Continuing on with last week’s entry on Sustainable Design, the first set of credits for LEED certification are for Sustainable Sites.  This area focuses on those elements of facility design associated with the land on which a building sits.

The intent is to select sites that have been developed previously to avoid destroying valuable wildlife habitat, farmland, etc.  Also, it recommends using sites accessible to pedestrian and public transportation to limit the need for individuals driving cars to the buildings and increasing pollution.

There is emphasis on increasing the amount of open space around buildings to increase their aesthetic value as well as to avoid “Heat island effect,” which increases temperatures because there are no trees and grass to absorb heat from the sun.

Appropriate stormwater management and avoiding excessive light pollution are also addressed by the Sustainable Sites credits.

There is a current movement in the country and around the world for sustainable or “green” design.  The engineering profession is being challenged to enhance the quality of life and the built environment while preserving and maintaining the natural environment.  Among the initiatives is the LEED ® program which was developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization.  This program seeks to establish an objective system to incorporate sustainable principles into the design and construction of manmade buildings and infrastructure.

Buildings consume 39% of total energy, 70% of electricity, 40% of raw materials and 12% of potable water in the United States.  They produce 30% of greenhouse gas emissions and 30% of waste output.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll examine how engineers can incorporate sustainable design to reduce the impact of buildings and infrastructure on our world.
 

Paul T. Garrison, PE
HSMM AECOM

The Math and Science Innovation Center (MSIC) of Richmond, Virginia is hosting a second annual engineering education conference for local teachers.

Last year, ACEC Virginia, along with the MSIC, helped coordinate and manage the inaugural training session that included education sessions at construction sites around Richmond. The goal of last year’s sessions was to educate teachers so that they would then be empowered to teach elementary engineering principles to students in their respective schools. The goal this year is similar, however, with the trained teachers now running the sessions.

ACEC Virginia members assisted by speaking at the event.  Those folks included

• Mike Matthews (Hankins & Anderson), topic: WHY ENGINEERING?
• Kerry Herr (DJG), Brenda Kliesen (Hankins & Anderson) and Mike A. Matthews (The Structures Group, Inc.), topic: HOW I BECAME AN ENGINEER
• Ian Frost, (EEE Consulting), topic: GREEN ENGINEERING

Several projects from our members were also featured including

• State Capitol Green Roof
• State Capitol Renovation
• VCU / MCV Hospital
• Route 17 Dismal Swamp
• New Kent LEED Rest Area
• James River Water Treatment Plant
• Rockett’s Landing Brownfield Redevelopment
• Miller & Rhoads Renovation

This viral education effort is part of an overall push in the industry for more engineering education in the Virginia school system. An increasing need for qualified engineers coupled with a shrinking labor pool has created this focus on engineering education for young children.

In order to obtain work in the architecture, engineering and construction industries, firms must complete Request for Proposals (RFP’s). An RFP is an invitation for companies providing services to submit a proposal outlining how they can meet the needed requirements of the client. For example, the Corps of Engineers (client) may issue an RFP requesting civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering work for a new university. A firm would then gather all of their resources and materials to build a proposal, displaying their qualifications on why they would be the best fit for the job.

While responding to the RFP, firms need to be responsible for the language they use because if the firm wins the work, they are legally bound to the information they provided. According to Insurance Representative Mike Heatwole of Ames & Gough a firm should always be aware of:

• The nature of the project – what exactly is the client asking for?
• Firm capabilities – does the firm have the services to perform this job?
• Specific client attributes – who is the client and what are they looking for in a prospective firm?
• Constraints on time and cost – does the firm have the staff/resources to complete the project?

Mike also recommends avoiding language that creates unrealistic expectations that a firm cannot fulfill:

• Heightened expectations:
  • “highest,” “best,” “most”
• Perfection:
  • “all,” “complete,” “free from faults and defects”

Basically a firm should not guarantee “flawless” services for a job, because conflicts and/or problems may occur during the project. The purposes of a professional service agreement with a client are to:

• Define the project scope
• Establish and clarify relationships
• Allocate responsibilities and risk
• Confirm the mutual understanding in writing

As part of an industry-wide push to educate children in elementary, middle and high schools about engineering, the ACEC of Virginia partnered with the Math and Science Innovation Center in Richmond to develop training for school teachers and activities for their students. Selecting teachers from surrounding counties, we offered engineering training based on real-life projects. The result is certified teachers with a wealth of practical knowledge of the built environment to distribute amongst their students and peers. We called the project Engineering for the 21^st Century.

Below is information about the real-life projects we used:

Rockett’s Landing Brownfield Redevelopment, City of Richmond Virginia

Check out how geotechnical engineers help determine how to make an old, contaminated warehouse site in Richmond into a beautiful community!

OR

Check out this video on this “green” rest area in New Kent County, Virginia

Nowadays it seems like everyone is “going green.” Well rest areas are no exception! See how this rest area was built to maintain itself.

It seems doubtful that when someone thinks of civil engineering, they also think of landscape architecture. They are two different fields with a lot of overlap that both deal with land development and design. Civil engineers work more on the detailed, technical side while landscape architects, more often, work on the creative, artistic front. Both can greatly benefit from the others knowledge. So when the two disciplines can work together in harmony, the outcome can be great; not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. A degree in landscape architecture allows the recipient to specialize in many different aspects of design such as golf course design, urban design, historic preservation, conservation, and traditional landscape architecture.

