English University Architecture News
Financials and Endowment 2024: Investments returned 8.9 percent 2024; endowment $24.6 billion
Named after its major donor — co-founder of Analog Devices — this Frank Gehry designed holds the top spot for highest absolute cost per square foot of any US university research — just shy of $500 million in today’s dollars.
The project replaced a “temporary” structure from World War II known for fostering innovation, particularly through the MIT Radiation Laboratory. The new center was intended to continue this legacy by housing the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, while promoting interdisciplinary collaboration through its innovative design.
Bird’s-eye view of campus from the Stata Center. #aroundMIT pic.twitter.com/so7euTqtX5
— Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (@MIT) May 23, 2017
The donations were driven by MIT’s goal to consolidate its computer science, electrical engineering, and artificial intelligence departments into a state-of-the-art facility to encourage the exchange of ideas and technology. The project, completed in 2004, faced challenges, including cost overruns and a subsequent lawsuit against Gehry and contractor Skanska USA for alleged design and construction flaws, such as leaks and drainage issues. This lawsuit was amicably resolved in 2010. Despite these issues, the Stata Center remains a landmark of MIT’s campus, celebrated for its bold architecture and role in fostering innovation.
Inside MIT CSAIL’s Stata Center. pic.twitter.com/XSvA9CgSdy
— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 11, 2024
Other major contributors:
IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
NEC Section 226.6 Conductor Size and Support (B) Festoon Lighting
EC&M Article 225: Outside Branch Circuits
Electrical Time: Definition of Festoon Lighting
Today we refresh our understanding of the moment in illumination technologies for outdoor lighting systems— related but different from our exploration of building interior illumination systems in Illumination 200. Later in 2024 we will roll out Illumination 400 (Holiday illumination) and Illumination 500 which explores litigation related to public illumination technology. As cities-within-cities the shared perimeter of a campus with the host municipality has proven rich in legal controversy and action.
Illumination technology was the original inspiration for the electric utility industry; providing night-time security and transforming every sector of every economy on earth. Lighting load remains the largest component of any building’s electric load — about 35 percent– making it a large target for energy regulations.
Our inquiry begins with selections from the following documents…
International Electrotechnical Commission TC 34 Lighting
IEC 60364 Electrical Installations in Buildings
2023 National Electrical Safety Code
2023 National Electrical Code: Article 410 (While the bulk of the NEC concerns indoor wiring fire hazards, there are passages that inform outdoor lighting wiring safety)
2019 ASHRAE 90.1: Chapter 9 Lighting
Illumination Engineering Society: Various titles
Salt Water River Project: Outdoor Lighting Standards
US DOE-EERE Building Energy Codes Program
…and about 20 other accredited, consortia or ad hoc standards developers and publishers aligned principally with vertical incumbents. Illumination was the original inspiration (i.e. the first “killer app”) for the electrical power industry in every nation. Its best practice literature reflects a fast-moving, shape-changing domain.
Click in today with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
McGill University: Before electricity, streets were filled with gas lights
Outdoor lighting systems can be owned and maintained by different entities depending on the context and location. Here are some examples of ownership regimes for outdoor lighting systems:
The ownership regime of an outdoor lighting system can have implications for issues such as installation, maintenance, and cost-sharing. It is important to consider ownership when designing and implementing outdoor lighting systems to ensure their long-term effectiveness and sustainability.
More
International Commission on Illumination
National Electrical Manufacturers Association
National Electrical Contractors Association
Representative Specifications
Sam Houston State University | Division 26500 Interior and Exterior Lighting
University of Delaware | Division 265100 Interior Lighting
Cal Poly University San Luis Obispo | Division 265100 Interior Lighting
Relevant Research
Enhancing the Sustainability of Outdoor Floodlighting for Cultural Heritage Buildings
Christian Wiman ✨ pic.twitter.com/r95fWwZZmP
— Dr. Maya C. Popa (@MayaCPopa) May 28, 2023
IES Standards Open for Public Review
Standard Practice on Lighting for Educational Facilities
Recommended Practice: Lighting Retail Spaces
IES Method for Determining Correlated Color Temperature
Today we feature the catalog of the Illumination Engineering Society — one of the first names in standards-setting in illumination technology, globally* with particular interest in its leading title IES LP-1 | LIGHT + DESIGN Lighting Practice: Designing Quality Lighting for People and Buildings.
From its prospectus:
“…LIGHT + DESIGN was developed to introduce architects, lighting designers, design engineers, interior designers, and other lighting professionals to the principles of quality lighting design. These principles; related to visual performance, energy, and economics; and aesthetics; can be applied to a wide range of interior and exterior spaces to aid designers in providing high-quality lighting to their projects.
