Austin, Texas, adopts AI-driven building permit software

There is record global demand for new data centers, but availability of power is hampering market growth. That’s one of the key findings from a new CBRE report: Global Data Center Trends 2023.

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse. 

In November 2021, New York City enacted Local Law 126 of 2021, which is well-known in the building industry for establishing new requirements for periodic parking garage inspections. At the same time, the legislation added a section to the NYC Administrative Code mandating periodic observation of building parapets. To allow owners time to prepare, the City set the start date for the new parapet observations for January 1, 2024.

A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from researchers at New York University and Columbia Business School indicates that about 11% of U.S. office buildings may be suitable for conversion to green multifamily properties.

The City of Cambridge, Mass., recently mandated that all non-residential buildings—including existing structures—larger than 100,000 sf meet a net-zero emissions requirement by 2035.

In a recent editorial, the USGBC cited a growing number of U.S. state legislators who are “aiming to roll back building energy code standards and/or preempt local governments from advancing energy-efficient building codes.”

Severe rainstorms, sometimes described as “atmospheric rivers” or “torrential thunderstorms,” are making the concept of a “1-in-100-year flood event” obsolete, according to a report from First Street Foundation, an organization focused on weather risk research. 

Using IAPMO’s Water Demand Calculator tool can result in energy, carbon, and water savings as compared to using traditional plumbing specification methods in plumbing codes, according to a study by Arup.