AEC Pros

This first in a five-part series on Glasgow’s Riverside Museum offers an overview of Zaha Hadid Architects' first major public commission in the United Kingdom. Follow Buildipedia throughout the month of March to read in-depth coverage of the building's various design and engineering systems.

Glasgow, Scotland, was built on the River Clyde. Having access to the Atlantic Ocean facilitated Glasgow’s ability to trade and, eventually, fostered the growth of a shipbuilding industry. This aspect of the area’s history is commemorated in a Transport and Technology Collection that is now housed in the Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The £74 million ($120 million) museum opened in June of 2011 and is Hadid’s first major public commission to open in the United Kingdom.

With sensitivity to Abu Dhabi’s local culture, climate, and architectural heritage, SOM designed a medical campus that creates a "city within a city."

Visiting the hospital for any length of time can be a difficult experience for patients and their families, what with adjusting to new surroundings, being separated from loved ones, or just missing the familiarities of home. That is why the designers of the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City have put hospitality and psychological well-being at the forefront of their medical campus design.

A tale of two buildings, and an Art Deco heritage that almost didn’t happen in Cincinnati.

If you were to glance at an original 1929 sketch of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture and one of the last great train stations built in America, you’d be confused. That’s because the building was originally envisioned as neoclassical. “The sketches were almost gothic looking, and the design was thought to be cold,” says Scott Gampfer, director of the library and historic collections at the Cincinnati Museum Center. “The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company and the Cincinnati Public Works Department were not entirely satisfied with the look that was presented. They wanted to project the idea of modernity,” he says.

Madrid’s Matadero, or slaughterhouse, has been renovated to serve as a social and cultural space, but remembrances of its macabre past remain.

One part of a renovation project has nothing to do with heavy machinery, building materials, or even endless CAD documents. It’s that challenging moment that occurs with every repurposing plan, when planners must decide exactly what percentage of the original building will stay and what should be discarded. How much of the building’s original essence is relevant within the new design?

A traditional industrial building type is adapted to create a modern, sustainable facility in Mexico.

The Mexican government recently developed a new Research and Technology Innovation Park (Parque de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica or PIIT) in Monterrey.  An automotive company that manufactures chassis for heavy trucks and pickups selected a 100,000 sq. ft. parcel within the research park as the site of its new building – a research lab, office, and industrial testing facility. Brooks + Scarpa Architects, based in Los Angeles, designed the structure.

What is the best way for a construction observer to train? Learning from a professional on site may be ideal, but other good sources of information include public agencies and the documentation they make available.

Columnist David A. Todd, P.E., CPESC, has 37 years of experience in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and has performed much construction administration during that time. He will answer questions from our readers or from his own practice and will provide answers based on his understanding of the construction process.

The use of epoxy coatings and epoxy-coated structural liners can save both time and money over traditional pipe repair methods.

Damaged or deteriorating pipe systems can be expensive to replace, particularly those that are located in hard-to-reach locations or inaccessible without selective demolition. Fortunately, common pipe systems can be rehabilitated from within, using cured-in-place epoxy coatings or epoxy-coated structural liners. These in situ pipe repair techniques can offer cost savings of up to 60% and time savings of up to 30% when compared to traditional pipe repair methods. We’ve partnered with Nu Flow to highlight several different in situ pipe repair techniques available to facility managers and building owners.

A Spanish Renaissance building in Houston gets a much needed restoration and is finally completed, according to the architect’s original intent, more than 80 years after the first stone was laid.

The Julia Ideson Building has been a Houston landmark since it opened in 1926. Designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram of the Boston firm Cram and Ferguson, the Spanish Renaissance structure served as the Houston Central Library until 1976 and has long been regarded as one of the city’s most prominent public buildings. The library’s first director, Julia Ideson, was also regarded as one of Houston’s most prominent citizens.

Staff housing for the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, inspired by the colorful forms found in local art, is designed to be sustainable and also resistant to seismic forces.

Sorg Architects, an international architectural firm, has created sustainable staff housing for U.S. Embassy staff members stationed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Construction on the housing units will begin in March 2012 and is scheduled to be completed in January 2014.

HOK Architects has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council to rebuild a Haitian orphanage. As early adopters of biomimicry principles, HOK Architects took inspiration from the native Kapok tree for the building’s design.

The lives of thousands of children were devastated by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, but thanks to a building initiative, many of these children will soon have a new place to call home.

Welcome to the On Site channel’s Construction Administration Column. What should you do when there is a discrepancy between the amount on a payment application and the amount that was contracted? Here David A. Todd, P.E., CPESC, gives his opinion.

Columnist David A. Todd, P.E., CPESC, has 37 years of experience in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and has performed much construction administration during that time. He will answer questions from our readers or from his own practice and will provide answers based on his understanding of the construction process and administration of the construction contract. The focus will be on the customary duties of the owner, contractor, and design professional as typically described in the contract documents.

Contractor to Contractor: In this first of a two-part series, contractor-turned-homebuilder Fernando Pages Ruiz discusses permeable pavement, which allows rain and snow to seep into the ground.

What Is Pervious Pavement?

Pervious concrete came to the attention of the building community in the United States after Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1987. With restrictions in the amount of stormwater runoff permitted from roads, parking lots, and other impermeable surfaces, some developers began to look for environmentally friendly alternatives. They found it in an exotic, water-sucking concrete first tested in Florida about 30 years ago as a flood-control device. Engineers placed highly porous concrete paving in spots along Florida roadways frequently submerged by heavy downpours. The permeable surface provided a quick-drying roadway that didn’t stay flooded after the storm.