Stakeholders: Architects, interior designers, lighting practitioners, building owners/operators, engineers, the general public, luminaire manufacturers. This standard focuses on design principles and defines key technical terms and includes technical background to aid understanding for the designer as well as the client about the quality of the lighted environment. Quality lighting enhances our ability to see and interpret the world around us, supporting our sense of well-being, and improving our capability to communicate with each other….”
The entire catalog is linked below:
Illumination technologies run about 30 percent of the energy load in a building and require significant human resources at the workpoint — facility managers, shop foremen, front-line operations and maintenance personnel, design engineers and sustainability specialists. The IES has one of the easier platforms for user-interest participation:
IES Standards Open for Public Review
Because the number of electrotechnology standards run in the thousands and are in continual motion* we need an estimate of user-interest in any title before we formally request a redline because the cost of obtaining one in time to make meaningful contributions will run into hundreds of US dollars; apart from the cost of obtaining a current copy.
We maintain the IES catalog on the standing agendas of our Electrical, Illumination and Energy colloquia. Additionally, we collaborate with experts active in the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones; all colloquia online and open to everyone. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page to join us.
Issue: [Various}
Category: Electrical, Energy, Illumination, Facility Asset Management
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Gary Fox, Jim Harvey, Kane Howard, Glenn Keates, Daleep Mohla, Giuseppe Parise, Georges Zissis
* “Brownian Motion” comes to mind because of the speed and interdependencies.
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Illuminating Engineering Society Welcomes New Director of Development
Shayna Bramley Brings 21 years of Lighting Industry Experience to IESTo learn more, to go: https://t.co/YApdTPvR8E pic.twitter.com/PGDCtO4jrC
— Illuminating Engineering Society (@The_IES) December 26, 2018
The LD+A editorial and sales team members just couldn’t resist visiting Bugsy and Meyer’s Steakhouse (covered in the December 2021 issue) while in Las Vegas for LightFair! Read up on the details of the shadowy project here: https://t.co/7eoLPT69Dx #TheIES #LightFair2022 #lighting pic.twitter.com/uWmolsNpMz
— Illuminating Engineering Society (@The_IES) June 22, 2022
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is an ANSI-accredited continuous-maintenance standards developer (a major contributor to what we call a regulatory product development “stream”). Continuous maintenance means that changes to titles in its catalog can change in as little as 30-45 days. This is meaningful to jurisdictions that require conformance to the “latest” version of ASHRAE 90.1
Among the leading titles in its catalog is ASHRAE 90.1 Energy Standard for Sites and Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. Standard 90.1 has been a benchmark for commercial building energy codes in the United States and a key basis for codes and standards around the world for more than 35 years. Free access to ASHRAE 90.1 version is available at the link below:
READ ONLY Version of 2022 ASHRAE 90.1
If you cannot access it with the link above, try the link below and select 90.1 from the title list:
Current Popular ASHRAE Standards and Guidelines
Chapter 9: Lighting, begins on Page 148, and therein lie the tables that are the most widely used metrics (lighting power densities) by electrical and illumination engineers for specifying luminaires and getting them wired and controlled “per code”. Many jurisdictions provide access to this Chapter without charge. Respecting ASHRAE’s copyright, we will not do so here but will use them during today’s Illumination Colloquium, 16:00 UTC.
Keep in mind that recently ASHRAE expanded the scope of 90.1 to include energy usage in the spaces between buildings:
25 January 2023: Newly Released ASHRAE 90.1-2022 Includes Expanded Scope For Building Sites
At this time, there are no redlines open for public comment
Online Standards Actions & Public Review Drafts
Education industry facility managers, energy conservation workgroups, sustainability officers, electric shop foreman, electricians and front-line maintenance professionals who change lighting fixtures, maintain environmental air systems are encouraged to participate directly in the ASHRAE consensus standard development process.
We also maintain ASHRAE best practice titles as standing items on our Mechanical, Water, Energy and Illumination colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [Various]
Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy Conservation, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy, #SmartCampus
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Larry Spielvogel, Richard Robben
Under Construction: ASHRAE WORKSPACE
More:
US Department of Energy Codes Program: Power and Lighting
N.B. We are knocking on ASHRAE’s door to accept proposals for reducing building interior power chain energy and material waste that we cannot persuade National Electrical Code committee to include in the 2026 revision of the National Electrical Code.
Best wiring safety practice for the illumination of educational settlement occupancies is scattered throughout the National Electrical Code with primary consideration for wiring fire safety:
We have done a fair amount of work on this topic over the years, including writing the chapter on campus outdoor lighting for the soon-to-be-released IEEE 3001.9 Recommended Practice for the Design of Power Systems Supplying Lighting Systems in Commercial and Industrial Facilities.
