Taking Measure Blog: Buildings and Construction

Buildings and Construction

Building in a Changing Climate: A Q&A With NIST’s Joannie Chin

July 27, 2022

The director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory discusses the role of buildings in creating and mitigating climate change.

NIST’s Investigations of Structural Disasters: What We Do and Why They Can Take Years to Complete

March 23, 2022

My Background in Disasters It seems as though I was born to be a disaster researcher. I can vividly remember seeking shelter during tornado warnings in the

Close-up of a map showing a city called Lumberton

The Trials and Triumphs of a Small City’s Hurricane Recovery Could Help Other Communities Bounce Back

January 19, 2022

In September 2018, a North Carolina city’s long road to recovery from Hurricane Matthew two years earlier became even longer. Lumberton, a small but diverse

A white telescope dish is surrounded by wooded mountains in autumn colors.

In Case You Missed It From NIST: 2021 Edition

December 21, 2021

While the pandemic still grips the world, researchers at NIST continue their work on COVID-19 related research, as well as the wide range of other science and

Creating and Commercializing the NIST RoboCrane

November 3, 2021

The RoboCrane — now hard at work at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear cleanup sites — is a good example of a successfully commercialized technology invented

Analyzing the Aftermath of the Twin Towers Aircraft Impacts

August 27, 2021

I consider myself lucky to have been able to perform contract engineering research and consulting for my entire career. The work environment has been somewhere

Inside the Towers on 9/11: My Story of Investigating the WTC Evacuation

September 3, 2021

The kickoff meeting On Nov. 1, 2002, in a small conference room on the Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

20 Years Later: NIST's World Trade Center Investigation and Its Legacy

August 18, 2021

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the worst-ever building disasters in

Putting Together the Big Picture for the World Trade Center Disaster Investigation

August 25, 2021

Imagine assembling a jigsaw puzzle of more than 14,000 pieces without an image on the box showing what the final picture will look like. Imagine that important

Reconstructing the Fires That Brought Down WTC 1, 2 and 7

September 8, 2021

Everyone has a story about where they were when they heard about the disaster universally called “9/11.” Mine begins in Ottawa, Canada. As chance would have it

Taking Measure