Archinect - News

Weakened North Carolina building codes jeopardized property after Hurricane Helene

2024-10-31T18:27:00-04:00

The long road back for residents of the western North Carolina counties that were heavily impacted due to flooding from Hurricane Helene is still being mapped out, but now the New York Times and other local outlets are reporting on critics who say reforms to the state’s building codes could have exacerbated the scale of property losses.

SB 166, which was passed into law last July, removed a requirement for professional architects to sit on the State Building Code Council. Both it and the related House Bill 488 were supported by the North Carolina Home Builders Association, echoing issues that came to the fore in Kentucky after a string of devastating tornadoes there three years ago.

Compounding the recovery process for homeowners is the fact that most did not own flood insurance policies. The data analytics company CoreLogic has estimated property damage in the area to be worth upwards of $47.5 billion.

The Guardian unpacks the demise of Lloyd Wright's Wayfarers Chapel in California

2024-06-02T08:00:00-04:00

This month, Wayfarers Chapel is being dismantled, an emergency attempt to save the structure’s irreplaceable redwood, steel and stone components in the wake of a devastating landslide. By taking it apart now, before it’s too twisted and broken to ever reconfigure, the chapel’s leaders hope to give it a second life someday on stable ground. They don’t have the cash yet for a rebuild, but they’re doing what they can at this critical moment: spending nearly half a million dollars on triage.

The group responsible for the Wayfarers Chapel announced its closure and plans to dismantle earlier this year following months of "accelerated land movement" beneath its 3.5-acre site in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes. The Guardian says the city is "working with chapel leaders to find a land-stable spot nearby to store the chapel’s pieces — one option is a former Nike missile site about 3 miles away."

The 73-year-old Lloyd Wright glass design had become an Instagram favorite and popular wedding destination in recent years.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wayfarers Chapel (@wayfarers_chapel)

Lloyd Wright's landmarked Wayfarers Chapel to be disassembled due to landslides

2024-05-14T18:42:00-04:00

Lloyd Wright's historic closed Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, will be disassembled in the face of irreparable landslide damage, the group responsible for its stewardship announced via a press release Tuesday.

Architectural Resources Group will handle the disassembly work with great care, as the LA Times and other outlets have reported its structure is rapidly deteriorating from the movement underneath its foundation, which is now occurring at rates 2–3 times more severe than was recorded back in February.

The firm's principal, Katie Horak, told the outlet: "With each passing day, more of this material is lost or irreparably damaged. Our team is working against the clock to document and move these building components to safety so that they can be put back together again."

Previously on Archinect: Lloyd Wright's landmark Wayfarers Chapel closes indefinitely due to landslide threat

"The chapel will not be able to withstand much more damage before it becomes imposs...

Lloyd Wright's landmark Wayfarers Chapel closes indefinitely due to landslide threat

2024-02-21T12:08:00-05:00

Lloyd Wright’s Wayfarers Chapel closed its doors to the public abruptly last week due to the threat of landslides that have afflicted the Los Angeles area and its site in Rancho Palos Verdes.

In a statement posted to the Chapel’s website, the ministry responsible for its stewardship cited “accelerated land movement” in the area as the reason for its immediate temporary closure.

Rancho Palos Verdes, which is a 12.3-square-mile incorporated city in coastal Los Angeles County, has been particularly impacted by winter storms since early February and is seeking to have a state of emergency declared for recent damage that’s compounded already dangerous landslide conditions.

A local official told the LA Times, “In some areas, [the land] is moving up to 10 feet a year. That’s significant movement, and we’re seeing the damage that’s being sustained throughout the community. We have approximately 400 homes that are threatened by this landslide.”

Completed by the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wrig...

AI could help create more hurricane-resistant buildings, NIST research says

2023-04-14T15:06:00-04:00

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised a new method to digitally simulate hurricanes. Using data derived from 100 years of hurricane monitoring, infused with modern AI techniques, the researchers suggest that simulating the trajectory and wind speeds of storms can help develop improved guidelines for the design of buildings in hurricane-prone regions.

The research, published recently in Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems, envisions a scenario where designers are directed to standardized maps by their local building codes. On these maps, designers can find the level of wind their proposed structure must handle based on its location and relative importance. For example, the resilience standards of a hospital would be regarded as higher than that of a self-storage facility.

The wind speeds in the maps are derived from scores of hypothetica...

'Tiny house, big impact': Marina Tabassum shares her flat-packed vision with CNN

2023-04-04T14:17:00-04:00

Past Aga Khan Award winner and 2021 Soane Medalist Marina Tabassum was recently featured in a short CNN profile of her ongoing Khudi Bari project in the coastal region of her native Bangladesh.

