June 10, 2016 - Page 2 of 4

The Easiest Place to Find Fire Rated Assemblies is the Gypsum Association Manual

7 Comments / Architect, Building Technology, Commercial, Construction, FAQ / Sean O'Hara

After several projects of fighting with the UL Manual (Underwriters Laboratories) and the International Building Code I discovered that there is a much easier visual way to find fire rated assemblies. I use the Gypsum Association Fire Resistance Design Manual. Everything is visual and it is generally acceptable to building departments. It contains the most […]

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The Fulfillment of Being an Expert Witness

Leave a Comment / Landscape / EVstudio AEP

A statement is made to all college students interested in the architecture or landscape architecture profession. That is that ‘they will learn more in the first month of real experience on the job during an internship or their first year out of school that they learn in an entire year during college’. True statement. The

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Neighborhood Retail: BlogOff from The New Urbanism

Leave a Comment / CNU, Commercial, Planning, Retail, Zoning / EVstudio AEP

This past month, I was invited to post to a BlogOff regarding Urban Retail from the author of The Original Green, Steve Mouzon. Follow the links below to see ensuing discussion about Neighborhood Retail: Original Green: The Necessity of Hope PlaceShakers: Retail: When it bends the Rules and Breaks the Law Street Trip: BlogOff: Neighborhood

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Storage Under the Stage – Code Requirements

Leave a Comment / Educational, FAQ, Recreation / Sean O'Hara

Many of our school and performance space projects have a stage that is tall enough that the client will inevitably ask what we can do to access the space under the front of the stage for storage. That space can be used as long as the following items are addressed. First, the code requirements in

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Production Builder Footing Observation in Front Range, Colorado

Leave a Comment / Construction, Engineering, Residential, Structural Engineering / EVstudio AEP

EVstudio serves as the structural engineering team for a number of the largest production home builders along the Front Range in Colorado. While not every home in Colorado is required to have an architect, they are almost all required to have a structural engineer. Here is a picture of a some of the footings of semi-custom

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Bluebeam PDF Save Location Tip

Leave a Comment / Building Technology, EVstudio Information, Software / evstudio

If you’ve ever had Bluebeam files saving in seemingly random places, or the resolution is wrong…or you need to print directly to a jpeg this blog is for you! Thanks to my good friend Bill for pointing this tip to me. You have the choice in Bluebeam to have: A: Bluebeam dialogue pop up every

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Foundation Settlement: The Push Pier Alternative

Leave a Comment / Building Technology, Commercial, Construction, FAQ, Residential / evstudio

EVstudio is asked quite frequently to perform structural evaluations of cracked foundation walls. These cracks are often due to settlement. Modern design philosophy (and most geotechnical reports) calls for the original structural engineer to design foundation walls to clear span ten to fifteen feet to account for soft patches of bearing soil or soils that

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Do all Awesome Stairs Designed by Architects Ignore the Building Code?

1 Comment / Building Code, Building Technology / EVstudio AEP

It’s an inside joke among architects that stairs drawn for the permit office are usually heavily modified post-occupancy. How else could the below images pass muster against the myriad constraints presented in Chapter 10 of the International Building Code?

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Designing Your House – Part 6

1 Comment / Architect, Architectural process, Residential / Sean O'Hara

With this post we move outside of the house and discuss your outdoor spaces. Clearly some of these choices are going to be climate driven so we would need to take into account the earlier discussion about sun and wind when designing them. A first question is, do you prefer to spend outdoor time in

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A Daily Dose of Architecture

Leave a Comment / Architect / Sean O'Hara

The most heavily trafficked architecture blog is A Daily Dose of Architecture. John Hill manages to fuel his blog with almost daily articles, book reviews and high quality images. There are archives dating back to February 2004. Definitely worth coming back to again and again.

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New Cost Effective Ideas for Daylighting at NREL

Leave a Comment / Building Technology, Interior Design, LEED & Sustainability, Lighting, Research / Dean Dalvit

We toured the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Research Support Facility, and were able to see a number of design solutions that were relatively low-cost, but provided a great sustainable approach to many of their design goals. One in particular was with Daylighting. The challenge was that they wanted to be able to redirect light from

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Mechanical Engineering Dual Drinking Fountains

Drinking Fountains and Service Sinks in Tenant Spaces

Leave a Comment / Architect, Building Code, Commercial / EVstudio AEP

We have completed a fair amount of tenant finish work for small spaces. The more cumbersome items to incorporate into those small spaces include the drinking fountain and the service or mop sink. The 2009 International Building Code (IBC) allows an exemption from the drinking fountain requirement if the space has 15 or fewer occupants.

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