Over the next 40 years, an estimated 2 trillion square feet of new and rebuilt building space will be constructed worldwide.

The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion is a historic, four-story home in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore.

The Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is a $1.5 billion facility covering 2 million square feet. The stadium contains nearly 10 miles of heating, cooling, potable water, and stormwater piping. Construction on this piping system came with its share of challenges.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) on downtown Los Angeles’ Grand Avenue required extensive mechanical upgrades to preserve its collection, maintain visitor comfort, and gain tighter control of humidification levels.

By its very nature, the engineering profession is based on the constant search for new and better ways of accomplishing a task; however, there also is a well-known human tendency to “do things the way we’ve always done them.”

Since 1914, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME’s) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) has served as a worldwide model for assuring the safety, reliability, and operational efficiency of boilers. In July, ASME will release the 2019 version of its BPVC code, updating each of the “living document’s” 12 sections.

Today’s school facility directors are being asked to do more with less. With limited budgets, they are pressured to reduce operating expenses while maintaining healthy and comfortable learning environments for students.

This month’s Facility File is based on a new 40,000-square-foot office building HVAC system using VRF heat pump equipment with a focus on the Back2Basics February test. The project will include two VRF systems, each serving approximately 20,000 square feet of space. The building will also have a 100 percent DOAS gas-fired rooftop HVAC system for ventilation to the occupants in the building.

One big difference between building systems and the human body is the immediacy of an “alarm” when something goes wrong. If we lose a mitten while skiing, we know immediately that there has been a breach in our insulation.