The concept, which seeks to deliver mobile two-level residential structures to a largely landless population in the heavily flood-prone area, first came about in October of 2018 and was accelerated by a pandemic downturn that ground several of her eponymous studio’s other ongoing projects to a halt.

Tabassum says the bamboo structures (whose name translates to “tiny home” in Bengali) can be easily disassembled and transported elsewhere, relying on steel joints and metal corner braces for structural strength. The design is split into two levels, with the uppermost elevated about six feet above the ground plane to accommodate up to four people in the event of flooding.

Image courtesy Marina Tabassum Architects

According to MTA: “The architecture mimics traditional vernacular language of the Ben...

Turkey’s outdated building codes exacerbated earthquake destruction

2023-02-10T12:23:00-05:00

Why did so many buildings fall down? [...] [Alanna Simpson] says the building codes in Turkey were updated again in 2018. But the country's "legacy buildings" are still vulnerable, and that goes for much of the rest of the world, too, she says. "It's a global problem."

Of the more than 3,000 Turkish structures destroyed by Monday’s devastating earthquake, experts say the majority were concrete and masonry infill constructions built before Turkey updated its building codes in the wake of the 1999 İzmit earthquake that killed 17,000. A 2018 construction amnesty on 75,000 new buildings put even more people at risk.

The next quake could yield even more damage, as the Associated Press reported some 13 million apartments are not in compliance with modern standards.

The New York Times has a case study from one badly affected city here.

Devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria

2023-02-06T18:25:00-05:00

Reactions are pouring in following the devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria early Monday morning.

There are no estimates available yet as to the number of structures either collapsed or damaged across the region, but a minimum of 3,400 lives have been lost as a result of the quake and a wave of very powerful aftershocks as concerns grow about both governments' ability to organize civil response efforts in the most impacted regions.

Building collapses have been reported in almost every community near the epicenter. Infrastructure damage appears to be significant as well.

Seismologists say the tremors that rocked Turkey and Syria are likely to be some of the deadliest this decade. Here is what scientists say happened beneath the earth's surface and what to expect in the aftermath https://t.co/vf37HkXHxQ pic.twitter.com/Tu3Kl76wxG
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 6, 2023

Turkey’s largest professional organization for architects and engineers, Türk Mü...

Concern over shortage of construction workers in Florida following Hurricane Ian damages

2022-10-06T18:20:00-04:00

Damage caused by Hurricane Ian’s massive storm surge, flooding and winds will require skilled workers to help the state of Florida rebuild. Staffing the projects to restore the state is easier said than done. Both Florida and the U.S. as a whole have many job openings and few skilled laborers. As some projects in the state halt, they may free tradespeople for other vital work.

Figures reported by Construction Dive indicate a cause for concern regarding a lack of skilled workers for the many openings available, which has been magnified in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The disaster, which hit Florida in late September, has resulted in billions of dollars in property damage, the displacement of more than 40,000 people, and the deaths of at least 106 individuals.

According to employment data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry added 407,000 jobs in August, with Florida reaching 593,000 employed construction workers in that month. However, unemployment for those with construction experience was almost 4%, indicating that the number of openings trumps the quantity of construction workers looking to fill them. While this is alarming especially at a time when demand for workers is high, it’s believed that the work required in Florida will still attract skilled employees. Construction Dive highlights the presence of federal and state f...

Building codes saved this Florida town from Hurricane Ian’s ravages

2022-10-03T17:30:00-04:00

Once the storm passed, the sight of Punta Gorda may have surprised some people. While it had typical post-hurricane storm debris, downed trees and several flooded streets, a number of homes and buildings appeared largely intact and many showed only minimal damage to their exteriors. How is it possible that the coastal city wasn’t more devastated by a storm that ranks among the most powerful to ever strike the United States? One major factor, according to some experts, are modern building code

While other southwest Florida communities like Fort Myers were devastated, Punta Gorda, a town of about 20,000, was saved thanks to strident code changes enacted in the wake of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Charley twelve years later.

“It’s a demonstration that updated building codes really work,” University at Buffalo architecture professor Nicholas Rajkovich told the Post. Stricter structural load continuity, impact-resistant windows, and hurricane shutters are all hallmarks of a so-called “modern” code whose continued absence the AIA warned against earlier in the summer. Florida alone has an estimated $3.7 trillion worth of properties that are susceptible to storm and wind damage, making the need to further adapt lessons offered by the survival of Punta Gorda's Harvard Jolly-restored Charlotte High School imperative in the minds of experts statewide.

