Category Archives: Architectural/Hammurabi

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Classroom Acoustics

 

Donegan Acoustics

With acoustic considerations a substantial contributor to the effectiveness of learning spaces — classrooms, lecture hall, performance arts and athletic venues, etc.  — we follow action in the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) suite of ANSI-accredited standards.

ASA Standards Homepage

For example, building codes in the United States identify horizontal and vertical acoustic insulation between floors and between walls, respectively, as design considerations.   Section 1206.2 of the International Building Code deal with  horizontal and vertical wall sealant applications for “airborne sound” mitigation, for example.   Fire protection and mass notification systems identified in NFPA 72 and UL 2572 depend upon alarms actually being heard by the occupants underscore the importance of acoustic design.  When lively art spaces are also instructional spaces we seek to understand the standard of care for acoustic design of classroom spaces.   Of particular interest to us in the ASA bibliography is the title linked below:

ASA S12.60 Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools, Part 2: Relocatable Classroom Factors.

This is a fairly stable standard; though other sound related technologies we cover in other sound related technologies (ISO TC/43 Acoustics and IEC Electroacoustics TC 29).  Last year’s update was required by ANSI and we had no comments to submit; absent queries from students, faculty and staff.  It is wise to keep it on our radar, however, given the step-change in education communities owed to the pandemic.

On your own you may communicate with Caryn Mennigke at ASA: (631) 390-0215, asastds@acousticalsociety.org.  The ASA uses ANSI Standards Action for issuing live public consultation notices.

Since acoustic technologies cut across many disciplines we maintain it on the standing agenda of our Construction, Lively Art and Nota Bene teleconferences.   See our CALENDAR next scheduled meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [19-140]

Category: Academics, Architectural, #SmartCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Kristen Murphy


LEARN MORE:

Room acoustic design, measurement, and simulation techniques to reduce hospital noises within patients’ environment | Mojtaba Navvab,  University of Michigan

Acoustical/Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools   International Code Council

ASTM Standard E90, 2009 (2016). Standard Test Method for Laboratory Measurement of Airborne Sound Transmission Loss of Building Partitions and Elements

 

Study on the Relationship Between Speech Intelligibility and Quality Estimates in University Classrooms

Campus Outdoor Lighting

“The Starry Night” | Vincent van Gogh

The IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee has completed a chapter on recommended practice for designing, building, operating and maintaining campus exterior lighting systems in the forthcoming IEEE 3001.9 Recommended Practice for the Design of Power Systems for Supplying Commercial and Industrial Lighting Systems; a new IEEE Standards Association title inspired by, and derived from, the legacy “IEEE Red Book“.  The entire IEEE Color Book suite is in the process of being replaced by the IEEE 3000 Standards Collection™  which offers faster-moving and more scaleable, guidance to campus power system designers.

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


LEARN MORE:

Electrical Switch Station #8

Construction progress update: May 24, 2024

This project restores the Old Art Gallery building for a new electrical switching station. The 1904 building was originally the campus powerhouse, supplying electricity and steam to the young Berkeley campus. As the campus grew, power demands exceeded its capacity and, in 1930, a new central plant opened in the southwest part of campus. In 1934, the former powerhouse building reopened as a gallery to display art and served this purpose until a new University Art Museum opened on Bancroft Way in 1970. The building was subsequently used for storage for more than 50 years.

In restoring and structurally improving the Old Art Gallery building to house the new Switch Station #8, the small brick building that began its storied life as a powerhouse more than 100 years ago will become a key component in UC Berkeley’s 100% clean energy future.

IEEE TV: Overview of UC Berkely Resistance Grounded Campus Power System

Campus Bulk Electrical Distribution

High Voltage Electric Service

Pacific Gas & Electric: Electric Service Requirements (TD-7001M) 2022-2023″Greenbook Manual”

The University Campus As A Designed Work and an Artefact of Cultural Heritage

The University Campus in the United States—As a Designed Work to Produce Knowledge; and as an Artefact of Cultural Heritage

Paul Hardin Kapp
School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States

 

ABSTRACT: The university campus in the United States is a unique architectural and landscape architecture typology. Nothing like it existed until Harvard University was established in 1638. Invented during in the 17th century by the American colonists and later developed during the American Industrial Revolution, the American campus is a community devoted to teaching and generating knowledge. It can be urban, suburban, and/or rural in form and its planning directly correlates with a university’s research mission and the pedagogy of the American university system. Its buildings and landscapes are embedded with iconography, which the founding builders used to convey their values to future generations.

This paper presents the history of how this designed work first emerged in American society and then evolved in ways that responded to changes that occurred in America. At the end of the 20th century, universities conserved parts of them as cultural heritage monuments. Originally, the university campus was built to disseminate a classical education, but later, the campus was built for technical and agricultural education. By the beginning of the 20th century, professional education and sport changed its architecture and landscape. The paper briely discusses that while it has inspired how universities are built to teach and generate knowledge throughout the world. It concludes by reairming its value to cultural heritage and that it should be conserved.

Illinois

Athletics facilities upgrades: $390 Million

Program Title Page

OSU was founded in 1890 as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 set in motion by President Abraham Lincoln. It has approximately 30,000 students across 1500 acres with 400 buildings. Its athletic department runs an operating budget of about $100 million.

Facilities Management

Standards Oklahoma

Orange Crush Couples

Fenestration

The oldest door still in use in Pantheon (115 A.D.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“No work of art can be great,

if it is not composed of the smallest things.”

Vitruvius  (Book VII, Chapter 9)

 

Today we sweep through standards action in building glazing, entrances and means of egress.  The word fenestration (Latin: fenestra) has become a term of art for the design, construction, and placement of openings in a building, including windows, doors, skylights, and other glazed elements.  While the word has sparse use in the International Code Council and National Fire Protection Association catalog it is widely used by the Construction Specifications Institute in its MasterFormat system for organizing construction standards, guidelines and building contracts.

The percentage of a building envelope “skin” that is comprised of doors and windows varies depending on the specific building design, function, and location. However, a commonly cited range is between 15% to 25% of the total building envelope.  The actual percentage will depend on several factors such as the building’s purpose, orientation, local climate, and energy performance goals. Buildings that require more natural light or ventilation, such as schools, hospitals, and offices, may have a higher percentage of windows and doors in their envelope. In contrast, buildings with lower lighting and ventilation requirements, such as warehouses, may have a smaller percentage of windows and doors.

Fenestration presents elevated risk to facility managers.  The education facility industry is a large target and a pattern of settling out of court.   For example:

  • In 2013, a former student at Yale University sued the school over a broken window in her dorm room. The student alleged that the university was negligent in failing to repair the window, which allowed a burglar to enter her room and sexually assault her. The case was settled out of court in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.
  • In 2019, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles sued the school over a broken window in her apartment. The student alleged that the university was negligent in failing to repair the window, which allowed a swarm of bees to enter her apartment and sting her. The case was settled out of court for $4.5 million.
  • In 2020, a group of students at Harvard University sued the school over its decision to require them to move out of their dorms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The students alleged that the university breached its contract with them by failing to provide suitable alternative housing, including functioning windows and doors.  (The case is ongoing; best we can tell as of the date of this post).

These cases illustrate that colleges and universities can face legal action related to doors and windows, either due to alleged negligence in maintaining or repairing them, or due to issues related to student housing and accommodations.

Our inquiry breaks down into two modules at the moment:

Exterior facing fenestration

Interior window walls and doors

Join us online at the usual time.

door (n.)

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Related:

Means of Egress

Life Safety Code

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

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