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Building Sciences

In This Issue

Dates to Know

December 2, 2015
Washington State University Energy Program Webinar: Low-E Storm Window Retrofits
12:00 pm PST

December 2-4, 2015
The Buildings Show
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 9-11, 2015
8th Annual Hazus User Conference
Atlanta, GA

Decemer 10-12, 2015
ATC & SEI 2nd Conference on Improving the Seismic Performance of Existing Buildings and Other Structures
San Francisco, CA

December 16, 2015
Introduction to Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop
Washington, DC

December 17, 2015
Advanced Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop
Washington, DC

January 11-15, 2016
Building Innovation 2016: The National Institute of Building Sciences Fourth Annual Conference & Expo
Metro Washington, DC

January 20-22, 2016
2016 Commercial Construction & Renovation Summit
San Antonio, TX

January 19-21, 2016
International Builders Show (IBS) 
Las Vegas, NV

January 23-27, 2016
2016 ASHRAE Winter Conference
Orlando, FL

January 24-27, 2016
ASHI Inspection World 2016
San Diego, CA

January 31-February 3, 2016
BOMA Winter Business Meeting & National Issues Conference
Washington, DC

February 14-17, 2016
Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Congress 2016
Phoenix, AZ

February 21-23, 2016
Glass Association of North America BEC Conference

Las Vegas, NV

February 21-24, 2016
Adhesion Society’s 39th Annual Meeting

San Antonio, TX

February 22-24, 2015
Design Connections Healthcare
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

March 2-5, 2016
GANA Annual Conference
Palm Springs, CA

March 9-10, 2016
27th Globalcon
Boston, MA

March 10, 2016
Consultative Council Meeting
Washington, DC

March 16, 2016
2016 Building Energy Summit
Washington, DC

March 22-24, 2016
ABAA Conference & Trade Show
Baltimore, MD

March 22-24, 2016
National Facilities Management and Technology (NFMT)
Baltimore, MD

March 30-31, 2016
International Conference on Structural Engineering, New Technology and Methods
Prague, Czech Republic

April 16-17, 2016
USA Science & Engineering Festival
Washington, DC

April 25-26, 2016
Education Facilities Management Forum
Dallas, TX

April 26-28, 2016
CABA Intelligent Buildings & Digital Home Forum
San Diego, CA

May 5-6, 2016
2nd International Conference on Civil, Structural and Transportation Engineering
Ottawa, Canada

May 10, 2016
Consultative Council MeetingWashington, DC

May 11, 2016
Coordinating Council Meeting
Washington, DC

May 12, 2016
NIBS Board of Directors Meeting
Washington, DC

June 13-16, 2016
NEHA Annual Educational Conference
San Antonio, TX

June 25-28, 2016
BOMA International Annual Conference
Washington, DC

June 25-29, 2016
2016 ASHRAE Annual Conference
St. Louis, MO

September 20, 2016
Consultative Council Meeting
Washington, DC

September 21, 2016
Coordinating Council Meeting
Washington, DC

September 22, 2016
Board of Directors Meeting
Washington, DC

September 22-23, 2016
ASHRAE International Conference on Efficient Building Design
Beirut, Lebanon

What's On WBDG

The WBDG Whole Building Design Guide® has updated the Productive Design Objective section, including Integrate Technological Tools, Assure Reliable Systems and Spaces, Design for the Changing Workplace, Promote Health and Well-Being, and Provide Comfortable Environments.

Industry News

2015 Code Conforming Wood Design Available Free
LEESBURG, VA. – The 2015 Code Conforming Wood Design (CCWD), a joint publication of the American Wood Council (AWC) and the International Code Council (ICC), is now available. Download the free publication.

November 2015

The Institute in Action

Building Innovation 2016: New Location Announced
Easier Access to Airport a Major Benefit of Change in Venue

Building Innovation 2016

An unexpected change in location for the upcoming Building Innovation 2016: The National Institute of Building Sciences Fourth Annual Conference & Expo, to be held January 11-15, 2016, may be a plus for Conference attendees, especially those coming from out of town.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Institute has relocated the venue of the event from the Marriott Washington Wardman Park in Washington, D.C., to the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Crystal City, located in Arlington, Virginia, directly across the river from downtown Washington, D.C. A major benefit of the new hotel is its location: less than a mile away from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Not only does the new location provide easy access to out-of-town travelers, it allows the Institute to maintain the same dates of the event and the already scheduled format, thereby ensuring that speakers and registered attendees will still be able to participate. The newly selected LEED® Gold-certified venue also addresses a number of concerns that participants raised about the previous venue. The new location has ample daylighting and all of the meetings and events for the Conference will be conveniently located on one floor. Other than the change in venue, the Building Innovation 2016 format will remain the same. Read the full release.

