Awards competitions
Beyond Green – SBIC’s 2007 High-Performance Building Awards
The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) presents the 2007 Beyond Green High Performance Building Awards. This program recognizes the initiatives that shape, inform, and catalyze the high-performance building market, as well as the real-world application of high-performance design and construction practices.
Award winners will be invited to present their projects at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. The program will be held on January 16, 2008, in conjunction with a lecture series sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
So that others may learn from this process, winning projects will also be published on the Whole Building Design Guide website, which is managed by the National Institute of Building Science.
>> more (call for entries)
>> more (jury selection)
Justice Facilities Review 2008
The AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice invites all registered architects to submit projects that represent the state of the art in justice facility design. Justice Facilities Review 2008 offers an opportunity to put your firm’s jury-selected projects before administrators, architects, representatives of state and local jurisdictions, and others involved in the justice system.
A jury of architects and justice facilities administrators will screen entries. Selected projects will be published in the companion publication, Justice Facilities Review
2008, and featured in several traveling exhibits. Small firms (i.e., firms with five or fewer staff) are eligible to submit entries at a discounted rate. The AIA encourages architects to submit their design work for consideration. Entry forms are due Jan. 15, 2008.
>> more (submission requirements – PDF)
>> more (submission forms – Microsoft Word)
back to index
Events
The Sixth National Forum on Historic Preservation Practice: call for papers
The Sixth National Forum on Historic Preservation Practice, to be held at Goucher College, March 2009, will explore the challenges that preservation faces in becoming a critical component of the national debate about sustainability. The Sixth National Forum is interested in receiving abstracts on the following topics: the interface between preservation and sustainable architecture and landscape architecture standards; how preservation practice can be used to create sustainable neighborhoods and commercial districts; accommodating growth and preservation in existing urban and rural environments; and developing effective connections between preservation organizations and those promoting smart growth and sustainability. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Jan. 31, 2008.
>> more (inquiries) David L. Ames, Conference Coordinator
The Future of Professional Practice Conference
Dec. 2-4, Washington, D.C.
The Future of Professional Practice Conference will provide a roadmap to professional practice in the 21st century. Hear from those who are reinventing the practice of architecture – the people, firms, and experts – about how trends including emerging technology, integrated delivery methods, and global collaboration and competition are changing the way architects practice.
>> more
North Carolina American Water Works Association and Water Environment Association (NC AWWA-WEA) Annual Conference
Dec. 2-5, Charlotte, N.C.
The conference program will consist of four concurrent sessions and forums on topics related to water, wastewater, collection and distribution, industrial wastewater, policy and management, and other special topics.
>> more (brochure)
>> more (registration)
BIM Executive Summit Tokyo
Dec. 4, Dai-Ichi Tokyo Hotel, Tokyo
This event will provide top-tier building industry executives the opportunity to gather and guide each other and the industry. The central topics of the summit arise in response to critical new technology-enabled methodologies, changing business practices, and innovative building and project performance objectives. These forces are rapidly reshaping the building professions.
>> more (Japanese)
>> more (previous BIM Executive Summits)
Ecobuild Fall and AEC-ST Fall
Dec. 10-13, Washington, D.C.
Ecobuild Fall and AEC-ST Fall – the annual gathering place for AEC professionals who design, construct, and manage facilities and who specify building products, materials, and services – goes beyond green to cover the breadth of green building, sustainable design, renewable energy, environmental planning processes, and information collaboration strategies for commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential construction. Attendees include the federal government, design and construction decision makers from the public sector and private practice, AEC professionals, owners, developers, and facility managers – the entire project team in one place, at one time.
>> more
GEOPAK Regional Training Event
Dec. 10-12, Miami, Fla.
This event is an excellent learning opportunity, offering interested professionals a wealth of ways to hone their GEOPAK and other Bentley software skills – from peer-presented case studies to technical presentations. The workshops offer an excellent and low-cost way to earn professional development hours.
>> more
Eighth International Conference on Multipurpose High-Rise Towers and Tall Buildings
Dec. 10-12, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The theme of this year’s conference is “Innovations in Conquest of Vertical Space – Reaching for the Skies.” The event is organized by the International Federation for High-Rise Structures.
