Construction Of Public Buildings Research Articles

Using Plastering Machines to Improve the Efficiency of Finishing Works

Plastering works are a sophisticated technology and using of a large amount of manual methods. Despite the development of mechanization, the amount of manual operations of plastering work remains significant and in some cases up to 60%. The article describes the methods of production of plaster works, as well as promising directions of development that improve the efficiency of finishing work in the construction of residential and public buildings.

WPA Projects in Anaheim, CA, During the Great Depression

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), served as a catalyst for public works programs, specifically in the area of providing work to the unemployed. In cities all over the nation, the WPA provided grants that either paid employees directly or allocated funds to private firms. These programs were fundamental not only to the individuals they employed, but to the future of the cities themselves. Through the construction of public buildings, art projects, parks, and roads, American cities endured, remained intact, and even flourished as a result of the WPA.

Becoming Urban: New Zealand towns in the 1850s

During the 1850s the first inland towns were founded at Greytown and Masterton. They signalled a new direction in Pākehā settlement, a movement from coastal edge port "cities" to secondary towns in the (North Island) interior. It was from these centres that colonisation proceeded apace. These new towns followed the pattern of New Zealand urbanism established in the 1840s: low-density development with houses and buildings scattered over a wide domain. Could they then really be called towns? Architecturally, the built environment of all towns might be best described as utilitarian and frontier-like. But the decade is notable for the first expressions of a grander, civic architecture, best shown in the construction of public buildings, some of which are examined here. Were these New Zealand's first urban buildings?

Width Distribution of the Surface Ruptures Associated with the Wenchuan Earthquake: Implication for the Setback Zone of the Seismogenic Faults in Postquake Reconstruction

The 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake ( M w 7.9) produced a 240-km-long surface rupture zone along the Beichuan fault and a 72-km-long rupture along the Pengguan fault, which are two of the three subparallel secondary strands of the northeast-striking Longmen Shan thrust fault system in the province of Sichuan, China. Among a total of twenty coseismic surface ruptures surveyed in the field, seventeen are less than 40 m wide, about half of them are 10–30 m wide, and only 3 are over 40–59 m wide. Many buildings sitting directly on the path of the surface ruptures were either completely demolished or severely damaged, including those with a frame or reinforced concrete structure. Other buildings a short distance from the rupture zones were subjected to only minor or no damage. These observations reinforce the use of fault setback zone in the postquake reconstruction of Wenchuan. Considering the crustal shortening of the inverse faulting that triggered the Wenchuan earthquake and uncertainties in width survey of the surface ruptures, we estimate the setback distance of 25 m for the seismogenic faults, which is comparable to the 15–30-m setback distance used in the seismically active regions of California. It is therefore recommended that construction of public buildings and residential structures should not be permitted within the 25-m setback zone of the seismogenic faults in the postquake reconstruction of Wenchuan and its surrounding areas.

Digesto L, 10, 3 pr. and the requirement to obtain permission from the emperor for financing the construction of public entertainment buildings

En principio todo particular podia hacer una obra nueva incluso sin la autorizacion del principe, salvo que la hiciese por emulacion con otra ciudad, cuando el proyecto pudiera causar una sedicion, o en el caso de que la obra fuese un circo, un teatro o un anfiteatro (Dig., L, 10, 3, pr.). Los motivos que determinaron la restriccion impuesta a los evergetas en materia de construccion de edificios de espectaculos pudieron ser variados y los analizaremos en nuestro trabajo: popularidad que reportaba este tipo de obras a quienes las financiaban; vinculacion de los edificios de espectaculos a las ceremonias de culto imperial; cuestiones de seguridad en materia edilicia; o preocupacion del Estado por mantener saneadas unas finanzas locales que debieron soportar los costes de mantenimiento de estos grandes proyectos constructivos.

