PA - Programming and Analysis

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What is the minimum slope for swales to prevent standing water?

1%: the minimum slope for swales to prevent standing water (1/100) 2%: maximum cross slope for ADA walkways (1/50) 5%: maximum slope before accessible ramps are required (1/20)

Standards for Preservation

1. Use the property to maximize the retention of distinctive features. 2. Retain the historic character 3. Recognize the property as a physical record of its time 4. Preserve past renovations that have acquired historic significance in their own right 5. Repair historic features so that the new material, color, texture, and design match the old 6. Preserve archaeological resources in place.

I can't figure out how to remember how many feet are in an acre

43,560 square feet in a acre 43,560 = 66 *660 Or you can use the "7-11" rule. The numerals to the left of the comma (four and three) add up to seven; the three numerals after the comma (five, six, and zero) add up to eleven. ARE 5.0 doesn't require as much rote memorization as previous versions of the exam. . . this is one exception.

Steepest slope for parking lots

5% maximum (1% minimum for runoff)

How many accessible entrances are required?

50% of public entrances must be accessible. For most small buildings, fire code requires two means of public egress, so, in that case, one must be accessible (the main entrance). Larger buildings have more entrances, and 50% of those must be accessible.

How many nighttime hours on March 21 and September 21 at 22 degrees north latitude?

A: 12

What do retailers want from a site?

A: Traffic, access (visual access, vehicle access, and pedestrian access), and visual cues that ample parking is located near the front door (That's why so many shopping centers are located without vegetation, at busy intersections, in parking lagoons).

Can I see all the contamination remediation options, with their uses, together in one place?

And click here (a must-see) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CQ11fxAAi8 If you love geeking out, reading EPA. reports, click here. https://clu-in.org/download/remed/542f06013.pdf

What is a design charette and in what stage of design would one find a design charette?

Answer (for NCARB, developers, and practice): A city will soon be building a community center but hasn't finalized the program. City officials invite community leaders, kids from the center's catchment area, coaches, social workers, and neighbors to a series of intensive hands-on workshops-"design charettes." They discover a need for softball diamonds over basketball courts and a need for a computer center over a weightlifting gym. One of the social workers comes up with an ingenious idea for an indoor-outdoor afterschool homework area that is later incorporated into the program. All of this happens in predesign/programming phase. Optional reading. . . Another answer (for educational institutions, design competitions, and some design-minded firms): In the 1800s, the L'ecole de Beaux Arts school in Paris was THE dominant force in architectural education. There were other universities in the world, but a plurality of the faculty at those architecture schools often graduated from L'ecole. As part of that training, professors assigned a design problem with a too-short allotted time until its deadline. At the assignment's deadline, carts, called "charettes" in French, were drawn in the street past the studios to collect the work. Popular myth has it that students, unable to complete their work when the cart came, made final changes to the drawings AFTER the students had loaded them into the passing cart. The meandering charette then had a tail of stressed stippling students following it. As a student there, to say you were "en charette" (on the cart) meant that you were frantically trying to make a design deadline, even in the absence of a cart. The L'ecole des Beaux Arts practice of intentionally assigning not-quite-enough time for a design problem to tease out the design's essence (no time for frivolity) evolved into a tradition in architectural education, and those intense assignments with short deadlines themselves became known as charettes. You likely suffered under this tradition in school, and may still suffer under it at work. As someone who's taught studio almost every semester for 20 years, I can attest to this: charrettes are remarkably effective. Not only do you get more from 48 hours of intense student work than you would with 10 days of "normal" student work, but if a particular student isn't happy with her work, it can be set aside and she can start again without much penalty: no having to waste a whole semester finishing a project that she doesn't like just because she started designing it this way and it's too late to change. This form of charette-the historical and educational one-is most associated with the schematic design phase. . . but if you're asked on an exam, assume they mean the other (somewhat related) meaning of charette as a pre-design phase intensive workshop involving a broad swath of non-designer stakeholders working collaboratively with whiteboard lists and magic markers.

Zoning code limits building heights. What other restrictions is it likely to place?

Answer: Floor-area-ratio (FAR) Lot building set-back distances (how close you can build to your front, back, and side lot lines) Parking space number minimums (and thankfully, more recently, parking space maximums) What type of occupancy or program is allowed (no gun shop next to elementary schools) How you must deal with your site's water runoff (maximum gallon per hour allowed into the sewer) Building sign restrictions for businesses (height, size, number, type)

You are going to mount photovoltaic panels (solar panels that produce electricity) flush to this south-facing roof in Little Rock, Arkansas (35 degrees latitude, 92 degrees longitude). What should be the measure of angle B?

Answer: 90-35=55 degrees. Angle A is equal to the latitude value for year-round solar collection. A+B+C=180 degrees. . . and because C=90 degrees, A+B=90 degrees

Trees shade (at least a portion) of southern sun

Best location for a building in a warm climate

Irregularly-loaded buildings and seismic failure

Failures in earthquakes from: Soft story problem (tall first story with slender columns and not much lateral bracing). This issue, top row, is the most common and causes the most death and destruction. Weight irregularity (More weight in the top floor, shown in red) Shear wall doesn't extend full height of the building Shear wall not continuous over full height of the building One story weaker than the others Jutting building elevations (click here) https://www.nps.gov/tps/images/briefs/41-cover-image.png

What are catch basins?

Catch basin: the box below an outdoor drain. It looks like this. This catch basin, because it's adjacent to a construction site, has a device to limit topsoil erosion. Water moves through. . . but soil stays on site.

Horizontal vs vertical louvers

Design horizontal louvers for south-facing apertures where the sun is high in the sky, and vertical louvers for east- and west-facing apertures where the sun may be low in the sky at sunrise or sunset. North-facing apertures almost never need shading because the sun doesn't hang out much on the north face of the building.

Historic preservation and sustainability: this unfolds generally as common sense would dictate. Form a team with members that have a preservation background and members that have a sustainability background. Identify methods to reduce energy use, but consider the impact on the historic building. Execute what is needed to meet energy performance goals, but start with that which is least likely to denigrate the historic nature of the building. Only engage the disruptive technologies after you've engaged the less-disruptive ones.

Begin with the least invasive, most cost-effective, weatherization measures. Address air-tightness before adding insulation. Insulate unfinished spaces (attics, basements, crawl spaces) first, then only if the energy model deems it necessary should you remove historic plaster and trim in finished spaces to insulate there. Weatherstripping and caulking windows is acceptable, as is installing storm windows. Don't, for instance, remove a historic, durable, heart pine floor and replace it with a bamboo floor because the bamboo flooring seems to be sustainable. Use solar only after other less-intrusive options have been exhausted. Please don't run a wire like this person did! When upgrading the heating and cooling systems, use the least invasive strategies first: smart, programmable thermostats and ductless HVAC systems that use refrigerant or water pipes instead of ducts. If you require ducts, route them away from important spaces and better to expose them if concealing them requires ripping out important historic finish materials. Don't position outdoor HVAC equipment where it can be seen. (Consider a geothermal system, which is efficient and has no visible outdoor equipment.) Retain the roof's character if it is visible, typically the case in sloped roofs. . . but if the roof is low-slope ("flat"), feel free to install a green roof, high albedo membrane, or cool roof technology.

Positively- and negatively- pressurized locations in a building with open windows.

What is the difference between Preservation Rehabilitation Restoration Reconstruction

Preservation: Maintains and repairs existing historic materials Rehabilitation: Alters or adds to meet today's needs Restoration: Depicts a property at a particular period of time, removing evidence of other periods. Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Reconstruction: Recreates non-surviving portions of a property

What is a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate?

Rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate: Just what you'd think. . . an early-stage very approximate cost estimate focused on feasibility that can be considered accurate to something like +/- 50%.

Which one of these building forms is more efficient in a cold climate, assuming that they each have equal volume?

The multi-story cubic building has less surface area (for the same volume) and therefore less skin heat-loss (and less skin heat gain, and a smaller roof for less radiant summertime gains)

Name a life safety site feature that is included in the International Fire Code (IFC) but not in the International Building Code (IBC).

Fire lane requirements. Max 150 feet hose-distance to all exterior first-floor walls for unsprinklered buildings; max 450 feet for sprinklered buildings. (You don't need to memorize that.)

What is "loamy soil"

Loamy soil: approximately equal parts sand, silt, and clay. Plants do well in loamy solid because it holds moisture, drains well, and allows air to reach roots.

Overhangs vs louvers

Louvers are almost always less impactful on the architecture and structure.

Why avoid cantilevers, irregularly-shaped buildings, re-entrant corners (L- or T- shaped plans) when designing in seismic zones?

There are two reasons to avoid re-entrant corners (and other irregularly-shaped buildings) in your parti: First, like any irregular shape, they produce differential motions between different wings of the building, stressing the re-entrant corner (interior notch) Second, these shapes create torsion in the building that is difficult to predict

Which remediation options can't pull contaminants from below the water table?

Vapor extraction can't suck from below the water table

When do we compact the soil?

When construction activities disturb the soil When the soil is used as fill Beneath footings, slabs, basement floors, driveways, sidewalks

When the shear wall is overly-perforated with apertures or doesn't continue uninterrupted all the way from roof to foundation:

When the shear wall is overly-perforated it fails to bestow the benefit of a shear wall. It no longer protects the building from failure under a lateral load like an earthquake.

Venturi effect

Wind flows fast through breezeways and narrow openings. See here and here. This relationship, between the speed of a fluid (like air) and its pressure, is also called the bernoulli principle.

Can foundations bear on loam?

Yes, loam can support a building. It is a combination of sand, silt and clay. Gravel, clay, shale, sand are okay; rock (bedrock, limestone, sandstone) is great for supporting foundations of heavy buildings. Organic soil and peat (dark brown or black and easily compressible) are not competent soils. Image: peat, not competent enough to support a building, being harvested for use in gardens.

