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2011 SPRAT Conference

Last modified: January 18, 2011

by Mike Gilbert

The Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT) is an organization comprised of individuals, companies, and agencies that have a stake in the safe development of rope access standards and practices. Although SPRAT is based in the United States, its scope is international. Currently, SPRAT members hail from the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The membership includes individual practitioners, companies that provide rope access services, training or equipment, and government agencies.

SPRAT supports rope access practitioners with certification programs, regulatory support, networking, and opportunities to participate in developing industry-consensus standards.

This year’s SPRAT Conference was held the second week of January in Vancouver, British Columbia. The annual conference is a two-day affair.

The first day is given over to SPRAT business, with committee meetings and reports. I participated in the Certification Requirements Document Committee, and the Safe Practices Document Committee meetings.

I took on the task of performing an editorial review of the two documents. I will be looking mostly for inconsistencies in nomenclature, but I’ll also keep an eye out for other editorial or substantive violations of parallel construction. The Safe Practices document informs the Certification document, and the Certification document implements the Safe Practices, so the two need to stand in complete agreement. Since they are overseen by separate committees, and adopted in separate ballot initiatives, they do not always reflect each other as accurately as we would wish.

The second day of the conference consists primarily of technical presentations by SPRAT members. Nine presentations covered a wide range of topics, ranging from a review of OSHA’s proposed changes to the regulations governing fall protection in general industry, to a humorous look at the characteristics desirable in the “perfect rope access technician”. There were two project case studies, a presentation on leadership in management, three presentations focused on rope access equipment, and an evaluation of rope access in the U.S. regulatory framework. Continue reading 2011 SPRAT Conference →

Boston Society of Architects’ January Meeting

Last modified: January 17, 2011

The speaker at January’s monthly meeting of the Boston Society of Architects’ Historic Resources Committee was Jay Wickersham, FAIA of the law firm Noble & Wickersham LLP.  He spoke about little known aspects of the histories of architects Charles Bulfinch and H.H. Richardson.  The  experience of these prominent Boston architects helped to form the structure of architectural practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Mr. Wickersham explained how these fascinating figures are tied to the present by speaking about the checkered history of the Ames family of North Easton, MA and the modern day successful campaign to preserve the Ames Shovel Works from demolition.  The meeting was attended by Kelly Streeter. More on the fascinating story here.


Site Visit to the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona

Last modified: January 11, 2011

by Kent Diebolt

In  mid-December of  2010, I travelled to Barcelona where Derek Trelstad, of Robert Silman Associates and I  were given a tour of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in the Eixample, near Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. We were hosted by Jose Luis Gonzalez and Gloria Riba, both of whom I first met in 2004 when I was invited to speak at a conference on masonry vaulting sponsored by COAC, the Catalan equivalent of our AIA.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, main entrance to World Heritage Site campus.

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau is one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Barcelona designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, whom the New York Times recently described as  “Barcelona’s Other Architect”.  The article, which coincidentally ran a week after my return from Spain, can be found here. NYTimes 12/19/10

The historic, modernist hospital complex has become redundant due to construction of a new building to the north of the site. The entire historic campus is currently either under renovation or scheduled for restoration. Jose Luis was selected to undertake investigations of the Sant Manuel pavilion, which will house the new United Nations University Alliance of Civilizations campus. At the time of our visit, the Sant Manuel pavilion project was nearing completion of the demolition phase of work, with structural investigations scheduled to begin in early 2011.

There are abundant examples of Catalan/timbrel (Guastavino) vaulting throughout the hospital campus, including a very curious detail that forms the surface of the gabled roof. Neither Derek nor I had seen this previously, and it’s not clear what the rest of the roof deck assembly that supports the tile roof surface looks like. Probes of this location will be undertaken this winter under the direction of Jose Luis and Gloria, so more will be known shortly. Continue reading Site Visit to the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona →

VA Partner is published in APT Bulletin

Last modified: January 7, 2011

The Association for Preservation Technology has published an article by Kelly Streeter in its 2010 Vol. XLI, No. 4 edition of the APT Bulletin – The Journal of Preservation Technology .

