Here is a roundup of the most popular AIA/CES Discovery courses on BD+C's continuing education website, BDCUniversity.com. Visit www.BDCuniversity.com to earn 1.0 AIA CES learning units for each successfully completed exam.
1. Applying Modern Energy Codes to Building Envelope Retrofits. When applying current energy codes to existing buildings, a number of issues arise, particularly where the building exterior is concerned. Moreover, envelope assemblies tend to have long life cycles, which can make them difficult and costly to effectively upgrade. www.BDCuniversity.com/applying-modern-energy-codes-building-envelope-retrofits
2. Cool Roofs Can Reduce Peak Energy Demand. This course provides an analysis of the effect of cool or highly reflective roofs in reducing peak demand charges, which may account for a significant portion of monthly electric bills in both new and existing air-conditioned commercial buildings in all North American climate zones. www.BDCuniversity.com/cool-roofs-can-reduce-peak-energy-demand
3. Building Wood Towers: How High Is Up for Timber Structures? The recent push for larger and taller wood structures may seem like an architectural fad—plenty of hype, but only a few dozen completed projects globally. Concrete and steel still rule the world of mid- and high-rise construction. Still, Building Teams around the world are starting to use more large-scale structural wood systems. www.BDCuniversity.com/building-wood-towers-how-high-timber-structures
4. Windows, Doors & Storefronts: Optimizing Safety, Durability, and Client Satisfaction. In nonresidential construction, Building Teams are finding that product and system selection is becoming increasingly complicated, due to increased demands from building occupants, according to fenestration experts. www.BDCuniversity.com/windows-doors-storefronts-optimizing-safety-durability-and-client-satisfaction
5. Guidelines for Designing Low-slope Membrane Roof Systems. Critical aspects of roof system designs are often left unaddressed, resulting in incomplete contract documents. This course identifies the information roofing contractors generally need from roof system designers to provide complete and building code-compliant low-slope roof systems. www.BDCuniversity.com/guidelines-designing-low-slope-membrane-roof-systems
6. Wet-applied Coatings and Finishes for Commercial and Institutional Projects. The rapid pace of development of improved liquid-applied materials and finishes has given Building Teams new options. These sprayable, paintable, or “gunnable” products can add performance and sustainability benefits and reach new levels of resiliency and durability. www.BDCuniversity.com/wet-applied-coatings-and-finishes-commercial-and-institutional-projects
7. Pumped-up Recreation Centers. Sports and recreation used to be confined to dedicated, often isolated, settings. That’s no longer the case. Adopting facility layouts from Asian and European models, today’s sports and recreational buildings are becoming social hubs that accommodate a variety of community needs. www.BDCuniversity.com/pumped-recreation-centers
8. Building Envelope Commissioning: 8 Strategies for Success. Building enclosure commissioning—BECx—is intended to assure building quality by establishing an explicit process to verify that a building enclosure is designed and constructed to meet the owner’s objectives. The concept of building enclosure commissioning has been around for several decades, but it has not been well defined, understood, or utilized. www.BDCuniversity.com/building-envelope-commissioning-8-strategies-success
9. Enhancing Interior Comfort While Improving Overall Building Efficacy. Providing more comfortable conditions to building occupants has become a top priority in today’s interior designs. Optimized daylighting, shading strategies, well-coordinated lighting controls, and underfloor air distribution systems can contribute to improved occupant comfort and energy savings. www.BDCuniversity.com/enhancing-interior-comfort-while-improving-overall-building-efficacy
Visit www.BDCuniversity.com to earn 1.0 AIA CES learning units for each successfully completed exam.
Related Stories
Museums | Aug 11, 2010
Design guidelines for museums, archives, and art storage facilities
This column diagnoses the three most common moisture challenges with museums, archives, and art storage facilities and provides design guidance on how to avoid them.
| Aug 11, 2010
Broadway-style theater headed to Kentucky
One of Kentucky's largest performing arts venues should open in 2011—that's when construction is expected to wrap up on Eastern Kentucky University's Business & Technology Center for Performing Arts. The 93,000-sf Broadway-caliber theater will seat 2,000 audience members and have a 60×24-foot stage proscenium and a fly loft.
| Aug 11, 2010
Citizenship building in Texas targets LEED Silver
The Department of Homeland Security's new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services facility in Irving, Texas, was designed by 4240 Architecture and developed by JDL Castle Corporation. The focal point of the two-story, 56,000-sf building is the double-height, glass-walled Ceremony Room where new citizens take the oath.
| Aug 11, 2010
Carpenters' union helping build its own headquarters
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters headquarters in Dorchester, Mass., is taking shape within a 1940s industrial building. The Building Team of ADD Inc., RDK Engineers, Suffolk Construction, and the carpenters' Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, is giving the old facility a modern makeover by converting the existing two-story structure into a three-story, 75,000-sf, LEED-certif...
| Aug 11, 2010
Utah research facility reflects Native American architecture
A $130 million research facility is being built at University of Utah's Salt Lake City campus. The James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building—a USTAR Innovation Center—is being designed by the Atlanta office of Lord Aeck & Sargent, in association with Salt-Lake City-based Architectural Nexus.
| Aug 11, 2010
San Bernardino health center doubles in size
Temecula, Calif.-based EDGE was awarded the contract for California State University San Bernardino's health center renovation and expansion. The two-phase, $4 million project was designed by RSK Associates, San Francisco, and includes an 11,000-sf, tilt-up concrete expansion—which doubles the size of the facility—and site and infrastructure work.
| Aug 11, 2010
Goettsch Partners wins design competition for Soochow Securities HQ in China
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners has been selected to design the Soochow Securities Headquarters, the new office and stock exchange building for Soochow Securities Co. Ltd. The 21-story, 441,300-sf project includes 344,400 sf of office space, an 86,100-sf stock exchange, classrooms, and underground parking.
| Aug 11, 2010
New hospital expands Idaho healthcare options
Ascension Group Architects, Arlington, Texas, is designing a $150 million replacement hospital for Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho. An existing facility will be renovated as part of the project. The new six-story, 320-000-sf complex will house 187 beds, along with an intensive care unit, a cardiovascular care unit, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgical suites, rehabilitation clinic, and ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Colonnade fixes setback problem in Brooklyn condo project
The New York firm Scarano Architects was brought in by the developers of Olive Park condominiums in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to bring the facility up to code after frame out was completed. The architects designed colonnades along the building's perimeter to create the 15-foot setback required by the New York City Planning Commission.