Express this slope: as a fraction as a ratio as a percentage as an angle

as a fraction. . . 1/4 as a ratio. . . 1:4 as a percentage . . . 25% (note that if the slope is steeper than 45 degrees, the slope is more than 100%) as an angle. . . 14 degrees. SOH CAH TOA tells us that Tan=opposite/adjacent so arctan [or inverse-tan or tan^-1] of 25/100 = 14 degrees. Be sure that your calculator is set to "degrees" rather than "radians."

Irregularly-shaped buildings and seismic failure

(you don't have to memorize these names. . . understand the concepts) Does this mean you can't design an irregularly-shaped building in an earthquake zone? Of course not. Herzog and de Meuron built the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It just means that irregularly-shaped buildings are less efficient, and therefore in need of extra care (bracing, etc.).

Steepest slope for planted areas

2:1

Can you build on a floodplain?

A 25-year floodplain encompasses the area, usually adjacent to a body of water, that has a one-in-25 chance of flooding this calendar year. This is different than the "It floods every 25 years," misconception because it may flood here twice in one year and then not flood for 90 years, and that's normal. Likewise, a spot in a 100-year floodplain has a 1-in-100 chance of flooding this year. Most building and zoning regulations are based on a 100-year-flood event. The National Flood Insurance Program was created by the federal government and administered by FEMA when it became clear that flood insurance couldn't be effectively offered by the private sector: too much financial risk in the event of, say, all of Houston flooding in a single hurricane event, or all of Los Angeles in a Tsunami, where the insurance company wouldn't have enough cash reserves to cover the damage to everyone. FEMA, then has requirements should you choose to build on a floodplain. As you may imagine, the rules are complex, but generally new and substantially-renovated buildings must be built such that your lowest floor sits above base flood elevation (BFE). You can find the BFE of your site by studying FEMA maps, and you can get your lowest floor above BFE on piles, on a crawlspace, or on fill. If you build on a floodplain, the feds may require you to purchase flood insurance. Provided you get your lowest floor above base flood elevation, most municipalities will allow you to build within the 100-year floodplain, but some disallow construction within the 25-year floodplain.

What is the difference between a Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA)?

A Phase II ESA is more thorough than a Phase I ESA. Any property owner, regardless of fault, can be held liable for releases of hazardous materials from their land. However, if you purchased a property and can prove you performed appropriate environmental due diligence, but found no environmental red flags before the purchase, you are granted protections from that liability should toxic sludge be found later to be leaking from your land into the river. The Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) has become an established standard for this type of before-you-purchase-land environmental due diligence, and is used by the buyer and lender to both assess risk and protect from future litigation. A Phase I ESA includes site inspection by an environmental professional, a historical records review of the property, and interviews with owners, occupants, neighbors, and local government officials. If a Phase I ESA turns up a recognized environmental concern (REC), then the environmental professionals conducting it will recommend a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA). Unlike a Phase I ESA, a Phase II ESA is invasive, involving soil testing, groundwater sample testing and testing of building materials.

An architect is developing a 115-acre site with a goal for the entire site of 16 units per acre. He's developed 75 acres of the site so far at 14 units per acre. What should the density be, in units per acre, for the remaining not-yet-developed portion?

A: 19.75 115-acre site with a goal for the entire site of 16 units per acre. 75 acres of the site developed so far at 14 units per acre. What should the density be, in units per acre, for the remaining not-yet-developed 40-acre portion? 14*(75/115) + x*(40/115) = 16 Need more problems like this? Click here to watch an Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence video with extra questions. If you do, be sure to hit pause and make your own earnest attempt at solving the calculation; listening to me solve it without attempting it yourself does you less good.

How far up a hill should you locate a small building in a cold climate

A: Approximately a quarter of the way up the hill. Memorize this:

Contaminated soils: When do we use bioremediation?

A: Bioremediation can be used for VOCs, fuels, inorganics (toxic metals), and explosives. In bioremediation, we inject helpful microbes into the soil that "eat" the contaminant, rendering it less harmful or inert altogether.

Which of these plans is more effective for cross ventilation?

A: Cross ventilation requires a high-pressure inlet and a low-pressure outlet.

From a programming point of view, what else makes a building more efficient?

A: Daylight availability (so electric light isn't needed), summertime shading, central mechanical systems are more efficient than in room-systems (one fan and one compressor for multiple zones), sharing heat from core to perimeter (variable refrigerant systems), on-demand hot water heating (so that hot water needn't be stored for later use), radiant hydronic heating and cooling systems, small openings in cold and hot-arid climates, large openings in hot-humid climates, and southern glass and thermal mass (cold sunny climates).

Historical buildings often feature narrow corridors, heavy and narrow doors with decorative hardware, steep terrain, monumental stairs, or other elements difficult to navigate if disabled. How does one balance the sometimes competing priorities of historic preservation and accessibility?

A: Just like you'd guess. . . balance them carefully, with common sense, and clever design. First, review the property's historical significance by exploring its nomination file in the National Registry of Historic Places. Use that to prioritize which character-defining feature and spaces to protect from changes. Focus on changes instead to alter secondary spaces and finishes, nonsigniificant spaces, later additions, previously altered areas, and service areas Second, assess the building's existing (and required) level of accessibility. Look for inaccessible entrances, floor surface textures that don't play well with wheelchairs, narrow walkway widths, elevators, toilets, weights & configurations of doorways, and steep grade changes. Finally, balance the two competing mandates cleverly. "Provide the greatest amount of accessibility without threatening or destroying those materials and features that make a property significant." Confirm that changes to the historic character can be reversed in the future. Assemble a team of accessibility consultants, historic preservation professionals, building inspectors, persons with disabilities, and the state historic preservation officer (who can allow special accessibility provisions for your project).

Can you build in a riparian zone?

A: Not usually, but it depends on local zoning and if the bank will loan your client capital to build where it will likely flood. Riparian zones: the buffer areas adjacent to a water body. They are sometimes wet (after a rain or at high tide) and sometimes dry; often heavily vegetated; and important for flood and erosion control, wildlife habitat, and water quality. They are especially salient in dry climates where the stream banks are the only places with enough water to support trees, and heavy rains pose a considerable erosion/mudslide threat without the vegetation to shore up the banks. Clients want to be on the river/wetland/lake for views and recreation, but those areas flood often, damaging buildings. Old thinking: put the river in a ditch and build right up to it. New thinking: let the river do it's thing. . . give it some room on either bank for the sake of everyone. To see a diagram, go here. For a photo, go here. https://slco.org/globalassets/1-site-files/watershed/streams-101/streams101-12b.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Riparian_strip.jpg

Why the reflector "hat"? For transfer through conduction, convention, or radiation?

A: Radiation This is kind of similar to how Low-E windows work, at least for half the low-E process. They reflect the sun's heat, like this reflector redirects the flame's heat, but unlike this reflector, low-E windows let (most of) the light through. That concept will probably never be intuitive to you, but own it none-the-less. Electromagnetic energy (radiation) can be blocked (shaded), allowed through (transmitted), or bounced back (reflected). . . and with the right film on a window, some of the frequencies (heat) can be reflected while other frequencies (light) are transmitted.

Is adaptive use. . . . Stabilization? Restoration? Reconstruction?

A: Restoration Adaptive use: E.g. turning an old train station into a market. . . The building exterior is restored, and the interior is adapted to a contemporary use. Federal dollars are available for three specific interventions: Stabilization Restoration Reconstruction . . . "adaptive use" isn't a separate category, but should instead be considered part of "restoration." Memorize these categories too (I know they overlap the ones above): Preservation: Maintains and repairs existing historic materials. . . Keep the old train station Rehabilitation: Alters or adds to meet today's needs. . . Turn the old train station into a market Restoration: Depicts a property at a particular period of time, removing evidence of other periods.. . . Restore the train station to its original glory, demolishing old (but not original) additions to the building. Reconstruction: Recreates non-surviving portions of a property. . . Reconstruct the old train station after an earthquake, in the same way it had been before the tremor.

Soil remediation: When do we use soil vapor extraction?

A: Soils contaminated by fuels and underground VOCs (but not useful for much else) Wells dug into the soil pull contaminated vapor out with vacuum suction where it is filtered with activated carbon at the surface. For more on soil vapor extraction, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_g8wVSwJl8 and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A9RIA3QbuI

Contaminated soil remediation: When to use Soil Solidification/Stabilization?

A: To address inorganic and radioactive pollutants . . . like toxic heavy metals, pesticides, and fertilizers Mixes a soil binder with the on-site dirt to make the soil more solid and stable Click here to see it in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7fH4hdUf0

Polluted soil remediation: When do we use soil washing/soil flushing?

A: When the soil is contaminated by inorganic materials (toxic metals). In soil flushing, we inject water into the soil (only if the soil type contains spaces large enough to move the water through). The soil flushing solution includes additives that help with contaminant solubility. The contaminants are then flushed out of the soil and down to the groundwater and the groundwater is extracted and treated at the surface. In soil washing, we'll excavate the soil out of the ground and wash off the contaminates, and then return the soil to the hole we dug. If you haven't figured. out yet, the civil engineers who came up with all these remediation processes named them in an intuitive way, where you can figure out how to do them. . . you'll however want to memorize when each of them is useful, so that will take some memorization of this series of cards. To watch a video on soil washing, click here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r50LNFog-Hc&t=42s

What time is sunrise on February 21st in Columbus, Ohio (48 degrees north latitude)?

