Fashion week has officially begun & interior designers worldwide are taking notice at what will undoubtedly influence the trends of their industry for the next year…or two.  Pantone has released the Fall 2012 color report and it’s bursting with color and attitude.

I thought this would be the perfect kick-off to the new Luckett & Farley Materialuscious blog.  While this particular palette will not hit Louisville, KY for some time it’s a great opportunity to see how fashion directly influences building materials used by interior designers everyday.  Stay tuned for upcoming Materialuscious entries to check out fantastic new product lines available to our industry.

Honey Gold & Titanium

Platinum Gray and Mustard Yellow have been breaking their way into fashion for a while, we saw them last year at Fashion Week & at NeoCon.  This year they’re seen mixed with earth tones and occasionally soft aquas, as we slowly transition out of the aqua/brown trend.

This new carpet tile, in an unusual rectangular size, displays the vibrant yellow in a contemporary language.

While this lively lampshade pulls in just a hint of aqua.

And that’s definitely not your grandmother’s wallpaper.  This very traditional pattern is stylized and punched up with a contemporary mix of color.

This carpet on the lower right gives a nod to the new palette in a very subtle way.

Pink Flambe & Tangerine Tango

Fuchsia & Orange are “hot” accents this year and are grounded nicely by the deep neutral pairings of chocolate & charcoal.

While the highly saturated colors in these stone products appear man-made, they’re actually harvested directly from the earth.

Olympian Blue & Ultramarine Green

Rich jewel tones are still present, they always seem to have a place in each year’s forecast.  This year we’re seeing deep blues & greens.  While most of us are dreaming of jewel encrusted columns on our next project, we have to settle for glitzy glass mosaics & rich carpet patterns.

Rhapsody & Bright Chartreuse

Eggplant has arrived in full force!  Lime green is still hanging on, something we’ve seen for a couple of years but it’s shifting in it’s pairing, now seen with new shades of eggplant & mustard versus the traditional aqua/lime combo.

This beautiful combination of plum & gold is a direct product of nature and is beautiful as a vanity top or reception work surface.

The accent of lime green into a sterile office environment can provide a much needed boost to employee morale & productivity.

Stay tuned for the next Materialuscious blog entry to see what exciting new products our interior design department is gleaning inspiration from.

The Life Safety Specialist:  dotting Is, crossing Ts

An important part of the Joint Commission hospital review team is the Life Safety Specialist (LSS).    The LSS will usually arrive with the review team on the first or second day.  Today, the average time that the LSS spends on each hospital review is increasing; in most cases, he or she may stay an extra day.

As defined on the ASHE website:

The life safety code specialist is present for two days at facilities of more than 750,000 square feet and one day for facilities under 750,000 square feet.  Typically, the specialist is at the facility while the survey team is there, but occasionally he or she may come at a different time, either before or after the rest of the team.

The life safety code specialist focuses on compliance with the Life Safety Code, the Statement of Condition (SOC), medical gas system requirements, and certain Environment of Care standards. The specialist will tour the building and may want to tour construction sites.

The review, tour, and checklist

I want to briefly discuss the sequence of a facility tour conducted by a visiting LSS.   A typical tour will start at the highest floor level of the facility.  Beginning at a penthouse, mechanical room, elevator control room, or the roof, the LSS will use the stairwells that are most traveled moving from top to bottom.    At the lower basement levels, the LSS will look at the kitchen/dietary departments, loading docks, fire pump rooms, emergency generators, fire annunciator panel, compressed gas and any infectious waste storage.   After reaching the bottom the LSS will then proceed back to the highest patient floor level.

What the LSS is doing is reviewing fire doors, smoke doors, rated walls between smoke compartments, multi-story chutes, storage areas utility chases and hazardous areas for safety and security.  He records his findings using a facility tour checklist,  which includes the following areas:

• Stairwells
• Smoke doors and compartments
• Fire doors and compartments
• Electric and communication closets
• Linen and trash chutes
• Mechanical rooms
• Utility chases
• Fire pumps and panels
• Loading docks
• Chemical and medical waste storage
• Compressed gas storage
• Emergency generators
• Kitchen/dining facilities
• Corridor storage
• Penthouses
• Construction and outside roof areas
• Plans for Improvement verification
• Interim Life Safety Measures verification

Knowing what the LSS is looking for gives you an idea of the extensive safety requirements mandated for hospitals and healthcare facilities.  Great measures are taken so that our healing centers are safe for us all.

