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The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) adopted a new rule with new accessibility guidelines for federal buildings. The rule establishes that pedestrian facilities in the public right-of-way are readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.
Climate change is making design and construction more challenging and increasing the potential for lawsuits against building teams, according to insurance experts. Building to code is not enough to reduce liability because codes have not kept up with the rapid climate changes that are making extreme weather more common.
A Florida law enacted after the Surfside condo tower collapse is causing turmoil in the condominium market. The law, which requires buildings to meet certain structural safety standards, is forcing condo associations to assess hefty fees to make repairs on older properties. In some cases, the cost per unit runs into six figures.
A law ending single-family-home-only zoning in California was ruled unconstitutional by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. The decision could lead to the law being invalidated in the state’s largest cities.
The new Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule requiring employers operating in the residential construction industry to use the same methods of fall protection that historically have been used in the commercial construction industry could save them money.
Austin, Texas has proposed building codes that require wider sidewalks and call for buildings to be closer to sidewalks along a 3.5-mile stretch of highway.
A former chief building inspector for San Francisco wants to enact building codes that would limit noise levels in restaurants and other spaces open to the public.
New seismic requirements in California are helping to drive a flurry of new projects and retrofits in the state’s health care sector.
The mayor’s plan to move to a less environmentally friendly code would mean confusion for people in the construction industry and a loss of energy efficiency and money for consumers, said Shrayas Jatkar of the Sierra Club.
Despite tough safety codes approved a decade ago after earthquakes killed 18,000 people, lax enforcement led to hundreds of deaths after a recent earthquake in Turkey.
A uniform code for green construction is being readied for publication in March.
An ordinance would amend county building codes to promote better walking environments, encourage more bicycling, improve access to healthy foods (farmers markets, community gardens), and enhance project review requirements to ensure that developers include healthy-lifestyle components in their building plans.
Over the past few years, Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, and Washington, D.C., have passed laws requiring property owners to measure and disclose their energy use, which would help place a market value on a building’s efficiency and provide a benchmark for improvements.
Following a series of devastating tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on April 27th, the state is preparing to implement the first statewide building code for residential structures.