>> more
AHR Expo
Jan. 22-24, 2008, New York, N.Y.
Drawing from the nation’s largest concentration of HVAC&R contractors, engineers, distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers, AHR Expo will offer thousands of industry professionals the opportunity to see hundreds of new products and technologies.
>> more
>> more (register)
DistribuTECH 2008 Conference and Exhibition
Jan. 22-24, Tampa, Fla.
Entering its 18th year, DistribuTECH provides current resources, new industry technologies, and fast-track networking opportunities. The leading annual transmission and distribution (T&D) event, DistribuTECH encompasses automation and control systems, IT, T&D engineering, power delivery equipment, and water utility technology.
>> more
>> more (register)
Internationales Anlagenbauforum
Jan. 23-24, Baden-Baden/Iffezheim, Germany
Organized by the publisher of the German magazine Economic Engineering (formerly CADPlus), this conference will focus on the impact of collaboration in engineering projects. Project managers and decision makers within EPCs and owner-operators of industrial plants will benefit from presentations of best practices from companies such as Areva, Bentley, Contact Software, BMW, Dürr FAS, EWE, Güntner, IBM/Dassault Systemes, KPC-E, Siemens PG, ThyssenKrupp Blohm+Voss, and ThyssenKrupp Uhde.
>> more
daratechPLANT2008
Jan. 28-30, Houston, Texas
Daratech is currently building the daratechPLANT2008 program. Use this form to request a brochure and one will be sent when it is available. If you would like to speak to someone about the conference, contact Kenzo An at (+1) 617 354.2339, ext. 2607. For information about last year’s conference, visit www.daratech.com/plant2007
>> more (brochure, when available)
>> more (contact)
>> more (last year’s conference)
SPAR 2008: Capturing and Managing Existing-Conditions Data for Design, Construction, and Operations
Mar. 3-5, Houston, Texas
Now in its fifth year and expanded to three days, SPAR 2008 provides a rare opportunity to see not only the latest offerings from every major supplier of advanced 3D laser scanning, LIDAR, GPS, and total-station hardware and software technologies from across the globe, but also design and data management software and solutions from the world's leading suppliers.
>> more
NTCA IP Possibilities conference
April 7-11, Chicago, Ill.
The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) is a nonprofit association representing more than 570 small and rural telephone cooperatives and commercial companies. At this conference, attendees can evaluate new applications and their impact on their operations, discover practical answers to the most pressing questions surrounding IP technology, assess lessons learned from players already active with IP broadband deployments, and more.
>> more (conference site)
>> more (register)
MEA Global Energy Forum
April 29, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Microsoft will be holding the Global Energy Forum for the Middle East and Africa in Abu Dhabi. The event will target top-notch customers from across the Middle East and Africa region, and select customers/speakers from global majors from Europe. This is a buildup on Microsoft’s Global energy forum that has been held in U.S. (Houston) for the last four years with key figures like James Baker, President Bush Sr. and others. The theme of the event is “People, The Real Energy in Oil & Gas” – building on our advocacy for People-Ready Business Solutions for the O&G.
>> more (2007 conference)
back to index
AEC and GIS news
Norman Foster adds courtyard to Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery
The museums reside in the venerable Patent Office Building, one of this country’s finest examples of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture. When the British architect Norman Foster was hired to renovate the museums’ courtyard and enclose it under a glass roof, he essentially was told: Don’t dare disturb the old building. Such strictures might have handcuffed a less nimble architect. But Mr. Foster seems to have relished the challenge. Capped by an undulating glass-and-steel roof, the courtyard is inserted into the existing building with striking delicacy. The project shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery.
>> more (New York Times)
Key Communications Bills Pass House
Two key bills passed in Congress just before Thanksgiving recess that, if enacted, will augment the U.S. communications infrastructure. These bills will improve emergency 911 access by IP-based voice services safer, and will also direct the collection of data regarding the types and extent of broadband access nationwide, complementing industry efforts to see broadband deployed universally across the country.
>> more (TIA Network)
Having fun can be serious business for AE firms
Competing to attract and retain workers in Seattle leads to yodeling contests, skateboard luges in the lunchroom, and paid foreign travel.
>> more
But is fun the answer to the resource shortage?
