Celebrate Energy Awareness Month
October is Energy Awareness Month. One great way to conserve energy is to improve overall building performance as well as address the building enclosure itself. This month is a great time to catch up on the latest activities of the
Building Enclosure Technology and Envelope Council and
High Performance Building Council, get involved with the local chapter of the
Building Enclosure Council, and register for upcoming industry events.
The National Institute of Building Sciences Annual Meeting, co-located with Ecobuild America, offers the perfect opportunity for industry professionals to get up to speed on the latest trends relating to high performance buildings, building enclosure technology and green construction, renewable energy and sustainable design.
Check out the great selection of programs.
Green Talks Energy Efficiency with Switzerland
National Institute of Building Sciences President Henry Green and the Swiss Ambassador to the United States talked recently about the importance of high performing buildings. Last week, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Embassy of Switzerland held a Capitol Hill lunch briefing on how to address climate change with energy-efficient buildings. Green and Ambassador Urs Ziswiler were among a number of speakers at the event. Energy-efficient buildings have become the cornerstone of Switzerland’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. As the U.S. Congress considers energy and climate legislation, the briefing examined Switzerland’s success in promoting energy efficiency policies and whether similar strategies can be applied to reduce U.S. building energy consumption.
View the list of speakers.
Meet the Board
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The “Meet the Board” section provides readers with the opportunity to get to know more about the 21 individuals who make up the 2009 National Institute of
Building Sciences Board of Directors. In this issue, we focus on John F. Bender and Edward L. Soenke. Bender represents building standards in the industry category. Soenke is an architect in the public interest category. Read more about
Bender and
Soenke. |
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Bender |
Soenke |
A New Site to See
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If you haven’t visited the Institute’s website lately, you’re in for a nice surprise. The newly designed website went live last month and presents the Institute and all of its programs, projects, councils and committees in an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly environment. Now you can
quickly access information on the Institute’s activities with our search feature and login to update your contact information. We invite you to
take a tour and let us know what you think. |
Making Buildings Terrorism-Resistant
 Members of the Multihazard Mitigation Council Committee on National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) World Trade Center (WTC) Recommendations discusses a point during their October 5 meeting in Washington, D.C. The committee is working to translate into codes and standards the WTC recommendations resulting from the NIST investigation. The meeting agenda included briefings from representatives of the International Code Council’s Code Technology Committee and ad hoc Committee on Terrorism Resistant Buildings, as well as a review of code change proposals related to the WTC recommendations.
BSSC to Continue Work with FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has contracted with the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) to continue two ongoing programs. In September, the National Institute of Building Sciences signed several contracts and task orders with FEMA. The first, for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), initiates the update of the 2009 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures for reissuance in 2014. The project includes development of a simplified seismic design for buildings commonly constructed in areas of moderate seismic risk. The second contract continues the BSSC’s work as a resource for standards and model code groups. In addition, another task order funds independent verification and validation (IV&V) work on HAZUS®. The Institute’s Multihazard Loss Estimation Program will assess HAZUS®-MH for 508 compliance and work with the parties conducting FEMA’s new RiskMap program to ensure that any new HAZUS® modules or revisions perform as intended and provide accurate results.
Institute to Present at Hurricane Hugo Symposium
Institute representatives will give two papers at the Hurricane Hugo 20th Anniversary Symposium on Building Safer Communities: Improving Disaster Resilience later this month in Charleston, S.C.
Board Member James "Tim" Ryan
and President Henry Green co-authored
Building Disaster Resistance and the Role of the Code Official. Ryan will address how coastal construction code requirements have become significantly more stringent since Hurricane Hugo hit the East Coast in September of 1989. In his paper,
What Would a Repeat of Hurricane Hugo Do?, Phil Schneider, Director of the Institute’s Multihazard Loss Estimation Program, will offer a scenario, using HAZUS® estimates of building damage, direct economic loss, shelter requirements, and building and tree debris, of how coastal communities would fare if a similar
Class 5 hurricane were to strike today.
View the full program.