The Application of Tanzimat in the Desert: The Bedouins and the Creation of a New Town in Southern Palestine (1860–1914)

The second half of the nineteenth century was a period when the Ottoman government's centralization efforts gained momentum. In Southern Palestine, this entailed a struggle for central government to gain the upper hand over the Bedouin tribes. In the 1860s, the Ottoman government was still using military power to end the internal strife between the Bedouin tribes. However, from the 1890s on, the government began to use sophisticated means and tactics in order to secure control and encourage the integration of the Bedouin element in the empire. The creation of a new town, namely Beersheba, the changing apparatus of administration, the construction of public buildings in desert, all meant that the government attempted to penetrate the nomad's way of life. In this study the main emphasis will be given to describing the role of the state in forming and changing the tribal institutions.

This Side of the Mountain

This Side of the Mountain George Brosi People who live outside the Qualla Boundary, the territory administered by the Eastern Band of the Cherokees, have a lot to learn. The Cherokees have established exemplary institutions and programs in many areas of life. What follows are some examples of ways that they have devised to deal with health care delivery, housing, caring for children, and construction of public buildings. The Cherokee Hospital serves all who need health care. Some Cherokee people choose to pay for health care they consider even better outside the Qualla Boundary. That’s fine and dandy. But everybody has their needs met. Nobody has to worry about health problems causing economic disaster. The Qualla Housing Authority lends money to home builders, remodelers, and home buyers at extremely low interest rates since it is a non-profit organization, unlike mainstream banks. As a result homes in Cherokee often cost a family less than half what a family outside the Qualla Boundary ends up paying their banks for a comparable home. The Boys Club at Cherokee offers a full-time day (and night) care facility. Anybody can drop a child of any age off there at any time for any reason and rest assured that the child is safe and well cared for. If a parent is called in to work, incapacitated, sick, upset, impaired, incarcerated, or whatever, the kids will be ok until the parent is ready to resume care. Now that is a facility that we could use in every American community. The United States Green Building Council has given the new Cherokee Central School, which opened this fall in the Big Cove Community on the Qualla Boundary, a rare LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certification. It is one of the largest green schools in America. From the outside, natural light beams in, even through tunnels into interior rooms. Heating and cooling are geothermal, and rainwater is harvested to flush toilets and irrigate grounds. Cultural features abound; for example, stucco walls that incorporate traditional basket-weaving designs. The landscaping utilizes native plants with cultural as well as environmental meaning. My daughter, Sunshine, was involved in planting butternut and white oak trees on the grounds. These and other plants make a pleasing environment and a laboratory for the study of ecology. The rest of us have a lot to learn. [End Page 8] Copyright © 2009 Berea College

Construction of the Text, Construction of the Past. Historical Knowledge Classical Myths and Ideology in a Medieval Comune (pisa, eleventh to twelfth centuries)

Fascination for antiquity had different aspects in medieval Italian comuni. Medieval cities could claim a Trojan or a Greek origin; ancient stones and epigraphs were reused for the construction of churches or public buildings. Indeed, relics of ancient times were recombined to transfer the glory of the past into the spirit of a new age. This operation of rearrangement had its parallel in the construction of literary or historical texts. Antiquity stood before the Italian city-dwellers not just in the shape of colossal ruins, but also in the form of historical narratives that celebrated the glory of the Romans and the Greeks. Excerpts from these ancient narratives were reinserted in medieval texts to transmit the deeds of the classical heroes to the new urban elite. Perhaps the most interesting case is Pisa in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In this important maritime city, Guido, most probably a deacon of the Cathedral, gave his compatriots a reconstruction of ancient deeds by compiling his Liber de v...

Refiguring the Colonial City: Recovering the Role of Local Inhabitants in the Construction of Colonial Bombay, 1854-1918

