Architecture Commons^™

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• Team completes plans for stewardship “refresher courses”
• Annual stewardship recognition event held at Lake Mead
• On December 1, 2012, ICSST was absorbed as a sub-committee into the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Committee.

Fenestration Studies On Building Energy Using The Facade Evaluation Facility, Wendell Cocina

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The project was developed to assess several types of facades and their influence on building energy, mainly focused on windows and other building fenestrations. Requirements for the facility are stated in this paper alongside corresponding solutions. The facility is designed to represent a section of a building façade. Experimenting on a wide range of fenestrations including windows with integrated PV elements was the primary prerequisite. The option of removable façade configurations was used and allowed testing specimens to be changed effortlessly. Instrumentation and data acquisition are discussed including calibration and uncertainty analysis. Investigation of the air conditioning unit was concluded …

The Autonomy House: Team Las Vegas Conceptual Design, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas. Solar Decathlon Team.

DesertSol: Planning and Design

An overview of a net-zero energy concept house developed for the 2013 Solar Decathlon. Document uses original project name "Autonomy House".

Team Las Vegas Solar Decathlon 2013: Technical Proposal, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas. Solar Decathlon Team.

DesertSol: Planning and Design

Team Las Vegas is proposing an elegant, sustainable, and innovative home design that aims to be net zero energy as part of participation in the 2013 Solar Decathlon supported by the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The home will be constructed and tested at the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition at a location to be determined by NREL. Imagine a home that captures energy instead of reflecting sunlight; one that filters rainwater and sequesters carbon in its vegetation and soils; one that actually gives back to the ecosystem in which it resides, and supports sustainability for …

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending October 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• Visits to the ranch this quarter included: Dr. Diedra Clemente, history professor for UNLV, visited the ranch to determine research possibilities for students in the history department …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending October 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in two meetings with BLM regarding updating the current Task Order, obtaining a two-year no-cost extension for the two Assistance Agreements, and to develop the future WBR operating agreement between BLM and UNLV.
• Weather station progress included: 1) A study to review the recent developments in various building envelope components and their effects on the energy sustainability of a building has been completed and published, 2) Ground-source heat pump (GSHP) Vs Photovoltaic (PV) technology: A detailed comparison of ground source heat pumps and photo voltaics has been initiated, 3) A study to identify the most suitable and economically …

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending September 30, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

UNLV’s Public Lands Institute is assisting the state stewardship program. UNLV and the state will remain open to the possibilities for partnering during the next fifteen months as CSSP transitions to the state system.

Annual reports of stewardship activities and site data are being prepared for each federal land managing agency. Stewardship hours and mileage, site impacts, and trends will be provided in detail for fiscal year ending September 30, 2011.

Comparison Of Design-Build And Design-Bid-Build Performance Of Public University Projects, James David Fernane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With an unsure market and scarce work, owners across the United States, especially universities, are finding themselves in situations where they are unable to complete their projects within cost and schedule using the traditional delivery method: Design-Bid-Build (DBB). Under the DBB project delivery method, many competent contractors are electing to send low bids on projects just to keep work on their books, with plans to receive change orders once the project is underway; this practice is leading to cost and schedule overruns. Public universities across the United States are beginning to elect to use Design-Build (DB) as an alternate project …

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• UNLV met with Senator Reid representative on June 20 to provide information about project progress and to request the Senator’s support in obtaining further funding for the …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in several meetings with BLM regarding updating the current Task Order, obtaining a two-year no-cost extension for the two Assistance Agreements, and to develop the future WBR operating agreement between BLM and UNLV
• UNLV met with Sara Moffatt, one of Senator Reid’s staff, to provide an update on project progress. UNLV also requested the Senator’s support in obtaining additional funding for the project for construction, and also for UNLV to bridge the transition from construction through the first two years of operation.
• UNLV held several internal meetings to advance planning for a July VA meeting with BLM to …

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending June 30, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• One cultural site steward class was held this quarter adding 17 volunteers.
• Team focus is upon plan to transition project to state stewardship program

