Structures Congress Workshop on Thermal Bridging

This year's ASCE/SEI Structures Congress is in Boston, Massachusetts, April 3-5, 2014, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel and Hynes Convention Center.  On the afternoon before the conference starts, there will be a workshop on Thermal Bridging at the venue.  From the Structures Congress website:

Wednesday, April 2

Design of Sustainable Thermal Breaks

1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
3.5 PDHs
A structural engineer’s common tasks are designing exposed projections of the superstructure or foundation, supporting enveloping facades, and attaching exterior equipment - all conduits for thermal bridges from or to the outside, detrimental to the building’s life time energy efficiency and environmental performance. This workshop will focus on providing practitioners with state of the-art strategies and methods for undertaking and implementing thermal break connections. Although not commonly addressed in structural guides,
strategies for participating in these design elements will be discussed. Design and construction examples that will be shown are part of the SEI Sustainability Committee’s Thermal Bridging subcommittee design guide, in development. In addition, an architect and a mechanical engineer will present on why thermal break connections are important building science, as well as how to respond to overall energy modeling effects and ASHRAE’s recent reporting on building envelope details. New design developments will also be covered.
MODERATOR: Mark Webster, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
SPEAKERS:

• James A. D’Aloisio, P.E., SECB, LEED AP BD+C, Klepper Hahn & Hyatt
• Dave DeLong, S.E., LEED AP, Halvorson & Partners
• Andrea Love, Building Scientist, Payette
• Russ Miller-Johnson, P.E., Engineering Ventures
• Raquel Ranieri, S.E., LEED AP, Walter P Moore & Associates
• Chris Schaffner, P.E., LEED Fellow, The Green Engineer

PLEASE NOTE: Application for AIA Educational Credits has been submitted, but is not yet confirmed.
Additional Registration Fee: EB: $99 / ADV: $175 / ONS: $250

 If anyone in the SEAW committee will be going to the conference and can attend the workshop, the committee can support the cost if you share what you learned with us.  Contact Adam.

Cross-Laminated Timber at University of North British Columbia

 At the SEFW annual forum, Michael Green and and J. Eric Karsh presented on a variety of wood-panel buildings, including the UNBC engineering building. The building will spotlight CLT construction with an innovative floor system and walls. You can watch construction at the UNBC website, link below.

http://www.unbc.ca/engineering/watch-construction-future-home-engineering-live#!

2013 Daniel L. and Irma Evans Lecture

This is short notice, but the University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will be hosting the 2013 Evans Lecture tomorrow evening (Thursday, May 30th). This year's lecture focuses on sustainability and the role engineers can/should play.

From the UW CEE Department:

Please join the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for the:

2013 Daniel L. and Irma Evans Lecture

Date: Thursday, May 30

Time: 4:30pm

Location: Kane 220

Speaker: Professor Bernard Amadei

Title: “Engineering in Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Opportunities”

Abstract: In the next two decades, almost two billion additional people are expected to populate the Earth, 95% of them in developing or underdeveloped countries. This growth will create unprecedented demands for energy, food, land, water, transportation, materials, waste disposal, earth moving, health care, environmental cleanup, telecommunication, and infrastructure. The role of engineers will be critical in fulfilling those demands at various scales, ranging from remote small communities to large urban areas, and mostly in the developing world.  In particular, we need to train a new generation of engineers who could better meet the challenges of the developing world and address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet. As we enter the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world.

This information (and a bit more) can be found on the UW CEE webpage (here). 

Bullitt Center presentation

Today, members of the SEAW Sustainability Committee attended a presentation on the Bullitt Center hosted by Miller Hull and in coordination with ASCE's sustainability committee.

Jim Hanford and Steve Doub of Miller Hull described the building and the process of meeting the imperatives of the Living Building Challenge, focusing on materials, water and energy requirements. The building is designed to be net-zero energy over the course of a year, as well as net-zero water and to have stormwater runoff characteristics similar to the native forests that would have existed on site prior to development.

The Living Building Challenge is performance based, and requires measured performance prior to certification. The design values will have to be verified over a year of full occupancy. The building had its grand opening last month, but the one-year clock has not yet started, although the building is nearly fully leased.

Jim and Steve went into depth on the difficulties faced in terms of zoning, and ongoing regulatory issues with treating potable water on site.

Members of the SEAW and ASCE committees will tour the building next week.

SEAW Dinner Meeting Mini Seminar on Disaster Resilience

Last night I had the pleasure to present a mini seminar to the SEAW dinner meeting attendees.  The talk was on Disaster Resilience and focused on it from the mindset of a structural engineer.  It was broad based and really tried to convey what disaster resilience is and how structural engineers can contribute to making disaster resilient communities. 

I got a good feeling from talking with several audience members after the talk.  It seems that the content was well taken and fed into the main talk about the Seattle URM ordinance very well.  I was pleased to find that Council Member Richard Conlin mentioned that part of the impetus behind the URM ordinance was to help Seattle be more resilient.  He even did this without seeing my mini seminar presentation!

For those of you wanted to be able to see the slides again I have linked to a pdf of them. 

Disaster Resilience: A Perspective from the Sustainable Mindset of a Structural Engineer

Cheers
Luke