Refiguring the Colonial CityRecovering the Role of Local Inhabitants in the Construction of Colonial Bombay, 1854–1918 Preeti Chopra (bio) To understand the major role local inhabitants play in making a colonial city, we must learn to recognize the many ways that they presented themselves and also acknowledge the processes by which their contributions were obscured. This article takes up this general challenge by focusing on colonial Bombay from 1854 to 1918. It shows that what was at stake was not only the varied processes of building, including obviously Western stylistic influences on local architecture, but that the colonial government had the power to selectively read the cultural landscapes created by local inhabitants, rendering the landscapes of the latter as potentially inconsequential. Although other factors and players were important in shaping the city, in this article I will look at vernacular architecture and urbanism to focus on the role of the local inhabitants in the construction of colonial Bombay.1 Colonial Bombay was the product of the fragmentation of two modes of urbanism: the colonial and the local. In this article I will first highlight the impact of the colonial government's selective reading of the local landscape by focusing on the neighborhood of the Memon community. I then argue that, in contrast to the architectural regularity seen in colonial buildings, the coherence of "native urbanism" lay in the specific activity that took place in the space and in the community that dominated it. Following this, I suggest that the process of transculturation might be useful in helping us understand the Western influences on local architecture. I conclude by showing that only by taking vernacular architecture and urbanism into consideration can we refigure the colonial city, allowing us to see that it was not simply the product of the colonial regime but the result of varied processes of making and imagining the city. Selective Reading of Local Cultural Landscapes The British Crown acquired Bombay in 1661 as part of the matrimonial and military alliance concluded between Britain and Portugal. However, Bombay's real transformation took place after 1668 when it was transferred to the East India Company for an annual rental fee of ten pounds, as Charles II found it too expensive to govern. Under the East India Company these islands off of the west coast of India were joined together and expanded by dams and reclamations over the following centuries to form the Island of Bombay. The growth of the Presidencies of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in India were a result of the East India Company's well-defined strategy of developing land bases to facilitate trade. In the case of the East India Company, the broad outlines of this policy were to use naval power in the Indian Ocean and on the coasts of India itself, combined with the building of fortified bases as well as enclaves in English factory ports. This strategy was based on the calculation that the land-based Mughal regimes did not have an effective way of repulsing a sea attack. By 1709, the Company had permanent factories at the Gulf of Gombroon and Basra, major settlements in the Presidencies of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, and another large base at Bantam or Java to oversee the spice trade.2 While the island of Bombay had been under British control since 1661, Bombay's urban development began with the construction of [End Page 109] the Fort from 1715 to 1743. The Fort formed the nucleus of colonial settlement well after the fort walls were torn down after 1862 (Figure 1). The British and Indians viewed Bombay in different ways. These alternate readings of the city had great consequences, as the colonial government had the power to read and render local cultural landscapes as inconsequential, as we shall see in the case study of the quarter of the Memon community. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Plan of the City of Bombay, 1909. The destruction of the fort walls after 1862 opened up an arena for the construction of substantial public buildings fronting the Esplanade. The native town grew up to the north of the Esplanade after 1803. From The Gazetteer of...

A New Exhibit on Ancient Mesopotamia at the Oriental Institue, University of Chicago

The world of archaeology has long considered the civilization that developed in ancient Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago to be the earliest anywhere in the world. It led the way in creating cities, institutions of governance, bureaucracy, and organized religion, as well as inventing writing and the first wheeled vehicles. Among its other major accomplishments were the construction of major public buildings in a distinctive architectural tradition, and the organization of systematic trade, often conducted over considerable distances. And we owe to

Entre comunidad y nacion: La historia de Guatemala revisitada desde lo local y lo regional

