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Brains Get Recharged at Innovation Conference
By Judy Schriener
[November 17, 2005 ]

It's so easy in our daily lives to get bogged down in the mundane. Putting out fires is not conducive to expansive thinking. So it was energizing, inspirational and downright fun to get together with about 300 people from around the world this week at the Architectural Record Innovation conference in conjunction with Engineering News-Record and New York Construction in New York City.

I make no apologies for writing about one of our own events because one thing the McGraw-Hill Construction publications do well is get really good, substantive, ahead-of-the-pack speakers for events. I will just share a couple of the highlights here, and you'll see more about the conference in our publications.

	MIT's Gershenfeld

The prominent inventor Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made us believe that all things are possible with digital fabrication, and he backed that up with story after story of personal inventions by MIT students that they created by mixing hardware, software and fabrication machinery.

Some were truly bizarre, such as a ScreamBody bag that's "a portable personal space for screaming." It's a bag that you scream into and nobody can hear it, but it's recorded for release at a later time and place of your choosing. The demo of that was hilarious and no doubt created some level of what I call impulse demand. (Seems like a great idea at the time because of the novelty and excitement. A year later, it may be in the pile for Goodwill.)

Crowd was enraptured.

Other student inventions of things they'd always wanted but could never find included a computer interface for a parrot left alone at home all day and a bicycle that could be built from a "print" on a computer. Those and many other examples are in Gershenfeld's new book, FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop -- From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication.

Reigi and Orrell

Another really fun session was led by "materialist" Robin Reigi, from Robin Reigi Inc., and Rita Catinella Orrell, Record's new products editor. The two of them went through a dozen materials with various textures, finishes and innovations. Among them was Smith & Fong’s Strand Board in the Neopolitan variety (pictured). Reigi describes it like this: "They take light and dark strands of bamboo and lay them up side by side for a uniquely variegated effect. This is also a high durability product with a class 1 fire rating that can be used for flooring or millwork paneling."

One of the most dazzling products, which enchanted the crowd, was presented by Gregg Brodarick, designer for B.lab Italia. It was "liquid floor tiles" with various colors of liquid visible in the tiles. The liquids move with pressure so that stepping, riding a tricycle and otherwise putting weight on the tiles create dynamic designs. The same material was also shown as a coffee table. I didn't ask about the price of this unique material, but it can't be inexpensive. Samples were well stepped on in the expo area. And conference attendees got to play with and take away samples of many of the demonstrated materials.

There was much more, including presentation of McGraw-Hill Construction's first-ever "Innovation" and "Patron of Innovation" prizes, which went to Lord Norman Foster and Victor Ganzi, Hearst Corp. CEO, but I'll leave the rest of the coverage to the publications. Innovation -- what a concept. We should get together to talk about that -- and make it happen -- more often.

Photos by Judy Schriener

Amid Piles of Rubble, Crane Crews Lift Spirits in New Orleans
By Angelle Bergeron
[November 09, 2005 ]

On the way from my home near City Park, just off of Esplanade Avenue, I passed the monumental debris heap that rises at least three stories high and fills the huge median on West End Boulevard. Every time I see it, I try to find the appropriately astounding adjective for this unprecedented pile of waste and am stymied. Where once Lakeview neighborhood residents could be seen tossing a Frisbee, walking their dogs or rollerblading, cycling or jogging along decoratively-paved paths, the green space lining the way to Lake Pontchartrain has been replaced by the remains of their lives - the material part anyway.

	Bergeron

Approaching the bridge that traverses the 17th Street Canal poses a bit of a challenge. Although the flood waters are long gone, broken trees, garbage, furniture, flooded out cars and even boats still hinder the driving lanes of Old Hammond Highway. Safety markers block entrance to the bridge and a signal bearer directs traffic around a tree-trimming truck.

Two blocks away I have my first gander at B&G Crane's 500-ton capacity hydraulic track crane tower, which reaches toward the sky like a huge black arm, strong enough to plug any holes. Excited to be in the realm of construction (rather than so much surrounding decay), my spirit is immediately bolstered by all of the activity on the bridge. Crews are working round-the-clock to complete more permanent emergency repairs to the 17th Street Canal, the location of the breach that allowed the damaging floodwaters to flow into so many lives. The workers from Boh Bros., Bertucci and B&G Crane symbolize New Orleans's resiliency as much as the heap on West End signifies the city's partial demise.

The bridge makes a handy staging area for the operation.(Illustration by Angelle Bergeron for ENR)

I arrived as counterweights were being placed on the crane that is being used to place equipment on flexi-float barges. "We are going to put that track hoe on that barge there," said Arleigh Hays with B&G. "Then we will take this machine apart," he said, pointing to a Boh crane positioned almost dead center on the bridge over the canal. "We're going to take that boom out, remove the counterweights and put it on that other barge out there." This isn't an unusual job for B& G, just unusual circumstances. "We just come out here, put them together, do the rigging work on it, take it back apart and move on to somewhere else," Hays said.

Bertucci, like Boh Bros., was one of the first responders at the scene of the breach. "When we first came here, we put barges together on that side," Gaspard said, pointing in the direction I had come from. "We floated it through that neighborhood, through the breach and back into this canal," he said.

Bertucci's crew camped out the first couple of weeks in trailers at the company yard. For the first 22 days, Gaspard didn't even get a break to see his family. "I have a good friend who just lives four blocks this way," he said, pointing west toward Jefferson Parish on the opposite side from the fatal breach. "He was lucky that he didn't get water because it could have just as easily broken on the other side."


Bertucci, a Jefferson, La., company that specializes in coastal restoration work, is responsible for assembling the flexi-float barges. "This is what we do, but on a smaller version," said Joseph Gaspard, a heavy equipment operator for Bertucci. "We helped with this closure and the one at London Avenue."

The camaraderie among the workers was almost tangible. Although the immediate crisis has passed, and the environment is more business as usual, it's obvious these men have forged some unbreakable bonds.

Fred Fuchs, project manager for Boh's piledriving department, cuts up with a couple of guys from the crew and exchanges friendly greetings with members of the Corps of Engineers.

"This is a more substantial emergency repair to the 17th Street Canal breach," Fuchs said. "We're installing 65-ft-long ARBED AZ 26 sheet pile, 100 ft on either side."

On a picture-perfect day, crews worked to get the material barge ready to start "throwing rock," placing limestone in the breach and setting up the equipment to drive the sheet piling for a coffer dam around the area of the breach.

"This is to put a more permanent temporary fix on this breach," Fuchs said. The coffer dam protecting the area will be 700 ft long and between 40 and 50 ft deep inside the channel.

The clock started Nov. 1 on the 52-day, $6.2-million contract. Boh will have crews working 24 hours a day, seven days a week until completion. "The track hoe will be throwing rock to line the channel," Fuchs explained. "Because we are narrowing it up, the velocity will speed up and we need to armor the bottom with rip rap. We're going to fill the dam with rock and line the channel with rock."

Angelle Bergeron is a freelance writer reporting for McGraw-Hill Construction from New Orleans.