California and Hawaii Best Projects Competition

California and Hawaii Best Projects Competition

The California and Hawaii Best Projects competition showcases a wide range of work that demonstrates design and construction innovation while respecting both the built environment and the natural world. Judges selected 46 projects as winners in 19 categories. Two projects that the jury considered to reflect the pinnacle of achievement were designated Projects of the Year.

This year our panel of industry judges reviewed and discussed nearly 100 projects. Work was evaluated on the ability of the project team to overcome challenges, contribution to the industry and community, safety and construction and design quality. Entries were not accepted for projects that had a construction-related fatality.

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Building Fire Safety

Building Fire Safety

The buildings we live and work in all represent a kind of compromise. We want them to be attractive, comfortable, cost-effective, and energy efficient, but we also want them to be safe. Sometimes those objectives can come into conflict.

Faculty members in WPI’s world-renowned Department of Fire Protection Engineering are recognized experts on a wide range of issues related to fire safety in the built environment. Their research and scholarship has focused on such topics as the fire characteristics of the materials we use to make buildings, the practices we follow to design them, the creation of codes and regulations that guide building fire safety, and the actual performance of buildings in fires.

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Replacing an Iconic Los Angeles Bridge With a ‘Ribbon of Light’

Replacing an Iconic Los Angeles Bridge With a ‘Ribbon of Light’

Before the 3,500-ft-long Sixth Street Viaduct got demolished in February 2016, the city of Los Angeles marked its pending demise with a series of free civic events, including live music and a screening of “Grease.” Later, Angelenos took home 1,300 concrete remnants of it as keepsakes, recalls Mary Nemick, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering. “There was a lot of emotional attachment to that viaduct,” she says. “We spent a lot of time talking to the public about why we had to [demolish] it.”

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Car dealership building fire in Santa Clara

Car dealership building fire in Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) — A 3-alarm fire did significant damage to a car dealership in the South Bay. The gas and oil fueled the flames and put firefighters in danger. Firefighters are still here making sure there are no hot spots and the structure is secured. Acura officials are hoping to re-open sometime today.

Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara is well known for one thing.

“This is the mecca of car dealerships, this strip,” said Dave Heavey, service technician.

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California Construction Market Still Sizzles

California Construction Market Still Sizzles

Construction activity remains red-hot in California and Hawaii, with a wide range of public and private projects. Like last year, the top five projects to break ground in the region during 2017 all topped $1 billion.

The annual ranking features the 28 largest projects to get underway in California and Hawaii during the past year. Collectively, these projects add up to more than $18 billion in revenue.

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Smoke Curtain for Flow Path Control

Smoke Curtain for Flow Path Control

John Ceriello of the FDNY demonstrates two scenarios in which use of a smoke curtain can help control the flow path until firefighters are ready to engage the fire.

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Massive High-Rise Project in LA

Massive High-Rise Project in LA

Every project encounters both expected and unanticipated challenges: holidays, rain days, wind days. When planning the Oceanwide Plaza mixed-use development in Los Angeles, the project team had to consider “Adele days.”

The $1-billion-plus project comprises nearly 1.5 million sq ft of development surrounded by some of downtown L.A’.s busiest streets and sidewalks. Every day, thousands of people stream in and out of the nearby Staples Center and LA Live. Major events choke the streets bordering the 4.6-acre site. During singer-songwriter Adele’s multiday appearance at Staples Center in 2016, crews worked around the crowds while moving the project’s perimeter into the streets. Later that year, L.A. Comic Con attendees swarmed the area in the middle of a mat pour.

Photo courtesy Lendlease

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Fire destroyed a huge apartment complex

Fire destroyed a huge apartment complex

COCORD, Calif. — A massive fire destroyed a huge apartment complex under construction in Concord. Two people are injured and hundreds of people living next door have been evacuated. The investigation into the cause is under way.

A lot of work still needs to be done to stabilize the structure. Because of that, fire investigators and a team from the ATF will have to wait a day or two before going in to begin their search for the cause of this fire.

There were two injuries from smoke inhalation. A health advisory for the smoke has been lifted.

The fire consumed practically an entire block of Clayton Road and Galindo Street. Little remains of the complex under construction.

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Door Systems “New” Northern California Office

Door Systems “New” Northern California Office

Due to increasing demand for our products, we have moved to a larger facility in Northern Californa territory. As always, we are here to help provide you with a complete smoke & fire containment solution.

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