National Institute of Building Sciences

Coastal Resilience Planning and Adaptation for Waterfront Facilities
2025-07-31 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
In 2023 and 2024 a two-part workshop on Resilience of Naval Waterfront Facilities in a Changing Climate was held, co-sponsored by the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAV-EXWC) and the Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute (COPRI) of ASCE. Part I of the workshop focused on developing non-stationary extreme wind speeds, sea level rise, and flooding loads on waterfront facilities, while Part II of the workshop exclusively involved life-cycle assessment, performance-based resilience planning and adaptation design to help protect public safety and to enrich the life quality in coastal communities including military installations. Resilience-based decision-making ensures community stakeholders have quantifiable information to select the most effective and efficient mitigations and/or adaptation strategies. Such quantification requires community-level models of physical infrastructure such as buildings, roadways, and water/power networks to be fully coupled with social and economic models by using computational tools and platforms, such as the Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling Environment (IN-CORE). The impact of coastal multi-hazards is assessed in terms of infrastructure damage and service loss (e.g., disruption of goods flow through port and intermodal transportation). The potential to leverage robust community modeling, often referred to as digital twins, to assess the coupling between short- and long-term impacts is also highlighted.
This webinar intends to present the lessons learned from the workshop, based on the group discussions of over one hundred coastal resilience leaders and professionals from government agencies, industry, and academia. A discussion will focus on implementation of innovative methodologies and techniques on updating the structural design loads on waterfront facilities for non-stationary extreme wind speeds, sea level rise, and flooding hazards; developing performance-based and site-specific resilience planning and adaptation for coastal operation continuity; and promoting computational tools and platforms, such as IN-CORE.

Learning Objectives

Review available datasets and tools on establishing the relationship between extreme events and performance of coastal structures and infrastructure systems;
Establish the basic concept of extreme event effects (e.g. winds, floods, and tsunamis) on structural design codes and standards;
Inform best practices of life-cycle adaptation and a risk-based decision-making process to decision-makers for coastal resilience planning strategies; and
Promote interdependent community and infrastructure system models that are available for use in engineering practices (e.g., IN-CORE) and the training necessary for civil engineers and government planners who may use these models.

Harnessing the Power of Cool Exterior Walls to Enhance Heat Resilience
2025-08-05 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
Extreme heat causes more deaths in the United States than any other natural disaster.
Discussions around the role of buildings in heat mitigation and resilience often focus on air-conditioning, and while A/C can be lifesaving, it also increases peak cooling demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste heat released back into the environment. Further, regions with historically cooler climates and low percentages of air-conditioned homes are now experiencing longer, more frequent, and more intense heat waves, leaving residents without A/C at risk of heat illness and death.
Incorporating passive cooling strategies in new construction and building retrofits is critically important to improve heat resilience in buildings without access to A/C and to reduce A/C demand in conditioned spaces.
Like cool roofs, which are required for most buildings in California and for commercial buildings in several other U.S. cities and states, cool exterior walls efficiently reflect solar radiation back into the atmosphere instead of transferring it as heat into buildings. For a single building, this helps reduce solar heat gain, indoor temperatures, and A/C use, while increasing resilience to extreme heat, particularly in buildings with little insulation or that do not have or are unable to operate A/C. On a larger scale, this helps raise the community’s albedo, lower outdoor temperatures, mitigate heat impacts, reduce peak cooling demand, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
This presentation will describe the impacts of cool exterior walls on buildings and communities and the radiative properties of solar reflectance and thermal emittance, which determine the coolness of a wall surface. It also will provide examples of potential HVAC energy cost savings resulting from cool exterior wall use in different U.S. climates and equip attendees with the ability to estimate building-specific savings using a publicly available tool developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Additionally, the presentation will summarize wall radiative property provisions in codes, standards, and programs, including the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, ASHRAE Standard 90.1, and LEED v4.1, and provide a tutorial for how to find and interpret independently verified radiative property data for exterior wall materials.

