Architecture & Design

We were enthralled by the beauty of architecture and jewelry at a young age. We learned that a building's characteristics extend beyond the components it is made of. They are long-lasting constructions that deal with both the past and the future.

Celebrities houses are luxuries, opulent and incredibles all around the world. You can learn about the most magnificent mansions and their well-known owners in this post.

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A window glass that’s a sure-fire hit and a restaurant that became a sure-fire winner for installing it. When a dynamic glass transforms dining experience, people enjoy eating more. They become unmindful of the sunlight entering the restaurant’s premises. They see it but they don’t feel it.

If there will be things that should come to the attention of the powers-that-be behind tech companies, that would be building-management lessons from data centers. These lessons will help deal with various key issues involving the operation of data centers. The lessons should be discussed, especially when energy conservation remains a hot issue nowadays.

Architects share their views on the changes happening in cities and in the suburbs – even when it comes to parking and the much-dreaded availability of parking spaces. As mixed use comes of age, architects express their views on how the demands of modern living affect building designs. With that considered, what changes could be expected from mixed-use developments?

Patient comfort assured by groundwater cooling system. The new Community Cancer Care facility at the Community Medical Center in Missoula, MT, benefits from a system that gives new meaning to comfortable, convenient healthcare. “From the outset, the main design criterion of this project was patient comfort,” said Dennis Greeno, partner at OZ Architects, Boulder, CO, the firm that designed the facility.

When creative design is implemented by skilled installers, flooring can become the primary design feature in a room. Here’s some inspiration for your next project. While carpet tiles or some form of resilient flooring in a complementary pattern/color is usually the best solution in a commercial installation, occasionally an opportunity presents itself for an architect or designer to make the floor play a dominant role in the space. On this and the following page are two such projects.

A university building is renovated with special attention paid to its arched-top historical windows. The 120-year-old McDonald-Smith building, located in the Union Station Historic District on the campus of the Univ. of Washington-Tacoma (UW Tacoma), underwent reconstruction and renovation and opened for the 2015-16 academic year. The renovation included Mission Glass, Tumwater, WA, installing more than 116 of Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ (Wausau, WI) 4250i-XLT INvent Retro series simulated double-hung, arched top, fixed windows.

With air-barrier certification, IWR Building Systems encloses the exterior of a children’s hospital. IWR Building Systems, St. Louis, a specialty contractor focusing on building enclosure systems, served as the exclusive contractor for the entire exterior of the city’s new Shriners Hospitals for Children at 4400 Clayton Ave. The company is certified by the Air Barrier Association of America (ABAA), Walpole, MA.

Sustainability goals integrate with sophisticated lighting systems. Any development or construction endeavor within the Marion School District in Marion, AR, begins with a rigorous sustainability investigation to ensure the project will adhere to its strict 30-yr.-outlook strategy, a benchmark to ensure that any commissioned project sustain itself for at least 30 yr. They live by the motto “do it right the first time, make it last, and leave a sustainable legacy.”

A lighting retrofit project uses student research to aid university energy savings. As a major consumer of energy and natural resources, California State Univ., Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), a public university in Los Angeles, has made it their responsibility to be a wise steward of scarce resources by reducing the use of non-renewable resources and increasing energy efficiency. In keeping with that philosophy, central plant and energy manager Kenny Seeton led a cost and energy-saving lighting retrofit project for CSUDH.

Alpolic materials clad a library exterior in dramatic form. The Wolf Creek neighborhood in a southwest suburb of Atlanta needed a central place for hanging out, enjoying the company and creative efforts of one’s neighbors, engaging in civic dialog, and accessing resources for people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests. The Wolf Creek Library, part of a voter-approved $275-million program to enhance existing libraries and build eight new branches in Fulton County, GA, has become just that.

LEDs have opened the door to a new world of control in lighting and building automation. Not so long ago LED lighting was big news in commercial-lighting applications. LEDs are still a big thing, but more importantly they’ve ushered in a whole new array of control options along with the Internet of Things (IoT).

Digital Lumens’ system reduces lighting-related energy by 90% annually. Beyond fixture operation, variety, and light output, Mosca was impressed by the control capabilities and easy access to energy use and operational data through Digital Lumens’ LightRules, lighting and energy-management software. “When we presented the system, the controls and ability to program lights was more of a driver than anything else,” said Jim LaCanna. “After seeing the reporting and control capabilities, the team did not want to look anywhere else. Simple fixtures were not comparable.”

When healthcare puts demands on fixtures, it’s a sign that hospitals are serious with its fundamental mission of providing a healthy environment for both their personnel and patients. The plumbing needs of a hospital is big. For one, it installed a lot of faucets as it needs water for its daily operations. It’s a must to go for first-rate plumbing.

Because of the accompanying heat, sometimes it takes just a simple but well-thought-out fabric to make natural lighting bearable. When fabric filters sunlight, the place does not get warm that easily or quickly. The temperature remains comfortable enough for lounging - even for working. That’s what Google asked a company to do for its employees.

The Grace Chapel on the Lenoir-Rhyne Univ. campus uses concrete masonry units and exposed interior walls to complement other campus buildings and deliver excellent acoustics. Grace Chapel was built at the heart of the Lenoir­Rhyne Univ. campus in Hickory, NC, and immediately became a spiritual focal point for visitors to the university. The 425-seat chapel serves the needs of weekly religious services as well as music concerts and special events.

Guayule is the shrub and, if Bridgestone has its way, that scruffy desert plant could deliver some diversity and stability to the company’s supply of natural rubber. Pronounced “why-u-lee,” the plant is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., primarily Texas. It doesn’t look like much, but snap a branch and out oozes a clear, very sticky, latex.

VRF holds key to detroit renovation. Even though Detroit's population has dropped by more than half since 1950, downtown activity, like the $94.5 million renovation of the David Whitney Building, a Class A skyscraper, is a good sign from an economic and aesthetic point of view. The structure has been brought back to its former splendor and now houses opulent apartments as well as the Aloft Detroit hotel, a restaurant, and a bar.

The dual-chambered MagnaClean DualXP magnetic filter, one of the best HVAC & plumbing products, for hydronic system installations is believed to collect and remove almost all of the suspended iron-oxide sludge circulation in a system. It has two magnetic rods. Four non-magnetic capture zones for bigger circulation debris are also housed in the twin chambers.

Green walls turn plain walls into vertical gardens and can be built indoors or outdoors, attached to an existing wall, or standing alone. Green walls welcome restaurant guests restaurants, with more warmth and increase their sales. Dave MacKenzie, the president of Hortech, Inc. in Spring Lake, Michigan, and LiveWall, its environmentally friendly green wall subsidiary, says that indoor green walls welcome restaurant guests and improve the quality of the air inside.

Modern medical and graduate education facilities are housed in the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center in New York City. The 14-story, 100,000-square-foot glass skyscraper, which includes cutting-edge learning environments and collaborative areas, represents a new approach to education. Lighting complements study cascade design of this building.