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Allston District Energy

Leers Weinzapfel Associates: Complete Project Prospectus 2021

Harvard Capital Project Vitals

Standards Massachusetts

Mechanical 330

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

“Eco-friendly”, “Green”, “Bio”… Companies are increasingly using those tags as a signal to consumers of their environmental awareness. Yet also on the rise is a public concern about potential corporate lies in this subject, a phenomena labelled as “greenwashing”.

According to IESE professor Pascual Berrone, “many companies highlight one green positive aspect of their product or service, and hide the true impact that its production has on the environment”. With more and more NGO’s act as public watchdogs, “the consequences of getting caught can be, in terms of reputation but also economically, severe”, he says.

Universidad de Navarra | Iruña

Uno a uno

Building Environment Design

Climate Psychosis

“The only thing worse than religion is lack of religion”

— Edmund Burke

 

U.S. Global Change Research Program: Overview and Considerations for Congress

IPCS New Comment on Climate Change

European Geosciences Union: The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 

A conversation with Bjorn Lomborg, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, and one of the foremost climate experts in the world today. His new book — “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” — is an argument for treating climate as a serious problem but not an extinction-level event requiring such severe and drastic steps as rewiring a large part of the culture and the economy.

How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! - Mark Twain

Dialectic: Climate Change

Mass Formation Psychosis

Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism

Readings

Brookings: Michael Crichton and Global Warming

Elevators & Lifts

The first elevator in the United States was installed at Harvard University in 1874. It was not a passenger elevator as we typically think of today, but rather a freight elevator used to move heavy items within a building. The installation of this elevator marked an important development in building technology and transportation within multi-story structures. It was based on the design of Elisha Otis, who is famous for inventing the safety elevator with a safety brake system that prevents the elevator from falling if the hoisting cable fails. Otis’ innovation played a pivotal role in making elevators safe and practical for everyday use, leading to their widespread adoption in buildings around the world.

International Building Code Chapter 30: Elevators and Conveying Systems

Elevator design by the German engineer Konrad Kyeser (1405)

Education communities are stewards of 100’s of lifts, elevators and moving walks.  At the University of Michigan, there are the better part of 1000 of them; with 19 of them in Michigan Stadium alone.   The cost of building them — on the order of $50,000 to $150,000 per floor depending upon architectural styling — and the highly trained staff needed to operate, maintain and program interoperability software is another cost that requires attention.   All building design and construction disciplines — architectural, mechanical and electrical have a hand in making this technology safe and sustainabile.

We start with international and nationally developed best practice literature and work our way to state level adaptations.  Labor for this technology is heavily regulated.

Its a rarefied and crazy domain for the user-interest.  Expertise is passionate about safety and idiosyncratic but needs to be given the life safety hazard.  Today we review o pull together public consultation notices on relevant codes, standards and regulations today  11 AM/EDT.

Московский государственный университет имени

Elevators 500

More

NFPA 70 Article 620 Elevators, etc.

NEC Article 620 | David Herres

Elevator U

International Building Code Chapter 30: Elevators and Conveying Systems

Inside Higher Ed: Tragedy in an Elevator

Jimlielevators

University of Michigan Elevator Recall Control Wiring Schematic

University of Michigan Elevator Shaft Lighting Schematic

 

Disaster 500

During today’s session we approach disaster avoidance, management and recovery literature from a different point of view than our customary approach — i.e. what happens when, a) there is failure to conform to the standard, b) there is no applicable standard at all.  This approach necessarily requires venturing into the regulatory and legal domains.  We will confine our approach to the following standards development regimes:

  1. De facto standards: These are standards that are not officially recognized or endorsed by any formal organization or government entity, but have become widely adopted by industry or through market forces. Examples include the QWERTY keyboard layout and the MP3 audio format.
  2. De jure standards: These are standards that are formally recognized and endorsed by a government or standard-setting organization. Examples include the ISO 9000 quality management standard and the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard.
  3. Consortium standards: These are standards that are developed and maintained by a group of industry stakeholders or organizations, often with the goal of advancing a particular technology or product. Examples include the USB and Bluetooth standards, which are maintained by the USB Implementers Forum and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, respectively.
  4. Open standards: These are standards that are freely available and can be used, implemented, and modified by anyone without restriction. Examples include the HTML web markup language and the Linux operating system.
  5. Proprietary standards: These are standards that are owned and controlled by a single organization, and may require payment of licensing fees or other restrictions for use or implementation. Examples include the Microsoft Office document format and the Adobe PDF document format.
  6. ANSI accredited standards developers with disaster management catalogs

We may have time to review State of Emergency laws on the books of most government agencies; with special attention to power blackout disasters.

