stages of renovation, for example, the engineering team discovered the foundation from a previous building. At another point, an old eleva- tor for money cars was discovered where it was thought none existed. Most problematic was the lack of spandrel beams at the primary floor levels where public bathrooms were located half a floor up and down from the typical floors, forcing the structural engineers to work through multiple design revisions. The existing public bathrooms were required to be demolished to allow new floor construction at the main floor lev- els for the addition of accessible hotel rooms. As the renovation progressed, however, the structural engineering and design teams were able to keep the historic character while adding modern touches. Each room is unique in its shape, ranging from 206 square feet to 423 square feet. Keeping the original bold and large win- dows of the building, each room has a welcoming and sweeping view A revolution in construction and maintenance of future buildings is not being adequately reflected in traditional return on investment (ROI) business cases, and according to a new report by global engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon, this is blocking impor- tant forward-looking design innovations and significantly damaging the future value of major building investments. The short-term focus on start-up and construction costs is denying investors and building owners access to the design innovations that increasingly are key to the construction of digitally smart, “intelligent” buildings that are able to use technology to dramatically improve operational efficiencies and employee productivity and reduce main- tenance costs. In a recent white paper released by Aurecon, “Buildings of the Future: Bottom-line benefits,” a new narrative around the ROI of intelligent buildings is explored to demonstrate the crippling effect that a short- term focus on start-up and construction costs often has on design in- novation. According to Aurecon, the property and construction industry is evolv- ing dramatically as digital disruption, changed building practices, and the need to respond to climate change and reduce energy consumption impact the sector. Yet many building owners and investors are locked into relying on more traditional ROI metrics, designing for the short term while ignoring the importance of designing buildings for the longer term. Lack of measurement models that accurately reflect ROI is often the biggest hurdle in design, construction, and maintenance. Buildings of the future: Rethink the bottom line
of bustling Center City or the whole of Philadelphia. This allows every guest to have a different experience while all still enjoying gorgeous views of the City of Brotherly Love. In addition, a three-story steel-frame addition to the Aloft hotel con- nects to the neighboring Pennsylvania Convention Center, allowing guests to walk between the two buildings without going outside. On the second level of this new addition is an outdoor space named “the Backyard,” where hotel guests can enjoy a drink from the WXYZ bar and the view of Philadelphia’s iconic City Hall. ALBERT MEYER, P.E. , senior project engineer at The Harman Group (https://har- mangroup.com), oversees all aspects of a project’s structural and foundation design. He has 25 years of experience in the structural design of residential, hospitality and gaming, and other projects.
The company has called for a new ROI model that accounts for finan- cial and non-financial benefits such as improving employee productiv- ity and wellbeing, while maintaining design flexibility to plan for a rapidly changing future. Aurecon’s experience highlights that while Buildings of the Future have marginally higher start-up costs (2 to 6 percent more expensive than traditional buildings) in the short term, they can deliver signifi- cant savings, with a good ROI being achieved quickly (six months to two years) if focus is given to heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and some types of electrical loads, with a reduction in operating costs against traditional buildings of between 10 percent and 50 percent. Their experience also points out reductions in maintenance costs of between 8 percent and 12 percent, increases in employee productivity of 10 percent, and the ability of landlords to charge 5 percent more for premium property rentals of these innovative new buildings.
37
january 2018
csengineermag.com
Made with FlippingBook Annual report