For our meeting please refer to the workspace we have set up for the 2026 Revision of the NEC:
We will pick through specifics in the transcripts of Code Making Panels 10 and 18.
International Building Code: Chapter 12 Section 1204 Lighting
The renovated Schwarzman Center at Yale now features dynamic new communal areas, a refreshed historic dining hall and eye-catching exterior lighting, enhancing the campus experience.
Details: https://t.co/XWw1UQR2eB | 📍New Haven, CT, US #ArchitizerAwards pic.twitter.com/mxGxdYw2NY
— Architizer (@Architizer) November 17, 2023
2025 Committee Action Hearings – Group B #1
Proposal for Performance-Based Building Premise Wiring | Chapter 27): Monograph Page 754
The International Code Council bibliography of electrical safety practice incorporates titles published by the National Fire Protection Association which reference electrical safety science titles published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. The relevant section of the International Building Code is therefore relatively short:
2021 International Building Code: Chapter 27 Electrical
Note that Chapter 27 provides more guidance on managing the hazards created when electricity is absent*. Since the National Electrical Code is informed by a fire safety building premise wiring culture; absence of electricity is not as great a hazard as when building wiring systems are energized. (“So they say” — Mike Anthony, who thinks quite otherwise.)
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
2025 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES | Complete Monograph (2630 pages)
Although we collaborate most closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (four times monthly in Europe and the Americas) we e encourage our colleagues in education communities everywhere to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. CLICK HERE to set up an account.
It is enlightening — and a time saver — to unpack the transcripts of previous revisions of codes and standards to see what concepts were presented, what got discussed; what passed and what failed. We provide links to a few previous posts that track recent action in the ICC suite relevant to electrotechnologies:
The ICC suite of consensus products are relevant to almost all of our work; everyday. See our CALENDAR that reflects our Syllabus. Today we deal with electrical safety concepts because technical committees are meeting from November to January to write the 2023 National Electrical Code. CLICK HERE to follow the action in more detail.
* The original University of Michigan advocacy enterprise began pounding on National Electrical Code committees to install more power reliability concepts in the 2002 Edition with only modest success. Standards Michigan has since collaborated with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee to drive “absence-of-power-as-a-hazard” into the National Electrical Code; the 2023 now open for public consultation.
N.B.
Assuming building interior fire safety issues can be managed, one way of getting more electric vehicle charging stations built around campus is to install requirements into the building code — thereby putting the construction cost, operation, maintenance and risk upon real-asset Developers and Owners. Code change submittals for the Group A tranche of titles will be received until January 8, 2024.
Illustration from 1913 showing Pythagoras teaching a class of women. Pythagoras believed that women should be taught philosophy as well as men and many prominent members of his school were women.
We follow the catalog of best practice titles developed by a joint committee of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission that should interest educational institutions with an interest in capturing revenue from students outside their home country (which is nearly every educational organization as far as we can see, save for secondary school districts).
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 Information technology for learning, education and training is charged with standardization in the field of information technologies for learning, education, and training to support individuals, groups, or organizations, and to enable interoperability and reusability of resources and tool. Excluded from this scope are: •standards or technical reports that define educational standards (competencies), cultural conventions, learning objectives, or specific learning content. Work done by other ISO or IEC TCs, SCs, or WGs with respect to their component, specialty, or domain. Instead, when appropriate, normative or informative references to other standards shall be included. Examples include documents on special topics such as multimedia, web content, cultural adaptation, and security. The landing page for all ISO/IEC JTC 1 is linked below.
ISO/IEC JTC 001/SC 36 “Information technology for learning, education and training”
The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards is the Global Secretariat. INCITS is ANSI’s US Technical Advisory Group administrator. CLICK HERE for a list of committees.
We maintain the work products of this committee on the standing agenda of our Global, ICT and Acoustics colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [13-100]
Contact: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Paul Green
Category: Academic, Finance, Global, ICT
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New Interview!
Check out our founder and CEO, Dr. AkkeNeel Talsma chat with WUWM about how MaternityMetrix can help our local expectant communities.
Take a listen HERE:https://t.co/2tGWsG8MPy#healthcare #TechInnovation #patientsafety pic.twitter.com/WvhyhmMiKT
— Maternity Metrix (@MaternityMetrix) February 10, 2024
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Founder of Maternity Metrix, Dr. Akkeneel Talsma
LISTEN NOW!
Our CEO & Founder, Dr. AkkeNeel Talsma, interviewed with Milwaukee StartUp News this week. Check it out here: https://t.co/EFz7LG1KbJ… #MaternalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #pregnancy pic.twitter.com/Us2fEDIlVG
— Maternity Metrix (@MaternityMetrix) January 24, 2025
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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