The Preamble of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Code of Professional Ethics states that one within the field should have a “dedication to the public health, safety, and welfare and recognition and protection of the land and its resources.” What a better place to be able to adhere to that standard and combine professional resources than working for a multi-disciplinary engineering firm? Working at such a firm has helped make me a well rounded and versatile professional. The skills and knowledge that I have obtained allow me to work on a wide range of projects.

For more information on Landscape Architecture, please visit www.asla.org .

Angie Werner, Landscape Designer, Draper Aden Associates

As I approach my 40^th year in the engineering profession I have begun to look backwards over the advances we have experienced in the practice of civil and environmental engineering. Of course, most notable are the growth of high technology and the use of computers for design and drawing production. And now technological advances in computing, communications, surveying, and publishing have really revolutionized how we do engineering business.

It still is basically a business of measurements, calculations, and nuts and bolts, but the speed with which all of that can be accomplished has increased a thousand fold from the early 1970’s. And now we see 24-7 around-the- world engineering operations where work is passed off from one office at the end of the day to another part of the world where engineers are just waking up and so on again in 8-hour jumps around the globe.

The use of laser and optical measuring surveying instruments, robotic survey instruments, and Global Positioning Satellite survey methods have changed the face of land surveying forever. Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) programs have vanquished the pencil and paper methods of drawing production. The coming revolution in CADD are the 3D applications that function in real time as expert systems, not only designing elements of a civil project, but checking for conflicts, verifying the feasibility of the design, as well as keeping a running account of quantities of materials used in the design.

For future engineers, I can only imagine what is ahead. My advice to young people entering engineering studies now is to diversify your knowledge base. Besides the standard engineering curricula, study languages (Chinese, Spanish, Arabic), business and economics (find out how businesses work), biology and chemistry (the basis for all Green Technologies), and sociology and history (you need to know how the World works).

For more information, HERE is a helpful article. 

Larry Wallace, Senior Project Director-Site Planning & Engineering, Draper Aden Associates

Since man has existed he has progressively reached for the sky—creating buildings and structures that stretch the engineering mind and architectural imagination.  From the Pyramids at Giza to the Eiffel Tower of France, the innate human drive to push ingenuity to its limit, shatter records, and seemingly attempt to touch the heavens has and will always remain.  It is the structural engineer who sits at the center of this equation—developing ideas and systems that allow the human race to continue to reach for the stars.�

The tallest free standing man-made structure that exists today—is in fact not completely finished. This building is the Burj Dubai—a mixed-use development of office, residential, and shopping space that will stretch over 2,600 feet above the Middle Eastern skyline in the country of the United Arab Emirates.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (the lead architects for the Burj Dubai), who are responsible for ensuring the structural integrity of the building, are utilizing their high-rise experience that includes a portfolio of the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois and The Freedom Towers in New York, New York.  Because the race to build the tallest building in the world is such an intense competition, the project’s actual height is being kept a secret.  In addition to the Burj Dubai, there are others currently building large structures similar in height. Interested in building something TALLER than the Burj Dubai?  You had better be able to pay for it.  The Burj costs over 4.1 billion dollars to build.  Learn more about the project and building
HERE. 

Katherine Bicer works on engine parts for helicopters like Black Hawks, Seahawks, and Apaches.  As a Life Management Engineer for GE, Katherine analyzes the working span of the moving parts inside of engines.  Her passion for materials engineering stems from her degree in chemistry and her interest in archeology.“Materials,” she says, “are anything that’s solid, tangible, like the rubber soles on your shoes, the plastic in your water bottle…really materials are just about everything that you can touch…they are really cool because they fill all kinds of needs…it’s up to people like me to find the materials that the kind of performance would put on the helicopter engine.” (www.engineeryourlife.org)

Katherine’s passion for the engineering profession is a great example of leadership and inspiration for young girls and women that want to follow in her footsteps.  A great start to a career in engineering is focusing on developing math and science skills in high school.  History and geography classes give you a great perspective on what is taking place in the world around you, whereas art gives you the opportunity to express yourself visually.Another example of an accomplished female engineer is Erin Fletcher.  As a civil engineer, Erin develops bridges and barriers that reduce traffic noise in neighboring communities.  She is the project manager of a $14 million noise-mitigation wall alongside Interstate 5 in Seattle, Washington.“Building a wall like this is much more complicated that it appears,” says Erin.  “It’s always a balance between the best engineering practices and the aesthetic, environmental, political, and community needs.”

So, although Erin uses her expertise in engineering to complete big projects like this one, she also uses team-building skills and ethical relations while making decisions in her day-to-day duties.  The next step in preparing yourself for an engineering career is taking the right classes for admission into an engineering program.  Recommended courses include: Four years of math (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus), four years of science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry), four years of language arts, and three years of a foreign language.

All of the following Virginia universities have engineering programs:
·        Christopher Newport (Newport News)
·        George Mason (Fairfax)
·        Hampton
·        Old Dominion (Norfolk)
·        University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
·        Virginia Commonwealth (Richmond)
·        Virginia Military Institute (Blacksburg)
·        Virginia State (Petersburg)