A: a bit before 7am Start with the month, in red. February is the 2nd month, so look for the line labeled II in Roman numerals. (The sun follows the same path on February 21st as on October 21st, labeled X in Roman numerals on the right-hand side of the same line because October is the 10th month.). I depicted the altitude line in green. This measures the angle the sun sits as measured up from the horizon. You can see the 10-degrees, 20-degrees, 30-degrees labels above the green box, but we are looking for 0-degrees above the horizon-because the sun is at the horizon, not above it, at sunrise. There is no 0-degrees label, but you can intuit that. The 0-degrees altitude line meets the February-October line twice: once at sunrise on the right-hand side of the chart, and once at sunset on the left-hand side of the chart. Once you've found the intersection of the red and green lines, you've found sunrise on February 21st. To find the time, move along the orange line upward until you hit the time number labels. In our example, that falls between 6am and 7am, but much closer to 7am so we'll call it 6:50am. There's your answer! The sun path follows a complex geometry based on latitude, time, and season and is measured by azimuth and altitude. It then requires a complex set of charts to take all of those inputs and outputs into account. These charts are especially confusing because: (1) all of the lines are in the same (black) color so it's sometimes difficult to follow just one of them, (2) the months are in Roman numerals (presumably so you can more easily invert the chart if you were calculating for the southern hemisphere. . . but that's a stupid system because it doesn't make it easier), (3) the months are inexplicably on opposite sides of the same line, making it seem like the left-hand side is for February and the right-hand side is for October (even though the whole line represents both months), (4) since we read left-to-right, it seems like the sunrise should be on the left and the sunset on the right-but it's the other way around because the sunrise is in the east and convention puts the east on the right, and (5) each month's line represents the 21st of the month, which may seem arbitrary, but makes more sense when you give it some thought-the summer and winter solstice, and spring and fall equinoxes fall on the 21st. Bonus question: what is the azimuth of the sun at sunrise on that same day? Scroll way down to check your answer. A: 72 degrees east of south

How many nighttime hours on March 21 and September 21 at 42 degrees north latitude?

A: again, 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness during the equinox, regardless of latitude. . . . that's why we call it the equinox. It's the midpoint in the season when long nights turn to long days at the middle latitudes, and extremely long nights turn to extremely long days at the higher latitudes.

Identify the following standards: ASTM E 1527 ASTM E 1903 ASHRAE 55 ASHRAE 62 ASHRAE 90.1 To hold unscrupulous people making false claims about building performance accountable, to standardize measurement conditions so that we can accurately compare performance from one building to another, to establish a baseline used for clearing code, LEED, or a similar third-party hurdle, and to facilitate a common language in courtroom proceedings, organizations like ASTM, ANSI and ASHRAE create and maintain standards. If you are exploring environmental performance as it applies to the ARE exam, you'll want to take a minute to memorize which of these standards measures what.

ASTM E 1527: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. Often required in commercial real estate before a bank loans money to develop a site, environmental engineers will attempt to determine if there is asbestos, lead paint, contaminated soil, etc. Phase I is a cursory evaluation, involving a walk-through, interviews with occupants, inspections of adjoining properties, and review of government records pertaining to the site. Was there a dry cleaner or gas station nearby that might have contaminated the soil? Does that pipe insulation look to be of an age that indicates it may have asbestos? ASTM E 1903: Phase II Environmental Site Assessment. A more in-depth analysis often required if Phase I turns up a red flag. In Phase II, soil samples are taken; pipe insulation sample is taken to a lab. ASHRAE 55 Thermal Comfort. Cited in LEED, this establishes ranges for temperature, humidity, airspeed, and thermal radiation as it relates to the clothing and activity of the occupants. It's easier to achieve low energy use if you allow the building to get too warm or too cold, so requiring that it meets ASHRAE 55 keeps the energy modeler honest. ASHRAE 62: Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). Also cited in LEED. Establishes just how fresh "fresh air" must be, establishes required outside air ventilation rates, etc. ASHRAE 90.1 Energy and Lighting. Also cited (and cited often) in LEED, this checks greenwashing by owners, architects, and energy consultants. It establishes minimum performance for Energy Use Intensity (EUI), which measures annual kBTUs-used per square foot of floor area. Recently, buildings are publishing their EUI, even in design publications and design awards announcements. Understanding EUI isn't a big part of these exams, but is becoming important to the profession. For instance, a warehouse has a median EUI of about 25 kBTU/sf (not much lighting or equipment or need for occupant thermal comfort. . . and spread over a large space). An office or school is 50, a mall is 100, a grocery store or hospital is 200 (lots of equipment), and a fast food restaurant is 400 (lots of equipment in a small total floor area). The goal then is to get your building well under those industry averages to drive down societal energy use. *The standards on this list primarily apply to mid-sized or large buildings. To watch an Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence video on this topic, click here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNI8MG5yUMM&list=PLRqQUel8W0R71cVQvIkcQ529D93rr2ggh

You are employing a cut-and-fill strategy, whereby the earth you are using as compacted fill behind a retaining wall will come from excavation for the building's foundation. How much compacted soil will be available for the retaining wall? Given: 230 bank cubic yards of earth will be removed for the foundation After excavation that becomes 300 cubic yards of loose soil The shrink factor for the soil is 10%

Answer: 207 cubic yards of compacted soil will be available for the retaining wall. Loose soil is always more fluffy than bank soil, and compacted soil is always less fluffy than loose soil, but compacted soil may actually be less fluffy than bank soil (or may not be). Read that last sentence again until you own it. compacted cubic yards=(100%-shrink %) x bank cubic yards compacted cubic yards=(100%-10%) x 230 cubic yards compacted cubic yards=207 Bank Loose Compacted Material Volume Volume swell Volume swell or shrink Granite 1 cu yd 1.7 cu yd 70% 1.4 cu yd 40% Limestone 1 cu yd 1.6 cu yd 60% 1.35 cu yd 35% Clay 1 cu yd 1.6 cu yd 60% 0.9 cu yd -10% Sand 1 cu yd 1.1 cu yd 10% 0.9 cu yd -10% To watch me solve this series of cut-and-fill flash cards, click on this Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence video.

You are employing a cut-and-fill strategy, whereby the earth you are using as compacted fill behind a retaining wall will come from excavation for the building's foundation. How much excavated soil will be needed for the retaining wall? Given: 230 compacted cubic yards of earth required for the retaining wall The swell factor for the soil is 10%

Answer: 209 bank cubic yards of excavated soil is required for the retaining wall. This time we are asked to solve the problem in the reverse order: instead of 230 cubic yards of excavated soil available, we instead require 230 yards of compacted soil. compacted cubic yards=(100% +swell %) x bank cubic yards 230 compacted cubic yards=(100% +10 %) x bank cubic yards 209= bank cubic yards *if you are asked on the exam, don't forget that there are 27 (not 3) cubic feet in a cubic yard. Because of shrink and swell, to achieve a balanced site, we often need to cut less volume than we fill (and sometimes need to cut more than we fill) A handy trick: remember that the multiplier (shrink or swell factor) is always multiplied by the undisturbed bank cubic yards.

Answer: 253 cubic yards of compacted soil will be available for the retaining wall. A single cubic yard of soil in place on your site will occupy, perhaps 1.3 cubic yards on the pile after it has been excavated because loose fill obviously takes up more volume than undisturbed soil. Then, after erosion of the pile from wind and rain, losses due to hauling spillage, and especially volume losses from compaction, we may only have 1.1 (or even 0.8!) cubic yards of compacted fill left when used under a roadway on another part of the site months later. Shrink and swell factors vary, depending on the soil type, time elapsed, and all the other variables that storage, transport, and compacting entail. . . and they can account for more than mere rounding errors when calculating cut-and-fill volumes. Waste (too much excavated and now we have to haul it away) and borrow (too little excavated and now we have to purchase fill from elsewhere) can be very expensive. When possible, we design for a balanced site: one where we have neither waste nor borrow, so we need to account for shrinkage and swelling. Earth in its natural state is calculated as bank-measure, so we might say that we are "Removing 230 bank cubic-yards from that hill for the building foundation excavation." Earth in transport is calculated as loose-measure so we may say that we are, "moving that same soil in the amount of 300 loose cubic yards" Loose soil, once compacted, is calculated as compacted-measure so we may say about that same quantity of earth, "We'll get 253 compacted cubic yards behind that retaining wall." Shrink and swell factor is the decrease or increase in the volume of earth, expressed as a percentage, as compared to the volume of earth in its natural "bank" state (not compared to its transport volume). So, when I gave you "After excavation that becomes 300 cubic feet of loose soil" in this problem, I was giving you extraneous information you didn't need to solve it. compacted cubic yards=(100%-shrink %) x bank cubic yards or compacted cubic yards=(100% +swell %) x bank cubic yards So for this problem compacted cubic yards=(100% +10 %) x 230 cubic yards compacted cubic yards=253 After excavation, but before compaction, the loose soil or rock always swells in volume relative to the bank measure and we use a (different) swell factor to measure that. loose cubic yards=(100% + swell %) x bank cubic yards You weren't asked to solve it, but in this case the swell factor (bank measure to loose measure) 300 loose cubic yards=(100% + swell %) x 230 bank cubic yards 30%= swell factor

Answer: 35 degrees, an angle equal to the latitude value is most efficient for year-round solar collection. Think about it for a second in your head until you own it. . . the sun is lower in the sky for more of the year at higher latitudes (Alaska) and higher in the sky at lower latitudes (Hawaii).

Answer: 35-15=20 degrees. The latitude value is optimal for year-round solar collection but if you wish to prioritize summer collection on a south-facing slope, subtract 15 from that value. It makes sense if you think about it. . . the sun is more overhead in the summer. Why would you wish to optimize for only summer? Perhaps this is an off-the-grid summer camp and summer is the only time we wish to charge the batteries; perhaps Little Rock is cloudy in winter so optimizing for summer collection makes more sense; perhaps electricity rates fluctuate and are higher in summer when demand peaks because of air conditioning loads.

