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Construction is a multibillion dollar industry in the United States, yet building research is highly fragmented. This new book is a complete compilation of building research institutions. It contains profiles of the institutions and gives their addresses and phone numbers, the mission and focus of their research, their distinctive attributes, and their publications. A comprehensive index identifies all institutions conducting research on specific topics.

This book advises the federal government on a national infrastructure research agenda. It takes the position that the traditional disciplinary and institutional divisions among infrastructure modes and professions are largely historical artifacts that impose barriers to the development of new technology and encourages the government to embrace a more interdisciplinary approach. In order to be practical, the study focuses on infrastructure technologies that can be incorporated into or overlay current systems, allow for alternative future alternative future urban development, and are likely to have value cutting across the distinct functional modes of infrastructure. Finally, the report is organized according to seven broad cross-cutting areas that should promote interdisciplinary approaches to infrastructure problems: systems life-cycle management, analysis and decision tools, information management, condition assessment and monitoring technology, the science of materials performance and deterioration, construction equipment and procedures, and technology management.

This volume considers engineering risk analysis applications to the field of building safety. Building codes and design criteria used by architects and engineers--standards of good practice defined by industry consensus--have made great strides in bringing the dangers of facilities under control, but the range of hazards (e.g., fire, indoor air pollutants, electrical malfunctions) is broad. Risk analysis offers improved overall safety of new and existing facilities without imposing unacceptable costs.Broad application of risk analysis will help facility professionals, policymakers, and facility users and owners to understand the risks, to determine what levels of risk are socially and economically tolerable, and to manage risk more effectively.

Public facilities are valuable assets that can provide decades of high quality of service if they are effectively utilized. Despite effective planning, design, and management, sometimes users or owners change and have requirements different from those that the facility was initially intended to fulfill. In addition, the technologies sometimes change, making facilities obsolete before they have worn out or otherwise failed.This book explores the meaning of obsolescence as the term applies to buildings. It discusses the functional, economic, technological, social, legal, political, and cultural factors that can influence when obsolescence will occur and considers what design professional and building owners and users can do to delay and minimize the costs of obsolescence. The analyses apply to all buildings, but public facilities are given added attention because of their special management problems.

THE original reason for building a house--protection from the weather--is often not remembered by the modern home-owner, who is interested chiefly in comfort and convenience in his twentieth-century house.