In situations like these, the objective is to restore the structural components to their “pre-rusted” condition (strength and stiffness), as reasonably and feasibly possible. Even more importantly, when you’re playing with your client’s money, the focus should be on educating and advising them of their options: there is ALWAYS more than one way to address a problem and they all have financial implications.

Here is our procedure/methodology for repairing corroded structural steel:

• Step 1: If there is an imminent hazard as a result of the corrosion, provide temporary shoring.

• Step 2: Prepare a testing program to evaluate the impact on the quality of the material or extent of corrosion; document the damage.

• Step 3: Provide viable repair schemes for a Contractor to estimate and the Owner to review; obtain feedback on feasibility and cost.

• Step 4: Perform the repairs. Give due consideration to the fact that the existing members may already be loaded/stressed prior to repairing. Any new material added to the corroded member may not be as effective if the (gravity) load isn’t removed first!

• There are numerous methods to repairing structural steel: most are project-specific and can involve supplemental plating, reinforcement, etc.  What’s most crucial is Step 5: Either eliminate the corrosive environment or protect against it.

Since eliminating the harsh environment is obvious (if you have the luxury to do so), here’s just a couple protection solutions we’ve employed that you may consider for your own corrosion ailments:

REBAR:

-Cathodic Protection with Galvanic Anodes: Attach zinc anodes to the reinforcing mat in a grid-like pattern to force the corrosion to occur within the less-noble metal…zinc. These galvanic anodes do deteriorate so care and caution into providing the proper quantity should be given.

-Corrosion Inhibitor: Since concrete is porous, this type of product can be spray-applied to coat the surface of the existing concrete.

STRUCTURAL STEEL:

-Epoxy Coating: If heat is not a factor, this could be a viable option in which the carbon steel is coated with a barrier to protect against chloride attack.

-Cathodic Protection with Inorganic Coating: Not many companies manufacture this type of solution, but it’s ideal for our case in point, wherein an inorganic ceramic (zinc) coating is applied to the structural steel and an AC current is connected. This forces the corrosion to occur within the zinc coating, slowing the rate of corrosion on the protected substrate by as much as 1/25 of the pre-coated condition. This technology appears to have proved successful for many years and perfected by one company in particular, Applied Semiconductor. The benefit here: it can withstand temperatures of up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit!

In situ, galvanizing, like painting, is typically not as effective as the aforementioned options in that it’s spray-applied since it relies on proper bond with the substrate and is more susceptible to scraping/flaking off with time and exposure.

Like a tooth cavity, the longer you wait to address corrosion of your steel building, the more money you will spend when you eventually decide to take action. Take steps sooner rather than later (or when it’s too late) to correct the issue, as it won’t fix itself. At least, that’s what my dentist says, anyway.

While at the Kentucky Healthcare Coalition Conference last month, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar hosted by Gary D. Slack, PE, CCE, of Healthcare Engineering Consultants.  The seminar was called “Biggest Pitfalls & Best Practices:  Achieving Survey Success.”  It made me think about the services that Luckett & Farley offers that could help ready your facility for required Joint Commission surveys.

The Joint Commission: What it is, what it does, how we can help

The Joint Commission is a non-profit organization that ensures that all required safety measures of health care facilities are met. Joint Commission survey teams are required to survey facilities once every 39 months (once every 2 years for laboratories) to make sure that all standards and guidelines are being met and followed.  According to the new Joint Commission accreditation standards, the surveying life safety specialist will now be scheduled for an extra day on site, allowing more time on the facility tour portion of a joint commissioning visit. In the services we provide, we help our clients with updating life safety documents for the required joint commission checklist. These Life Safety drawings need to include occupancy separations, fire rated walls, suite designations, and accurate square footage totals for these facility areas. We also include exits, egress widths, fire alarm pull stations, and fire alarm strobe/horn locations on these same documents. Our healthcare team also assists with fire penetration review by looking at above-ceiling areas that will be reviewed by the Joint Commission survey team at some time during their visit.

Interim life safety measures

Another important task is documenting all interim life safety measures, especially in the case of ongoing construction. Nothing draws a Joint Commission survey team’s attention like new construction on a job site. If a JC team arrives for a survey and there is ongoing construction at your facility, whether new or renovation, they will want the facility to produce an interim life safety plan to ensure that the site remains safe and secure while construction is going on. The survey team wants to make sure that egress around the work site is maintained, and an interim life safety plan is what will display the safety measures taken. They will also review that all your utility systems are maintained during the construction duration and that you have a documented plan.