Answer: 40 degrees. A=35+15=50 degrees B=90-50=40 degrees The latitude value is optimal for year-round solar collection but if you wish to prioritize winter collection on a south-facing slope, add 15 to that value to solve for Angle A. It makes sense if you think about it. . . the sun is lower in the sky in the winter. To derive Angle B, subtract Angle A from 90 degrees. If you need more practice on this, click here to watch an Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence video.

What is the floor-area-ratio (FAR) of a five-story building, each story with footprint of 1,000 sf, sited on a 10,000 sf lot

Answer: 5×1,000/10,000=0.5 Zoning codes set maximum FARs Each municipality has different rules for counting basements, attics, porches, the areas under balconies, etc..

What is the building efficiency ratio of an office building with 100,000 sf, given that 20,000 sf is dedicated to elevators, physical plant equipment, restrooms, hallways, lobby, and the building management office?

Answer: 80% The leasable space, divided by the total space, returns the building efficiency ratio. As you may imagine, this number varies by project, is largely controlled by the architect, and often determines whether a development is profitable.

What is the occupancy classification of a 250sf chipboard storage room. You can use this reference to approximate the case study documents you'd be provided on an exam.

Answer: Again, this is S-1 Moderate Hazard Storage. Obviously, not every possible room use could possibly be explicitly included on the occupancy classification list in the code. Because chipboard is "cardboard-adjacent" we can assume that the two sit in the same occupancy classification. Note that S-1 Moderate Hazard Storage includes flammable (but not gasoline-like flammable): lumber, furniture, baskets . . . and S-2 Low Hazard Storage includes markedly less-flammable items (though sometimes with thin flammable wrappers): cement in bags, meat, glass, washers/dryers.

What is the occupancy classification of a 250sf cardboard box storage room. You can use this reference to approximate the case study documents you'd be provided on an exam.

Answer: Group S-1 Moderate Hazard Storage. You'll be afforded the use of a search function in the case study portion of the exam, so search smart. Search that site I provided you for "cardboard" Because the storage room is more than 100sf, declaring it an "accessory space" (and not having to classify it as a separate occupancy from the rest of the building) is not an option for you here.

You are designing a health clinic in Zambia on a remote site. A well is not an option here, so water will be delivered to a tank. No pump will be used in the building's plumbing because the clinic is off-the-grid and only has power through photovoltaic panels on the roof. The pressure at the faucet is not sufficient. This can be best rectified by _______. Increasing the diameter of the pipe Increasing the height of the water storage tank Swapping out for a larger tank with a larger diameter Utilizing pressure-increasing valves

Answer: Increasing the height of the water storage tank

Building foundations should rest on _______. Shallow soils in temperate climates (less than 2 feet deep) Peat Sand Topsoil

Answer: Sand Peat and topsoil are organic, so they are unstable. In temperate and cold climates, foundations should rest below the frost line, typically more than two feet deep. Sand may not seem stable, but it is! If you've been to the beach, you've almost certainly seen hundreds of buildings supported by sandy soil. This house is on friction piles (telephone poles driven into the ground); this one is likely on a spread footer concrete foundation.

You are stumped on a test item in PA. Your answer choices are: Schematic Design (SD) Design Development (DD) Construction Documents (CD) Construction Administration (CA) . . . . which one do you guess as the answer?

Answer: Schematic Design (SD) If not sure, always guess the design phase that corresponds with the exam division you are taking! PA =Schematic Design (SD) PPD = Design Development (DD) PDD = Construction Documents (CD) CE = Construction Administration (CA)

If the Zoning code limits the building to no more than three stories, and the building code limits it to no more than five stories, how many stories is the building limited to?

Answer: Three stories. Whichever is more restrictive controls.

According to the building code, a bank has an occupancy of _______ .(You may use the Amber Book Case Study material or the internet to look this up.) Assembly (A) Business (B) Institutional (I) Mercantile (M)

Answer: a bank is Business (B) occupancy. Why is a bank, post office, or barber shop considered a Business and has the B classification—while a courtroom is considered an Assembly, and has the A classification? They both have papers in storage and visitors. I suppose some threshold of people per square foot is crossed when you move from bank to courtroom on the density scale. In any event, that is why when faced with this kind of question on the exam, you'll be sure to search the case study for "bank." Don't memorize these; use the search function instead because occupancy questions will almost surely come within a case study, and even if they don't come in the case study section, you can often still look up the answers later in the case study section.

According to the building code, a courtroom has an occupancy classsification of _______ . (You may use the Amber Book Case Study material or the internet to look this up.) Assembly (A) Business (B) Institutional (I) Mercantile (M)

Answer: a courtroom is classified as Assembly (A). See a list of code occupancies here https://up.codes/viewer/utah/ibc-2015/chapter/3/use-and-occupancy-classification#3 . In the exam, you'll want to be sure to use the search function to find the appropriate occupancy: in this case you'd search for "courtroom" and find it under occupancy classification A-3. These four classifications—Assembly, Business, Institutional, Mercantile—plus Educational (E), can mislead you if you try to guess instead of search. For instance, a medium-sized university lecture hall is not considered Educational, it is Assembly instead—Educational occupancy is reserved generally for K-12. A bowling alley, funeral parlor, and restaurant seem like they'd be Mercantile, but the code also considers them Assembly spaces—Mercantile is reserved for places where things are sold, like markets or department stores, without the density of a restaurant. You might assume that museums and libraries are Institutional occupancies, but they are also Assembly—Institutional as an occupancy is not about government and civic institutions, but rather for buildings like hospitals and jails where people may not be able to leave on their own in a fire. Generally if your building has a high density of visitors, it may be an Assembly occupancy, even if it doesn't feel like a theater or banquet hall. Business occupancy includes spaces for lawyers and architects where people work every day (and know their way out if the lights fail and the corridor fills with smoke).

Should the open field/lake/clearing be on the north or south side of your building?

Answer: it depends on the climate Locate buildings so they have less shade (E,W,S) in cold climates and more shade (E,W,S) in hot climates. If there is a clearing, open field, or water feature, treat those as access to sun, and drop your building to the north of the clearing, open field, or water feature (cold climate) . . . or the south side of the clearing, open field, or water feature (hot climate).

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) code (commonly referred to as the "fire code" or "life safety code") does not require that a fume hood be fire-rated, but the fire inspector insists that the fume hood you install must be one that is UL tested and fire rated. What do you do?

Answer: the fire inspector is the authority having jurisdiction (ASJ), and if she says it has to be fire-rated. . . it has to be fire-rated. AHJs enjoy broad powers of interpretation and wield considerable weight.

Which is a better choice for a rural site with a geothermal heat pump, trenches or wells?

Answer: trenches In summer, geothermal heat pumps couple the hot condenser with water that has been cooled by pumping it through the ground—creating a more efficient system than a normative air-cooled condenser. The compressor (pump) doesn't have to work as hard because the hot side doesn't have to cool itself in 100-degree air. In the winter, the system reverses and the cold side doesn't have to heat itself in 0-degree air, and can instead access 50-degree water heated underground. Digging the earth for these loops of water is, from an architect or owner's point of view, the dominant factor when considering the geothermal option. The pipes, which are actually more like continuous flexible tubing, can snake and loop through horizontal "trenches," about three feet below the surface, or snake through vertical "wells," that extend hundreds of feet downward. Both options prove expensive and disruptive to the land, especially if it's difficult to get large equipment access to the site, if it's been raining lately and the earth is soft, or if the soil is rocky/stiff and unlikely to make good contact with the tube. As you might imagine, horizontal trenches, which look like this and this, are a better option if land is available to house them. Vertical wells are more expensive, but the only option in, for instance, a tight urban infill site. They look like this and this (you can see why this is an expensive option-drilling deep is a mess). The systems I described above are "closed loop" systems where the same water (perhaps with a little antifreeze mixed in if wintertime is cold on this site) is recirculated between the indoor equipment and the ground in perpetuity. If there happens to be an underground aquifer or a pond on the site, an open-loop system may prove the best option, whereby temperate water is drawn up through a pipe from the pond or aquifer, used to cool (or, in wintertime, heat) the refrigerant, and then dumped back into the body of water while new water from the pond or aquifer is siphoned up to replace it. An open loop tied to an aquifer looks like this; an open loop tied to an on-site pond looks like this.

The elevator inspector, electrical inspector, fire inspector, and your interpretation of the building code are each requiring a different minimum level of fire protection for an elevator shaft. Which of these entities governs?

Answer: you must meet the most stringent requirement of any of these authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs)

Want to go down a fun rabbit hole? I ranked the accredited architecture programs by their ARE pass rates. See how your school did. . .

Architecture School Rankings The national average for these exams sits at 55%. . . but some schools measured percentage averages in the 80s and others measured in the 20s! The difference is shocking.

How far apart are boring holes drilled on a site?

Boring holes are spaced about every 20 paces on the site for a multi-story building, but of course, how many boring holes on your site changes per the expected variation of the subsoil across different areas of the site, the size and weight of the proposed building, the local customs, the geotech's level of familiarity with the area's geology from past projects, etc.. At a minimum, you'll want holes at the corners of the site and one boring hole in the middle. Spacing isn't necessary to know for the exam, but I've had enough people ask me how many boring holes are needed for a site that I thought it'd be worth making a flashcard for your general career knowledge.

What is the difference between a covenant and an easement?

