Design and Construction Associations Join to Promote Resilience

May 14, 2014

Leaders of America’s design and construction industry – along with building owners and operators – for the first time have agreed to promote resilience in contemporary planning, building materials, design, construction and operational techniques as the solution to making the nation’s aging infrastructure more safe and secure.

CEOs of almost two dozen design and construction industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, used the occasion of “Building Safety Month” to issue a joint statement on resilience, which can be found here. The statement was unveiled at a press conference at the National Building Museum, where a major exhibition titled Designing for Disaster presents design and building solutions for disaster mitigation opened May 11.

“We recognize that natural and manmade hazards pose an increasing threat to the safety of the public and the vitality of our nation,” reads the statement, in part. “We further recognize that contemporary planning, building materials, design, construction and operational techniques can make our communities more resilient to these threats.”

The CEOs committed their design and construction sector organizations to significantly improve the resilience of the nation’s entire built environment through research into new materials, construction procedures and other methods to raise the standard of practice. Among other things, they also committed the industry to educating itself through continuous learning, to advocating for effective land use policies, to responding to disasters alongside first responders, and to planning for future events, with a strategy for fast recovery.

“I encourage interior designers to lead the way in improving the resiliency of our communities against disaster,” said Randy Fiser, executive vice president and CEO of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). “ASID will make resiliency a priority going forward and will work with our industry colleagues to ensure more organizations adopt this approach.”

In addition to ASID, organizations signing onto the joint statement on resilience are:

American Council of Engineering Companies

American Institute of Architects

American Planning Association

American Society of Civil Engineers

American Society of Interior Designers

American Society of Landscape Architects

American Society of Plumbing Engineers

ASHRAE

Associated Builders and Contractors

Associated General Contractors of America

Building Owners and Managers Association