Peter Baker, P.Eng., is the President of Building Science Corporation. The Romans taught us about how to deal with foundations above the water table over 2,000 years ago. We are still figuring things out for foundations below the water table. Peter has been dealing with these things since before Wayne Gretzky was sent to the United States…which seems like it was about 2,000 years ago.
Kohta Ueno is a Principal of Building Science Corporation and has an undergraduate degree in Material Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters of Applied Science from the University of Waterloo. Over the past few years issues, including persistent summertime humidity, comfort complaints, sweating ductwork, and mold are increasing in recently constructed multifamily units. Problems are often due to a “perfect storm” of factors: from air conditioning sizing vs.
Andy Padian is a recognized expert in buildings and building science despite receiving a BA from Syracuse University in Energy and Environmental Policy. He joins a list of notable Syracuse alumni including President Joe Biden and Jim Brown who was the greatest lacrosse player of all time. Andy is an independent consultant, founder and President of PadianNYC Consulting. His presentation deals with how “the next piece of technology” that is intended to solve building problems often results in a cascade of problems not fully known at the time of the technology introduction.
Matt Dupuis received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and is a licensed PE in multiple states. He has worked all over the world and is the “go to” person when things are not going “well”. Low slope roofing is a cornerstone of building science. However, when things go hygrothermally wrong on a roof, things fail in spectacular fashion. Matt will cover some of the most expensive failures currently plaguing the roofing side and ways to avoid them.
Betsy Pettit, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received her undergraduate degree in Architecture from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and her master’s degree in Architecture from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. She is a pioneer in net zero construction and will share her experiences and insights in net zero new construction projects and retrofit projects. Things are both easy and obvious and then they are not.
Joe Smallwood founded BCB Homes of Naples, FL in 1993. He has an engineering degree from the University of Florida and runs one of the premier custom home builders in Florida. Naples has been in the crosshairs of Florida hurricanes for several decades. The most recent hurricane was Ian – the damage was so intense that the west coast of Florida was nicknamed “Beirut”. BCB has learned a thing or two.
Michael Patrick is an architect with BarnesVanze Architects in Washington, DC. Michael attended the College of William and Mary (B.A. Linguistics) and later studied architecture at the University of Texas, Arlington (M. Arch). Sydney Katz is an architect with BarnesVanze Architects. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California. Yes, the building they will be talking about was constructed in 1806 the same year Lewis and Clark made it to the Pacific and Andrew Jackson killed an attorney (in a duel).
Chris Van Rite is the Executive Director of M&M Manufacturing Company. Research shows that flex ducts are just fine when properly installed…the problem is they are hardly ever installed properly…the biggest mistake is using too much material…can’t resist the coming pun….”yes, there can be too much of a good thing."
16 years ago Jim Larsen taught us the basics of window and glass performance. After 40 years in the glass business – you might have heard about his company…Cardinal Glass Industries… he will present “the rest of the story”….”how windows actually affect building performance”. Jim will present the results of a huge research project with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It only took 500,000 computer runs and judgement from a few legends to refine our understanding. I view this body of work as “unprecedented” and I mean that in a good way.