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National Institute of Building Sciences and buildingSMART International Sign Agreement to Support Open Standards

Highlights of the agreement include NIBS’ support of the adoption of IFC and other open data standards in the National BIM Standard-United States® (NBIM-US™), and NIBS will assist in promoting U.S. government, industry, and academia representation to support bSI and participate in projects to ensure that U.S. industry requirements are being voiced and addressed.

National Institute of Building Sciences Partners with Commissioning Organizations to Advance Guidance on the Whole Building Design Guide

The WBDG’s Building Commissioning section presents information about current approaches and processes as well as overcoming challenges and emerging issues. It also has been expanded to address Existing Buildings and Ongoing Commissioning.

Institute Supports White House Effort to Advance Resilience and the Building Codes

The National Institute of Building Sciences is proud to support the White House in its efforts to advance the nation’s resilience through the application of codes and standards.

The White House convened the White House Conference on Resilient Building Codes today, May 10, 2016, to bring increased attention to the important role of codes and standards in achieving a resilient nation. The Institute served as a liaison between the White House and the building industry leading up to the event. Institute Presidential Advisor Ryan M. Colker, J.D., moderated a panel of codes and standards developers.

Institute Spearheads Resilience Chapter in New Architectural Graphic Standards

Earlier this spring, Wiley released the twelfth edition of Architectural Graphic Standards, its seminal reference for building design and construction professionals. Among the updates and features in the edition is a newly added chapter on resilience developed under the leadership of the National Institute of Building Sciences.

Entitled ‘Building Resiliency,’ the chapter begins, “Natural and manmade hazardous events can impose a devastating cost upon society…Stakeholders of civil infrastructure have a vested interest in reducing these costs by improving and maintaining operational and physical performance of facilities.”

One Week Away: BSSC Webinar to Address Seismic Isolation Design

There's still time to join us for the fourth in a series of webinars sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that highlight the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) 2015 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for Buildings and Other Structures.

The National Institute of Building Sciences Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) will host a free webinar on the topic, “Seismic Isolation Design with the 2015 NEHRP Recommended Provisions,” Thursday, August 11, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET.

FHWA Releases Report on Information Modeling for Bridges

Following a two-year effort, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has issued a report, Bridge Information Modeling Standardization, which sets a path to implement the use of computer modeling for bridge construction in the United States.

Over the past several decades, many industries have improved efficiencies by moving from document-based information exchanges to integrated data models. The construction industry, including buildings and heavy/highway, has lagged behind manufacturing industries for a number of reasons. The FHWA’s goal was to build on the progress that the buildings sector has made in building information modeling (BIM) standardization, through the work of the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART Alliance, the buildingSMART International and other industry participants, to advance the standardization of digital information for bridges—otherwise known as bridge information modeling (BrIM)—in the United States.

National BIM Guide for Owners Now Available for Public Review

The National Institute of Building Sciences has completed development of a new guideline to help building owners and their design teams utilize building information modeling (BIM). The National BIM Guide for Owners (NBGO) draft is now available for public review and comment until Monday, October 31.

Responding to the industrywide need for increasingly savvy and project-involved building owners, the National Institute of Building Sciences, with the support of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASHRAE, Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) and International Facility Management Association (IFMA), compiled a carefully balanced, integrated team that has worked for the past year to craft the first NBGO. The NBGO defines an approach to creating and fulfilling BIM requirements from the owner’s standpoint. The Guide builds on the premise that BIM, in and of itself, is not the end but rather the means to a number of potentially valuable project delivery outcomes for the owner.

BSSC Urges ICC Members to Support Seismic Safety When Voting on Code Changes

The National Institute of Building Sciences Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC), developer of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) publication NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), urges governmental members of the International Code Council (ICC) to support code changes that advance seismic safety in the nation’s buildings.

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