Federal agencies boost standards for more resilient construction

Multiple federal agencies this month initiated new policies to make buildings in the U.S. more resilient to natural disasters.

Among the initiatives announced by the Obama Administration were:

Incorporation of resilient building codes into U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Agriculture housing programs
Updates to the 2005 Multihazard Mitigation Council Mitigation Saves study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Building Sciences
A disaster deductible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Public Assistance program
Climate change risk screening for the General Services Administration's capital investment leasing program
Tornado-resilient codes and standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Resilient building codes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Architectural concrete as we know it today was invented in the 19th century. It reached new heights in the U.S. after World War II when mid-century modernism was in vogue, following in the footsteps of a European aesthetic that expressed structure and permanent surfaces through this exposed material. Concrete was treated as a monolithic miracle, waterproof and structurally and visually versatile.

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New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.

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Total steel project performance

This instructor-led video course discusses actual project scenarios where collaborative steel joist and deck design have reduced total-project costs. In an era when incomplete structural drawings are a growing concern for our industry, the course reveals hidden costs and risks that can be avoided.

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Planning for and responding to the effects of adverse shocks and stresses is typically what architects and engineers have always thought of as good standard design practices.