Institute to Hold Hearing on Commercial Building Data Needs
Building Industry Input Wanted
The National Institute of Building Sciences will hold a hearing July 18 in Washington, D.C., to gather input from building industry participants about their commercial building data needs. The hearing is in response to recent news that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will not release the results of its 2007 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) or complete its 2011 Survey.
The hearing will be open to all parties interested in presenting their views on the state of commercial building related data, current and anticipated data needs, existing sources of data and potential future data sources. Participants may submit either written or oral testimony (or both).
Find out how to submit testimony.
Nominations Are Due July 22
The National Institute of Building Sciences is still accepting nominations for candidates for its
Board of Directors. The Institute is also accepting submissions for potential Member Award and Honor Award recipients. There are only a few weeks left. All forms are due in by 5:00 p.m., July 22. Nominate that special candidate now.
Board Nomination,
Member Award,
Honor Award.
Institute’s 2011 Annual Meeting Just Six Months Away
On December 5-9 in Washington, D.C., the Institute will hold its Annual Meeting in conjunction with Ecobuild America to bring together members of the building industry to discuss ideas for improving the built environment. Highlighted events on the agenda include the Advanced Materials Symposium, the buildingSMART alliance Conference, the Building Enclosure Technology & Environment Council Symposium and FEDCon®
'11. Board, council and committee meetings will take place along with technology demonstrations and networking events.
This event provides attendees a great opportunity to access information on building safe, healthy and environmentally responsive structures and to get a first-hand look at the Institute in action. The Ecobuild
America Conference, sponsored by the Institute, includes other co-located events and is attended by architects, engineers, specifiers, contractors, owners and facility managers who gain valuable knowledge on designing, building and managing projects. Institute members receive a 20% discount on registration.
Visit our Annual Meeting page for more information.
Farewell to an Architect and Scholar
John Harold "Hal" Box, a well-known architect, educator and author, passed away May 8 at the age of 81. Box was dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin from 1976 to 1992, served as a professor there for six years, and was named professor emeritus upon retiring in 1998. In April 2011, he received the prestigious title of dean emeritus.
Born in 1929 in Commerce, Texas, Box entered the University of Texas at the age of 15 and completed the five-year architecture program at age 20. He co-founded the firm Pratt and Box in 1958. In 1960, Pratt and Box were joined by Pratt’s brother-in-law Philip Henderson, which expanded their project capabilities. In 1970,
Box was asked by the University of Texas at Arlington to establish an architecture school there. He served as the chairman of the new Department of Architecture and, in 1972, became the school’s first dean. He then went on to become the dean at UT Austin, which became and remains one of the top ten architecture schools in the United States.
Also an author, Box wrote Think like an Architect, in 2007, which explains the processes of architecture and how to look at and appreciate good buildings. Box served as a mentor to many, including the Institute’s own Board Chairman Jim. W. Sealy, FAIA, who worked for Pratt, Box and Henderson in Dallas upon graduating from college.
"He was a GREAT MAN," said Sealy. " The University of Texas is one of the best schools of architecture and Hal Box made it so."
The Institute expresses its condolences to the family, friends, students and colleagues of this great man. He will be missed.
Read the obituary.
World Standards Day Paper Could Win $2,500
Each year, the United States standards community comes together to celebrate the importance of standards. As part of this U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day, the SES – The Society for Standards Professionals holds a paper competition. The theme for this year is "Advancing Safety and Sustainability Standards Worldwide."
Cash prizes will be awarded for up to three papers selected by a panel of judges. The first place winner will receive a plaque and $2,500. Second and third place winners will receive $1,000 and $500, respectively, along with a certificate. In addition, the winning papers will be published in SES’s journal,
Standards Engineering. Paper competition winners will receive their awards during a banquet October 13 in Washington, D.C., hosted by the U.S. Celebration of World Standards Day Planning Committee, of which the Institute is a member.
All paper contest submissions must be received with an official entry form by midnight, August 12.
Get the full details.
Revising Practices for Seismic Safety
 Members of the Interagency Committee on Seismic Safety in Construction (ICSSC) meet with the Institute's Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) Project Technical Committee in Washington, D.C. this week. The two committees discussed a draft of revised recommended practices for use by the federal agencies in evaluating and rehabilitating existing
federal government owned and leased facilities. The BSSC is performing this project with funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the lead agency for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).
