So we had our Green Charette meeting and was that ever so interesting. I was told beforehand from an Architect buddy’s friend that this meeting is what all the consultants must go through. As LEED is still pretty new and most people don’t know what is going on we were lead through a powerpoint presentation. From what I saw the Mechanical Engineers and Architect have the most say in obtaining LEED points. Us, as Civils, basically meet the LA City SUSMP requirements to meet our LEED points. Just like I thought we don’t have any say in what goes on. I will update this slowly as I think about the meeting more.
We are doing a LEED for New Construction application for this project. I learned a lot at this meeting and have a ton of notes to pilfer through before posting more.
I know I know, this blog is about Los Angeles. The only problem is besides my favorite building ever located in Las Vegas, the controversy regarding the Harmon in Las Vegas has kept my ears open for any news. So now it seems that part of City Center is dead in the water for who knows how long. For anyone not familiar with the story, everyone missed the fact that the rebar was missing on a certain floor(s) and was found out after building about 10 more floors. This eventually caused the building to be redesigned with many less stories than originally planned. Now the outfall is happening.
http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2010/04/12/news/iq_35241001.txt
The City of Los Angeles looking to make the planning department better? This may or may not be good news. I have to hope this has a positive effect though.
http://ourla.org/city-wide/1876-bill-delvac-client-alert-city-of-los-angeles-reorganizes-its-planning-department
Today I am working on an earthwork with a survey that has contours that are elevated, but the areas near the house have no elevated contours. I understand that around the house, there is no reason to have 1′ increments as the elevation is pretty flat at around 843.5′. Most surveys I have seen elevate those parts by using 3D Polylines. Especially where the surveyor shoots around the hardscape and connects the polylines. I probably should be thankful that the contour portion of this survey are elevated and I am not looking at a 0 elevated flattened drawing. This kind of thing would be more important if using Civil 3D as you must design straight to the existing and can’t just work in pure plan view.
This blog is devoted mainly to Los Angeles Civil Engineering. But I saw that my favorite project is about done with construction. That is the Ruvo Brain Center in Las Vegas. This has to be the most insane building I have ever seen, and to top if off this is a mental institute.
Links to the construction pictures.
http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/ruvocenter.htm
