Here are direct links to the articles and blog posts I mentioned (or very close matches where the exact title varied slightly but the content aligns perfectly):
The new Health Sciences Research Building (HSRB) is officially taking shape! Nearly 1,600 tons of steel have been delivered to the construction site across from the School of Medicine.
Campus exterior lighting systems generally run in the 100 to 10,000 fixture range and are, arguably, the most visible characteristic of public safety infrastructure. Some major research universities have exterior lighting systems that are larger and more complex than cooperative and municipal power company lighting systems which are regulated by public service commissions.
While there has been considerable expertise in developing illumination concepts by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Illumination Engineering Society, the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers, the International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Commission on Illumination, none of them contribute to leading practice discovery for the actual power chain for these large scale systems on a college campus. The standard of care has been borrowed, somewhat anecdotally, from public utility community lighting system practice. These concepts need to be revisited as the emergent #SmartCampus takes shape.
Electrical power professionals who service the education and university-affiliated healthcare facility industry should communicate directly with Mike Anthony (maanthon@umich.edu) or Jim Harvey (jharvey@umich.edu). This project is also on the standing agenda of the IEEE E&H committee which meets online 4 times monthly — every other Tuesday — in European and American time zones. Login credentials are available on its draft agenda page.
Issue: [15-199]
Category: Electrical, Public Safety, Architectural, #SmartCampus, Space Planning, Risk Management
Contact: Mike Anthony, Kane Howard, Jim Harvey, Dev Paul, Steven Townsend, Kane Howard
The Illumination Engineering Societyis one of the first names in standards-setting organizations with a catalog routinely referenced in design guidelines and construction projects. Because of the money flow into illumination technologies worldwide the IES occupies a domain that is relatively crowded:
National Electrical Manufacturers and Medical Imaging Association; whose interest lies in leveling the playing field for about 300 electrical equipment manufacturers
Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers; whose interest lies in the research activity in seeing sciences, the luminescence sources and the power chain
American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers; whose interest lies in energy conservation
National Fire Protection Association; whose interest lies in fire safety of lighting systems within building premises.
International Code Council; whose interest lies in pulling together all of the relevant standards for lighting egress paths of the built environment
International Electrotechnical Commission; whose interest lies in the administration of global electrical and electronic technologies
International Commission on Illumination; the international authority on light, illumination, colour, and colour spaces
There are others. With illumination power requirement on a downward trajectory where footcandles can be driven at information & communication technology voltage and current levels; we find relatively new entrants into the market with deep pockets and for good reason. In a typical building, the interior lighting load is the major electrical load (on the order of 40 percent) and a major contributor to the functionality of the building. There are a number of other trade associations that are participants in research and open source standards for faster moving parts of the illumination science. We will cover these in future, related posts.
Last year a new standardization project was launched by the IES. From the project prospectus:
IES LP-2-201x, Designing Quality Lighting for People in Outdoor Environments (new standard)
Project Need: This document is not intended to supersede existing IES application RPs, rather it will link the various documents together, augmenting them in subject areas not otherwise covered, including but not limited to sidewalks, bikepaths, pedestrian paths, parks, outdoor malls, pedestrian-only business districts, plazas, amphitheaters, large outdoor gathering areas, campuses, pedestrian bridges, and pedestrian underpasses.
Stakeholders: Lighting practitioners, electrical engineers, civic planners, civil engineers, architects, community-based planning groups, general public. Lighting recommendations for non-vehicular pedestrian applications using recommendations beyond illuminance only, which ultimately fails to provide a complete guideline for the visual experience of pedestrian-based tasks. The RP will be a comprehensive approach for light levels, glare, adaptation, spectrum, and contrast while addressing safety, timing, and perceived security. Application of these recommendations will ultimately enhance the pedestrian’s visual experience while also respecting the environment.
Soon to be released, a related product covering technical specifics of a familiar battleground — lighting controls:
The consultation closed May 24th and the agenda of the committee writing this standard is being administered. Very often technical committees are receptive to new ideas after a comment deadline if those ideas are submitted to a committee member directly. We invite anyone with an interest in this topic to click in to any of our daily colloquia to begin that process.
Not far into the future: individually controlled luminaires responsive to the use of campus pathways. There are already some pilot projects on higher education campuses.
A few other technical committees relevant to educational communities should be identified, though we will sort through the standards setting activity in separate posts:
We always encourage direct participation by space planners, workpoint experts and academic unit facility managers in IES standards development process. Contact: Patricia McGillicuddy, (917) 913-0027, pmcgillicuddy@ies.org. 120 Wall Street, Floor 17, New York, NY.
We coordinate most of our electrotechnology standards advocacy with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in European and American time zones. Its meeting agendas and login credentials are available on its website. Since illumination technologies are present in all spaces in education communities, IES consensus products will appear on the standing agenda of most disciplines. See our CALENDAR.
We are consolidating over 10+ years of coverage of sport standards by the season now. This is our first cut breaking the topic into four separate seasons. Join us today at the usual hour when we sort through stabilized literature and the codes and standards open for public consultation
After athletic arena life safety obligations are met (governed legally by NFPA 70, NFPA 101, NFPA 110, the International Building Code and possibly other state adaptations of those consensus documents incorporated by reference into public safety law) business objective standards may come into play.For almost all athletic facilities, the consensus documents of the Illumination Engineering Society[1], the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers[2][3] provide the first principles for life safety. For business purposes, the documents distributed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association inform the standard of care for individual athletic arenas so that swiftly moving media production companies have some consistency in power sources and illumination as they move from site to site. Sometimes concepts to meet both life safety and business objectives merge.
During hockey season the document linked below provides information to illumination designers and facility managers:
Athletic programs are a significant source of revenue and form a large part of the foundation of the brand identity of most educational institutions in the United States. We focus primarily upon the technology standards that govern the safety, performance and sustainability of these enterprises. We collaborate very closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee where subject matter experts in electrical power systems meet 4 times each month in the Americas and Europe.
See our CALENDAR for our next colloquium on Sport facility codes and standards. We typically walk through the safety and sustainability concepts in play; identify commenting opportunities; and find user-interest “champions” on the technical committees who have a similar goal in lowering #TotalCostofOwnership.
Issue: [15-138]*
Category: Electrical, Architectural, Arts & Entertainment Facilities, Athletics
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Jack Janveja, Jose Meijer, Scott Gibbs
LEARN MORE:
[1] Illumination Engineering Handbook
[2] IEEE 3001.9 Recommended Practice for Design of Power Systems for Supplying Lighting Systems for Commercial & Industrial Facilities
[3] IEEE 3006.1 Power System Reliability
* Issue numbering before 2016 dates back to the original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise
There Will Be a Special Place in Hell for Chicago’s Mayors
Chicago’s mayors have presided over one of the most tragic declines of a great American city. From the unchecked corruption of the machine politics era to the modern failures of progressive governance, a pattern of betrayal emerges. Leaders like Richard J. Daley entrenched patronage and racial division, while successors such as Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson have accelerated chaos through soft-on-crime policies, sanctuary city mandates, and fiscal recklessness that burden taxpayers while coddling criminals and migrants.
Violent crime has scarred neighborhoods for decades, with Black and Hispanic communities suffering most from gang warfare and failed “defund the police” experiments. Budget deficits balloon as pensions go unfunded and businesses flee. Yet mayors offer excuses, virtue signals, and higher taxes instead of accountability. Education collapses under union control, leaving generations unprepared.
These leaders inherit a proud city on the lake and leave it more dangerous, divided, and broke. For squandering potential and harming the vulnerable they claimed to champion, there will indeed be a special place in hell for Chicago’s mayors.
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