In the last decade, carbon levels increased 20 parts per million (from 380 to 403), the population grew by one billion, global temperature increased by half a degree Celsius, and 25 percent more people moved into our cities.

Multnomah County’s central courthouse was built between 1909 and 1914, when the county had only 250,000 residents and long before modern building code standards for the region’s risk of earthquakes were in place. The new Central Courthouse Project is a swiftly rising, 17-story-structure at Southwest First Avenue and Madison Street, and is slated for completion in the spring of 2020.

5.00 HSW learning credits

Schedule

Sheet metal is a unique roof system choice that continues to evolve into new systems and applications. Metal roofs are gaining market share in both commercial and residential markets. Building owners have a high performance and aesthetic appeal expectation for metal roofs. Along with this evolution come the problems associated with it. This seminar is intended to provide a review of the top ten problems for metal roof designers. This will include a description of the problem, why it may occur, ramifications and how to prevent it through proper design.

This program addresses the importance of resilient building design and how it differs from green building design. It covers the resilient qualities of concrete masonry products and wall systems.

In this presentation, Richard will share the design principles being developed for the ASTM Structural Use of Glass standard, how they were implemented on the Seattle Space Needle, and how these new standards will allow architects and engineers to achieve bolder designs with lower risks.

Building envelope standards and practices have evolved over the past few decades in response to increased energy efficiency goals and a better understanding of Building Science. New materials, systems, and methods have been developed that reduce air leakage through building envelopes. Thermal protection requirements have increased and continuous insulation is often detailed better to avoid thermal bridges.

The building envelope is an integral part of architectural expression and is quickly becoming the innovative system utilized to realize carbon emission reduction goals. More and more the building envelope’s roofing, glazing, and waterproofing assemblies include Mass Timber. These assemblies are critical for ensuring durability but challenged to increase envelope performance without creating environmental barrier deficiencies.

Water-Resistive Barriers (WRBs) have evolved to serve compound forms and functions. Despite these advances, performance expectations still reflect over-simplistic assumptions and problematical testing methods. Interfaces with modern wall components also remain ill-defined with respect to the WRB’s primary function of liquid water resistance. Industry trends toward component integration have further strained the WRB’s intended role.

Sometimes the glass that was part of the building envelope ends up on the street. Nobody is happy. Buildings age and fail when the properties of the materials change. Currently, there is no effective method of determining the design life of materials used in building enclosures. Materials are thus selected based on first cost. This transfers the benefit of lower cost materials to the specifier, but the risk associated with that decision on the building owner. When there is a way to determine the accurate design life, economically efficient materials selection decisions are possible.