Archive | January, 2012

Virginia Senator Petersen on Sustainability

As the Virginia legislature enters its 2012 session, Inform turned to Senator J. Chapman Petersen, a democrat who represents Northern Virginia and is an ardent supporter of planned, sustainable growth in the commonwealth. Here are his responses to a handful of questions related to resource management in Virginia.

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Professional Estimators Now Have a Richmond Chapter

The American Society of Professional Estimators welcomed its 82nd chapter in 2011 with the formation of ASPE-Richmond. The organization promotes education, ethics, standards, certification, and fellowship to further the recognition of construction estimating as a profession. The chapter, which currently has about 25 members, meets the third Wednesday of each month and will host the Northeast [...]

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Design Opportunities Ride on Metrorail Dulles Extension

By Jonathan Moore Up, not out, is the vision for development along Northern Virginia’s westward commuter corridor. Planning is on track with construction of the new Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.  This 23-mile $6.2 billion project will extend the Washington, D.C., Metrorail system from East Falls Church to Dulles International Airport and beyond to Ashburn.  It’s [...]

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D.C. Celebrates a Half Century of Spiraling Beltway Growth

By Deborah K. Dietsch The Capital Beltway crosses only a short distance into Washington, D.C., but is considered the ultimate symbol of our nation’s seat of power. “Inside the Beltway” and “Beltway Bandits” are instantly recognized as phrases synonymous with the insular world of American politics and government and the private companies serving them. “The [...]

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A Picture Book on Rail Stations, Not a History of Their Architecture

Historian Tony Wrenn, Hon. AIA, analyzes Railroad Stations—The Buildings That Linked the Nation.

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Extended Forecast—Partly Cloudy

By Nicholas E. Vlattas, AIA, and Deborah Marquardt Having our head in the clouds used to imply we were dreamers. Not anymore. Now more than ever before, IT in the cloud means resource management that is firmly grounded. Just a few years ago, Hanbury Evans made a strategic decision to invest in building information modeling [...]

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Where Our Roads Have Taken Us

By Morton Gulak, PhD Bold ideas have always shaped cities. These usually emerge when problems seem at their worst and current methods of solving them don’t appear to be working. Transportation, one of the most important elements of urban form, has always been a problem to be solved and a topic that has elicited a [...]

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Realization of a Gehry Concept

Eisenhower Memorial Executive Architect Dan Feil, FAIA, describes the conceptual evolution of the Frank Gehry, FAIA-designed steel tapestries for that memorial.

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