The environmental legacy of coal gas plants
Years ago, I provided litigation support for a consortium of reinsurers of the sites of former coal gas plants. Utilities around the US had inherited these sites. Those in this […]
Years ago, I provided litigation support for a consortium of reinsurers of the sites of former coal gas plants. Utilities around the US had inherited these sites. Those in this […]
In the 1620s, Sweden—at the time a regional power—had concluded its wars with Denmark and Russia, but was still at war with Poland. In 1625, King Gustav II Adolf signed […]
The tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals acting in their own interest cause widespread harm. It can take the form of overuse of common resources, or of air- or […]
Engineering has always been about the wise use of resources. Traditionally, the profession focused on resources in the microeconomic sense. That is, the economic interests of the owner, employer, or […]
At 101 stories, the Saint Regis Tower in Chicago is the world’s tallest building by a woman architect, Jeanne Gang. Previous blogs have discussed the work of women architects—both contemporary […]
Keeping interior spaces cool in summer is much less energy- and carbon efficient than heating them in winter. For this reason, most of the CALGreen provisions for making buildings energy […]
In the Middle Ages, alchemists sought in vain to turn base metals into gold. Now all that remains of alchemy is some laboratory equipment. But imaginative urban planning offers a […]
When I was a graduate student in the 1980s, papers about high-performance concrete nearly always started out by explaining that “high performance” means more than high strength. Then they went […]
Beton’s Kevin MacDonald designed the concrete mixture proportions and performed thermal control modeling for the I-91 Brattleboro Bridge in Vermont. The bridge took First Place in the Infrastructure Division of […]
Agricultural concrete must be durable because farm animals generate wastes that are acidic and contain sulfates, chlorides, and other salts. Between the animal wastes and the cleaning that keeps the […]