AEC Pros

It’s easy to get Spanish blood boiling here in Madrid. Just mention the M-30 to a local, especially one living by the Manzanares River in the Arganzuela district south of the city. Their hostile reaction would be due to the fact that this part of town has been under major construction for what seems like an eternity. Once complete, Madrid’s M-30 urban renewal project will include improved roadways, pedestrian pathways, and West 8's Puentes Cascaras, which were inaugurated in September 2010.

Due diligence. In different segments of the AEC industry, these words mean different things, but they boil down to this: Do your homework before you plan, design, or build. In the matter of building codes, due diligence can mean the difference between a successful inspection or a rejection, between obtaining occupancy on schedule and experiencing a delay.

Although there are far more residential fires than those involving non-residential structures, commercial fires still have a hefty price: in 2009 the 103,500 non-residential fires cost 105 lives and over $3 billion in losses, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Preventive actions are critical to avoid these losses altogether. That’s where a properly designed and installed fire alarm system comes in.

Green roofs mitigate urban heat island effect, control stormwater run-off, reduce sound reflection and transmission, and lower heating and cooling costs, as well as sustain local wildlife. They also look really, really cool.

Instead of discussing the benefits of green roofs, we are celebrating the visual appeal of these sustainable works of architecture from around the world. Included are BIG’s 8 House and TED Cube Building; Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences; the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design, and Media; Vector Architects’ Green Technology Showroom; the OUTrial House by Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes; and Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Park and Plaza.

After a bicycle accident left her paralyzed 12 years ago, Rosemarie Rossetti realized that the two-story home she shared with her husband, Mark Leder, would never be able to fully accommodate her needs. Rossetti and Leder began to look into design options for a new home, and soon their personal project evolved into a mission to research, design, and build a home that would serve as an educational resource for the building industry as well as for consumers. The product of their campaign is the Universal Design Living Laboratory (UDLL), a National Demonstration Home in Columbus, Ohio, that seeks to incorporate three different design movements: universal design, green building (targeting LEED for Homes certification), and healthful, chemical-free products.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published “Cranes and Derricks in Construction: Final Rule” on August 9, 2010, and it is set to take effect on November 7, 2010. OSHA hopes that this new standard will prevent 22 fatalities and 175 nonfatal injuries annually. Although it is difficult to evaluate how effective the new rules will be, all contractors must comply with them. Here is an overview of the new standard, which is intended to not only combat fatality and injury associated with working with cranes and derricks but also to account for technological advances in this equipment.

Zach Kent is a stormwater engineer for Modular Wetlands in Oceanside, California. We learned about Modular Wetlands’ urban wetland unit in our case study, “Water Quality Retrofit and Retaining Wall Remediation.” We've partnered with Kent to provide a perspective on some dynamics within the stormwater management industry over the last decade, including new processes and technologies designed to meet higher regulatory standards.

The earthquake in Haiti that hit on January 12, now seven months ago, left more than 230,000 people dead with 1.3 million homeless and 600,000 internally displaced. Undaunted not only by the immediate devastation of the quake but also by the political and governmental fragility that makes reconstruction difficult, Clemson School of Architecture Associate Professor Doug Hecker and Assistant Professor Martha Skinner continue to work to provide housing for Haitians long after they began an immediate post-quake creative search for emergency shelter for the displaced and homeless in Haiti. Their efforts resulted in the successful use of shipping containers as emergency housing -- the SEED_Haiti project.

The word “disability” isn’t mentioned much by designers and other professionals who employ the principles of universal design; at the heart of this design concept is a more positive message. Universal design refers to the idea that environments and products should be usable by everyone. Ronald L. Mace coined the term and founded The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University in 1989, using a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Since that time the center has continued to research and develop design approaches that will make the built environment more accessible to everyone.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), commonly known as the economic stimulus bill, was signed by Congress on February 13, 2009, and then signed into law by President Obama four days later. The government made a total of $787 billion available -- $275 billion for federal contracts, grants, and loans, in addition to $288 billion in tax cuts and $224 billion for entitlement for education and health care. Specifically relevant to the AEC industry is ARRA’s targeting of infrastructure development and enhancement using the $275 billion.

As our world becomes more urbanized, and our cities continue to grow, we are replacing the natural environment with buildings, pavement, and asphalt. This causes a phenomenon called urban heat island effect, in which the proximity of urban buildings makes cities several degrees warmer than rural areas. We are starting to realize that we need to counteract this harmful effect and that cooling the roof is one of the best ways of doing so. Many roofing options will accomplish the goal of combating urban heat island effect, including reflective roofs and roof gardens.

Scheduled for completion in 2016, the South Terminal Redevelopment Program of the Denver International Airport (DIA) will juxtapose new buildings by Spain's Santiago Calatrava with the famed Jeppesen Terminal by Fentress Architects. Calatrava, from Valencia, has designed four principle elements: a new hotel and conference center, transit station, civic plaza, and rail bridge, which will all be physically integrated. In his Architectural Statement, Calatrava pays homage to the Jeppesen Terminal, notable for its tensile fabric roof: “My goal in designing adjacent to such a prominent iconic structure has been to preserve the character and integrity of the original terminal while complementing it with a design that presents an independent identity of equal quality."