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According to ASTM member Hugh Fairman, legacy standard E308 gathered data and pre-calculated weight sets for doing what is called “tristimulus integration,” which determines the actual color of a measured spectral reflectance or spectral power curve. While this standard is still useful in certain cases, a need has grown for the more updated practice described in E3415 to respond to interest in how illumination is perceived on painted surfaces.

Standards Michigan: ASTM International

A RAL number is part of a standardized color matching system developed by the RAL Deutsches Institut für Gütesicherung und Kennzeichnung (German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification) used primarily in Europe. It is widely used for defining colors for paint, coatings, and plastics.

Eurocodes

CLICK ON IMAGE TO LAUNCH INTERACTIVE MAP

The Eurocodes are ten European standards (EN; harmonised technical rules) specifying how structural design should be conducted within the European Union. These were developed by the European Committee for Standardization upon the request of the European Commission. The purpose of the Eurocodes is to provide:

A means to prove compliance with the requirements for mechanical strength and stability and safety in case of fire established by European Union law.^[2]
A basis for construction and engineering contract specifications.
A framework for creating harmonized technical specifications for building products (CE mark).

Since March 2010 the Eurocodes are mandatory for the specification of European public works and are intended to become the de facto standard for the private sector. The Eurocodes therefore replace the existing national building codes published by national standard bodies, although many countries have had a period of co-existence. Additionally, each country is expected to issue a National Annex to the Eurocodes which will need referencing for a particular country (e.g. The UK National Annex). At present, take-up of Eurocodes is slow on private sector projects and existing national codes are still widely used by engineers.

Eurocodes appear routinely on the standing agendas of several of our daily colloquia, among them the AEDificare, Elevator & Lift and Hello World! colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

So proud to announce the @ellisoninst is beginning construction on our new campus at the @UniofOxford and broadening our mission: Science & Engineering for Humanity. EIT develops & deploys technology in pursuit of solving four of humanity’s most challenging & enduring problems.… pic.twitter.com/vSkHWSS8EK

— David Agus (@DavidAgus) October 15, 2023

More

REGULATION (EU) No 305/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

Building Environment Design

Historic Buildings

2024 / 2025 / 2026 Code Development: Group B (2025)

Complete Monograph (2630 pages)

Notre-Dame de Paris “Our Lady of Paris” Wikimedia Commons

International Existing Building Code: Chapter 12 Historic Buildings

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

Notre-Dame de Paris “Our Lady of Paris” Wikimedia Commons

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

General Conditions of the Construction Contract

International Code Council: Current Code Development Cycle 2024-2026

International Building Code: Chapter 1 Scope and Administration

There are five key components needed to address in each construction contract as a protection against litigation in an industry that is rich in possibilities.

Scope of the project. …
Total cost and payment requirements. …
Project timeline. …
Lien law protection. …
Dispute resolution.

Today at the usual hour we examine a few representative contracts:

List of all current AIA Contract Documents

University of Michigan Standard General Conditions

Wayne State University Supplementary Conditions of Construction

Princeton University: General Terms & Conditions for Construction Contracts

Universities Wisconsin: General Conditions of the Contract for Construction

The cost of compliance with general conditions in a typical construction project can vary widely depending on factors like project size, complexity, location, and specific requirements. General conditions refer to the indirect costs that support the project—things like project management, temporary facilities, safety measures, and administrative expenses—not the direct costs of labor, materials, or equipment tied to physical construction.

In percentage terms, general conditions typically account for 5% to 15% of the total project cost, with most projects falling in the 5% to 10% range for standard residential or commercial builds. Smaller projects might see percentages closer to or exceeding 10% because fixed costs (like a site trailer or a project manager’s time) don’t scale down as much as direct costs. Larger, more complex projects—like industrial or infrastructure work—might trend toward the lower end (5% or less) since direct costs dominate, diluting the relative impact of general conditions. For example, a $300,000 residential project might allocate $15,000 to $30,000 (5% to 10%) for general conditions, while a $10 million commercial project could see $500,000 or less (5%) if efficiencies kick in.

Methods of Building Measurement

Global Consistency in Presenting Construction & Life Cycle Costs

Higher Education Estates Management Report 2023

Modular Classrooms

Planning, Design & Construction Team

Architecture and Aesthetic Education

How Blockchain Will Change Construction

Carnegie Classifications

Design Age Institute

Kindergarten

International Building Code: Group A Model Building Codes: 2024/2025/2026 Development Cycle

“One Hundred Children Playing in the Spring” | Su Hanchen 蘇漢臣

Safety and sustainability for any facility begins with an understanding of who shall occupy the built environment and how. University settings, with mixed-use phenomenon arising spontaneously and temporarily, often present challenges. Educational communities are a convergent settings for families; day care facilities among them. First principles regarding occupancy classifications for day care facilities appear in Section 308 of the International Building Code, Institutional Group I; linked below:

Section 308 | International Building Code

The ICC Institutional Group I-4 classification includes buildings and structures occupied by more than five persons of any age who received custodial care for fewer than 24 hours per day by persons other than parents or guardian, relatives by blood, marriage or adoption, and in a place other than the home of the person cared far. This group includes both adult and child day care.

We maintain focus on child day care. Many educational communities operate child day care enterprises for both academic study and/or as auxiliary (university employee benefit) enterprises.

Princeton University Child Care Center

Each of the International Code Council code development groups fetch back to a shared understanding of the nature of the facility; character of its occupants and prospective usage patterns.

