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Great Solutions: Technology

Great Solutions: Technology


By By Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief; Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor; Dave Barista, Managing Editor; and Jeff Yoders, Senior Associate Editor | August 11, 2010
This article first appeared in the 200908 issue of BD+C.

Only 20 geothermal boreholes were drilled at the WestJet complex because a majority of the piping was embedded in the building’s structural piles.


19. Hybrid Geothermal Technology

The team at Stantec saved $800,000 in construction costs by embedding geothermal piping into the structural piles at the WestJet office complex in Calgary, Alb., rather than drilling boreholes adjacent to the building site, which is the standard approach. Regular geothermal installation would have required about 200 boreholes, each about four-inches in diameter and 300–350 feet deep, but incorporating geothermal piping into 73 of the building's 105 structural piles before concrete was poured required only 20 additional boreholes to be drilled, each about 350 feet deep. The geothermal system, in concert with the $100 million project's many other sustainable features (rainwater collection, daylighting, recycled materials), should help the property save $200,000 annually on energy costs and earn it a

LEED Gold rating.


20. Kinetic Road Plates Power Purchases

Kinetic road plates installed in a parking lot at the Sainsbury's store in Gloucester, England. Kinetic energy captured as vehicles drive over the plates is channeled back into the store. The plates can produce up to 30 kWh of electrical power every hour, enough to power the store's checkout machines. "Customers can now play a very active role in making their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost," says Alison Austin, Sainsbury's environment manager. The syst

em was invented by Peter Hughes, of Highway Energy Systems, based in Somerset, England.

Graduate student Shawn Shields checks server performance while Dr.
Yogendra Joshi looks on at Georgia Tech’s simulated data center.


21. Cutting the Cooling Load of Data Centers by 15%

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, are using a 1,100-sf simulated data center to develop and evaluate new ways of controlling heat in commercial data centers, one of the fastest-growing building types in the country. The researchers, led by Professor Yogendra Joshi of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, have found ways to cut energy center cooling costs 15% by rearranging servers and space for optimal airflow patterns. Their simulated data center uses several different cooling systems, partitions to change room air volumes, sophisticated thermometers attached directly to a server's motherboard, and both real and simulated airflow sensors to measure the output of fans and other systems. The research is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Consortium for Energy Efficient Thermal Management.

Related Stories

| Oct 13, 2010

Prefab Trailblazer

The $137 million, 12-story, 500,000-sf Miami Valley Hospital cardiac center, Dayton, Ohio, is the first major hospital project in the U.S. to have made extensive use of prefabricated components in its design and construction.

| Oct 13, 2010

Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum

A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.

| Oct 12, 2010

Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.

27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.

| Sep 30, 2010

Luxury hotels lead industry in green accommodations

Results from the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2010 Lodging Survey showed that luxury and upper-upscale hotels are most likely to feature green amenities and earn green certifications. Results were tallied from 8,800 respondents, for a very respectable 18% response rate. Questions focused on 14 green-related categories, including allergy-free rooms, water-saving programs, energy management systems, recycling programs, green certification, and green renovation.

| Aug 11, 2010

New air-conditioning design standard allows for increased air speed to cool building interiors

Building occupants, who may soon feel cooler from increased air movement, can thank a committee of building science specialists. The committee in charge of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 - Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy—after months of study and discussion--has voted recently to allow increased air speed as an option for cooling building interiors.  In lay terms, increased air speed is the equivalent of turning up the fan.

| Aug 11, 2010

29 Great Solutions for the AEC Industry

AEC firms are hotbeds of invention and innovation to meet client needs in today's highly competitive environment. The editors of Building Design+Construction are pleased to present 29 "Great Solutions" to some of the most complex problems and issues facing Building Teams today. Our solutions cover eight key areas: Design, BIM + IT, Collaboration, Healthcare, Products, Technology, Business Management, and Green Building.

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AEC Tech

Lack of organizational readiness is biggest hurdle to artificial intelligence adoption

Managers of companies in the industrial sector, including construction, have bought the hype of artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative technology, but their organizations are not ready to realize its promise, according to research from IFS, a global cloud enterprise software company. An IFS survey of 1,700 senior decision-makers found that 84% of executives anticipate massive organizational benefits from AI. 



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