New science, old buildings: Renovating for efficiency, flexibility, and connection

BD+C editors and our contributors posted hundreds of blogs in 2013. Here's a recap of the most popular topics. They include valuable lessons from one of the first BIM-related lawsuits and sage advice from AEC legend Arthur Gensler.  

Rings of scaffolding will start to rise this spring around the cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington as part of a $60 million renovation project to repair more than 1,300 cracks.

Minneapolis’s Northwestern Building, originally built in 1914 as a glass factory, is undergoing a major renovation. The 85,000-sf, four-story building is now serves as office space for multiple tenants in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood.

Bethlehem, Pa., is a recipient of a 2013 award by Preservation Pennsylvania for a renovation of the oldest building on the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. site.

A $47.6 million overhaul of the Huntington Federal Building in Huntington, West Virginia, includes altered traffic lanes on adjoining streets and the displacement of some of the more than 500 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees who work in the building.

BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina. 

This AIA CES Discovery course discusses the environmental, economic, and market pressures affecting facility planning for universities and colleges, and outlines current approaches to renovations for critical academic spaces.

The redevelopment of Fort Monmouth, a former New Jersey army base, is likely to be revised on a building-by-building and parcel-by-parcel basis, officials say.