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Archive for April, 2007

A few good engineers

April 18th, 2007 1 comment

This came in my inbox, and I thought it was appropriate for this blog. Unfortunately, I don’t know who was the author of this parody.  UPDATE: source of the dialogue is here: http://www.sputoandlammert.com

Movie Remake: “A FEW GOOD ENGINEERS”

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: You want answers?

ARCHITECT: I think I’m entitled to them.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: You want answers?!

ARCHITECT: I want the truth!

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: You can’t HANDLE the truth!!

Son, we live in a world that has BEAMS, GIRDERS AND COLUMNS. And those things have to SUPPORT THE BUILDING. Who’s gonna DESIGN THEM? You?

You, Mr. Architect?
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Blueprint from India – More architecture firms are offshoring

April 18th, 2007 No comments

Has anyone seen the firsthand effects of outsourcing in the architecture/engineering industry? Of course we’ve been hearing about it for years in computers and IT, but this article from Businessweek suggests that it’s already begining for architects.

The article profiles Cadforce, a company out of California that has resources in India to help them with projects in the US. The company outsources the more time-consuming and technical tasks, such as creating blueprints from schematics, which allows their architects here to focus on design.

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Please Explain: Making Green Building Affordable

April 17th, 2007 No comments

Buildings consume 33% of our energy. This probably explains why there’s been a lot of attention to “green” building” lately.

WNYC’s Leonard Lopate recently covered green building, on the “Please Explain” segment of his radio show. While it doesn’t really get into the technical stuff, I think atleast the first 15 minutes provide a good introduction to the background of the issues. The segment includes a co-founder of LEED, so we know the information is reputable.

Here’s a stream of the audio:

and here’s a link the the mp3.
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