Haven't registered yet? Find out why you should attend.

View the full preliminary program. Sign up to receive news and updates. Become a Sponsor or Exhibitor.

Journal of the National Institute of Building SciencesStill Time to Get Published in the Journal
Submit an Abstract for the June 2016 JNIBS (and Beyond)

The editors of the Journal of the National Institute of Building Sciences (JNIBS) are beginning the process of compiling articles for the June 2016 edition. The June issue will offer a special focus on building information modeling (BIM). Additional feature stories will spotlight acoustics for schools; codes and standards; facility maintenance and operations; and more. Abstracts are due December 15, 2015. Topics scheduled for later 2016 issues are also outlined. Submit an abstract for the issue. Interested in advertising? View the 2016 JNIBS Media Kit.

Industry Leadership and Advocacy

Historic D.C. High School Now Award-Winning Resilient Campus
Conference Plenary Symposium to Reveal Lessons Learned

above Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. Photo by Joseph Romeo.

Building Innovation 2016 SessionThe Plenary Symposium: Achieving a Resilient Future, to be held Friday, January 15, 2016, 8:30 am – 11:00 am, during Building Innovation 2016, will cover two of the key outcomes expected from the Conference agenda—an examination of what it takes to achieve a resilient future and a vision on how all the information presented throughout the week comes together to achieve high-performance buildings and communities.

Gain valuable insights into what works for achieving resilience during a session on High Performance from Design to Operations: A Discussion with the Dunbar High School Project Team. Founded in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, Dunbar High School, located in Washington, D.C., was the country’s first public high school for African Americans. A new award-winning campus opened in 2013 to replace a 1970’s building that didn’t meet the prestige of its influential alumni. Representatives from numerous disciplines on the project will present lessons learned during the design, construction and operations of this LEED Platinum project.

During the second session of the Plenary Symposium, the Institute’s President Henry L. Green will present Achieving a Resilient Future: A Report from the Cutting Edge to give attendees a recap of the week’s program and present the Institute’s vision on how an industry-wide collaboration can work to successfully achieve high-performance buildings and communities. After a week of exciting presentations and discussions on how the industry is progressing towards a resilient future, President Green will present a vision for achieving high-performance buildings and communities. Through work both inside and outside of the Institute, the industry is making great strides. See how the pieces come together in this exciting close to Building Innovation 2016. Register now.

Security and Disaster Preparedness

BSSC Members Tapped to Teach 2015 NEHRP Updates
at National Seismic Conference

Four veteran members of the 2015 Provisions Update Committee (PUC) of the National Institute of Building Sciences’ Building Seismic Safety Council will join forces to explain the significant developments to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program’s (NEHRP’s) recently completed 2015 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures as part of the Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Congress 2016, to be held February 14-17, 2016, in Phoenix. Gearing their four-hour short course to practicing structural and geotechnical engineers, the PUC team, consisting of Nicolas Luco, PhD; Charles A. Kircher, PhD, PE, MASCE; Robert E. Bachman, SE; and Robert G. Pekelnicky, SE, will highlight major changes and rationale for: revisions to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) ground motions, site-specific seismic design requirements and parameters, design requirements for foundations on liquefiable sites and soil-structure interaction procedures. For more information or to register for the conference, which is a first-time joint venture for the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Geo-Institute (G-I) and its Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), visit the conference website.

NIST Issues Resilience Planning Guide for Communities

To help U.S. communities better withstand and rebound from the shocks of severe weather, earthquakes and other hazards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently issued the Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems.

