Dept. of Agriculture encouraging tall wood structure construction

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the winners of the first phase of the Building Envelope Innovation Prize. The prize targets high-performance, cost-effective secondary glazing systems to improve efficiency of commercial windows.

This blog post by Walter P Moore's Mallory Buckley, RRO, PE, BECxP + CxA+BE, and Bob Hancock, MBA, JD, of Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC, explains the importance of documentation, correspondence between parties, and supporting the claims for a Plaintiff-party, while facilitating continuous use of the facility, on construction litigation projects.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan for implementing a new label program to boost American production of more climate-friendly construction materials and products. The label program will prioritize steel, glass, asphalt and concrete. 

The standards for energy-efficient construction and design have been raised. Due to the development of advanced low-e coatings for the interior surface and vacuum insulating technologies, architects now have more choices to improve U-values wherever enhanced thermal performance is needed to create eco-friendly spaces. These options can double or even triple thermal performance, resulting in annual energy savings and a positive return on carbon.