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Case Briefings

Managing Disaster with Blockchain, Cloud & IOT

Readings / Emergency Telecommunication Plans

Homeland Power Security

Storm Shelters

Current Code Development Cycle: 2024–2026

Happening Now: Groups A&B Public Comment Hearings

March 12, 2026

 

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

Latest News and Documents

“Landscape between Storms” 1841 Auguste Renoir

 

When is it ever NOT storm season somewhere in the United States; with several hundred schools, colleges and universities in the path of them? Hurricanes also spawn tornadoes. This title sets the standard of care for safety, resilience and recovery when education community structures are used for shelter and recovery.  The most recently published edition of the joint work results of the International Code Council and the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute SEI-7 is linked below:

2020 ICC/NSSA 500 Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters.

Given the historic tornados in the American Midwest this weekend, its relevance is plain.  From the project prospectus:

The objective of this Standard is to provide technical design and performance criteria that will facilitate and promote the design, construction, and installation of safe, reliable, and economical storm shelters to protect the public. It is intended that this Standard be used by design professionals; storm shelter designers, manufacturers, and constructors; building officials; and emergency management personnel and government officials to ensure that storm shelters provide a consistently high level of protection to the sheltered public.

This project runs roughly in tandem with the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute SEI-17 which has recently updated its content management system and presented challenges to anyone who attempts to find the content where it used to be before the website overhaul.    In the intervening time, we direct stakeholders to the link to actual text (above) and remind education facility managers and their architectural/engineering consultants that the ICC Code Development process is open to everyone.

The ICC receives public response to proposed changes to titles in its catalog at the link below:

Standards Public Forms

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

You are encouraged to communicate with Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for detailed, up to the moment information.  When the content is curated by ICC staff it is made available at the link below:

ICC cdpACCESS

We maintain this title on the agenda of our periodic Disaster colloquia which approach this title from the point of view of education community facility managers who collaborate with structual engineers, architects and emergency management functionaries..   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.

Readings:

FEMA: Highlights of ICC 500-2020

ICC 500-2020 Standard and Commentary: ICC/NSSA Design and Construction of Storm Shelters

IEEE: City Geospatial Dashboard: IoT and Big Data Analytics for Geospatial Solutions Provider in Disaster Management

 

Property Loss Prevention

Architect and Engineers Data Sheet Download | Updates January 2026

These are generally downloads.  We are happy to pick through the changes to the Electrical stack depending upon interest.

Left Panel Of George Julian Zolnay’s Allegorical “Academic, Business & Manual Education” Granite Frieze At Francis L. Cardozo High School (Washington, DC)

All fifty United States have their own “signature” disaster with which to reckon; some more than others.   California has earthquakes, Florida has hurricanes, Missouri has floods; and so on,  Life and property loss are preventable; but losses will persist because technical solutions notwithstanding, culture determines human behavior.  It is impossible to be alive and safe.

FM Global is one of several organizations that curate privately developed consensus products that set the standard of care for many industries; education communities among them.  These standards contribute to the reduction in the risk of property loss due to fire, weather conditions, and failure of electrical or mechanical equipment.  They incorporate nearly 200 years of property loss experience, research and engineering results, as well as input from consensus standards committees, equipment manufacturers and others.

If you want FMGlobal as your insurance carrier, or to supplement your organization’s self-insurance program, then you will likely be assigned an FMGlobal conformity professional.

A scan of its list data sheets indicate a number of noteworthy updates of documents establishing minimum requirements for safety technologies common in education facilities:

Technical Reports Supporting Code Change

Note that the bulk of the safety concepts in the foregoing titles incorporate by reference the safety concepts that cross our radar every day   FM Global provides direct access to the full span of its documents at this link:

FM GLOBAL PROPERTY LOSS PREVENTION DATA SHEETS

Note FM Global updates its standards every three months:

Standards in Progress

To respond to calls for public consultation you will need to set up (free) access credentials.

We keep FMGlobal titles — and the literature of other property insurers involved in standards setting — on the standing agenda of our Risk, Snow and Prometheus colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next meeting.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Risk, Facility Asset Management

More

Deloitte University: Innovation in Insurance

University of Pennsylvania demonstrates the critical importance of sprinklers in dormitories

Syracuse University presents an eclectic mix of risk management challenges

Jackson Laboratory

Representative force majeure clauses.

Example 1: Basic Force Majeure Clause

“Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performance of its obligations under this agreement due to events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, war, terrorism, civil commotion, labor strikes, and natural disasters. The affected party shall promptly notify the other party of the force majeure event and take reasonable steps to mitigate its impact on performance. During the continuance of such events, the obligations of the affected party shall be suspended, and the time for performance shall be extended.”

Example 2: Detailed Force Majeure Clause

“In the event that either party is unable to perform its obligations under this agreement due to a force majeure event, the affected party shall promptly notify the other party in writing, specifying the nature and anticipated duration of the force majeure event. Force majeure events shall include, but are not limited to, acts of God, strikes, lockouts, government action or inaction, war, terrorism, epidemics, and natural disasters. The affected party shall use reasonable efforts to overcome or mitigate the effects of the force majeure event. If the force majeure event continues for a period of [specified duration], either party may terminate this agreement by providing written notice to the other party.”

