On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll learn how public transportation agencies are partnering with private sector technology companies to create a new blueprint for mobility in Denver, Colorado.
What makes the ideal inpatient room for people being treated for behavioral and mental illnesses? In this Speaking of Design podcast episode, we’ll meet a team of architects, researchers, and healthcare experts working collaboratively to answer this question. Partnering with the Veterans Affairs New Jersey Healthcare System, the team’s prototype of a room designed specifically for behavioral and mental health treatment provided patients and behavioral healthcare staff an opportunity to weigh-in ...
On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll meet a team of architects, researchers and healthcare experts. Their shared mission was to design and study the ideal patient room for people being treated for behavioral and mental illnesses.
The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Anthony Kane and Melissa Peneycad discuss how sustainability benefits the bottom line, the growing importance of resiliency to combat extreme weather, and some of the most innovative infrastructure designs they’ve seen through the Envision® verification program.
On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll talk to Anthony Kane and Melissa Peneycad from the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure.
When the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure formed in 2012, the infrastructure industry suddenly had a universal report card for sustainability known as Envision®. On this episode, you'll meet some of the industry's early adopters and experts on the infrastructure sustainability rating system. They’ll help you understand more about how the framework can help your clients, why a sustainability rating is about more than a pat on the back, and what the process entails so you can help your clie...
On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll introduce you to some of the industry experts on Envision – the rating system for designing sustainable infrastructure.
Providing healthcare for inmates poses a complex challenge with agendas often viewed as contradictory. How do you design a space for healing and treatment in a facility intended for punishment? Is there an optimal location for providing such care? Is it more cost-effective to provide medical services in-house, or transport inmates to established healthcare facilities? In this episode, we’ll explore the current state of healthcare in corrections through HDR Fellow Dave Redemske’s research Providi...
On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll meet an architect who spent a year researching how we provide healthcare inside a prison environment. While much of the data paints a bleak picture, we’ll look at the role design is playing to improve outcomes in our communities.
Mark Ellis describes himself as a "facility design zealot," and his passion shows when he talks about any of the more than 200 projects he’s contributed to at HDR | MDG. As the technical team leader for industrial workflow and equipment on the LA Metro Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility, Mark and his team had the daily mantra, "Okay, does this really work?" In this bonus episode, Mark discusses more of the technical details of the Division 14 facility, featured on Episode 7 of ...
Darren Pynn finds a common thread between his career and his greatest passion outside the office. The problem-solving process his team uses to design vehicle operations and maintenance facilities — like the L.A. Metro Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility featured on Episode 7 of Speaking of Design — complements his songwriting process as a musician. In this bonus episode, Darren talks about those similarities and the process of realizing a great design in his role as a senior fac...
The Expo Line connects downtown Los Angeles to the beaches of Santa Monica. But the much-anticipated light rail expansion brought a need for a facility to clean, maintain and repair the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 45 light-rail vehicles. However, residents of Santa Monica weren’t too sure about building a rail maintenance facility right in the heart of the Pico neighborhood — inspiring designers to create much more than a cookie-cutter solution.
New rail transit services come with a need for building new infrastructure. However, residents of Santa Monica weren’t too sure about building a rail maintenance facility right in the heart of the Pico neighborhood — inspiring designers to create much more than a cookie-cutter solution. Hear the full story on the next episode of Speaking of Design.
Featured on Episode 6 of Speaking of Design, the Basin Creek Water Treatment Plant is the first gravity-powered facility in the United States to use a ceramic membrane filtration system. Nathan Kutil led the team of engineers behind the plant's many technological innovations. In this bonus podcast, we hear more from Nathan about why the community of Butte-Silver Bow needed a new plant, what it means to treat drinking water "on-demand," and the benefits of using ceramic filters.
Once known as the "richest hill on Earth" for its wealth of mineral deposits, Butte became the first major city in Montana thanks to the boom of copper mining. But early 20th century mining practices led to serious environmental consequences, including contaminated local groundwater unfit to drink. The city’s new Basin Creek Water Treatment Plant has become a source of civic pride, showing off some of the flashiest technology in the drinking water industry. But on top of many engineering firsts,...
We're back for Season 2, where we'll take you to what was once known as the Richest Hill on Earth, and learn how a one-of-a-kind water treatment plant that's helping a community change its perception.
Civil engineers and construction managers often find themselves building massive bridges and interchanges capable of moving millions of vehicles efficiently through growing metropolises. But a small team from across the United States took a break from that world, volunteering two weeks of their time to venture into the rainforest of Panama and build a much simpler structure — a footbridge across a river. Despite unique challenges from travel, weather and living conditions, these volunteers partn...
On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll meet a group of volunteers who traveled to Bajo Cobre, Panama, to build a pedestrian bridge that spanned a river, connecting the community to the school, hospital and markets that they depend on for their livelihood.
The people of Kansas City love the new KC Streetcar, and you’ll find the vehicles packed on a beautiful summer day. But the idea of building a modern streetcar faced questions and doubts from business owners and residents in a city without rail transit since the 1950s. To get the concept on the rails, the project team played had to educate, listen and collaborate to design a streetcar the community would support. The result? Today, many of those initial skeptics are singing its praises — in some...
On our next episode, we'll take a ride on Kansas City's popular downtown streetcar, and find out what it took to bring streetcars back to the city for the first time in more than 50 years.
As U.S. forces drew down in Afghanistan, a new phase of counterinsurgency strategy took place. In support of the U.S. Department of Defense, an Air Force Civil Engineer Center program sought to strengthen Afghanistan’s national security by building new universities, government buildings, training sites, barracks, recruiting stations, air bases, roads, bridges and other facilities needed for the country’s security forces. However, for the American construction management team providing leadership...
On our next episode of Speaking of Design, you'll hear the story of how former American military service members working in the engineering industry are helping to reconstruct a nation whose people have suffered through decades of war.
Just north of the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr., Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood had fallen into a state of disrepair. Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "a barren expanse of cracked concrete, weeds and towering trees surviving against a background of neglect," the area was filled with abandoned buildings and prone to sewer overflows. But rather than going forward with a typical storm sewer expansion, residents of the area saw an opportunity to solve the overflow pro...
Coming soon, an episode about one of Atlanta’s most popular wedding destinations, which started as a storm sewer project.
When you think of landfills, you may not think of design. But like almost every type of engineering or architectural design, landfills have changed dramatically over the last 30 years. In the pilot episode of Speaking of Design, you’ll meet one engineer who’s taken landfill design to a new level, creating a source of renewable solar energy at Atlanta’s Hickory Ridge Landfill.
