By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

A Guide to LEED Certifications

LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a credit-based, green building certification program that indicates how environmentally conscious and conservative a building is. Established by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in the early 1990s, LEED had since undergone several drastic upgrades, the newest version being the LEED v4 rating system.

At minimum, a building needs only 40 points to become LEED certified, but the more points earned, the more prestigious the certification. LEED certified is the base certification, followed by LEED Silver, LEED Gold, and LEED Platinum certified.

Buildings can become LEED certified if several energy and environmentally friendly actions are taken during construction. Homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and retail stores all have the potential to become LEED certified, but don’t necessarily have to meet the same requirements as one another.

Actions like optimizing energy performance, having good construction waste management practices, and maximizing open spaces during site development earn a building points that have potential to eventually add up to be a LEED certification.

So, the question remains: Why should building owners seek LEED certification?

With principles like green engineering gaining popularity amidst worldwide pollution and climate change concerns, it’d certainly benefit companies to be recognized as a leader in sustainable energy. While companies themselves cannot be LEED certified, the buildings they operate out of can be, setting a standard for others and serving as an example of environmental efficiency in their communities.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • • 0 Comments

Dig Safely This Spring and Summer

Regardless of any lingering chill in the air, spring has officially sprung and most homeowners are happy to trade in their snow blowers for lawn mowers.

This is the time of year when people start to make landscaping and gardening plans. Not only is April the first full month of spring, it is also National Safe Digging Month.

While many homeowners may be thinking about planning gardens, starting home improvement projects, and sprucing up their properties, it’s important to remember to call 811 before ANY dig.

811 is a national hotline that allows property owners, landscapers, and others to find out where they can safely dig.

Whether you’re getting ready to excavate your backyard in order to add an in-ground pool, or want to plant some flowers, no digging project – no matter how small – should be started without first calling 811.

Why? Because utility lines can be buried just a few inches underground, and without ensuring that the spot you’re digging in is free of utility lines, you could unintentionally damage them. In doing so, you could wind up damaging property, inadvertently causing power outages, and incurring costly fines and fees.

So how does calling 811 work?

First, make the call at least a few days before you dig. Let the representative know exactly where you plan to dig. They will then notify your local utilities operators. The utilities workers will come to your property and mark out where any utility lines are buried.

Once any utility line locations have been marked, you can plan to avoid these areas and safely proceed with your project.

Once your project is complete, you can enjoy the results of your hard work!

For more information about safe digging, visit http://call811.com/.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • 0 Comments

NYSDOT Maintenance Facility Oil Water Separator Project

The NYSDOT Maintenance Facility in Hauppauge, Long Island provides road maintenance and inclement weather service to a large stretch of NYSDOT roadway on Long Island.

KC recently designed a new salt storage building at the facility in an effort to improve functionality. For the main vehicle storage and maintenance garage, KC designed a multitude of improvements to assist with operations. An oil water separator system was designed to assist in the recovery of waste oil during vehicle maintenance and washing.

The system employs floor drains along the building aprons that collect drippings and wash water, and then pass it through an underground oil water separator tank. The separator is equipped with coalescing plates for proper separation, interstitial volume for leak detection, and alarms for full and high levels. KC also modified the building with the addition of new garage doors along one side to allow full passage-through access for vehicles and to improve overall usability of the existing garage space.

In addition to improvements to the existing maintenance facility building, KC designed new pad spaces for three new operations office trailers that will be installed on site. The pads include full footings and tie downs for the trailers, as well as new 100-amp electrical services for the building. KC also added a new vehicle cold weather preparedness area that provides electrical services to run truck engine block heaters during cold weather operations.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • 0 Comments

The Worldwide Race for Supertall Skyscrapers

2020 will be a historic year for the supertall skyscraper trend when, after years of construction, Jeddah Tower opens in Saudi Arabia. At a staggering 3,280 feet tall, Jeddah Tower will dethrone the Burj Khalifa as the tallest skyscraper in the world, a tall order in a desert wasteland.

While Jeddah Tower will stand hundreds, even thousands of feet above other skyscrapers around the world, the competition does not go unappreciated and overlooked, even in an ever-growing world of supertall and megatall skyscrapers.

So what’s got all of these new buildings fumbling for the clouds? Well, skyscrapers are nothing new. The world’s first skyscraper was built in 1885, standing a mere ten stories above ground: a tremendous feat for that time, but measly to people who are used to seeing 1,000+ foot towers in the sky.

Supertall skyscrapers, on the other hand, didn’t come into business until decades later when the Empire State Building (1,250 feet tall) was constructed. From then on, the rise of supertall skyscrapers commenced and couldn’t be stopped even to this day. While supertall constructions nowadays seems like an endless height contest, they are mainly built to preserve ground space.

Places like China, New York City, and the United Arab Emirates are practically covered with skyscrapers, sporting over 150 per location—and those numbers are only projected to grow. New York City alone has proposed over ten new supertall skyscrapers to be built in the upcoming years, proving that the supertall movement will not phase out any time soon.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

Designing and Engineering for Climate Change

Green Building

One of the leading industry concerns for engineering and architectural firms is the problem of climate change. As water levels continue to rise, and as the weight of existing infrastructures bears down on already sinking land, engineers are looking for design solutions that can mitigate past inefficiencies and work towards withstanding and reducing climate change in the future. With nearly 40% of the population living in heavily affected coastal areas worldwide, the need for environmentally conscious engineering is imminent.

What Can Be Done?

Raising energy-use concerns early in the process is essential. By using simulation software, considering sustainability, and thinking of the entire building system, engineering and architectural firms can implement design solutions that tackle sustainability from the very beginning of a project. For example, according to the engineering software company Autodesk, “the movement of fluids (examples include air and water) is a very large cause of energy loss in many systems due to drag. Simulation can help reduce these losses.” Reduced losses mean that less energy is required to power the system, resulting in lower emission levels overall.

Architects can also recommend elevating floor levels, adding moisture-resistant drywall, and installing fixed barriers where needed. Once a building is in use, engineering services teams can help tenants get the most out of efficiency and safety features by using building management system (BMS) and building energy management system (BEMS) tools.

The Bottom Line

Green building, or environmentally sensitive architecture, is benefiting from more government incentives, grant programs, success stories, and better marketing strategies. Architectural and engineering services firms that can design products with environmentally sound features are in demand, and those firms may have the best chance of differentiating themselves in the current market.