Both covenants and easements are contractual obligations that "ride" with the deed from today's property owner to the next property owner. Neither is mandated by the municipality, but rather agreed upon by interested parties. Easements often give someone else the right to use your property. For instance, I may pay you $30,000 for the right to share a portion of your driveway because I can't access the roadway from my landlocked property without driving through yours. Or the utility company may have an easement on your property so that they can run power lines on poles and send utility workers to service them without fear of prosecution for trespassing. The next owner is then obligated to share the driveway with me and refrain from shooting utility workers on their land because I would never give you $30,000 for the right to use your driveway if you might sell the land next week and I'd have to negotiate and pay the next owner too. Covenants often restrict what future owners can do on the property. If you plan on moving but promise your neighbors that no one will ever put a fence higher than five feet around the property, you can add that in a covenant and it rides as a sidecar to your deed. Planned communities that prize uniformity may have hundreds of covenants governing such design decisions as the slope of the roof, the color of the walls, and the depth of the porch. An easement is typically affirmative, giving someone else the right to use your property, and a covenant is usually negative, restricting future owners from doing something with the property. Each may be in-perpetuity or may sunset after some number of years. Sometimes these two concepts overlap. If you wish to set aside some of your land in perpetuity as an undeveloped tract for wildlife habitat, that is usually called a "conservation easement" because it gives the birds and turtles access to the land. But it is also sometimes called a "conservation covenant" because it limits future owners from paving that portion of the land for a parking lot.

In which projects are space efficiency (as measured in net/gross area, or other similar metrics) most important? In which projects are energy efficiency (as measured in watts/sf, or other similar metrics) most important?

Buildings constructed to be rented out require more focus on net-to-gross than buildings purpose-built for the occupant-owner. The owner of a start-up software company is more okay with a little "wasted space" if it makes his employees more effective because he'll then still make a profit on that area: the wasted space is where the company dog hangs out and the company dog is good for morale. Buildings built to be rented out, however. . . well "wasted space" may mean that the mortgage on the building paid by the owner exceeds the rent he will receive so he'll lose money each month forever. Owners planning to occupy buildings themselves obviously thirst for greater energy efficiency than owners of rental buildings where the tenants pay the utility bills (though you may feel a reasonable moral imperative to make all buildings energy-efficient). A hospital owner may prize energy efficiency over a slumlord. PA, more than any other exam division, requires you to be able to think logically, put yourself in the shoes of an owner, and solve puzzles. Not all of them can be covered in your studying so you're going to have to use your general intelligence and think like a banker.

What climate benefits from air movement (breezes)? What climate benefits from evaporation?

Buildings in hot-humid climates benefit from breezes, but buildings in hot-arid climates do not. Buildings in hot-arid climates benefit from evaporation (evaporative cool tower, swamp cooler, water feature, spraying water), but buildings in hot-humid climates do not.

Mechanically stabilized earth: I probably already convinced you in the Amber Book course of the insane strength inherent in layering a mesh between layers of soil. . .

But in case I haven't and you want to watch a great video on this subject, click here (be sure to stay till the end). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0olpSN6_TCc

Don't bother memorizing this

But it's good to know. . . Most common pollutants: Mining waste, agricultural (fertilizers and insecticides applied incorrectly), oil dumping, lead in soil Why would lead be in the soil? lead used to be in gasoline until the 90s, so if your site abuts a road that's. been there for a long time, lead escaping the tailpipes decades ago may still remain. Likewise, lead used to be in paints, so if your soil is adjacent to an old wall or fence, lead may have flaked off from the old paint. Other, less-common, sources of soil contamination: leaking underground storage tanks, waste sites

Want to see what soil liquefaction looks like?

Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd6W2aP2dkA&feature=youtu.be to see it (bizarre!) Obviously, soil liquefaction cannot support a building foundation reliably. What causes soil liquefaction? Earthquakes can cause soil liquefaction as the soil particles are loosened by the shaking. . . otherwise, when the earth doesn't shake, we most often see soil liquefaction in water-saturated loose, sandy soils. The kind of extreme liquefaction in the video is rare, otherwise, you would have encountered it in your life because you've surely walked on soils many times and not experienced that craziness.

What do we use climate zones for?

Climate zones are useful for energy and thermal comfort rules-of-thumb, for instance How much insulation should we use under our foundation in Climate Zone 5? Are Low-e windows really that helpful in Climate Zone 3? Do we need a vapor barrier in Climate Zone 2? In what climate zone is a Trombe Wall appropriate? Is a heat pump efficient for heating in Climate Zone 6? How much heating load in BTU/sf*yr should we expect for a commercial building in Climate Zone 4?

The Dept of Interior (National Park Service) Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties

Content from this document, the bible of historic preservation, very much comes into play on these exams. That said, the document is long, specific, and because the exam covers this lightly, of only moderate yield (number of extra questions right, per-hour-of-studying). My advice: If you have the time, a general interest in historic preservation, a career that involves renovations, or enjoy skimming technical non-fiction, read this. If not, know that you'll be fine with the content in the Amber Book. If you want to go deeper, but still keep to what may be relevant to your version of the exam, the Dept of Interior has a sidecar document focused on sustainability in historic preservation. You can find that here. Don't want to study these long documents four times, once each for the PjM, PA, PPD, and PDD exam divisions? I don't blame you. . . so take all the exams in the same week and study these just one time.

What is required for crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)?

Design so activities in public spaces are easily observed by others; this is probably the most important single thing an architect can do to prevent crime. For instance, if fencing is needed, use low fencing so that neighbors can see what is happening on the street. If high fencing is required, design it to be seen through. Don't plant high bushes that will block the view to the playground. Involve the community in design measures that purport to prevent crime Effective lighting, e.g. a lit perimeter around secure buildings without dead spots, light the areas that surveillance cameras see, Traffic-calming measures to reduce the fun of joyriding Anticipate escape routes Specify vandal-proof materials Locate evidence of formal and informal surveillance so that would-be criminals know they're being watched Think about crime prevention as you design. . . ask yourself, "what could I get away with here?"

Detention ponds, retention ponds, bioswales, and cisterns

Detention ponds: hold stormwater for a while, then slowly drain out. They are dry between storms, control flooding, require large amounts of space, and can breed mosquitoes. Retention ponds: hold stormwater and are always wet. These look like regular ponds (but uglier, if not designed correctly). They both control flooding and promote higher water quality because the soil below them filters out pollutants from the water. On occasion, they can provide for swimming and recreation, but can breed mosquitos and pose a drowning hazard. To see the difference between dry detention and wet retention ponds, see below. The detention pond, dry because the. photo was taken between storms, is on the left; and the retention pond is on the right. Bioswale: vegetated or mulched channels that convey stormwater away slowly enough to allow for water to seep into the soil, which removes pollutants before recharging groundwater: like an ecologically thoughtful version of a detention pond. To see an example, click here. (Bioretention ponds are vegetated and always wet, like an ecologically thoughtful version of a retention pond. To see an example, click here.) Cisterns: Underground temporary storage container for roof or pavement runoff. No extra space required and no mosquitos. To see an image, click here. Cisterns may be constructed of an array of large pipes. This one is shown uncovered, left, and later covered in what will be a parking lot, right. Concrete and asphalt promote runoff and therefore erosion. We can solve this erosion problem by releasing the water slowly and both solve the erosion problem and clean the water by holding it for a while and allowing it to seep through the soil slowly for groundwater recharge. Green roofs and porous pavers also help recharge the onsite soil slowly, rather than run it off to the creek. Most municipalities require your medium-sized or large project to take care of its own stormwater on site. No longer do we simply redirect stormwater to the street and assume that the gutter and drain system will whisk the runoff problem away. To see some great site runoff design ideas, click here. https://www.pinterest.com/depriest0258/slope-drainage/

Accessibility and historic interiors

Door knobs don't meet ADA (arthritis), so new buildings use levers instead. To keep the old knobs on the historic interiors, prop the door open during operating hours. Restrooms with historic fixtures or marble partitions pose a conflict. You may relocate those within the room to create larger stalls. Add grab bars, shift fixture heights, and protect the knees of those in wheelchairs from burns by covering under-sink hot water pipes. You may create a new unisex accessible restroom if reconfiguring the old ones runs counter to preservation mandates. A new addition to the building-if it maintains the old scale, protects a significant landscape, doesn't try to "look old," and touches the old building lightly such that it can be removed in the future-might be a solution to the entrance door, entrance ramp, elevator, and restroom conflicts.

Identify common development patterns. In what type of cities can you find each of these?

Each of these describes the streets layout. . . Grid/rectangular/chessboard: like Midtown New York Radial/star: Major roads fan out from a central point, like Washington DC or Paris Radial-ring: Concentric circles of bypass roads established to divert traffic around the dense center each time the city grows in girth, like Houston Contour-forming: In steep terrain, roads follow lines of elevation, like rural mountain roads Irregular/field: Roads every which way, most associated with organic (not centrally-planned) city growth, like Boston Satellite: Smaller cities linked to a central megacity, like Shanghai *Most development happens as s mixture of these

The problem with re-entrant corners in earthquakes

Each portion of the building twists out of phase with the other

For this exam, it's important that you be able to read a boring log, and every boring log presents information in a different graphic way than the others. Take a look at the boring logs linked on the other side of this card and see if you can interpret them. Once you get comfortable reading them, you can stop.

Example boring log https://www.ensoftinc.com/products/borings/img/log_basic.jpg Another example https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Pierre-Bardet/publication/2848873/figure/fig1/AS:279880378929170@1443740090574/Example-of-boring-log-showing-stratigrapy-physical-sampling-record-and-Standard.png Another example https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/3-s2.0-B9780080969121000150-f15-02a-9780080969121.jpg Another example https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPIX4LOoBr7NFppeIzhjpZUkjuhgdEC2LZvA&usqp=CAU Another example https://geotechpedia.com/Images/Software/SuperLog_CivilTech.jpg Another example https://geosystemsoftware.com/products/ld5/webmanuals/usersguide/boringandportprofsmall.png

High pressure: on the windward (upwind) side of a wall Low pressure: on the leeward (downwind) side of a wall, in the "wind shadow."

For effective cross-ventilation, we need at least one high-pressure aperture inlet and at least one low-pressure aperture outlet.

What are form-based codes?