Check in for Part II of this entry, where I will follow-up with a hospital tour checklist, the document that guides the Life Safety Specialist during the inspection.

Breaking Ground and Breaking Barriers

I was at the ground breaking ceremony for the new YMCA at Norton Commons in Louisville, Kentucky when I heard about some new local initiatives that fit brilliantly with the organization’s goals for healthier communities. The YMCA Berrytown (another Luckett & Farley project) has begun selling local and organic food. Genius! Before, access to these healthy foods required neighborhood residents to travel several miles to a large supermarket.  I hope to see the same program implemented at a new YMCA facility currently under design by Luckett & Farley on West Broadway in Louisville. The surrounding neighborhood is sprawling with fast food restaurants with little or no health food near by. Best of luck to this new initiative!

The mission of the YMCA is clear and timeless. How they adapt to trends and needs keeps the organization relevant. Their revitalized branding also speaks of a dynamic agency with all the vitality and vigor of a young, optimistic start-up company with their whole future ahead of them. They’re ready to take on the world, (if they hadn’t already), from your own backyard.

A Model to Follow

When the mission is clear, everyone can jump on board. Everyone can make decisions and plans to support the mission. How can you have a healthy community without access to healthy food? Decision: sell healthy food at the neighborhood Y. It’s never been done, but why not? There’s opportunity for every organization, no matter how young or old, to create a similar mission. Being concise will without being abstract will help it be adopted by employees. Then, with some listening and proactive problem-solving, everyone can take steps to achieving your company’s mission.

“Are you a Leader or a Follower?” When you think about that question, you first need something by which to gauge your response. You could read the latest best seller on leadership skills or watch the hottest new self-help video. Personally, I prefer to study past leaders to see how they lived and try to discover what defined them as a leader. As a result, I have noticed  a pattern with great leaders throughout history. They seem to always be a work in progress–that is, they are on a constant quest for betterment, not just of themselves, but those around them as well. One of my favorite quotes on leadership comes from one of the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Paine:  “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

Learning to lead: a lifetime commitment

Throughout my life, I have always tried to be a leader and not a follower. I’ve been captain of a high
school sports team, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, a one-third owner of a small engineering and land surveying company, and I am currently the Manager of the Civil Engineering Department here at Luckett & Farley, the largest architectural and engineering firm in Kentucky. Each of these positions has come with its own unique set of challenges. As a sports captain, I needed to motivate my peers to perform their best, as I set the example through my words and my actions. Serving as a Sergeant in the Marines, I had to balance giving orders while maintaining a level of respect from my platoon. Being a partner of an engineering company meant I had to look out for the fiscal health of the company while also maintaining the morale of the staff. And finally, today I have to rely on all of my past experiences to provide the best example possible for both Luckett & Farley’s  civil engineering department and the firm as a whole.

Do you lead or follow?

As part of my on-going quest to be a leader, not a follower, I am always searching for the next great idea. Recently, I came across an excellent poem written by an unnamed author titled “Leaders vs. Followers.” Eager to see where I fit, I read the poem in its entirety and was left with some uncertainty. I decided to go back through the poem one phrase at a time to once again see how I measured up. The reality is that after all these years of striving to be a leader, I still have things that I need to work on. Being a true leader is always a work in progress. I challenge you to read and see where you stand.

Leaders vs. Followers

When leaders make a mistake, they say, “I was wrong.”
When followers make mistakes, they say, “It wasn’t my fault.”

Leaders work harder than a follower and always seem to have more time;
Followers are always “too busy” to do what is necessary.

Leaders work through a problem;
Followers try to go around it and never seem to get past it.

Leaders make and keep commitments;
Followers make and forget promises.

Leaders say, “I’m good, but not as good as I ought to be;”
Follower say, “I’m not as bad as a lot of other people.”

Leaders listen;
Followers just wait until it’s their turn to talk.

Leaders respect those who are superior to them and try to learn from them;
Followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.

Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
Followers say, “I only work here.”

Leaders say, “There ought to be a better way to do this;”
Followers say, “That’s the way it’s always been done here.”

Real-life leading

Being a leader doesn’t have to mean being at the top of the chain of command.  It doesn’t demand being the CEO of a successful business, a high-rankling military officer, or even an elected official.  Though leaders often find themselves with such important titles, a title alone does not a leader make.  We can lead no matter who we are or where we are in life; we need only to strive each day to be the best we can be and to use our abilities to help the people around us be the best they can be.

Will you lead, follow or get out of the way?

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