Letters

I read your article on the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (BD+C April 2007, p.36) and had to comment on some of the hyperbole you used.

When I read your lead-in that described “days filled with complete darkness” I had to laugh. While south central Alaska does have shorter winter days than the lower 48 states, they are by no means completely dark. Even on the shortest day of the year, that region gets hours of sunlight. Even Barrow, the northernmost town in the state, which has no sunshine for a significant portion of winter, isn't completely dark, but merely twilight.

The Building Team from Texas and Tennessee may not have been used to the conditions you mentioned in the article, but the AEC professions in Alaska deal with those types of things on a daily basis. While architects and engineers not familiar with the conditions that exist in cold climates may have been “wowed” by your article, I found it to be more ho-hum and I'd guess my peers here in Alaska would agree. Many Alaskan firms routinely design projects in much more severe conditions than those that exist in the Palmer area.

The architecture and engineering professions in Alaska face an uphill battle in getting owners to recognize the expertise available in-state for major projects. There have been numerous cases where out-of-state Building Teams have learned hard lessons that those of us in Alaska have learned to avoid many years ago. The economy that owners go for by hiring architects and engineers from warm climates to design their projects in Alaska is false in many cases.

The Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is an impressive-looking structure. I just hope for the owner's sake that its performance in our cold climate is up to snuff.

Kevin L. Hansen, PE

Mechanical engineer

Anchorage

I think when you write feature articles on odd buildings you ought to do a five- or 10-year follow-up article. The U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Md. (BD+C May 2007, p. 66), certainly seems to be an example of a project that will likely perform poorly, be laced with bird nests, and become remarkably dated, as well as be an example of an unbelievable waste of good oak.

Russell W. Middleton

Architect

Middleton Associates

Normal, Ill.

I read with interest your coverage of the U.S. Census Bureau's headquarters. The façade is certainly whimsical and fancy, but I wonder what the artsy architects have in mind for providing the window cleaning system, or will the dirt simply not be noticeable behind the 'veil'?

Vick Gardezi, PE, SE

Civil Engineer

Southern Company

Atlanta

While there is, in fact, scientific debate regarding the significance and cause of global warming, there should be no argument that it is prudent, as it has always been, to design within nature, conserve, and constantly strive to find reasonable solutions to reasonable problems.

The improvement in our common quality of life, accelerating these past two centuries, is a consequence of an inherent desire for individual and family improvement which is encouraged, acknowledged, and rewarded in societies with economies such as ours.

We need not look to Congress, the White House, or the Supreme Court for improvement. (See “Congress needs to act now on global warming,” May 2007, page 9) We need to look at each other--an educated and motivated citizenry. Relatively minor adjustments to our individual lifestyles would yield immediate and significant collective improvements in energy efficiency and reductions in emissions.

On the other hand, we must take a reasonable look at government's contribution or impediment to this improvement. As an example, establishing a user's or flat tax and eliminating the Internal Revenue Service would redirect at least 6.23 billion man-hours per year (the equivalent to the CO2 produced by half a million cars) of direct labor toward better productivity, innovation, or just plain working in the garden. Additional energy savings would be realized in the closure of millions of square feet of government and consultant offices, eliminating millions of travel miles, the saving of billions of pages of forms, millions of trees, thousands of archiving warehouses, postage, etc.

As an architect, I have learned that government regulation neither insures safety nor efficiency. It predominantly promotes mediocrity.

Call me a pessimist, but what we need is less, not more, government regulation.

Dennis De Pietro

Architect

Frank De Pietro and Sons

Los Angeles