The articles gathered here address a society that is both fascinating and notoriously complicated. The authors’ finely drawn portraits of local history often run counter to the received wisdom regarding national events. Their evidence will intrigue specialists, and several articles will also engage undergraduates. For example, Isabel Rodas’s careful archival work on Patzicía allows her to reconstruct patterns of wealth and privilege across four generations of families that were direct and legitimate heirs to the conquistadors. Yet distance from the colonial capital and failure to maintain alliances with the political elite caused them, over time, to shed their Spanish identity. Instead, they acquired land by “incorporating themselves clandestinely into the social space of the indigenous communities,” reidentifying as ladino—a social category that included mestizos, Afro-Guatemalans, and Mayans who had fled their communities to escape labor and tribute burdens. Edgar Esquit studies the same municipality following the advent of the coffee boom, which greatly expanded the privileges of the ladino elite. Kaqchikel-Maya rights suffered steady erosion, and indigenous municipal officers served mainly to deliver labor to their ladino counterparts. Their only remaining sphere of autonomy—the administration of justice according to indigenous norms—came under the ax in 1935 when Jorge Ubico imposed his intendancy system. It was in this decade that Kaqchikel men founded a school explicitly for Mayan youth and also attempted to recapture some of their land base. This organizing provides the context for the 1944 massacre, nearly always told from the urban perspective. This dominant perspective claimed for itself the mantle of national history, but Esquit shows that such claims are deeply subjective and silence other narratives.Jean Piel’s view of indigenous elite in Quiché is far less flattering. She questions ladino hegemony during the coffee boom, using methodological tools similar to those of Rodas. Douglas Sullivan-González likewise reveals misconceptions and deepens our understanding of elite events. He looks at the 1837 and 1857 cholera epidemics in Santa Rosa: local events linked to the earlier epidemic brought down the state, while those of the later period served to strengthen it. At both points, religious fervor generated overwhelming popular support. The largely ladino identity of Santa Rosa’s poor gave shape to emerging expressions of Guatemalan patriotism.Indigenous autonomy is the point of departure for both Gregory Grandin and Ana Lorena Carrillo, whose very different articles on Quetzaltenango focus on the Kiché-Maya elite and middle strata. Grandin chronicles the elite’s construction of public buildings and monuments, as they laid claim to the national rhetoric of progress. He also charts their ability to outmaneuver ladino municipal officers by successfully petitioning the national government. As in Patzicía, Quetzaltenango’s indigenous elite brokered the labor of the poor. However, the city’s comparative wealth allowed the K’iché elite to buffer the hardships of forced labor by providing local jobs, which was not the case in Patzicía, where the majority worked seasonally on the coffee plantations. While the K’iché elite put the language of progress to good use, they did so at the cost of “distancing themselves not only from the impoverished or common Indians of their own community, but from all the Indians of Guatemala” (p. 91). Moreover, their small victories played out against a larger canvas of diminishing power.Todd Little-Siebold and Richard Adams turn to the statistical record of San Marcos (near Quetzaltenango) to reconstruct power relations and ethnicity in the plantation economy. Little-Siebold’s picture of local resistance to mandamientos during the early years of the coffee boom recalls the painstaking research done on Mexico’s system of forced labor. The main characters that emerge are local power holders. Class also shapes Carrillo’s argument concerning ethnicity among the contemporary middle classes in Quetzaltenango. She explores how Mayan identity has been complicated by the emergence of an urbanized, educated Maya elite. Her insights demand a more subtle approach to ethnicity that recognizes the presence of such individuals who “still are and, in many cases, wish to continue being Mayan” (p. 140). These perceptions reflect other recent historiography—for instance, Jeffrey Gould’s work on Nicaragua and El Salvador, which interrogates the tensions of identity among descendants of indigenous workers forced into plantation labor and de-cultured by agents of the state, a process that Gould claims was never fully successful. Future research will hopefully unravel the experience of Guatemala’s indigenous majority and, more broadly, non-elite actors. The intersections between gender and ethnicity remain largely unexplored. The beauty of this collection is that it takes up the challenge of creating textured local histories, a necessary step toward crafting more accurate, inclusive analyses of Guatemala’s past that do justice to both community and nation.

Disability Law in Germany: An Overview of Employment, Education and Access Rights

Under German law, people with disabilities are entitled to help and assistance in order to avert, eliminate or improve their disability. The general goal is to overcome, as much as possible, the disability's effects and to enable the disabled to participate in all areas of society, especially in the labor market and in community life. The Federal Government is obliged to a barrier-free design and construction of public buildings, streets, etc. and to provide barrier-free access to communication, especially in the field of administrative Internet sites, official forms and notifications. In the area of public transportation, all facilities and means of transportation (bus, train, aircraft) are also required to be barrier-free. The same applies to restaurants.

Prerequisites of business interior development (1917–1932)

Staged development of various architectural tenors and trends, construction of administrative centers, public buildings and emergence of business interior.