 

 

Means of Egress

Complete Monograph: 2024 Group A Proposed Changes (2658 pages)

International Building Code Chapter 30: Elevators and Conveying Systems

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

IBC Electrical (Outdoor Lighting)


International Fire Code

2024 International Fire Code | Free Access

Crosswalk: NFPA Fire Code and ICC International Fire Code

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES based on Committee Action Hearings October 2024

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

ICC BCAC | Comments to be presented at October Hearings

Noteworthy Proposals:

IFC 1010.27 Locking arrangements, PDF page 252

IFC 1020.2 Corridor Fire Resistance Ratings. PDF page 356

IFC 915 More Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems, PDF page 1156

IBC 917 Mass notification for Group E occupancies, PDF page 1176

IFC 5701 More Process Hazard Analysis, PDF page 1571

The transcript (Complete Monograph) of Committee Actions should be available by September 5th.

Committee Action Hearings on Proposed Changes: October 23-31 Long Beach, California

“A Square with Imaginary Buildings” | Hendrik van Steenwijck (1614)

LIVE: I-Code Group B Public Comment Hearings

Higher Education Laboratories

“Waking Effectiveness of Alarms for Adults Who Are Hard of Hearing” 2007  Victoria University, Australia

Health Facilities: Navigating IBC and NFPA differences

Posted February 14, 2023

Free access to the latest edition of the IFC is linked below:

2021 International Fire Code

Following the ICC Group A revision cycle public consultation on the 2024 International Fire Code will begin.  The ICC will announce the development schedule sometime in 2022.

We limit our resources simply tracking the proposals that run through Group E (Educational) and Group I (Institutional) occupancies in the Group A suite with closer attention to the state they are adopted whole cloth or with local exceptions.  In many cases, IFC adoption by state and local authorities is delayed by one or more previous code revisions.  This delay in adoption may be necessary in order for jurisdictions to evaluate the impact of changes upon the region under their authority.

Public safety budgets historically support the local and state fire marshal and his or her staff.   The revenue stream of many trade associations originates from membership, conference attendance, training and certification enterprises that service the public sector stakeholder.   Manufacturer sponsorship of trade association conferences is noteworthy.

Unless there is an idea, or proposed regulation that has run off the rails (either in terms of rigor or cost increase) — we place fire safety in the middle of our ranking of priorities.  With gathering pace, we find many fires safety goals being met with electrotechnologies where we place our highest priority.

Click on image for more information. The map is updated by expert agencies frequently so we recommend a web search for an update.

Significant code changes rarely happen within a 3-year cycle so it is wise to follow ideas as they travel through the agendas of technical committees through several cycles as administered by the Fire Code Action Committee.

The ICC posts the transcripts of public proposals, technical committee responses to public proposals, public response to the technical committee response and the final balloting in a fair and reasonable fashion as can be seen in the transcripts linked below:

2021 International Fire Code Proposed Changes

2021 International Fire Code Public Comment Agenda 

A search on the terms “classroom” or “school” in any of the documents above offers granular insight into the trend of current thinking.   We find fire extinguishers placement a perennial concern across several standards suites.   You will note the careful consideration of proposals for use of the mass notification systems, now integrated into fire alarm systems and their deployment in active shooter situations.

The transcripts reveal detailed understanding and subtlety.

“The Country School” | Winslow Homer

There are many issues affecting the safety and sustainability of the education facility industry.  We add value to the industry because of our cross-cutting perspective on the hundreds of “silos”created by the competition (and sometimes cooperation) among accredited, consortia and open-source standards developers.  We have the door open every day at 11 AM Eastern time to enlighten understanding of them all.  We also host a breakout teleconference every month to drill into the specifics of standards action on fire safety for the real assets of school districts, colleges and universities.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Finally, we persist in encouraging education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process.  You may do so by CLICKING HERE.

The ICC Group B Code Meetings will be hosted soon and open to the public:   

International Code Council 2022 Group B Public Comment Agenda (September 14-21 Kentucky International Convention Center)

The Group B tranche is largely focused on energy, structural, residential and existing building concepts but all of the titles cross-reference the IFC in some way so it is wise to follow how the concepts re-arrange and cross-reference themselves with each cycle.

 

Issue: [16-169]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management, Space Planning

Colleagues: Mike Anthony,  Casey Grant, Joshua Evolve, Marcelo Hirschler

More

2021/2022 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

FINAL ACTION RESULTS ON THE 2018 PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE INTERNATIONAL CODES – GROUP A

2018 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES COLUMBUS COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE

2018 GROUP A PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA | INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE

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

 

 

Exploring technological preventive methods for school shootings

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Exploring technological preventive methods for school shootings

Kelechi M. Ikegwu – Evelyn Sowells – Howard Hardiman

Department of Computer Systems Technology, North Carolina A&T State University

 

ABSTRACT.  The horrific and tragic deaths that have resulted from infamous school shootings have deprived Americans of the sense of security in what has traditionally been a nurturing and safe environment. This paper will discuss different preventive methods for school shootings. The most current preventive methods are examined for fitness based on a variety of school shootings that have occurred in the past. Then a framework for a new school shooting protection device is proposed and evaluated. Concepts from computer vision, anomaly detection, and electromagnetic propulsion are discussed with respect to the proposed framework. Ideally, the goal of the framework presented in this paper is to prevent deaths and injuries from occurring during a school shooting. With the framework, an efficient and comparatively affordable preventive method could be released in the near future.

CLICK HERE to order complete paper

 

K-12 School Security

 

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