Form-based local zoning codes shift the emphasis from regulating building use (residential-only allowed here, commercial goes over there on the other side of the city) to an emphasis on regulating urban form. It might include mandates for street trees, sidewalks, front porches, back alleys and public space. It might also limit front-facing parking lots, dumpster visibility, and the type of building materials available to the architect. The principle of form-based codes, most often associated with the New Urbanism movement, is to encourage walkability and allow a bakery or dentist office to open near the homes that they serve.

You have a high water table on the site you plan to build on. . . now what?

Foundation footings and basement slabs should sit above the water table (soil depth where wet all year). With a high water table, we may need to use a shallow footing (but of course, below frost depth). . . or mound up the earth below the building. . . . or use piles, pilings, piers, or caissons, which can be drilled or driven below the water table.

When do we use what to remediate contaminated soil in a hurry?

From fastest to slowest. . . Offsite soil washing: running water over the soil offers a fast (one month) option for small contaminations or small sites, because we can quickly load three dump trucks with soil and bring them to a plant that is ready to wash the soil before returning it to the site. We can build on washed soil. Soil washing is not generally cost-effective unless the soil is very polluted, or we have few fine silt or clay particles in the soil, or we are in a hurry. Gravel is easier to clean with watery mixtures than fine particles like silt and clay, which turn to mud when washed. Capped site: fast option for sites where we will not be constructing something that penetrates the soil over the cap. We can build a parking lot on a capped site, but it's difficult to build a structure on a capped site and still ensure that the membrane will not be interrupted and rain will not seep down into the fallow soil. Soil capping doesn't remove the contaminated soil, but rather "sweeps it under the rug," directing rain around the polluted patch of ground with a membrane as a kind of underground umbrella. Onsite soil washing: often the fast option for large sites. We'll rent and erect equipment capable of washing the soil and position it near the soil to be washed. Click here to see what that looks like. Soil washing generally is expensive and generally only addresses certain types of contaminants in certain types of soils, so it remains a relatively rare option. Bioremediation: Injecting pollution-eating bacteria into the ground takes longer to clean the site (about six months) but bioremediation is usually far cheaper than soil washing, can remediate more different types of contaminants than soil washing, actually gets rid of the pollution (unlike capping), and unlike capped sites, we can use bioremediation and then build on top of the soil after it's clean. Vapor extraction: sucking out the polluted gasses from underground. Takes about the same amount of time as bioremediation (maybe a bit longer, about a year. . . all of these estimates obviously depend on how contaminated the site is, how large the contaminated area is, and what the actual contaminant is). Like bioremediation, vapor extraction is relatively inexpensive, useful for a wide range of contaminants, and we can put a building on top of the site after its clean. Unlike bioremediation, vapor extraction doesn't work below the water table where the soil is always saturated. Phytoremediation: We plant species that naturally take up pollutants in their roots. Obviously, this takes by far the most patience—many years' worth. Why on earth does NCARB test us so much on these? Because as a test maker, when you don't really understand something, testing on the relative advantages/disadvantage of different types of things is really easy to do in a computer-graded exam.

Road hierarchy

From smallest to largest: local, collector, arterial, expressway See here and here to see them graphically. https://www.virginiadot.org/images/FC_graphic.jpg https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/hf/pl11028/images/image005.jpg

Should I study the building code for the ARE?

I don't think that studying code is a good use of your time. This test has relatively few code questions, and there's so much material to study, so I don't think you'll earn a good yield (number of extra questions correct, per hour of studying). Plus the code questions almost always are part of a case study with searchable code excerpts. If you do wish to study the IBC, focus on Chapter 3 (use groups), Chapter 5 (how to determine the size/construction type of a building and required separation between occupancies), and Chapter 10 (egress sizing requirements). Do not memorize! Just become familiar with what's available so you will know what to search or browse for during a harried case study section of the exam.

Where do you locate your building on a hill? At the bottom? Partway up? At the crest?

If you are building in the mountains, know that the valley will pool sinking cold air on still nights (good for hot-arid) and the top will have the most wind (good for hot humid). So locate your buildings on the following elevations based on climate:

Where is the most effective location for an outdoor noise barrier?

If you have a noise source (truck) and a receiver (person with ears on a balcony), the least effective place for an outdoor noise barrier is halfway between them. The most effective location is as near as possible to the noise source or as near as possible to the receiver. The image is from my book, Architectural Acoustics Illustrated (Wiley 2015)

What to do if your land is too flat to drain?

If your vegitated land is sloped at less than 1%, or your parking lot is sloped at less than 0.4%, water will pool causing basement flooding, parking lot damage, mosquitos, etc. . . . to prevent that, create local low-points and install storm drains (then to catch basins, then to underground storm sewer pipes, then to daylight or to underground cisterns that slowly drain) This drain on an occupiable flat roof plaza, over a sub-grade building, feeds stormwater pipes in the ceiling of the space below. During the Covid pandemic, weeds began growing in these local low-points, perhaps because they supported less foot traffic that otherwise tamped down plant life, or perhaps because landscaping maintenance schedules were disrupted by the pandemic. If, on the other hand, you have more slope than those minimums, and therefore enough for gravity to pull water to one part of the site, use curbs to redirect water to retention/detention ponds or swales.

How should you locate and orient your buildings relative so wind on the site?

In a cold climate you want to block the wind, so shelter your building in the "wind shadow" of other obstructions such as out-buildings, other existing nearby structures, patches of trees, or landscape walls. Use unheated rooms (i.e. an attached garage) to buffer your buildings from winds. In a hot-humid climate, locate your building to be free of any wind shadow. Orient buildings with the long axis perpendicular to wind in hot-humid climates to give rooms access to breezes. For instance, if the wind comes from the west, locate the long axis of the building north-to-south. But doesn't that contradict good solar-gain orientation where we'd want to locate a building with its long axis aligned east-west? YES, it does . . . you probably read the question incorrectly if you find such a contradiction. Unfortunately, the exams don't typically force you to make hard choices where one thermal priority contradicts another. Only answer the question with the information given. If the question asks about breezes, focus on cross-ventilation, not environmental noise from a nearby train track. If it asks about noise, focus on the train track and not on solar access. Right-click to rotate buildings when you drag-and-drop them in a site. Right-click on a digital white board item like a shape or text box to rotate it, copy it, etc.

Catchment areas

In a discussion of stormwater runoff, the catchment area is the region from which rainfall flows into a stream, culvert, catch basin, or roof drain. The field of building feasibility study reappropriated the phrase "catchment area" from the stormwater people as a useful parallel. It is the region from which residents are expected to visit your building. When siting a school, how many children live in an area bounded by the midway points between your site and other schools? When siting a hospital, what proportion of residents within X miles are over the age of 70 and how many of them have health insurance? For your proposed indoor pool site, it is unlikely that residents will drive past another, more proximate, indoor pool to visit your spot further away. Your proposed corner store will have a catchment area of no more than six blocks because it relies on pedestrian customers. In this way, to judge the feasibility of building here, we'll map a catchment area based on demographics, commerce, geography, and human habit to describe the area from where your building will draw people. See here for an example.

Gross floor area

In matters of code, gross floor area is measured from the inside face of exterior walls. In other matters of programming and analysis (programming, pre-design, schematic design, or cost estimating), gross floor area is measured from the outside face of the exterior walls. It is a value used in the denominator of economic efficiency proportion measures like "net-to-gross" (interior area, excluding corridors, lobbies, elevators, bathrooms, and stairs, divided by gross floor area). "Usable area," is like net area, except that it includes corridors. "Rentable area" is like usable area, except that it includes bathrooms and lobbies. "Grossing factor," is rentable area, divided by usable area. To make these concepts even more difficult to remember, their specific definition varies somewhat by region and industry, so you might have correctly heard one of these terms used in another way. Argh. Try not to stress and do your best based on these definitions. Having trouble remembering the order of these names? From largest to smallest floor area, use "Go RUN". . . Gross, Rentable, Usable, Net.. . . Rentable and Usable are the tricky ones to keep straight, so remember that Rentable doesn't include building volumes that are common to multiple tenants AND extend between floors (stairs and elevators).

In a historic preservation setting, list the most important accessibility requirements.

In order of priority: 1. Main public entrance and primary public spaces accessibility 2. Restroom accessibility 3. Secondary space accessibility If you'd like to learn more on this subject, go here. https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/32-accessibility.htm

Income approach to valuation (also called income capitalization and also called residual income method)

Includes the anticipation of future benefits. Converts future income from the property into a present worth or current market value. What would the prudent investor be willing to pay now for the right to receive the future income stream from renting this office building? If the property rents for $8,500 per month, and has a historical occupancy rate of 90%, and costs $900 per month in maintenance and $400 per month in owner-paid utilities, and $750 per month in city property taxes and $175 per month in property insurance premiums and $400 per month in the owner's hourly time spent managing the property, and is in a Washington DC neighborhood likely to appreciate and the mortgage rates for investment properties currently sit at 3.85%. . . well, as an investor, I'm willing to pay no more than $1.1 million for that particular set of financials with that particular risk profile. So, by the "income approach," the property has a valuation of $1.1 million.

Earthquake fault proximity

Is earthquake fault proximity a factor in your building's performance during a seismic event? Hell yes it is! If your building sits adjacent to a fault between tectonic plates, and those plates slip violently past one another, the destructive energy near the epicenter will be MANY times as strong as the destructive energy found in outlying areas. Below is a map of California's known fault lines. If your building straddles or sits adjacent to one of these, you absorb a higher risk. https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PA-131-California-fault-map-1-300x216.png And each dot on this map is a known historical earthquake (you can so easily see the fault lines) https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PA-131-California-earthquake-locations-300x244.png

When does a project trigger an ADA compliance requirement?

