CEAC-2018-12-December

NEWS
AKF’s Mark Richter to Chair World’s
Foremost Tall Buildings Design Award
Panel
Hidden Emergency Lighting Preserves
Building Aesthetics While Meeting Code
Richter’s 26-year career includes the design of iconic New
York City buildings such as One57, Central Park Tower, and
520 West 28th, the new luxury condominium along the Highline
designed in collaboration with Pritzker Prize-winning
architect Zaha Hadid. 520 West 28th won AKF an American
Council of Engineering Companies New York State Diamond
Award for engineering excellence. Mark also added that the
CTBUH gathering is the perfect venue to celebrate professionals
whose passion is engineering healthy, sustainable tall
buildings.
“As buildings across the globe continue to get taller and taller,
a comprehensive approach to sustainability is critical. AKF
has always delivered design enhancements that are above
energy code, mindful of the surrounding environment, and
conscious of their energy impact. I look forward to joining
other jurists who share these values.”
AKF’s Mark Richter will serve as 2019 Jury Chair for the CTBUH Annual
Awards’ MEP Engineering Panel.
NEW YORK (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AKF, a global leader in
engineering, technology, design, consulting and commissioning,
is excited to announce that Partner Mark Richter, PE has
been appointed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat (CTBUH) to serve as 2019 Jury Chair on the MEP Engineering
panel for the CTBUH Annual Awards.
“For nearly 50 years, CTBUH has been a leading authority on
tall building and urban design trends,” said Richter. “And
today, as technology continues to change the landscape for
MEP professionals around the globe, CTBUH continues to set
the standard for the construction and design of next-generation
buildings. I am honored to chair the MEP Jury.”
Richter, who has earned praise for his expertise in the
planning and design of high-rise and mixed-use properties,
noted that to date AKF has been instrumental in the design
and commissioning of more than 30 high-rise and super-tall
structures around the globe. This includes work on four of
Mexico’s five tallest buildings, as well as Three Sixty West in
Mumbai, which will be India’s tallest building upon construction
completion.
Many of Isolite’s architectural emergency lighting solutions are virtually invisible during normal lighting conditions, eliminating unattractive surface mounted
emergency lights.
While emergency lighting is critical to life safety and must
function to code, no one wants to see the devices ruin the
aesthetics of a building’s interiors. So industry professionals
are increasingly keeping the lights hidden or camouflaged
until needed to ensure it artfully blends in with its surroundings.
“From the standpoint of interior architectural aesthetics, traditional
wall or ceiling-mounted emergency lighting systems
can be sort of an eyesore that establishments with a more
refined look want to eliminate because it can take away
from the architectural experience,” says John Decker, IALD of
Lighting Design Studio, a multi-disciplinary firm. The company
has completed lighting projects for a variety of commercial
spaces including resort hotels, spas, casinos, restaurants,
retail, and office spaces.
Now an innovative option, fixtures completely hidden
behind closed-door panels on walls or ceilings, is helping to
meet emergency lighting code. Only in the case of emergency
or power outage do the doors open and the emergency
lights emerge to ensure sufficient light along the path of
egress, as mandated by the NFPA and International Building
Code (IBC). For even greater discretion, the panels can be
painted, wallpapered over, and placed in locations out of the
line of sight to make them completely inconspicuous.
Enhancing Aesthetics and Ensuring Safety
Design professionals often meticulously plan the aesthetics
of various building elements including style, form, and ma-
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10 | Chief Engineer
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