“Information Technology for Building Documentation” is excerpted here:

Introduction
Few building owners or managers appreciate how crucial the initial discovery phase of a facade-renovation project is to the overall success and bottom-line coast. Too often, discovery is abbreviated in the misguided interest of time and cost. The results are often inflated construction bids, as contractors hedge against uncertainty during the bidding period, and expensive change orders that arise when surprises are encountered during the construction phase of work. Architects operating between the building administrators and the contractors have always regarded a thorough discovery process as a sound investment. This article describes a best-practices methodology for discovery-phase documentation that incorporates field annotation of AutoCAD drawings, management of digital photographs hyperlinked to the drawings, and quantification of condition amounts and severities. Contact Vertical Access for a reprint of the full article.

Kelly Streeter, PEKelly Streeter is a structural engineer and partner at Vertical Access and TPAS. She speaks often about the role of technology in preservation at architecture and engineering consultancies, universities, and conferences. Contact Kelly to inquire about arranging a speaking engagement or to setup an AIA CES approved course delivered at your office or online via webinar.
kelly@vertical-access.com
917-749-0998

Core drilling on upstate New York’s Popolopen Creek Bridge

Last modified: January 7, 2011

The blizzard of 2010 had just passed through the Hudson Valley region of New York State affording a break in the weather to extract 13 core samples of the concrete pier on Popolopen Creek Bridge for testing to determine state of conditions. Keith Luscinski is on the ropes and conducted the procedure.  NY Department of Transportation was also onsite, as were representatives from  project client WSP SELLS.  This deck truss design bridge was built in 1915 and widened in 1935. It is 600 feet long, 48 feet wide, and rises about 150 feet above the mouth of Popolopen Creek.

New Safety Standards from American National Standard Institute – ANSI

Last modified: December 22, 2010

New safety standards are under development at ANSI and Vertical Access is a member of several subcommittees, including
ANSI Z359.17 Safety Requirements for Horizontal Lifelines for Personal Fall Arrest Systems
ANSI Z359.8 Safety Requirements for Suspended Rope Work
ANSI Z359.16 Safety Requirements for Descending Devices – learn more

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) first published a fall protection standard for General Industry in 1992. That Standard, Z359.1, was titled, “The American National Standard Safety Requirements for Personal Fall Arrest Systems, Subsystems and Components” and was designed to categorize and standardize the wide variety of fall protection equipment in the marketplace. The full ANSI Z359 Fall Protection Code was introduced in 2007 and currently has seventeen working subgroups, eight of which are approved and effective at this time:

ANSI Z359.0 – 2007 Definitions and Nomenclature Used for Fall Protection and Fall Arrest
ANSI Z359.1 – 2007 Safety Requirements for Personal Fall Arrest Systems, Subsystems and Components
ANSI Z359.2 – 2007 Minimum Requirement for a Comprehensive Managed Fall Protection Program
ANSI Z359.3 – 2007 Safety Requirements for Positioning and Travel Restrain Systems
ANSI Z359.4 – 2007 Safety Requirements for Assisted Rescue and Self-Rescue systems, Subsystems and Components
ANSI Z359.6 – 2009 Specifications and Design Requirements for Active Fall Protection Systems
ANSI Z350.12 – 2009 Connection Components for Personal Fall Arrest Systems
ANSI Z359.13 – 2009 Personal Energy Absorbers and Energy Absorbing Lanyards

The Legacy of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Supervising Architect: Three Federal Courthouse and Post Office Buildings

Last modified: December 22, 2010

Over the past few years, Vertical Access has been part of project teams investigating and restoring three federal courthouse and post office complexes designed in the early 1890s.  These structures, in Milwaukee, Buffalo and Brooklyn, exemplify the federal government’s role in shaping the architectural character of our cities through the design and construction of monumental, ornately decorated buildings.  Each of the three buildings was designed by a different supervising architect employing differing historicizing styles, but they have in common several notable features including a load-bearing masonry structure clad in granite, a prominent tower over a five-story base and a large central atrium. Continue reading The Legacy of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Supervising Architect: Three Federal Courthouse and Post Office Buildings →