20 results

  • Hardened Facades Effects on Structural Systems featured image

    Hardened Facades Effects on Structural Systems

    To ensure the safety of U.S diplomatic personnel overseas, the U.S Department of State (DoS) has developed facade retrofits capable of resisting high…

  • Adaptable Glazing Shields

    Today, about 40% of all buildings in the U.S. still have single-pane windows, and ~70% of the existing building stock is estimated to suffer from und…

  • Retrofit Options for Historic Facades featured image

    Retrofit Options for Historic Facades

    Building design criteria requires that government buildings be designed for a variety of extreme loads including blast, hurricane, and impact conditi…

  • Challenges of Tall Iconic Building Retrofit

    Change happens, for better or for worse, to all living and physical matter. In order to thrive and achieve longevity, we constantly need to adapt to …

  • Preserving a Historic Facade

    Environmental and socio-economic benefits of sustainable preservation have become apparent most recently in the restoration of the historic former Ma…

  • Detailing For Distance featured image

    Detailing For Distance

    Quickly exceeding new facade service life expectations for tall buildings imposed by increasing environmental, economic, and social pressures have cr…

  • Seismic Movements featured image

    Seismic Movements

    A common building upgrade to add value to existing commercial real estate is the renewal of the entrance lobby. The lobby facade is replaced to give …

  • When Facades Kill

    The tragic fire of June 14, 2017 at the Grenfell Tower in London, England has brought to a very public global forum issues related to the impact of f…

  • Doubling Mies featured image

    Doubling Mies

    Mies van der Rohe’s concurrently designed projects for Commonwealth Promenade Apartments (1953-1956) and the Esplanade Apartments (1953-1957), saw th…

  • Vintage Vinyl

    Mid-century through 1980’s buildings with lock-strip or “zipper-gasket” glazing systems are an ever present part of the urban landscape in many citie…

  • Optimized Adaptive Re-Use

    Contemporary building practice represents a disconnect between traditional manufacturing techniques, that favor straight runs and orthogonal geometri…

  • Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage Façades

    With the developments in production, industrial facilities lost their function and were abandoned over time. The most frequent and often the most sus…

  • Impact Of Thermal Bridges On The Energy Response Of A Building featured image

    Impact Of Thermal Bridges On The Energy Response Of A Building

    The European building stock is mainly constituted by highly energy demanding buildings. The only way to a more sustainable and decarbonized building …

  • Carbon Lean Facades

    With net zero and carbon neutral mandates on the near horizon, New York City has pushed the green building envelope by leveraging incentive-based pro…

  • Slipping through the Cracks featured image

    Slipping through the Cracks

    We construct building enclosures to keep the elements out, but sometimes air and water infiltrate the building envelope, causing several problems for…

  • The Evolution of AEC Professional Silos

    Healthcare projects in northern California require specialized knowledge to navigate regulation, technological advancements, and project execution du…

  • Passively Actuated Systems

    Kinetic or responsive facades have been developed to improve buildings' daylighting conditions while mitigating energy consumption. Still, these faca…

  • ETFE Membrane Envelope Strategies featured image

    ETFE Membrane Envelope Strategies

    Airflow within the cavity of double-skin facades is a key component of adaptive building envelopes which change thermophysical properties to meet cha…