PCI is now accepting entries for the 50th Annual PCI Design Awards. The PCI Design Awards program recognizes design excellence and construction quality using precast concrete. The deadline to submit a project is May 21, 2012. Winners will be announced in July.

Many types of project have been recognized by the PCI Design Awards -- from schools to recreation centers and from parking decks to office buildings. Also, it is not necessary that architectural precast be used on the project -- many types of precast components have been used on winning designs. Special recognition is given to a sustainable project that uses precast concrete in the design. Visit the Design Awards website for complete information including this year's categories and submission guidelines.

All winning projects will be showcased at the PCI Convention and National Bridge Conference and be included in a summary article that appears in the PCI Journal, Aspire and Ascent magazines. Together, these publications reach over 65,000 industry stakeholders. We encourage you to take advantage of this great opportunity to showcase your project!

For architects specifying architectural precast, I often note that the building of the forms often take the skills of a cabinet maker. Manufacturers of architectural precast have a long-standing tradition of attention to detail and quality that makes A1 Certified precast some of the finest quality building products to be found. Precast will not only clad the building, but do it with beauty and elegence when designers take advantage of the possabilities it offers.

Even if a designer does not have a PCI Design Handbook at the ready, it is still possible to get the load tables from both the previous editions and the current edition. Sections from PCI Design Handbook include interaction curves, load tables, and section properties for various precast concrete components.  For additional explanation on using these tables, refer to the text of the respective handbook editions.

In recent months, I've listened as discussion of "green" or "sustainable" construction starts taking an interesting turn. Designers, while still interested in using sutainable materials and looking at the materials and tactics used in construction -- there is more emphasis being placed on how a building will  survive, adapt, and function in the face of shrinking resources or even catastrophic incidents.

The precast industry has been addressing sustainability issues for several years now -- and this is one area where we have more to contribute to a building's sustainability than ever before. Resilience is a common feature of complex systems, such as structure, building envelope and HVAC.  By ensuring these systems work  together and recognizing the potential lifespan and functionality of a building -- the functional resiliance is assured. By creating a structure that can be disasembled and reused, or designing for possible catestrophic events such as a hurricane, tornado or earthquake, the earth's resources needed to maintain a structure can be reduced.