HAZUS®-MH MR4 Patch 1, CDMS 2.5 Now Available
Two updates are now available for HAZUS®, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s PC- and GIS-based natural hazards assessment tool. The HAZUS®-MH MR4 Patch 1 makes changes in the flood, hurricane and earthquake models and the HAZUS® Shell. The Comprehensive Data Management System (CDMS) also has a number of updated data-related features.
Find out what changed.
NEHRP Releases Technical Brief on Seismic Design
As part of its support for NEHRP, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No. 2,
Seismic Design of Steel Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers. NIST intends to produce technical briefs that address topics of interest to earthquake professionals, primarily those in the design and construction industries.
Download the technical brief.
Roadmap Set for VAFM Transformation Initiative
The National Institute of Building Sciences has completed the pre-planning phase for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Facility Management (VAFM) Transformation Initiative. The Institute is helping VA to achieve a transformation of its facility management current business practices, operations and organizational structure to improve service delivery to the nation’s veterans. The pre-planning phase included developing a road map for the project, selecting subject matter experts and organizing an advisory group made up of architects, engineers, contractors, healthcare administrators, and academic researchers with expertise in military, private, or public sector healthcare delivery.
See what comes next.
Hon. W. Scott Gould, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), addresses the VA Management Team, VA Action Team, National Institute of Building Sciences Advisory Group and Subject Matter Experts for the VA’s Facility Management (VAFM) Transformation Initiative. The goal of the VAFM Initiative is to transform current business practices, operations and organizational structure to improve service delivery to the nation’s veterans.
That New England Building Deserves an Award
High-performing commercial, institutional and one-and two-family projects located in the New England
states and New York may be eligible to win an award. The Boston Chapter of the Building Enclosure Council (BEC Boston) and the Boston Society of Architects have issued a call for entries for the 2010 High Performance Building Competition. The award recognizes that the architect’s single greatest contribution to energy-efficient and zero-energy buildings continues to be the thoughtful design of the building enclosure. The award will honor the craft, science and engineering of high-performance building enclosures, promote innovation and encourage a transfer of information and technology surrounding building enclosure design and the related science.
Visit the BEC
Boston site for more information.
Share a Case Study for the BIM Project Execution Planning Guide
Pennsylvania State University wants feedback from industry professionals who use building information modeling (BIM). The Penn State Computer Integrated Construction Research Program has released the draft
BIM Project Execution Planning Guide and is looking for comments and case studies. The guide is a practical manual that can be used by project teams for designing their BIM strategy and developing a BIM project execution plan at the early stages of a project. A product of the BIM Project Execution Planning buildingSMART alliance™ Project, the guide was funded with support from the Charles Pankow Foundation, the Construction Industry Institute, Penn State Office of Physical Plant and
the Partnership for Achieving Construction Excellence (PACE).
View the project comments.
NBIMS Project Committee, Alliance Board Changes
Some changes are happening in these here parts. David Morris of EMCOR will be the new Chair of the National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) Project Committee. Alan Edgar, Assoc. AIA, of OSCRE is stepping down. The buildingSMART alliance thanks Edgar for his efforts on the reorganization of the NBIMS Project Committee and the development of the recently approved charter for the NBIMS Planning Committee. The Alliance also thanks Andy Fuhrman, of OSCRE, for his work on the Board of Direction. Edgar will fill the OSCRE seat on the Alliance’s Board of Direction.
Learn more about NBIMS.
Designing Educational Facilities for the 21st Century
The Institute’s National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities recently participated in the summit,
Schoolhouse 3.0: Designing Educational Facilities for 21st Century Technologies and Curriculum, convened by the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) Great Schools by Design initiative. Participants included teams from the Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York City Department of Education and School Construction Authority. Los Angeles is currently engaged in the largest school construction building program in its history, completing 285 projects by 2012 with $19.2 billion in bonds. New York City has built 338 new schools since 2002, and with an $11.3 billion capital plan, will complete 44 more projects by 2014.
Learn more about the initiative.
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