Learning Objectives

Explain how cool exterior walls can reduce a building’s solar heat gain and lower temperatures of buildings and surrounding communities.
Describe the surface radiative properties solar reflectance and thermal emittance, which influence the coolness of building exteriors.
Estimate building-specific cool exterior wall HVAC energy cost savings using Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cool Surface Savings Explorer and local electricity cost data.
Compare the radiative properties of exterior wall materials and understand which materials will meet project requirements using a third-party database of rated products.

2025 Vitruvian Honors & Awards Ceremony
2025-09-18 15:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Pl, New York, 10012, United States
The Facade Tectonics Institute’s Vitruvian Honors & Awards program celebrates excellence and innovation in the field of facade design and delivery. This program honors outstanding projects, project teams, and individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to facade design, engineering, fabrication, installation, and lifecycle performance. These achievements exemplify FTI’s mission to advance the art, science, and technology of designing, planning, and constructing high-performance building facades for the benefit of both people and the planet.
FTI’s 2025 Vitruvian Lecture & Awards Committee has curated thirteen distinct categories that align with The Institute’s vision and mission, celebrating innovation, collaboration, and achievement within the AECO industry.

Smart Home and Furnishings 2025
2025-09-24 - 2025-09-26 | Rosemont, IL, Rosemont, IL, United States
Smart Home and Furnishings Conference and Exhibition is the premier event dedicated to showcasing the latest advancements in smart home technology. From groundbreaking products and expert presentations to interactive demos and invaluable networking opportunities, this event is designed to inspire and connect everyone passionate about enhancing modern living through smart solutions. Discover the trends, tools, and technologies that are shaping the way we interact with our homes. Join MIE Group in bridging global markets, connecting the brightest minds and most innovative companies from the United States, MENA, and GCC. Together, we will explore smart living solutions that are shaping the homes of tomorrow.

BEC-N Symposium on Building Science and Enclosure Technology
2025-09-25 09:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
The Chicago Building Enclosure Council has been chosen as the host of the 2025 National BEC Symposium. This year’s event will be held at the Chicago Architecture Center. Please visit the event website for more information.

Greater Detroit Building Enclosure Council Annual Symposium
2025-10-21 07:00 - 16:30 (America/Chicago) | Livonia, MI, Livonia, Michigan

Building For Tomorrow
2026-01-28 08:00 - 2026-01-29 17:00 (America/New_York) | Southern California, CA, United States
In the wake of the devastating Southern California wildfires, this summit stands as both a call to action and a catalyst for national resilience. The historic fires exposed systemic vulnerabilities shared by communities across the country—severely damaged buildings, disrupted water and power services, severed communications, impassable roads, and compromised fuel systems, amplifying human and economic losses. These cascading failures underscore the urgent need to prioritize preparedness, protect critical lifelines, and invest in strategic, coordinated recovery.
Using Southern California as a case study, this summit aims to establish a national model for lifeline infrastructure resilience and smart capital investment. Federal, state, and local leaders will join utility providers, researchers, and resilience experts to chart a unified path forward, one grounded in interdependence, innovation, and the modernization of policies, codes, and systems that support long-term recovery.
Over two dynamic days, the summit will feature compelling keynotes and a mix of collaborative and hands-on sessions. Day 1 will feature policy makers and executive leaders from both public and private sectors for strategic discussions focused on forward-looking policy frameworks, including breaking down system silos, overcome integration hurdles, enhance data sharing, and foster collaboration to accelerate recovery and build long-term resilience. Day 2 will offer practitioners an in-depth look at cutting-edge technologies and building science innovations that are transforming how we retrofit, rebuild, and future-proof the built environment.

Building Innovation 2026
2026-05-18 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
Building Innovation attendees come to explore challenges, possibilities, the latest tools, groundbreaking strategies, and more.