The Group B developmental cycle ended in December 2019. The 2021 revision of the International Building code is in production now, though likely slowed down because of the pandemic. Ahead of the formal, market release of the Group B tranche of titles, you can sample the safety concepts in play during this revision with an examination of the documents linked below:

2019 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

2019 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS ON THE 2018 EDITIONS OF THE GROUP B INTERNATIONAL CODES

Search on the terms “day care” and “daycare” to get a sample of the prevailing concepts; use of such facilities as storm shelters, for example.

“The Country School” | Winslow Homer

We encourage our safety and sustainability colleagues to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. We slice horizontally through the disciplinary silos (“incumbent verticals”) created by hundreds of consensus product developers every week and we can say, upon considerable authority that the ICC consensus product development environment is one of the best in the world. Privately developed standards (for use by public agencies) is a far better way to discover and promulgate leading practice than originating technical specifics from legislative bodies. CLICK HERE to get started. Contact Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for more information.

There are competitor consensus products in this space — Chapter 18 Day-Care Occupancies in NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code, for example; a title we maintain the standing agenda of our Model Building Code teleconferences. It is developed from a different pool of expertise under a different due process regime. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [18-166]

Category: Architectural, Healthcare Facilities, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben

Several names for this occupancy class:

Nursery
Crèche
Playgroup
Montessori
Preschool
Kindergarten
Childcare
Toddler group
Daycare
Early learning center

A Study of Children’s Password Practices

Storm Shelters

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

Educational Settlement Finance

Giovanni Paolo Panini, An architectural capriccio with figures among Roman ruins

The post-pandemic #WiseCampus transformation requires significant capital to meet the sustainability goals of its leadership. Campuses are cities-within-cities and are, to a fair degree, financed in a similar fashion. Tax-free bonds are an effective instrument for school districts, colleges and universities — and the host community in which they are nested — for raising capital for infrastructure projects while also providing investors with, say $10,000 to $100,000, to allocate toward a tax-free dividend income stream that produces a return in the range of 2 to 8 percent annually.

An aging population may be receptive to investment opportunities that protect their retirement savings from taxation.

Curious about the municipal bond market? Check out the MSRB’s new resource “Municipal Market Basics” to start your journey through the MSRB’s newly updated Education Center: https://t.co/BIMBxWpKGk https://t.co/PLhtaXzdD9 pic.twitter.com/FVARkkYZAD

— MSRB (@MSRB_News) November 28, 2023

Once a month, we walk through the prospectuses of one or two bond offerings of school districts, colleges and universities and examine offering specifics regarding infrastructure construction, operations and maintenance. We pay particular attention to details regarding “continuing operations”. Somehow the education industry has to pay for its green agenda. See our CALENDAR for the next Finance colloquium; open to everyone.

The interactive map provided by Electronic Municipal Market Access identifies state-by-state listings of tax-free bonds that contribute to the construction and operation of education facilities; some of which involved university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR INTERACTIVE MAP

If you need help cutting through this list please feel free to click in any day at 11 AM Eastern time. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our hope page. We collaborate with subject matter experts at Municipal Analytics and UBS.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Administration & Management, Finance, #SmartCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, John Kaczor, Liberty Ziegahn

*We see the pandemic as a driver for a step-reduction in cost in all dimensions of education communities. We coined the term with a hashtag about two years ago.

*College and university infrastructure projects are classified with public school districts under the rubric “municipal bonds” at the moment. CLICK HERE for more information.

Good question. pic.twitter.com/FtW0eSaQs7

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) January 27, 2025

More:

Duke Law Review: Don’t ‘Screw Joe the Plummer’: The Sausage-Making of Financial Reform

An Expanded Study of School Bond Elections in Michigan

An Expanded Study of School Bond Elections in Michigan

Gallery: School Bond Referenda

As of January 2022, there were a few municipalities in the United States that allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections, but no entire states. These municipalities included:

San Francisco, California: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in school board elections.
Chicago, Illinois: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in school board elections.
Takoma Park, Maryland: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in local elections.

It’s worth noting that these policies may change over time as local governments make decisions regarding voting rights. For the most up-to-date information, it’s best to consult the specific laws and regulations of each municipality or state.

“Election Day, 1944” | Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post

School bond elections — either at county or district level — are processes through which communities vote to authorize the issuance of bonds to fund various projects and improvements in their local school districts. The elections determine the quality of educational settlements –new school buildings, renovating existing facilities, upgrading technology, and improving safety measures. The outcomes of these elections directly affect the quality of education and learning environments for students within the county. Successful bond measures can stimulate economic growth by creating jobs and attracting families to the area.

Community involvement and voter turnout are essential in determining the allocation of resources and shaping the quality of life for its citizens. In recent years, however, voter ambivalence about the education “industry” in general, the rise of home schooling and other cultural factors, complicate choices presented to voters.

Financial Services

Gallery: School Bond Referenda

In terms of total spend, the US elementary and secondary school industry is about twice the size of the higher education industry according to IBISWorld. About $100 billion is in play every year for both (which we cover during our Ædificare colloquia); with higher education spending only half of what elementary and secondary school systems spend on facilities.

Note that some districts are including construction for faculty housing.

Our focus remains on applying global standard to create educational settlements that are safer, simpler, lower-cost and longer-lasting — not on the hurly-burly of local school bond elections. We recommend consulting the coverage in American School & University for more detailed and more timely information.