Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 31, 2012 · 12:52 am

Media at Your Doorstep


Tales of Things to Come

The FSB Blog has been generating interest globally but has also caught the interest of local media. If you are interested in all things Oklahoma, which would naturally include the FSB Blog featuring the Chickasaw Visitor Center, Oklahoma now has an international exposure thanks to OklaVision. The broadband network features a live weekday news cast, OklaVision Live, along with special feature videos of varying length. The focus is on the people, places and items of interest in Oklahoma. The live broadcast is generated at the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City and the studio is located in the one building that is completed to date on the campus. You can tune in to the live broadcast Monday through Friday from Noon to 1 p.m. CST. I catch it on cable TV channel 3.

One of OklaVision’s recent videos is a special on Chickasaw Country Continue reading →

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Filed under Design, Guests, LEED ®

July 23, 2012 · 11:27 pm

Slicing and Dicing

It sounds like a Veg-O-Matic demonstration guy at the state fair at the end of which you’re not sure what all got chopped up. The slicing and dicing of the building, however, is done much more systematically and carefully so you can actually tell what has been cut through.

I know it’s hard to imagine, but the building that is drawn in the computer is a full-scale 3D model of the real thing. Slicing up the building in the computer provides details that are referred to as sections. By slicing through the building in various directions it allows us to see what is going on inside the spaces. That includes the spaces inside the walls, the spaces above the ceiling, the spaces below the floor and more. These views let us see how the pieces and parts of the building go together. When the plans are printed out, they are scaled down and floor plans are usually shown at 1/8”=1’-0”. It would take a lot of paper to print it out full-scale. Continue reading →

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Filed under Construction, Design, Materials

July 17, 2012 · 8:18 am

Getting to Know the Players-Take Two

So it’s time to meet another member of the FSB design team. That would be George Dunlap, Senior Project Designer. He’s a talented architect and really good designer; you can reaffirm that yourself by revisiting to the Post “Preliminary Design-putting a wrapper on round one.” He tends to be on the reserved, quiet side that is until you talk to him about his passion “Design.”

Ready?

George: Oh Sure. Continue reading →

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Filed under Design, Guests, LEED ®, Materials

July 9, 2012 · 11:44 pm

The Power of Electrons – the joules of design

Power. We seem to take it for granted but are reminded during storm season that it can be extinguished with one strategic lightning strike or a fallen tree or broken power pole. I haven’t shared much about the electrical engineering side of the project, but it is an important design element to the Chickasaw Visitor Center. The electrical system powers the lights, outlets, pumps, heating/cooling equipment, elevator and more.

Power is often discussed in terms of voltage which is the energy required to move an electrical charge along a path where negative charged objects are pulled towards higher voltages and the flow is called current. Volts are measured in joules per coulomb. All perfectly clear, right?  Well you could always refer to Kirchhoff’s circuit laws to get everything straightened out, but wait, there’s more. Where have I heard that expression? E-gads! OK, here’s the simple version. Continue reading →

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Filed under Design, Materials

July 3, 2012 · 8:25 am

The Gray Water Mouse Trap

Rube Goldberg was probably the most adept illustrator in creating a genre for the design of the supposedly perfect mousetrap which in fact was typically an over-designed contraption to perform a very simple task. His comic illustrations created a following as well as a common descriptive term found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that bears his name. The “Rube Goldberg” machine contest is now an annual competition at institutions like Purdue and UC Berkeley.

Our approach to the design that traps gray water and recycles it for use in flushing other plumbing fixtures while intricate is hardly over complicated. The design is straight forward and efficient and gets right down to the business water efficiency through the reuse of waste water. The gray water system gains the project a number of key points for achieving LEED certification as a part of the sustainable goal set by the Chickasaw Nation (the Client). While the system is supported by architectural and electrical elements, it is predominantly a mechanical engineering system and the design is showcased in the plumbing section of the construction documents. Here’s how it works. Continue reading →

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Filed under Design, LEED ®, Materials