New buildings require accessibility if: they are (1) places of public accommodation (businesses with a public-facing entrance like banks, hotels, restaurants, doctor's offices, etc.) or (2) commercial spaces that need to be accessed by people with disabilities. Renovated existing non-compliant buildings require accessibility if: (1) a primary function area is part of the alteration (the teller station of a bank, the lobby of a hotel, the dining room of a restaurant, or the waiting room of a doctor's office). . . if making the room accessible will exceed 20% of the total cost of the building alteration, then the ADA requirement is considered "disproportionate" and you can cap your accessibility-related spending at 20%, provided you make ADA alterations in this reasonable order of priority until you hit 20% of your budget: entrance; route to the primary function area; at least one unisex restroom or one restroom for each sex serving the area; public telephones serving the area; drinking fountains serving the area; other elements. To summarize, you don't need to make the following accessible: a single-family house or townhouse; a warehouse not open to the public where no one who works there needs accommodations (though it's still a good idea to make that warehouse accessible because once they hire someone who needs an accommodation or open to the public so shoppers can "skip the middleman," they'll need to make the building accessible!); a renovation of a hallway, janitor's closet, employee lounge, locker room, storage room, mechanical room, etc.; when changing the height of the drinking fountain exceeds 20% of the cost of the renovation (but you'll still need to use 20% of the renovation budget to widen the front door and build a ramp to it). You'll need to make your new or renovated building accessible in just about every other scenario. That includes parking lot spaces, sidewalks, restrooms, etc.

Where on the site do you locate the building?

Not where the water table is high!

Where does surface water flow on this site? Draw arrows or run your finger on the screen to show runoff. To print this out and draw on it (recommended) open the image file here.

Note that water moves through the location of the proposed building.

Note the boring log above. (To print out a pdf of the image, click here) At what depth does the soil have a very high bearing capacity? At what depth is the water table? At what depth does the soil have the highest moisture content? How deep is the topsoil? Do we want dense soil or loose soil on our site? Do we want wet soil or dry soil? Do we want cohesive soils or non-cohesive soils?

Note the boring log above. At what depth does the soil have a very high bearing capacity? 18.5 ft At what depth is the water table? 13.1 ft At what depth does the soil have the highest moisture content? 5 ft How deep is the topsoil? 3 in Do we want dense soil or loose soil on our site? Do we want wet soil or dry soil? Do we want cohesive soils or non-cohesive soils? It depends https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SoilBoringLogs.mp4

What is the most efficient parking lot layout? One-way or two-way traffic? Perpendicular, parallel, or angled?

One-way traffic angled parking offers the most parking spaces on a given site because of the narrower aisles (narrow one-way aisles don't really work in 90-degree stalls because there's not enough room to turn.) See here. See here too. See here too. But other times 90-degree parking is more efficient! See here. So which one do you answer in the exam? Answer: Angled parking, one-way aisles (75 degrees is the most efficient as far as the exam is concerned). NCARB maintains a Wiley publisher bias and that's what the Architect's Studio Companion tells us (Wiley book). Handicap parking: easy access to the building, connected by an accessible route (see here), percentage of accessible parking spaces in IBC (see here and scroll down to Table 1106.1) Minimum drainage: 1% (asphalt) . . . 0.5% (concrete) Best location for parking lot: shallow-sloped topography and near the building How many parking spaces? Look it up the zoning ordinance.

New exterior addition to a historic building?

Only consider new construction if the existing building's non-significant interior spaces cannot accommodate the new functions. Your new addition should be compatible with the scale and massing of the historic building, but your addition should be differentiated from the historic building. No saccharine, Disney, modern-day interpretations of what a historic building might look like in the new addition! Design the new addition so that it can be removed in the future without destroying the original historic building. This is a pretty good addition to a historic building.

Onsite or offsite soil washing?

Onsite is cheaper (unless we have a very small site or a small quantity of soil that must be hauled away offsite for washing). Sitework can be VERY expensive, and unlike other expensive building decisions, you generally don't get a higher quality built work by spending more money on sitework. So cheaper almost always wins. If you are asked the best way to clean up a contaminated site, chances are that the best answer is soil vapor extraction (above water table only) or bioremediation (inject microbes into the soil and wait for them to eat the pollutants). For some contaminants, soil washing is another (often more expensive alternative). Onsite soil washing involves erecting giant laundry machines at the property and lifting soil into the machines (click <<here>>). Offsite soil washing obviously involves hauling the soil to some remote existing permanent laundry machine industrial facility. While it SOUNDS like offsite would be less expensive because erecting a factory onsite seems more costly, in fact, hauling large quantities of dirt anywhere is crazy-expensive. So offsite soil washing only makes sense if we have a small quantity of contaminated soil.

How do you repair masonry walls in historic structures?

Repair and replace only the deteriorated masonry; don't replace the whole wall. Match the brick or stone that was removed (this may be difficult to pull off). Replacing (only) damaged materials with matched replacement is a common theme in historic preservation guidelines. Don't clean old masonry unless necessary and then only clean it gently; cleaning can damage it. Don't remove the paint on historically-painted masonry, but don't paint historically-unpainted masonry. Repoint mortar joints with evidence of deterioration (disintegrating mortar, mortar joint cracks, or loose bricks). Duplicate historic mortar joints in strength, composition, color, and texture when repointing is necessary. Finding the right mortar is not about using old-fashioned mortar, but rather ensuring that you use a softer mortar because old mortars were the lime-type. You don't want a repointing mortar that cures harder than the old, soft, brick. Don't repoint masonry with mortar of high Portland cement content because those cure too hard! Use Type O "high-lime" mortar because it will allow the bricks to expand and contract from thermal changes. High-lime mortar also binds to the old brick better and is self-healing. These soft, historic bricks spalled because of a renovation repoint with Portland cement mortar.

Early-stage cost estimating technique:

Rough order of magnitude cost estimate Might be off by as much as 2X Used for a "napkin estimate" before design to determine feasibility. Used in Pre-design/programming (PA exam) As we move through design phases we get more specific and have more confidence that our estimate is close to the final construction cost, eventually where we want to be within 5% For later, SD, DD, and CD stages: "Unit-rate cost estimating" . . . early-on, we'll use estimates based on per square foot or per cubic foot estimates. Then later, as we know more about the project, our estimates will tally detailed units like "number of pipe bends" and "linear feet of conduit" and "estimated cost of labor to install 50,000 sf of EPDM roofing membrane."

Solutions for the reentrant corner problem in seismic design

Separation, strengthening, or stiff wall elements

How to resolve conflicts between historical preservation and the outdoor building site (because cobblestone paths prove difficult to navigate in a wheelchair)?

Short distances between arrival and destination points Convenient parking Paths at least 3' wide and slopes no steeper than 1:20 Stable, firm, slip-resistant outdoor surfaces (may require resetting the paving surfaces)

Body of water provides clearing for direct (and reflected) southern solar gains

Site A: Best site for a cold climate

Body of water provides clearing for direct (and reflected) southern solar gains

Site A: best location in a cold climate

Best location in a warm climate? Best location in a cold climate? (Site A or Site B)

Site A: cold climate; Site B: warm climate

Trees provide shading from southern sun

Site B: Best location for a building in a warm climate

Name as many soil treatments to remediate brownfields as you can

Solidification (also called stabilization or vitrification). The soil below contaminants made impermeable by mixing cement or heating and melting the soil. Very expensive and therefore not very common. Soil vapor extraction: Vapor extraction wells vacuum out contaminant gasses and vapors from the soil for treatment. See here for an example at the site of a former dry cleaner. Incineration: controlled burning of contaminated soil or solids to make them safe. On or off-site. To watch an animated video of incineration (and solidification/vitrification) click here. Bioremediation: microorganisms injected into the soil to eat the contaminants. We continue to improve upon existing methods and this is becoming more common. Soil washing: water, with or without detergents, flushes the soil and washes it the way you might clean dirty clothes (if you washed dirty clothes with large, complicated, dirty machinery). See here. Solvent extraction: like soil washing, but solvents used with the water. Dechlorination: Chemical treatment used to remove chlorine atoms and detoxify chemicals in the soil. Phytoremediation: Select vegetation planted to patiently absorb contaminants through their roots over time. Rare, but growing in popularity as we learn more about which plants effectively remove which contaminants. See here for a short animated video and here if you want to get into the weeds with a longer, more technical, video (pun intended). Air sparging: air injected into the soil to aid the vapor extraction process (see above). For an excellent animated short video, click here. Passive treatment wells: Groundwater is contaminated, so we'll intentionally insert a barrier to the aquifer. As the groundwater interacts with the barrier, the chemistry of the groundwater is changed (for the better). For example, a limestone barrier is used to increase the acidity of the area groundwater. To see an overview video for many of these techniques, click here. *Unless the site is very small, it's almost always more expensive to haul earth and treat soil off-site (and return clean soil) than it is to treat contaminated soil on-site. Knowing which chemical to use in order to treat which contaminant lies beyond the scope of this exam. Therefore, you'll want to focus on the differences between systems, how they affect cost, schedule, future development, and the environment.

Defensible space design has three tenets: territory, access, and surveillance. What do each of them mean in practice?

Territory: define the boundaries of public and private space (with low fences, low shrubs, or bollards that maintain "eyes on the street" views). The idea is that if your front yard barbeque area is clearly demarcated, vandals, loiterers, and criminals won't want to hang out on the sidewalk just adjacent to it. Access: Narrow streets with S-curves, one-way streets, and turn restrictions (and where necessary, security fencing, security gates, security personnel, parking lots far from the building, and other "target hardening") Surveillance: Windows, doors, and porches facing the street (and where necessary, lighting and cameras)

What is the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ)?

The authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) is the person, office, or organization responsible for enforcing the code. The AHJ may be a federal, regional, state, county, city, or town official. In practice, this may be the electrical inspector requiring a GFI receptacle, the labor board requiring a minimum number of nursing stations, the regional water management authority limiting the depth of your well, the health board limiting the distance between the commercial kitchen and farthest dining table, the insurance representative insisting on a sprinkler system, or an elevator inspector disputing the oil pressure in the elevator machinery . . . but most commonly, when we refer to the AHJ we are referring to the life safety (fire) code and the authority having jurisdiction will be the state fire marshal.

What causes light pollution?

Threee things cause light pollution: (1) Uplights. Click here to see what they look like. (2) Unshielded lights without cut-offs (cut-offs are blinders or baffles that prevent "leaked" light from moving toward the night sky). Click here. (3) Well-lit light-colored ground surfaces that reflect downward-facing light back up to the night sky. It can be seen in the University of Arizona campus nighttime helicopter photo below: the large light spots are reflections from light-colored concrete lighted parking lots. Below is a photo of one of those parking lots with a light-colored concrete paving surface: https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/PA-90-Parking-lot-at-university-of-arizona.png

What is a population pyramid?

To own the concept of the population pyramid, see this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh94kK05l-M&t=518s Hans Rosling video (already at the relevant time stamp). If you want to see more content by this recently-deceased Swedish physician, public health champion, and "person who thinks graphically like an architect," go here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hans+rosling . I can also highly recommend his books. For those of you who are pessimists, a warning that you will come away with a feeling that humanity is doing well. For those who like data, demographics, or the illustration of data in novel graphic formats, you'll love his stuff.

Identify the peak of the hill, the gulley/local low point, the valley, the ridge line, the saddle, and draw lines in plan to indicate the angle of the obscured western view as experienced by occupants of the house.

To watch a video review of topography as it relates to this series of flash cards, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCrkBPojR00&list=PLRqQUel8W0R71cVQvIkcQ529D93rr2ggh for an Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence discussion.

Accessible ramps at entrances to historic buildings

Tricky, because the accessible entrance should be the main public entrance, whenever possible. . . and the main public entrance is often in the center of a significant historic facade and atop monumental stairs! Focus on materials (don't use unpainted treated wood for the ramp, put your ramp's railing behind a stone wall, don't install temporary ramps, etc.) Wheelchair platform lifts and inclined stair lifts don't take up a lot of space in plan and can be easily removed in the future (important for historical preservation), but they are usually visually hard-to-hide, aren't permitted in many states, and should be under a covering, protected from the weather to avoid excessive maintenance requirements. Argh, this is hard. Can you punch a new main entrance into a historic building to accommodate the accessibility mandate? Yes, but only after exhausting all possibilities of modifying an existing entrance. Keep the existing historic entrance doors and frames (but you'll need 32" clear path through them, which is generally only achievable in a 36" wide door). Argh again. Tough calls everywhere we look. Historic doors often require a lot of pressure to open, but hard-to-open doors don't meet ADA requirements. Finally . . . an easy win: install automatic door openers. Newer hinges may also reduce the required pressure (and some special hinge types can even get you an extra inch of clear door width). ADA dictates that door thresholds may not exceed ½", and many historic thresholds do. If the threshold is deemed historically significant, add a bevel to each side. Otherwise, alter it or replace it altogether.

"Ideal" structural parti for seismic design

Uniform loading of structural elements (stress connections from non-uniform loading- for instance, cantilevers- are weak points in an earthquake) Low, wide buildings (prevents overturning) Equal floor heights (means fewer stress connections) Symmetrical plan shape (minimizes torsion/twisting) Shear walls or bracing at the perimeter (more efficient at resisting torsion/twisting than shear walls in the core) Short spans (less stress on members and more columns provide redundancy if some are lost in an earthquake) Minimize openings in floors and roofs (more efficient diaphragms) Extend shear walls continuously from roof to foundation

What is universal design?

Universal design: The theoretical framework behind ADA. . . The idea that buildings should be able to be used by all people, regardless of disability, age, or size—that accessibility it is not a design constraint for the benefit of a small minority, but rather that universal design is good design.

Name the causes, and solutions, of the urban heat island effect

Urban heat island effect: the local urban microclimate is warmer than surrounding hinterlands, especially after sunset on sunny, still-air days when the thermal mass of the city slowly releases the solar energy it absorbed all day Causes: reduced natural landscapes, fewer trees, absence of vegetation, fewer bodies of water (evaporation and transpiration cool the microclimate), more hardscapes, more roofs, dark-colored pavements and roofs, building and road geometries that block breezes that would have otherwise flushed the hot air from the city Solutions: just what you'd think. . . plant urban trees and reduee asphalt paving! Also disturb less greenfield, design light-colored pavements and light-colored or green roofs, wide boulevards to allow uninterrupted summer breezes to flush cities of built-up heat

What does a vertical crack in a concrete foundation mean? A diagonal crack? A horizontal crack?

Vertical crack: Not a serious problem (typically). Caused by shrinkage as the concrete cures. Typically not one long crack, but may be several smaller hairline, cracks. They may have to be sealed to prevent leaks. Click here. Diagonal crack: Often a problem. Caused by differential settlement. Click here Horizontal crack: A big problem. Caused by shear failure. Click here. What is an example of shear failure? The foundation wall is no longer supported: Imagine the basement wall punches into the footing under load. . . or the ground bulges around the foundation wall as the footing displaces the soil it rests on. To see more, click here. Stair-step crack in masonry (foundation wall or above-ground exterior cladding): same as diagonal crack. . . caused by differential settlement. Click here. or see below. If you have extra time and curiosity, you might want to watch this Amber Book : 40 Minutes of Competence on this topic.

To address erosion on steep slopes, install perforated pipes or catch basins and drains to redirect the water down the hill to daylight.

Watch this short video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67PhugMehG4

Where should we locate drains, catch basins, or retention ponds?

We locate drains, catch basins, and ponds at the low points of the land (or roof), where water would otherwise want to accumulate. We are especially interested in intercepting, and piping out, water that would otherwise move downhill into a building.

What is "historical cost?"

We'll assume it's still worth what you paid for it 15 years ago. In real estate, an accounting practice of declaring the price for something based on what it cost when you purchased it. Because it ignores property appreciation, it is obviously a highly conservative way to determine the price for a piece of property. In the 70s my aunt paid $150,000 for a house in the middle of San Francisco. It's obviously worth way more than that now, so historical cost would be a wildly inaccurate method of estimating the value of the house. But, because no one REALLY knows exactly how much a property is worth until its sold, historical cost keeps the owner honest: using the historical cost accounting method, a tech company buying another tech startup would be assured that the startup is conservative on their valuation, not claiming without proof that the office building the startup purchased for $275,000 is now "probably worth" $1 million.

What is the Sales comparison (market) approach to valuing a property?

We'll assume it's worth what similar buildings sold for recently. This includes the comparables ("comps") many homebuyers and lenders use to price one house based on what others in the neighborhood sold for in the last few months.

What is the "unit-in-place" method to valuation?

What is the "unit-in-place" method to valuation? We'll assume it's worth what it would cost to replace it (new) if it disappeared tomorrow. This is similar to the "cost approach" to valuation, which estimates the cost to replace a 30-year-old building with a new one, then subtracts depreciation to account for the wear of 30 years' use. Don't confuse "unit-in-place" with "unit-rate" cost estimating, which is similar, but more for costing out a building not yet built, rather than an existing one. Unit-rate breaks the partially- or fully-designed building into pieces (4,000 square feet of tile flooring) and then multiplies them by the coSt of each of those pieces (times $11 per square foot of tile flooring). Unit-in-place and cost approach are more for appraising than for cost-estimating.

In your own words, what is net present value? Provide an example.

You have a choice between two systems: System A has a lower installation cost, but B has a lower operating cost because it is more energy-efficient. Net present value, a technique in life-cycle cost analysis, allows you to easily compare the total cost of the two choices because the cost of installation, plus operation, of each choice is translated to today's dollars. It accounts for inflation (saving a dollar in energy bills in five years is worth less than saving a dollar today in construction cost); it accounts for compound interest (if we save a dollar today, we can invest that dollar over the next five years to earn a return); and aside from energy costs it often accounts for maintenance costs and how long each choice is expected to last before a replacement is needed. It is the easiest concept to own in life-cycle cost analysis because the spreadsheet will tell you that, for instance, Curtain wall System A, over the next 20 years, will cost 10 million in today's dollars and Curtain wall System B will cost 12.5 million, also in today's dollars. In this example, the less expensive system to install (but the more expensive system to operate) has the lower total cost over time. The savings in energy use is not enough to make up the difference in construction cost.

Single-loaded corridors vs double-loaded corridors

You likely already know the difference between single-loaded corridors and double-loaded corridors, but if you don't, you can see the difference here. The corridor interferes with cross-ventilation and limits the direction of daylight in dorms, hospitals, apartment buildings and office buildings. Single loaded corridors offer the opportunity for daylight in the circulation space, and may make it easier to provide cross-ventilation in the rooms, provided the corridor has operable windows and the occupants don't mind leaving their hallway doors open (or have louvers that can connect their rooms to the hallway air). Double-loaded corridors allow for larger floor plates and more efficiency, as measured in hotel rooms/sf, because rooms can sit on either side of the hallway.

Redraw this so that runoff no longer moves through the house. I'd take a screenshot and print this topo drawing or click here for a printable file. https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/topo_01_07contour_rework_nowater-01-768x594.png

You'll utilize a swale to direct water to either side of the house as it moves down the hill. https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/topo_01_09contour_rework_ALLwater-01-768x594.png https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/topo_02_04text-768x993.png https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/topo_02_02flows-768x993.png Note the (subtle) swale to redirect groundwater around the house: https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/swale-768x576.jpg This driveway water diverter was required because there's no swale to redirect water and no linear drain installed along the bottom of the driveway: https://flashcards.amber-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rain-diverter-in-driveway-768x576.jpg

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