An Empirical Comparison Of Life Cycle Cost Of Green School Buildings And Non-Green School Buildings, Nitisha Pushpala

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One of the major economic concerns today of the world is reduction of energy consumption because of depleting energy sources in the world. The construction sector in the United States is also contributing in reducing the energy consumption and construction cost of the buildings by constructing cost and energy efficient buildings with energy efficient materials and techniques. The U.S Department of Energy introduced the Building Technologies Program that develops techniques, tools and technologies for making buildings more energy efficient. Other private bodies like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which is developed by the U.S. Green Building Council …

Planning For Building-Integrated Agriculture In Las Vegas, Robert Vralsted

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

High food prices, concern about food nutrition and safety, and an awareness of commercial farming's environmental impact have generated a renewed interest in sustainable urban agriculture. Advances in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) have made it possible to grow food virtually anywhere in a much more sustainable manner than traditional field-based agriculture. Locating and planning urban farms using retrofitted existing building stock to maximize food production and ease of distribution in Las Vegas requires consideration of multiple barriers related to geography, economics, and the built environment. Consideration of these factors in the planning process informs the design of a successful BIA …

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending April 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• UNLV has completed and submitted an analysis of fencing on the 40 acres and around the 160 acres. BLM was provided with a map of the fencing. …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending April 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in the two-day 65% Design Development project meeting and assisted in planning and design of the future WBR museum and field/research station.
• UNLV held several internal meetings to advance planning for IT and security at the ranch.
• UNLV (Cline) and BLM (McAboy) have begun a series of meetings regarding updating the current Task Order, requesting a two-year no-cost extension for the two Assistance Agreements, and to develop a concept plan for the future WBR operating agreement between BLM and UNLV.
• Weather station progress included adding a Pyrheliometer that measures solar radiation received to the station. Progress was made …

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending March 31, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• One basic site steward class was held this quarter adding 17 steward volunteers.
• Site Monitor Reports indicate accelerating site impacts consistent with increased visitation. As reported in previous quarters, a by-product of off-road vehicle popularity is site degradation.

Hybrid Cooling Systems For Low-Temperature Geothermal Power Production, Andrea Ashwood, Desikan Bharathan

Publications (E)

The overall objective of this investigation is to identify and evaluate methods by which the net power output of an air-cooled geothermal power plant can be enhanced during hot ambient conditions using minimal amounts of water.

Geothermal power plants that use air-cooled heat rejection systems experience a decrease in power production during hot periods of the day. This decrease in power output typically coincides with the time when utilities need power to address high air conditioning loads. Hybrid cooling options, which use both air and water, have been studied for this report to assess how they might mitigate the net …

U.S. Department Of Energy Commercial Reference Building Models Of The National Building Stock, Michael Deru, Kristin Field, Daniel Studer, Kyle Benne, Brent Griffith, Paul Torcellini, Bing Liu, Mark Halverson, Dave Winiarski, Michael Rosenberg, Mehry Yazdanian, Joe Huang, Drury Crawley

Publications (E)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program has set the aggressive goal of producing marketable net-zero energy buildings by 2025. This goal will require collaboration between the DOE laboratories and the building industry. We developed standard or reference energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for energy efficiency research. These models represent fairly realistic buildings and typical construction practices. Fifteen commercial building types and one multifamily residential building were determined by consensus between DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and represent approximately two-thirds …

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending January 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• UNLV provided SilverState Analytical Laboratories with a ranch water sample; results indicate that the water has elevated concentrations of arsenic and iron.
• Historic items in the NE …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending January 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in three project workshops and one additional meeting to assist in planning and design of the future WBR museum and field/research station.
• Weather station progress included design of programming software that will provide past weather information to website user, two abstracts have been submitted to an energy sustainability meeting, and a paper reviewing energy efficient building envelope components has been prepared and submitted for publication.
• Work has begun on a new education project titled “Multimedia Field Guides for Public Engagement at Walking Box Ranch, Mojave Desert.” The project will develop and disseminate a modern geological and environmental field …