Previously on Archinect: The building industry is preventing resiliency efforts in areas increasingly affected by deadly st...

Florida Keys get new affordable housing after Hurricane Irma destruction

2018-08-29T14:42:00-04:00

Irma instilled new urgency to address the islands’ housing problem. “What was an emergency prior to the storm is now a crisis—an utter and complete crisis with regards to the housing for average worker here in Monroe County,” said Mike Laurent, executive director of the Florida Keys Community Land Trust.

The Florida Keys Community Land Trust was developed after Hurricane Irma hit last year to help built new affordable housing, which suffered the most damage on the islands. So far the trust has four new affordable cottages under construction with plans of building 20 more.

The new homes have been designed by Marianne Cusato, who led a similar disaster architecture project in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Designed to withstand 200 mile-per-hour winds and at an elevation of 12 feet, the cottages' monthly rent will be capped at $1,588 with preference given to families displaced by Irma.

After the Storm: Puerto Rico's Architecture Schools in the Wake of Hurricane Maria; Part 2 — Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico

2017-11-10T19:53:00-05:00

For Archinect's After the Storm mini series, we had reached out to various architecture schools in Puerto Rico to get a better understanding how the recent Hurricanes Irma and Maria — and the devastation they left behind all over the region — had impacted school facilities, academic infrastructure, and student life.

In Part 1, we interviewed Mayra Jiménez-Montano, Interim Architecture Dean at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan.

In this second installment, we're talking with Luis V. Badillo-Lozano, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, the island's second largest city.

Archinect: How have the recent hurricanes Maria and Irma impacted the school's daily operations and student life? Have school facilities and infrastructure been affected?

Luis V. Badillo-Lozano: Neither Hurricane Irma nor Maria had a big impact on our School's facilities. Some water infiltration through the roof and a crack on a glass door (some floor ...

How a 1980s flood regulation protected many newer homes in Houston during Hurricane Harvey

2017-11-08T14:13:00-05:00

No other major metropolitan area in the U.S. has grown faster than Houston over the last decade, with a significant portion of new construction occurring in areas that the federal government considers prone to flooding. But much of that new real estate in those zones did just fine, a Times analysis has found.

The City of Houston, notorious for its relative lack of zoning codes, did in fact take future flooding into account and mandated that new homes were to be built at least 12 inches above flood levels predicted by the federal government. "The 1985 regulation and others that followed," the LA Times writes, "proved widely effective in their biggest test to date — the record-setting rains of Harvey."

After the Storm: Puerto Rico's Architecture Schools in the Wake of Hurricane Maria; Part 1 — University of Puerto Rico

2017-11-08T12:31:00-05:00

Several weeks have now passed since Hurricanes Irma and Maria consecutively ravaged through the Caribbean and southern states and territories of the U.S., leaving behind a trail of destruction and overwhelming infrastructural challenges. Puerto Rico was hit particularly hard — in terms of human loss, damage to homes, businesses, and life-sustaining networks like power grids, communication systems, water supply, wastewater treatment as well as the subsequent long-term health dangers and the ongoing exodus of professionals and their families.

We have reached out to Puerto Rico's architecture schools to get a reading on the current state of architectural education on the island in the wake of the storms and how faculty, staff, and students manage to cope with the new circumstances. Since most school websites were still down until recently and spotty power and internet supply made using the official .edu email systems near impossible, much of the communication had to be conducted via so...

The AIA urges lawmakers to reject rollbacks and issues seven infrastructure principles

2017-09-13T19:54:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects released a statement this morning, in light of damage wrought by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, urging policy makers to reject any weakening of building codes. President Thomas Vonier advocated for state and federal legislators to reject attempts to roll back protections pointing out that "designing buildings to minimize damage from such natural disasters as hurricanes matters not only for public health, safety, and welfare; it also makes complete economic sense."

The AIA went on to remind that, like bridges and highways, America's buildings are infrastructure too, and as such, are crumbling. "Unless we include buildings in the discussion about our nation’s infrastructure renewal" the statement warned, "taxpayers will be stuck with decrepit community places, higher bills when repairs come due and structures vulnerable to disasters and threats."

Along with the above cautions, the AIA also released the following principles on infrastructure

Infrastruc...