Bâtir la ville: Révolutions industrielles dans les matériaux de construction, France-Grande-Bretagne, 1760–1840 by André Guillerme

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 631 cial implications of the drawings receive little attention (by design), although the editors usually alert the reader to their broader signifi­ cance: those that survive for the Washington, D.C., townhouse of Commodore Stephen Decatur, for example, include several for the carpentry of windows and doors, which, while exhibiting the care Latrobe the artist gave to such details, also document the profes­ sional architect’s advance into the traditional (creative and remuner­ ative) precincts of the American artificer and craftsman. Such di­ mensions in architecture can also be explored in the Latrobe project’s three-volume editions of Latrobe’s Journals (ed. Edward Carter II, John C. Van Horne, and Lee Formwalt [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1977-80]) and his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers (ed.John C. Van Horne and Lee Formwalt [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984-88]). C. M. Harris Dr. Harris is editor of the Papers ofWilliam, Thornton (Charlottesville, Va.: Univer­ sity Press of Virginia, 1995-) and coeditor of Papers Relating to the U.S. Patent Office during the Superintendence of William Thornton, 1802-1828 (Washington, D.C.: Na­ tional Archives [Federal Documentary Microfilm Edition No. 1], 1987). Bâtir la ville: Révolutions industrielles dans les matériaux de construction, France-Grande-Bretagne, 1760-1840. By André Guillerme. Paris: Champ Vallon, 1995. Pp. 315; illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. The subject of this book is the fundamental, yet “invisible,” as­ pects of the reconstruction that transformed the preindustrial city into a modern urban entity at the turn of the 19th century. André Guillerme shows the technical basis of this modernization, which first became visible in Paris during the Haussmann era. Its revolu­ tionary prerequisites lay far back in the years between 1760 and 1840. In his introduction Guillerme indicates his central concern: to show that the “industrial revolution” in building depended on the development of new materials and building techniques, which have until now largely been disregarded in the historiography of city de­ velopment. Guillerme seeks to follow what he calls the “logic ofcon­ struction,” advancing from the foundation through the frame and roof to the technical outfitting of the interior. From this issues his analysis of urbanization. In his prologue, Guillerme compares England and France in light of their well-known differences, which can be summed up in the terms étatism and liberalism. What is new here is his depiction of the simultaneity of the revolutions in public works in different cultural and economic contexts. He contrasts the well-known developments in Great Britain that followed the Building Act of 1774 with the tacit revolution of the French state construction system, which orginated in the geopolitical thinking of the prerevolutionary era. The French 632 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE state through its Corps de l’officier du génie elevated Cormontaigne’s fascinating concept of table rase to an ideology of aménagement du territoire (p. 48), which saw the whole countryside as malleable raw material. The military aspects of a geopolitical orientation to con­ struction by one of Europe’s greatest powers and its consequences for planning, not to mention for the development of technical theo­ ries, have not been considered in such detail before. An important element in the aménagement du territoire was the development of the first theories of soil behavior as applied to military fortifications; these principles—in effect, demonstrations of power—found fur­ ther application in the construction of public works and official buildings. Military planning turned the landscape into a geometrical topos, in which representations of its geography and soil properties replaced the land itself. In addition to its own “rational” approach, France was able to use the knowledge gained elsewhere in continen­ tal Europe. Above all, Holland’s extensive experience in building fortresses, dikes, and other water containment projects provided a practical backdrop of experience for France’s great construction projects. In the second chapter Guillerme clarifies the connections among aménagement du territoire, theories of soil mechanics, and technologi­ cal development in a very detailed fashion. Even after the defeat of Napoleon, planning and construction technology again and again influenced the politics ofpower. The French victory...

Blast Resistant Design of Commercial Buildings

The design and construction of public buildings to provide life safety in the face of explosions is receiving renewed attention from structural engineers. Existing blast design approaches call for modest enhancements in structural design coupled with a buffer zone surrounding the building. This highly effective approach is only feasible where a keep-out zone is available and affordable. For many urban settings the proximity to unregulated traffic brings the terrorist threat to or within the perimeter of the building. For these structures, blast protection has the more modest goal of containing damage in the immediate vicinity of the explosion and the prevention of progressive collapse. The present paper considers the design features of a typical eight-story reinforced-concrete frame structure in Uniform Building Code seismic zone 1 (International 1991). It addresses the design of floor slabs, columns, facades, atrium areas, and windows and the prevention of progressive collapse in the blast environment. The paper presents design modifications that may limit the occupants' exposure to extreme blast pressures and provides details that improve ductility and structural response characteristics.

