Survey seeks info from managers of high-tech facilities

The International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I²SL), and Laney College in Oakland, California, a National Science Foundation-funded Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center, are collaborating to identify education and training needs and strategies for high-tech facility operators. Through our interactions with industry stakeholders on multiple occasions, it is apparent that available education and training paths do not adequately address the increasingly complex knowledge and skills needed to operate and maintain high-tech facilities. Compared to commercial facilities, environmental health and safety liabilities and worker risks are much greater, the building energy use intensities are higher, and the building occupant needs are more volatile and complex. With many more high-tech facilities being created and their energy and sustainability performance requirements becoming more stringent, we expect an even greater shortage of qualified building technicians for high-tech facilities.

I²SL and Laney College together developed a survey to gain the opinions and expertise of high tech facility managers, operators, and others as to whether specific types of training and a certification for high-tech facility professionals are warranted. Please take the survey at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/high-tech-O-M

The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.

Rainscreen system installed at the west building envelope expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

Energy performance starts at the building envelope

Rainscreen system installed at the west building expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

Turning Balconies Outside In

Operable glass balcony glazing systems provide solution to increase usable space in residential and commercial structures.

| Dec 10, 2011

BIM tools to make your project easier to manage

Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.