QCD Custom Distribution Services cold docks warehouse.

Confessions of a cold storage architect

Designing energy-efficient cold storage facilities that keep food safe and look beautiful takes special knowledge.

AEC Innovators

How Suffolk Construction identifies ConTech and PropTech startups for investment, adoption

Contractor giant Suffolk Construction has invested in 27 ConTech and PropTech companies since 2019 through its Suffolk Technologies venture capital firm. Parker Mundt, Suffolk Technologies’ Vice President–Platforms, recently spoke with Building Design+Construction about his company’s investment strategy.

MFPRO+ Special Reports

Crystal Lagoons: A deep dive into real estate's most extreme guest amenity

These year-round, manmade, crystal clear blue lagoons offer a groundbreaking technology with immense potential to redefine the concept of water amenities. However, navigating regulatory challenges and ensuring long-term sustainability are crucial to success with Crystal Lagoons.

AEC Tech

AI for construction: What kind of tool can artificial intelligence become for AEC teams?

Avoiding the hype and gathering good data are half the battle toward making artificial intelligence tools useful for performing design, operational, and jobsite tasks.

Aug 11, 2010

TRACO wins Crystal Achievement Award for most innovative manufacturing plant

Cranberry Township, Pa. - TRACO has been selected as the winner of the 2009 Crystal Achievement…

Aug 11, 2010

Performance-based Safety Code seeks to enhance new elevator technology

An elevator’s condition invariably makes a statement about a building. Basic functionality is…

Aug 11, 2010

New air-conditioning design standard allows for increased air speed to cool building interiors

Building occupants, who may soon feel cooler from increased air movement, can thank a committee of building science specialists. The committee in charge of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 - Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy—after months of study and discussion--has voted recently to allow increased air speed as an option for cooling building interiors. In lay terms, increased air speed is the equivalent of turning up the fan.

Aug 11, 2010

PCA partners with MIT on concrete research center

MIT today announced the creation of the Concrete Sustainability Hub, a research center established at MIT in collaboration with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation.

Aug 11, 2010

Study explains the financial value of green commercial buildings

Green building may be booming, especially in the Northwest, but the claims made for high-performance buildings have been slow to gain traction in the financial community. Appraisers, lenders, investors and brokers have found it difficult to confirm the value of high-performance green features and related savings. A new study of office buildings identifies how high-performance green features and systems can increase the value of commercial buildings.

Aug 11, 2010

VA San Diego Healthcare System Building 1 Seismic Correction
San Diego, Calif.

Three decades after its original construction in the early 1970s, the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System Building 1 fell far short of current seismic codes. This not only put the building and its occupants—patients, doctors, nurses, visitors, and administrative staff—at risk in the event of a major earthquake, it violated a California state mandate requiring all hospitals to either retrofit or rebuild.

Aug 11, 2010

Green Building Initiative launches two certification programs for green building professionals

The Green Building Initiative® (GBI), one of the nation’s leading green building organizations and exclusive provider of the Green Globes green building certification in the United States, today announced the availability of two new personnel certification programs for green building practitioners: Green Globes Professional (GGP) and Green Globes Assessor (GGA).