A larger, more efficient, and supergreen border crossing facility is planned for the San Ysidro (Calif.) Port of Entry to better handle the more than 100,000 people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border there each day. The land port operates 24/7 and is the busiest in the world, with an average 90-minute wait time for pedestrians and automobiles. Plans from The Miller Hull Partnership aim to reduce wait times to 30 minutes, with 34 lanes of traffic, each with two stacked inspection booths, and a 110,000-sf vehicle inspection canopy for primary and secondary vehicle inspection. Four masts will rise above the canopy to serve as both aesthetic and functional elements; they'll hold security cameras and lighting as well as pump fresh air into inspection booths below the canopy. The $395 million facility will also have a 200,000-sf administration and operations facility, ancillary buildings for the Department of Homeland Security, a 400-car parking garage, and a connection to Mexico's planned El Chaparral Land Port of Entry. The three-phase project is targeting LEED Platinum and net zero energy with several water conservation strategies (including a 700,000-gallon rainwater reclamation system) that are expected to save 12 million gallons per year and achieve water neutrality, a closed-loop geo-exchange system, a photovoltaic panel array, radiant heating and cooling panels, and native plantings.
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| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Collaboration
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
2009 Judging Panel
A Matthew H. Johnson, PE Associate Principal Simpson Gumpertz & HegerWaltham, Mass. B K. Nam Shiu, SE, PEVP Walker Restoration Consultants Elgin, Ill. C David P. Callan, PE, CEM, LEED APSVPEnvironmental Systems DesignChicago D Ken Osmun, PA, DBIA, LEED AP Group President, ConstructionWight & Company Darien, Ill.
| Aug 11, 2010
Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
Office design has always been linked to productivity—how many workers can be reasonably squeezed into a given space—but why isn’t it more frequently linked to creativity? “In general, I don’t think enough people link the design of space to business outcome,” says Janice Linster, partner with the Minneapolis design firm Studio Hive.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
