 What's the best way to reach architecture and engineering students with concrete information?
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SpongeBob SquarePants Slept Here
Nickelodeon is teaming up with Marriott International Inc. to build a chain of kid-friendly resort hotels. The first hotel, one of 20 planned by 2020, is scheduled to open in San Diego, Calif., in 2010. The hotels will feature elaborate water parks and entertainment based on SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and other top shows of the cable TV channel.
The first hotel, designed by Gensler Architects of San Francisco and set to break ground in January, will be a 650-room facility with a 100,000-square-foot water park in San Diego's Liberty Station, former home of the Naval Training Center.
The hotels will be co-developed and owned by Miller Global Properties, a real estate investment company that partners with Marriott in other ventures. Marriott will manage all the properties, which it describes as "upscale, self-contained destination resorts."
Hotel construction provides a great promotional opportunity for concrete framing because it provides a very efficient solution for the large number of repetitive, compartmentalized units. Hawaii and the Phoenix area are being considered for the next Nickelodeon-themed properties. While the Marriott will be the largest hotel in the Liberty Station master plan, two others are under construction. The Huntington Hotel Group is developing a 150-room Homewood Suites by Hilton scheduled to open in September, and a 200-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel scheduled to open in January 2008.
Contact Attila Beres
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Winners Announced in PCA’s
Second Annual Student Design Competition
Student architects from around the world shared their vision for environmentally friendly uses of cement-based products in the second annual “Concrete Thinking for A Sustainable World” Competition.
U.S. and Canadian projects took top honors in a field that included more than 80 entries. The competition challenges students to explore innovative applications of concrete and other portland cement-based materials to achieve sustainable design objectives.
 A student from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., won first place in the component category for demonstrating how materials usually bound for a landfill could be recycled to create building materials for environmentally friendly structures (pictured right).
A team from Université Laval in Quebec earned first place in the structure category for designing a building that connects architecture to the environment by linking a former maritime construction site with a sustainable design.
The competition is sponsored by PCA and administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Winning students, their faculty sponsors and schools will receive cash prizes and software totaling nearly $50,000. Included in the prize package is pcaStructurePoint©, concrete design software, with a retail value of $9,745.
Prize-winning projects will also be exhibited at the 2007 Greenbuild Expo in Chicago, the 2008 American Institute of Architects national convention and the 2008 ACSA annual meeting.
More at www.cement.org/newsroom
Contact Dave Shepherd
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Masonry Walls Perform Well
During Recent Blast Research
Continuing the industry’s full-scale blast research on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) insulated cement-based wall systems, a reinforced masonry structure was tested last week.
An 8-inch concrete masonry structural back-up wythes with 4-inch clay masonry veneer and 2-inch extruded polystyrene insulation board in the cavity performed much better than current models indicate  during full scale blast.
The University of Alabama Birmingham Civil Engineering Department is analyzing data from the research under a grant from the National Concrete Masonry Association's Education and Research Foundation.
The ultimate end result will be a computer model for blast resistant design for the Department of Defense.
The research is part of a concrete industry program organized by PCA aimed at determining the effects of foam, extruded and expanded, insulation in combination with the mass and robustness of various cement-based systems in mitigating the effects of blast pressure.
To date research has been conducted on a precast/prestressed sandwich panel. Additional research will include a tilt-up sandwich panel, several different ICF configurations and an insulated cast-in-place wall system.
Contact John Sullivan
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Builders Move Toward Green Residential Standard
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) hosted a session of the Green Building Residential Standards Consensus Committee last week at the National Housing Center, Washington, D.C.
The committee met for five days to review and draft all task group recommendations for revisions to the working draft of the National Green Building Standard. PCA's David Shepherd and Donn Thompson, represented U.S. cement and concrete interests.
The group of 42 construction experts making up the committee was drawn from builders, code officials, architects, mechanical engineers, material manufacturers, and green building consultants. Using the NAHB's Green Building Guidelines as a starting point, the group intends to create a ANSI-approved standard which will likely be incorporated into the International Code Council's International Residential Code. The initial draft will be released for public review in August, 2007. The final revision is expected in the first quarter of 2008.
Contact David Shepherd
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Halsted to Head Pavement Promotion at PCA
 Greg Halsted (left) has been promoted to program manager, soil-cement/RCC pavements, effective August 1, 2007. Halsted has served as soil-cement/RCC pavements engineer since joining PCA in 2001. Prior to joining PCA, he served as technical services manager for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
He succeeds Dave Luhr, who is leaving PCA to accept a position with the Washington State Department of Transportation. Luhr joined PCA in 1999.
Contact Greg Halsted
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| Results
From Last Week:
IBC Should Beef Up Fire Safety
Last week, New York City adopted the International Building
Code (IBC), but added provisions that go beyond IBC to enhance
fire protection. Do you think the IBC has
gone too far in relaxing provisions intended to protect property
from fire?
>Yes (68%)
>No (32%)
Notable Comments
"The Coliseum and Parthenon are here
today for me and my children to see. What will my grandchildren
and great grandchildren have to see as great infrastructure
and treasures of the past? Ashes?"
"Tradeoffs for sprinklers
have weakened the robustness of building fire safety for occupants."
"After several major incidents,
it is far more economical and safer to go with NYC revision."
Take the current PCA Poll
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For more information
or to register, contact Julie
Lisiecki.
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Pulverized
Fuel Guidelines for the Cement Industry
September 18, 2007
Bethlehem, Pa.
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Aggregates
and Chemical Admixtures for Use in Concrete
October 1-2, 2007
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Kiln
Process
October 1-4, 2007
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Mill
Grinding
October 22-24, 2007
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Concrete:
Principles & Practices
October 22-25, 2007 |
Troubleshooting:
Solutions to Concrete Field Problems
November 5-7, 2007 |
Cement
Manufacturing for Process Engineers
November 5-8, 2007
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Pervious
Concrete—
A Stormwater Solution
Washington, DC—July 24, 2007
Pittsburgh—July 26, 2007
Minneapolis—August 7, 2007
Milwaukee—August 9, 2007
More
information
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National
Concrete Masonry Association Midyear Meeting
July 25-29, 2007
InterContinental Hotel
Boston, Ma.
More
information
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PCA Financial and Administrative Executives Committee Summer Meeting
July 29-31, 2007
Chicago, Ill.
More Information
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Building Professors'
Seminar
July 30-August 1, 2007
Skokie, Ill.
More
information |
Bridge Professors' Seminar
August 2-3, 2007
Skokie, Ill.
More
information |
Practical Application
of PCA Economic Forecast & Market Assessments
August 7-8, 2007
Skokie, Ill.
More
information |
PCA Fall Committee
Meetings
September 10-12, 2007
Chicago, Ill.
More
information
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©2007 Portland Cement Association
All rights reserved
The Portland Cement Association conducts market development,
research, education, and government affairs work on behalf
of
its members—cement companies in the United States and
Canada.
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