Mother Nature started 2016 with a bang in late January, dropping record and near-record snowfalls across the eastern seaboard. The snow was accompanied by wind gusts that reached 75 miles per hour...
Buildings
Iowa, with or without the candidates
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December 2, 2015
Every four years around this time, Iowa gets a lot of attention. The presidential campaign season officially starts here with the Iowa caucuses. Presidential aspirants are everywhere—speaking at...
The ebb and flow of building codes
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May 15, 2015
If you’ve ever spent time in a coastal community, you know residents and businessowners pay a lot of attention to ebb and flow. Their very existence may depend on the tides — for fishing and boatin...
BCEGS Bracket Busters – Final Four!
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April 2, 2015
We’re down to the last four teams in this year’s college basketball tournament, and it seems that using Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS ® ) scores isn’t the best method for...
BCEGS Bracket Busters!
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March 19, 2015
March Madness is upon us as the college basketball playoffs begin. Everyone has a unique method for filling out the brackets, whether it’s loyally choosing your alma mater against their rivals,...
Building codes: From one extreme to the other
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November 18, 2014
I was fortunate — for two reasons — to visit Newport Beach, California, recently. First, Newport Beach is a really nice place. In the depths of winter, the average low temperature is 50 degrees, an...
Building codes from Mesopotamia to Ohio
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October 3, 2014
The ancient Babylonian laws known as the Code of Hammurabi , dating back to Mesopotamia in 1772 B.C., probably featured the world’s first building codes. Although Ohio is a long way from Mesopotami...
Hard lessons from the Napa, California, earthquake
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September 9, 2014
The ALERT™ (AIR Loss Estimates in Real Time) sent by AIR Worldwide, our fellow Verisk Analytics business, regarding the Napa, California, earthquake on August 26 really struck home for me. The...