Tampa Bay braces for impact of the storm that might destroy it

2017-09-07T15:12:00-04:00

Tampa Bay is mesmerizing, with 700 miles of shoreline and some of the finest white sand beaches in the nation. But analysts say the metropolitan area is the most vulnerable in the United States to flooding and damage if a major hurricane ever scores a direct hit. A Boston firm that analyzes potential catastrophic damage reported that the region would lose $175 billion in a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina. A World Bank study called Tampa Bay one of the 10 most at-risk areas on the globe.

Published more than a month ago, long before Hurricane Irma was even on anyone's forecast, this piece by Washington Post writer Darryl Fears tells the tale of Tampa Bay as a seeming paradise, with its 4 millions residents, hot real estate market, lofty development ambitions, construction boom — and the big storm that will, maybe, hit one day and put it all in peril.

Now with Irma leaving a trail of destruction in the Northern Caribbean and heading straight for the Florida peninsula, Fears just sat down for an interview with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal: "[...] the big problem with this hurricane and with Tampa, St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, is sea level rise. And sea level rise is not a big deal in and of itself because it takes so long to build. But when you add wind, you add surge, that creates a wave, just a wall of water."

How Houston's absence of zoning code might have contributed to Harvey's devastating consequences

2017-08-30T18:11:00-04:00

Houston calls itself “the city with no limits” to convey the promise of boundless opportunity. But it also is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way.

Hurricane Harvey is drawing renewed scrutiny to Houston's 'Wild West' approach to planning and its unusual system for managing floodwater that, according to environmentalists, greatly diminishes land's natural ability to absorb water.

While local officials have defended the city's take on development claiming that the record-shattering rainfall on Houston and its surrounding area this week would have wreaked havoc even if stricter building limits were implemented, it's hard to argue that the damage could have been significantly reduced with more stringent building codes. According to the Washington Post, in the past, proposals for large-scale flood-control projects envisioned in the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008 stalled. City residents have voted three times not to enact a zoning code, most recently in 1993.

Instead of imposing restrictions on what property owners can do with their land, Houston has attempted to engineer a solution to drainage—a network of reservoirs, bayous and, a...

Trump revoked Obama's executive order on higher standards for flood protection two weeks before Hurricane Harvey

2017-08-28T14:10:00-04:00

Hurricane Harvey has been battering the Gulf Coast for days bringing in record floodwaters devastating much of southeast Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated that 30,000 people are in need of emergency shelter and more than 450,000 will need the help of federal aid for recovery after the devastation. The catastrophic flooding, which officials are calling the worst in the state's history, has already lead to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

Two weeks before the storm, President Trump revoked an executive order signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015 that aimed to make infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change. The Obama-era regulation meant that roads, building and other infrastructure projects needed to be built to withstand the effects of climate change such as stronger downpours, rising sea levels, and flooding. However, as part of Trump's executive order signed several weeks ago, he rolled back the Federal Flood Ri...

In 24 hours, get a 3D-printed house that will last 175 years

2017-03-07T12:40:00-05:00

Although it's unclear when the furnishing/window and door fitting process takes place, one thing is certain: you can now have the basic components of an entire 400 square foot house printed in about a day from the company Apis Cor. Aside from being speedy, the $10,000 printing process is impressive because the house is printed using only one machine, instead of a multi-component process that requires wall assembly. In this slightly bizarre promotional video (featuring notable speakers including a student, identified only by first name without any kind of school affiliation) the 3D printed houses are envisioned as being great solutions for providing fast relief from natural disasters. Since they're designed to last 175 years, it makes one wonder if these curvy domiciles could become a kind of inadvertent historical marker of previous catastrophes. Check it out:

Death toll climbs to 350 after powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hits Ecuador

2016-04-18T17:46:00-04:00

The death toll rose to 350 on Monday from a devastating earthquake that hit Ecuador at the weekend, as rescuers hunted for survivors, victims clamored for aid and looting broke out in the Andean nation's shattered coastal region. More than 2,000 people were injured in Saturday night's 7.8 magnitude quake, which ripped apart buildings and roads and knocked out power along the Pacific coastline.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has just struck Japan

2016-04-14T12:45:00-04:00

A powerful earthquake has struck southern Japan, causing casualties and collapsed buildings. According to Japan's Meteorological Agency, the quake hit at 9.26 pm and was centered seven miles east from the town of Mashiki in the Kumamoto prefecture. Initial reports placed the quake at a magnitude 6.4, but this was later downgraded to 6.2 by the US Geological Survey. A number of "strong" aftershocks have also been reported.

According to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, at least 40 people are seeking medical treatment, one woman is in critical condition, and others may be trapped beneath rubble.