>> more (construction.com forum)
Congress overrides Water Resources Development Act veto
The $23 billion water resources bill authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete more than 900 projects related to flood control, navigation, water supply, environmental restoration and infrastructure projects. The act includes significant funding for projects related to hurricane damage along the Gulf Coast and new independent review requirements for projects more than $45 million. It also outlines the process for de-authorizing un-built projects which are obsolete or no longer necessary.
>> more (APWA)
Converging on the Market: CAD, Geospatial, 3D, Visualization, and BIM
Sam Bacharach of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) explains how a diverse set of technologies, including spatial technologies, are merging as they transition toward interoperability. Through the results of an OGC interoperability text bed, Bacharach demonstrates that building information modeling (BIM) and policies that promote data sharing and BIM standards are key components in solving a productivity challenge that costs the construction industry tens of billions of dollars each year in the United States alone. Says Bacharach, “BIM relies on interoperability among a range of information technologies to enable efficiencies: fewer delays, mistakes, and misunderstandings; fewer meetings and phone calls; and fewer physical deliveries of information media.”
>> more
Creating a modern Indian city: An interview with Delhi’s chief minister
Sheila Dikshit discusses the challenge of urban development in India. She has helped guide an array of economic and political changes. Under her watch, the first phase of the Delhi Metro was completed on budget and on time. The second phase is on track to be completed in time for the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to take place in the city in 2010. Also during her tenure, power distribution has been privatized, pollution reduced, and green areas throughout the city increased. Students at government schools are performing better.
>> more (McKinsey Quarterly)
In Miles of Alleys, Chicago Finds Its Next Environmental Frontier
Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with environmentally sustainable road-building materials under its Green Alley initiative, something experts say is among the most ambitious public street makeover plans in the country. In a larger sense, the city is rethinking the way it paves things.
In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.
>> more (New York Times)
back to index
User stories
Installation of Welding Halobutyl Rubber Finishing Unit
The Welding Halobutyl Rubber Finishing Unit is a $2 million reconstruction project in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, Russia. The unit, whose finished product capacity is four tons per hour, consists of the following sections: dewatering unit with a variable draw hole; pre-drying extruder; drying unit with two screws and turbulator; air drier; conveyors and two feeders of baling presses; control system; baling system; and packaging line.
All parts of the 3D model were completed in Bentley software and the company was able to check all the parts together in the assembly. At the engineering design stage, the mechanical engineers used a PlantSpace dataset tailored to the client's requirements, which automated the use of specifications in accordance with the technical assignment.
In all, the company saved $100,000 and four months in the project through its use of Bentley software.
>> more
Rio Verde Area Drainage Master Plan
The purpose of the Arizona Rio Verde Area Drainage Master Plan is to identify flooding problems and ways to mitigate them. The major challenge was to establish a regulatory floodplain in a distributary flow system characterized by sandy bottom washes, concentrated channelized flow and overbank sheet flow drainage conditions, and rapid growth that’s changing drainage and flood protection needs. The project team is developing its plan using a 2D flow model, and is vectorizing the flow using Bentley software.
A GIS environment was first used to analyze the results of the 2D hydrologic and hydraulic model, but it was not suited for the advanced 3D analytic calculations the project required. The GIS output was in the form of 2D color plots. The plots had a color scheme that was based on various hydraulic variables and the results, although valid, were difficult to visualize.
>> more
back to index
Bentley news
Bentley Trial Program for Generative Design
Bentley’s trial program for generative design in architecture and engineering includes a no-charge 90-day subscription to GenerativeComponents – Bentley’s generative design software – and a Web 2.0 community “space” for users to accelerate their learning and to share ideas about this new approach to design.
In generative design, architects and engineers describe design components and relationships using elegant, powerful algorithms. As the design progresses, a change to one component in the system automatically drives changes to other related components – updating the design. Using this approach on even the most complex designs, users can quickly explore a broad range of alternatives, speed their design iterations, and generate designs that are freer in form, more efficient, and more fit for purpose.
“In generative design, architects and engineers are achieving results and designs that were virtually unthinkable before,” said Buddy Cleveland, senior vice president, Bentley Applied Research. “They’ve upgraded from using computers to simply speed the drawing process to employing immense computational power to discover their ideal design.”
