,...

Green Goes Underground.
November 1, 2006... By Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor Canada's largest geothermal system lies beneath the country's newest university. Canada's largest geothermal system (and the second largest in North America) sits inconspicuously beneath a beautifully...

2006 A Very Green Year.
November 1, 2006... Staff Two thousand six has been a banner year for publicizing the threat of global warming and other issues near and dear to those in the green building movement. It started in January at the Sundance Film Festival with the release of 'An...

Multi-retail strong through '08.
November 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data Construction spending for multi-retail buildings (defined as shopping malls, shopping centers, department stores, and big box retailers) is currently 50% higher than...

Material price index drops temporarily.
November 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data The construction material price index dropped 1.4% in September, the first significant decline during the last three years-apart from the price surge resulting from...

R.S. Means costs comparisons.
November 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data [TABLE OMITTED]

Middle schools, high schools, and cultural facilities lead education spending.
November 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data The value of education construction starts increased 17.7% during the first nine months of 2006 compared to the same period last year, according to Reed Construction...

Software tools to green your building.
November 1, 2006... By Tomas Hernandez, Contributing Editor Over the last six years or so, the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System has become an accepted standard for the design,...

A brighter future for LEDs.
November 1, 2006... By Jeff Yoders, Associate Editor The light-emitting diode has long promised cleaner, cheaper light. New advances are making good on that promise. The light-emitting diode (LED) has come a long way and hasn't even reached its 45th...

Chicago's speedy permitting program gets speedier.
November 1, 2006... Dave Barista Chicago's highly-successful streamlined permitting program for green projects recently got a speed boost when the city added a paperless application option. Under the program, the city's buildings department will grant...

News Briefs.
November 1, 2006... Staff *Design cited in architect Holl's exit of Denver justice center project. The city of Denver will pay nearly $700,000 to New York architect Steven Holl, who quit its justice center project over aesthetic differences with city...

GM assembly plant takes green design to the mega-level.
November 1, 2006... Dave Barista Talk about 'green' on a grand scale. In August, General Motors officially opened its massive, LEED Gold-rated Lansing (Mich.) Delta Township Assembly Plant. The $1.5 billion mega-project, which spans 2.4 million sf and...

People+Firms.
November 1, 2006... Staff * Mineola, N.Y.-based JRS Architect has acquired Soffes Wood Inc. , a full-service design firm with 18 employees based in Manhattan. *Rudolph and Sletten , Redwood City, Calif., has appointed Robert M. Maxwell VP of business...

Letters.
November 1, 2006... Staff Siphonic roof drainage system was not part of Boston Convention Center lawsuit I'm writing in response to your August 2, 2006, news story about the lawsuit settlement for the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC)...

Products at Work.
November 1, 2006... Staff Wall panels spice up contractor"s office Staff The creative use of 3,200 sf of Dri-Design 0.050-inch aluminum wall panels on the façade of Zimmerman Construction Co.'s new headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., helped the...

Thinking Inside the Box.
November 1, 2006... By Sandra Mendler, AIA The Case for Post-Occupancy Evaluation Although sustainability continues to grow as an industry-wide priority, post-occupancy evaluation (POE)-a critical step in the sustainable design process and an important...

SierraPine Medite MDF.
November 1, 2006... Staff SierraPine's Medite MDF product line, which also includes Medite 3D, is a non-structural, interior composite wood panel product designed for excellent machinability. The panels' hard, sharp edges accommodate cutting and drilling;...

Making Photovoltaics Pay Their Way.
November 1, 2006... By Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED AP Lower upfront costs, more incentives, and rising electricity rates are helping make a stong business case for photovoltaic systems. With the American Institute of Architects calling for reducing energy...

The Green Scene.
November 1, 2006... Robert Cassidy New Developments in LEED and Green Globes The U.S. Green Building Council, which is holding its fifth Greenbuild this month in Denver, is prospering-6,925 member companies enrolled, dozens of highly motivated chapters...

'Access to views is essential for human beings'.
November 1, 2006... Staff Lisa Heschong is a principal with Heschong Mahone Group, a Fair Oaks, Calif., consulting firm specializing in building energy efficiency policy. As a researcher, she led the teams that analyzed the impacts of daylighting on human...

Barriers to the No-Flush Rush.
November 1, 2006... By Dave Barista, Managing Editor Even as water-free urinal technology becomes more widely accepted, Building Teams continue to get pushback from code officials, owners, and even unions. Slow to catch on in the 1990s, water-free urinals...