The new guide is aimed at community leaders in the public and private sectors.  It lays out a practical six-step process that communities can follow to develop resilience plans to help them prepare for hazards, adapt to changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from disruptions.  Tailored to the particular goals, hazards, needs and resources of individual communities, these plans will help governments, utility service providers and other organizations to set priorities and allocate resources for mitigating risks, maintaining vital services and, if a hazard does strike, building back better. Download the guide.

Sign up Now for December Cybersecurity Workshops
Learn the Techniques to Better Protect Building Control Systems

The National Institute of Building Sciences is sponsoring introductory and advanced Cybersecurity Workshops Wednesday, December 16, and Thursday, December 17, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Institute's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The workshops are designed to help facility professionals learn how to make their buildings more secure and reduce the risks. The Introduction to Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop and the Advanced Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop, both taught by Michael Chipley of The PMC Group LLC, are geared to help architects, engineers, contractors, owners, facility managers, maintenance engineers, physical security specialists, information assurance professionals—essentially anyone involved with implementing cybersecurity in the facility life cycle—to learn the best practice techniques to better protect their facilities. Learn more.

Facility Performance and Sustainability

COBie Oversight Moves from FMOC Topical Committee to Alliance Task Group 

The Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) Task Group (TG) or “COBie Task Group” (CTG), formally known as the Computerized Maintenance Management Systems/Computer Aided Facilities Management (CMMS/CAFM) Topical Committee and formally operating as a subcommittee of the Institute’s Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee (FMOC), met November 17 to approve new Operating Guidelines and elect new officers to lead this newly reorganized and expanded task group within the Institute’s buildingSMART alliance®. The impetus for the new reorganization and realignment within the two Institute program areas is to broaden the scope and membership of the CTG to include a diverse group of industry stakeholders with an interest in COBie. 

The CTG will function as a task group of the Information Standards Subcommittee of the buildingSMART alliance. Since the Alliance is the steward of the National BIM Standard-United States®, and the ultimate goal of the CTG is the development and incorporation of successive versions of COBie into NBIMS-US™, the Alliance became a more appropriate home for the CTG. CTG activities will include Technical Development – consideration, discussion and debates of revisions to COBie; Outreach and Education – educational presentations to increase awareness and knowledge of COBie; Conformance – development of processes and procedures for verifying conformance to COBie; and Collaboration – recommending alternate United States uses and formats for COBie. Organizations/vendors interested in joining the CTG are encouraged to contact the Chair, Michael Tardif or Institute Program Director Dominique Fernandez. 

Information Resources and Technologies

buildingSMART alliance® to Convene January 12 for Annual Meeting

The buildingSMART alliance has a host of topics to cover in its upcoming Annual Meeting, to be held 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Tuesday, January 12, 2016, during Building Innovation 2016: The National Institute of Building Sciences Annual Conference & Expo. The meeting will begin with a discussion of the state of the Alliance, an overview of the recently updated Strategic Plan and a kickoff of 2016 activities. The Alliance Subcommittees, including the Thought Leadership, Information Standards, Proven Practices, Communications, Membership, Industry Liaison and Education Subcommittees, will meet to discuss their annual work plans and longer-term goals for each group, and then update the full membership report during the wrap-up session.

In addition, the leadership will provide a brief summary of the Alliance’s computer-aided design (CAD) and building information modeling (BIM) standards, providing an overview of the recently released National BIM Standard-United States® (NBIMS-US™) Version 3 and United States National CAD Standard® (NCS) Version 6 content, and identifying opportunities for future development initiatives. The BIM Leaders Panel will host a panel discussion of critical industry challenges where the Alliance can contribute solutions. A session on the National BIM Guideline for Owners will summarize the efforts to develop a national guideline to help building owners and their design teams utilize BIM during the building design, construction and operations process and to better support owners’ performance requirements. The meeting will close with a wrap-up, including brief reports from the subcommittees’ planning sessions. View the buildingSMART alliance Annual Meeting agenda.

 

The National Institute of Building Sciences, authorized by public law 93-383 in 1974, is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that brings together representatives of government, the professions, industry, labor and consumer interests to identify and resolve building process and facility performance problems. The Institute serves as an authoritative source of advice for both the private and public sectors with respect to the use of building science and technology.

An Authoritative Source of Innovative Solutions for the Built Environment
© 2015 National Institute of Building Sciences. All Rights Reserved. 
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