Some images from social media are already showing the destruction:

How Chile’s strict building codes help reduce the country's earthquake casualties

2015-09-18T13:39:00-04:00

Wednesday night’s 8.3-magnitude earthquake had left 11 dead and a 175 houses damaged. While the toll wasn’t negligible, the quake — the world’s strongest this year — might have leveled less-prepared countries. “Our structural engineering is world class,” Santos, a 62-year-old engineer at the firm Ingenería Estructuras Consultoría, said by phone. “And it’s made in Chile.”

Related on Archinect:

How the Cascadia earthquake threatens America's coastal Northwest

2015-07-15T14:08:00-04:00

“Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.” In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of Interstate 5 covers some hundred and forty thousand square miles, including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene, Salem (the capital city of Oregon), Olympia (the capital of Washington), and some seven million people. When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America.

Rockefeller Foundation and USAID Announce Global Resilience Design Challenge

2014-08-14T14:04:00-04:00

The first feature of the Resilience Partnership will be the launch of a multi-phase resilience design challenge, focused on bringing people and organizations from a diverse set of industries together to collaborate on bold and innovative solutions to the toughest resilience challenges facing the three focus regions.

Typhoon Threatens Japan's Already Vulnerable Infrastructure

2014-07-08T17:29:00-04:00

As Okinawa and Kyushu prepare to take the brunt of what was until Monday categorized as a “super typhoon,” local infrastructure will be pushed to its limits, especially in Kyushu, where the area is saturated from heavy rains last week.

Typhoon Neoguri is the strongest typhoon of the 2014 season, thus far. As it barrels through the Ryukyu island chain and towards mainland Japan, the storm is already taking its toll. Reports claim 25 people have been injured, thousands are without electricity, and 540,000 have been ordered to evacuate to temporary shelters.

Japan is particularly vulnerable as it struggles to recover from the tsunami that led to the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor meltdown in 2011. While new national policies have temporarily shut down other nuclear facilities, apparently three are currently at risk from Typhoon Neoguri.

Scientists believe that hurricanes and typhoons will continue to increase in severity as global warming raises ocean temperatures. Maintaining aging infrastructure systems will become increasingly difficult in the next few decades, particularly for countries with extensive coastlines. And without them, providing adequate shelter and resources to temporary climate refuge...

Garrison Architects develops post-disaster housing prototype for NYC residents

2014-06-25T21:15:00-04:00

Garrison Architects adds to the pressing topic of 21st-century disaster resilience for dense urban cities with their modular post-disaster housing prototype. Developed for the New York City Office of Emergency Management, the project aims to provide New Yorkers not only with reliable and adaptable emergency shelter, but also to keep residents close to their communities and reduce the necessity of long-term displacement.

More details on the prototype's design below:

"The aim is to create a blueprint for post-disaster housing by utilizing the latest construction technology in conjunction with stringent requirements for safety, sustainability, durability, and universal design.
The five multi-story modules [that Garrison Architects designed] are infinitely flexible: they can be deployed in vacant lots, private yards, or public spaces. When needed, the modules are trucked to a site, craned into place, and plugged into utilities.
With 1- and 3-bedroom configurations, every unit features a liv...

Lawsuit could make climate change readiness the city's burden

2014-05-23T12:37:00-04:00

A major insurance company is suing Chicago-area municipal governments saying they knew of the risks posed by climate change and should have been better prepared. The class-action lawsuits raise the question of who is liable for the costs of global warming. [...] “What the insurers are saying is: ‘We’re in the business of covering unforeseen risks... But we’re now at a point with the science where climate change is now a foreseeable risk.’”

Should it stay or should it go? Preservationists weigh options to protect Farnsworth house from flooding damage

2014-04-30T13:50:00-04:00

The Fox River has shown little respect for Mies' brilliant juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made. In the past 18 years, the river has inundated the [Farnsworth] house three times. [...] Confronted with the prospect of more flooding, the house's owner is carefully weighing how to preserve and protect the house, two goals that potentially conflict... Such are the choices in an era when disastrous "100-year floods" seem to occur every few years.

Post-Katrina: Will New Orleans still be New Orleans?

2014-04-25T19:33:00-04:00

With billions in federal, charity and insurance dollars flowing in after [Hurricane Katrina], there were suddenly resources for change. “The city essentially got the opportunity to do a do-over,” said Carol Bebelle, a lifelong New Orleanian and executive director of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. [...] In many ways, it was a top-to-bottom re-imagining of the cityscape. So, is the city in a better place than it was nearly nine years ago? It depends on how closely you look.