古バビロニア国に於ける賦役と賦役労働者の行政管理

This paper presents a synthesis of the administration of corvee work and corvee workers in the Fisrt Dynasty of Babylon especially during the reign of Hammurapi (1792-1750 B. C.).Corvee work was imposed by the central government of Babylon upon all male citizens, except registered permanent public workers, of the provincial and/or local administrations to which the central government assigned public works on a local basis. The provincial and local administrations were required to provide corvee workers, unpaid laborers, to the labor pool of the central government. Corvee work could be avoided by payment of exemption money or by providing a work substitute. The period of corvee work was probably a few months. However, it was flexible, depending on the level of authority held by the central government to impose levies upon the provincial and local administrations for public works.Corvee workers were under the direct control of the central government and were usually deployed to public works sector which required a large number of unskilled workers under the highly centralized regime of Hammurapi. Large scale public works were carried out by the central government with the collaboration of provincial and local administrations. The main areas of public works were construction of public buildings, canal works, sheep shearing, weaving and boat-making. The labor forces of public works were comprised of corvee workers, temporary hired workers, soldiers as a supplementary work force, and public slaves in addition to specialists and administrators.

50-Year Record of Field Act Seismic Building Standards for California Schools

This paper describes the results of more than 50 years experience with enforcement of building standards for the construction of public school buildings in the State of California, one of the highly active seismic areas of the world. The Field Act, which became effective April 10, 1933, has the stated purpose of providing earthquake resistant facilities for the safety of the occupants and protection of the state property. The performance of Field Act school buildings subjected to high intensity ground motion from five earthquakes of the moderate to major range provides significant evidence of the effectiveness of this seismic hazard mitigation program.

Defects in Public Building Construction

From 1978 - 1980, The Special Commission concerning State and County Buildings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made a thorough investigation of maladministration and corruption in the construction of public buildings in the state. In the end, the Commission also suggested legislative reforms for improving public construction. As part of its inquiries, the Commission made a series of extensive studies of physical defects in recently constructed public buildings. One method used to gather information was a mailed survey, which is examined in this paper. The majority of recently constructed public buildings were found to have severe construction defects which impaired building performance or use, were costly to repair, or led to expensive secondary damage, or all three.

Construction of the foundation-basement part of framed-paneled buildings on collapsible soils

The new Instructions [i] have made it possible to sharply increase the volume of construction of frameless residential buildings by developing areas with collapsible soil masses. This has entailed expanded construction of public buildings using the framed--paneled design scheme. The design and ~onstruction of such buildings on type II collapsible soils are carried out by applying a complex of measures which include preparation of the soil, protection against the action of water, and measures for preventing the effect of possible collapse of the base soils (use of expansion joints which divide the building, construction of a rigid foundation--basement part).

十津川山村における土木建設業の展開とその機能

The aim of this paper is to clear the role of public works contractors which have developed through the period of higher economic growth, in the mountaneous region, Totsukawa and Oto mura, Nara prefecture.The results obtained are as follows;1. The public enterprise contractors in this area has developed under the policy of the regional development of mountaneous region where the retreat of population to large towns have advanced through the period of the higher economic growth 1960-1975.2. The main inputs by this policy were the construction of forest land paths, bridges, tunnels and various public buildings. So many public works contractors have developed and holded the first place in the productions of this area, contrasting to the decrease of forest productions under the impact of increased imported timber.3. In this process, while Totsukawa mura, where is large square composed of mountaneous district and have many points of landslide, have rapidly increased the demand of public works, Oto mura of which square is smaller than the former have slowly increased it. So, the former have created many and various scale contractors and the latter have created some and small ones. Thus the inputs have been almost digested in Totsukawa mura, but most of it have outflowed to the other in Oto mura.4. Many farmers who have small paddy fields, ordinary fields and forest land have been employed to these contractors temporarily as a side job. They have almost employed through the relations of community. The opportunity of employ in Totsukawa mura is larger than Oto mura. So, the public enterprises have formed stable situation of economic base in the former, but it has been unstable in the latter, so the retreat of population is admitted in the latter.