GenerativeComponents uniquely preserves and exploits the critical relationships between design intent and geometry. Users can, for instance, dynamically model and manipulate geometry, apply rules and capture relationships among geometric features, and define complex forms through concisely expressed algorithms. By virtue of GenerativeComponents’ extension of Bentley’s MicroStation environment, the resulting generative designs can flow through to detailed production and fabrication without information loss.
>> more
back to index
BIM Summits
BIM Summits, held worldwide, include best-practices seminar sessions that are both informative and inspiring. Leading practitioners share not only how they are benefiting from BIM, but also where they aspire to be.
The varied perspectives from the different types of firms and disciplines and different approaches represented at BIM Summits provide a rich basis for the afternoon session’s lively discussion. It is clear from these discussions that BIM is the way leading firms are and will practice as the profession moves ahead.
At each BIM Summit, the day’s activities are recorded, capturing the excellent discussions and information for all who participated, as well as those unable to attend. Also, links are provided to topics and information referenced during the day to provide reference resource on these topics. As these materials become available, they can be accessed at www.BIMsummits.com. Material from several BIM Summits is currently available at that page.
The most recent BIM Summit was held in the Sydney Opera House in Australia in November. The agenda included case studies presented by Bovis Lend Lease, Stuart Bull, Arup, PYNG Architects Paul Akers of the Sydney Opera House Trust, and others, as well as presentations by Bentley representatives. The next BIM Summit is taking place on Dec. 4 in Tokyo. For information about that meeting, visit the Japanese page http://ac.nikkeibp.co.jp/na/bim2007/.
Bentley is proud to be able to facilitate such a gathering of leaders and will continue to support the building community as we all work to improve the built environment. We look forward to continued discussion on BIM and sustainable design and how both are positively reshaping the building professions.
back to index
Sponsors
HP delivers workstation technologies that help you work efficiently, and reduce costs.
The main HP workstation line includes the xw4400, xw6400 and xw8400 which feature Intel® Core 2 Duo, Xeon™, dual core processors or quad core processors. In addition, HP offers highly secure Blade Workstations which provide the ability to design in 3D anywhere, accessing centralized workstations from great distances, with great 3D performance.
>> Learn more about HP and great deals on HP workstations
>> Learn more about HP and Bentley
 GEOPAK Site I,
Dec. 18-20, Charlotte, N.C.
This entry-level course introduces students to site design through a proposed commercial development project. Extensive use of site modeler tools are used to develop a typical site design project. Time allowing, a session on storm water drainage design and water/sewer design will be covered. (This course is also suitable for PowerCivil users. Register.
back to index
The worldwide schedule of Bentley Institute training
Find the of Bentley Institute training that can best fill your needs.
>> more (PDF)
back to index
Recent Bentley press releases and news stories
Bentley Releases ProjectWise Lifecycle Server 8.9.3 Edition
Registration Open for Bentley’s Water Loss Seminar and Workshop 2008
Bentley Ships All-New StormCAD, No. 1 Hydraulic Modeling Solution for Stormwater Networks
Nacap Telecom BV Wins 2007 Be Award
Bentley releases STAAD.Pro 2007
Bentley Announces Trial Program for Generative Design
Bentley Receives Stoomwezen Certification for AutoPIPE V8.6, 8.9, and 9.0
Bentley BIM Approach/Features Preferred Over Revit 58 to 38 Percent in BIM Survey
Bentley’s Haestad Methods Solutions Selected No. 1 Water Resources Modeling Software in National Survey
back to index
Call for feedback
Something to say?
Send letters and comments to the editor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ezines
You can revise your subscription settings, or sign up to receive Be Magazine, Be Newsletter, BentleyWire, and NewsStreams at http://appsnet.bentley.com/profile/subscriptions.aspx
Previous issues of Be Newsletter can be found here.
© 2007 Bentley Systems, Incorporated. 685 Stockton Drive Exton, PA USA 19341. AutoPIPE, Bentley, the "B" logo, Be, Bentley Institute, GenerativeComponents, Haestad Methods, MicroStation, PlantSpace, PowerCivil, ProjectWise and GEOPAK, STAAD.Pro, StormCAD are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated, or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. |