Feds Launch Action Plan to Protect People and Families from Radon
Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers and an important national public health issue. In response to this threat, leaders from agencies across the federal government have come together to develop a Federal Radon Action Plan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration and the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Veterans Affairs have launched an action plan that brings together commitments to help reduce exposure to radon and protect the health of Americans through leveraging and advancing existing state, local and national programs. Radon exposure leads to an estimated 21,000 deaths each year.
Radon is a naturally occurring, invisible and odorless radioactive gas. Approximately one in 15 American homes contains high levels of radon. Millions of Americans are unknowingly exposed to this dangerous gas. EPA and the Surgeon General urge people to test their homes for radon at least every two years.
Learn more about the Federal Radon Action Plan.
DHS to Host Workshop on Resiliency of the National Building Inventory
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate invites
readers to attend the 2011 workshop, "Resiliency of the National Building Inventory: Creating a Roadmap for the Future," at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on September 13-14.
DHS S&T, in cooperation with Karagozian & Case (K&C) and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE), is sponsoring the workshop to identify the state of the national building inventory and performance issues associated with aging buildings and to outline retrofit techniques for the future of the building inventory. The workshop will address the need for high performance and continuity of operations considerations in the building life cycle. It will focus on large commercial, residential, institutional and industrial buildings.
View the invitation.
July HPBDE Workshop to Include Presentation of OPR Tool
The Institute will hold a workshop July 20 in Washington, D.C., to review and discuss work it is performing for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate Infrastructure and Disaster
Management Division. The project, entitled High Performance Based Design for the Building Envelope (HPBDE), establishes metrics, baseline and benchmark performance levels, as well as outcomes for those performance levels, for the critical attributes that define high-performing building envelopes.
During the workshop, the leaders of the HPBDE Technical Committees on Architectural, Fenestration, Mechanical and Structural elements of envelope design will present their work to establish demands, performance levels and outcomes for operational, resilience and risk performance requirements for safety, security, energy and durability. In addition, the Owner Committee will present the Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) Tool, which enables owners to perform multi-attribute analysis of building envelope performance.
Limited space is available to attend. To register, contact HPBC Liaison
Roger Grant.
Fire Protection Engineering Consultant Wanted
The Institute's Building Enclosure Council (BEC) National is seeking a fire protection engineer/consultant to provide assistance to the BEC National Task Group to clarify the risk and appropriate test criteria for foam plastic insulation (FPI) in exterior wall assemblies. Specific tasks would include researching the genesis of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 285 code requirement in the
International Building Code (IBC); evaluating historical loss data due to the combustion of FPI in exterior wall assemblies; analyzing risk of loss due to FPI in exterior wall assemblies; assisting in proposing new test procedures, if deemed appropriate; and advocating for modifications to the language in Chapter 26 of the IBC to clarify the intent of the code. Submissions are due July 15. Download the
Request for Letters of Interest.
New Bentley Workspace for Civil Includes NCS Guidelines
Designers will automatically be able to adhere to the United States National CAD Standard® (NCS) guidelines with the help of a new workspace for civil engineering applications from Bentley Systems. The new Bentley NCS Workspace for Civil coordinates with the InRoads and GEOPAK product lines, two of the leading civil engineering/road design software systems in the United States.
The NCS Workspace makes it possible for users to quickly establish integrated CAD standards while maximizing ease of compliance. It incorporates NCS guidelines for layers, symbols, drawings and plotting into default files for GEOPAK and InRoads, as well as the new Power GEOPAK and Power InRoads software.
Learn more about the NCS.
Find out about
Bentley’s
InRoads Suite V8i and
GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite V8i.
International Delegates Learn about WBDG
Richard Paradis points out the key features of the Whole Building Design Guide website to a delegation of technical representatives from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. The group, which was visiting the United States under the Department of Commerce’s Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) program, was particularly interested in the energy efficiency and renewable energy aspects of WBDG.
NCEF is Tweeting
The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) is now on Twitter. Stay apprised of the latest additions to NCEF, including news, information resources, events and learning opportunities.
Sign up now.
|
