ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

Developing Building Evaluation Assessment Tools and Methods. 
The US General Services Administration (GSA) (with Godfried Augenbroe, Sonit Bafna, Ruth Dalton, Russell Gentry, John Peponis and Jean Wineman) . This project is unusual in that it considers both the technical performance of building systems such as energy systems, structures and facades and organizational performance indicators such as user surveys, communications and layout. The project will create a technical performance toolkit, allowing federal managers to establish goals for building performance along with specific tools and methods for assessing performance of mechanical systems, structural systems, facades and other elements. The project will also assess federal office design, focusing on how high-performance offices are configured and used. The project will also allow Georgia Tech and GSA to become the first US member of the CIB Thematic Network on Performance Based Buildings (PeBBu), the leading international organization on performance-based buildings.

Creating a comprehensive database and web site of federal courts. 
With the creation of new judgeships, heightened security requirements and crumbling asbestos-filled buildings, the Federal Government has embarked on the largest non-military construction program since the Second World War, spending over $10 Billion on new Federal Courthouses or major additions in 160 US cities. PhD Program faculty member Craig Zimring and Architecture Program faculty member Thanos Economou, working with Research Associate Mallika Bose, Visiting Scholar Gerald Thacker and PhD students Debayjoti   Pati and Anjali Joseph, have been awarded $237,000 from the US General Services Administration and  the Administrative Office of the US Courts for phase I of a project to create a CD-ROM and website that document the 40 completed courthouses. These tools will allow users to virtually navigate through the buildings, seeing courtrooms and public spaces, view plans and descriptions and read and hear user comments. 

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