ENGINEERING A PEI CANTILEVER - DALLAS CITY HALL Innovative architecture often requires equally innovative engineering and technologies for successful realization. An outstanding example of design and engineering interdependence can be seen in the Dallas City Hall, a landmark building completed in 1977, designed with daring vision by one of the world's leading architectural teams, I.M. Pei & Partners. — Published 2009.0708
	GETTING THE GREEN ROOF RIGHT Green roofs, whether intensive or extensive, can provide a wealth of benefits on site and beyond. Delivering these benefits successfully requires professional attention to a variety of critical details. — Editor The first common dilemma in the construction of living green roofs, and other landscapes over structure, is that, in conventional building, the execution and completion of site work are often subordinated to the completion of the building. — Published 2009.0527
	ASU POLYTECHNIC GREEN The new academic complex on the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University (ASU) was built to withstand the insistent, erosive forces of the desert around Mesa, Arizona. "Being out on the eastern part of the valley, the site is very exposed and gets hit very hard with wind and rain," says Beau Dromiack, design leader for RSP Architects, the architect of record for the project. "It requires a durable architecture which we call 'desert tough.'" — Published 2009.0422
	ADAPTIVE REUSE OF CLAY-TILE ARCHED FLOORS This article about antiquated structural systems is the second in a series aimed at structural engineers involved in the repair, restoration, or adaptive reuse of older buildings for which no drawings exist. —Editor Concrete and steel-framed floors constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s often included hollow clay-tile arches that spanned between beams and girders. The arches were typically covered with a concrete topping and often had plaster applied directly to the soffit of the exposed tiles. — Published 2009.0513
	SELF-MASS DAMPER AT TOKYO SWATCH The Swatch Group's new flagship structure in Tokyo, the Nicolas G. Hayek Center, featured in ArchitectureWeek No. 416, is built with an array of innovative elements, ranging from elevating showrooms and multistory retractable glass exterior walls to moving floors for reducing seismic forces induced in the building. — Published 2009.0401
	ANALYZING SMI CONCRETE FOR ADAPTIVE REUSE Owners and developers are increasingly opting, for many reasons, to convert existing buildings for new uses. If no drawings are available for an older building, a structural engineer will often turn to industry resources to try and determine the nature and capacity of the existing structural system. Available information is then used to confirm that the facility meets the current building code requirements or to determine what strengthening or remediation must occur to accommodate the new use intended by the architect or owner. — Published 2009.0225
	EDAR IN LA The EDAR, a four-wheeled combination cart and sleeping unit created for use by people experiencing homelessness, is beginning to make its presence known in the greater Los Angeles area. Designed by Eric Lindeman and Jason Zasa while still in school at Pasadena Art Center College of Design, this modified shopping cart was their solution to a problem posed by local philanthropist Peter Samuelson: improve upon the cardboard box by designing a mobile, single-person shelter. — Published 2009.0211
	PICTOU LANDING HEALTH CENTER The new medical clinic and community center in the Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia recalls a longhouse, the traditional winter lodge of the Mi'kmaq. Sustainably harvested spruce poles, six to eight inches (15 to 20 centimeters) in diameter, are bent and lashed together at the tops. Like a giant wooden model of a whale's ribcage, clad with rows of oversized spruce shingles, the peaked frame is an adaptation of traditional Native bent-wood construction. — Published 2009.0114
	GREEN SKYSCRAPER BY COOK + FOX Expected to be the first LEED Platinum skyscraper, the 945-foot- (288-meter-) tall Bank of America Tower is located at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, opposite Bryant Park. — Published 2008.1119
	SHOWER DESIGN FOR AGING IN PLACE Customarily, architects, builders, and contractors have designed, specified, and built curbs at shower entrances that require users to pick up their feet and step over and into the shower pan. In some cases, the floor of the shower pan is lower than the floor of the bathroom. — Published 2008.0924

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