2013

ACEC Honors City Creek Center Project

3 mins

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Hobbs + Black Associates Inc., an architecture firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, recently received the Honor Award in the 2013 Engineering Excellence Awards from The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for its work as the architect of record on the $1.5 billion City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.

The 23-acre, 5.5 million-square-foot City Creek Center opened on March 22, 2012 and combines retail, residential, office and public spaces across 20 structures ranging from two to 30 stories tall.

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Eco-Friendly Floor Underlayment

1 mins

Suitable for hardwood, laminate and luxury vinyl tile floors in educational facilities, VersaWalk from MP Global Products is the company’s latest earth-friendly acoustic fiber underlayment. Designed for nail- or glue-down installation, the product comes with a special moisture management system to coat and protect floors. The odorless, non-allergenic and VOC-free underlayment is composed of at least 94 percent post-industrial/pre-consumer textile fibers and scrap material, according to the company.

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Lignacite Introduces Carbon-Negative Building Block

3 mins

BRANDON, Suffolk, U.K. — As manufacturers continue to break the mold in creating energy-efficient materials, green building will continue to improve.

The latest: British masonry producer Lignacite, in partnership with Carbon8 Aggregates, debuted what it says is the world’s first carbon-negative building block. The Carbon Buster has more than 50 percent recycled aggregates and combines with Carbon8’s carbonated aggregates to capture more carbon dioxide (14 kilograms of carbon dioxide per ton) than is emitted during its manufacture.

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Energy Efficiency Bill Heads to the Senate

4 mins

WASHINGTON — A new bipartisan energy efficiency bill, introduced by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), lists several measures to help raise energy efficiency levels in the U.S., while creating more private-sector jobs, reducing global warming pollution and reducing the country’s dependence on oil.

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