University of Virginia Library

Center For Development
Established At University

A center devoted to improving
man's environment through development
of new structural concepts,
possibly leading to underwater
cities and moving buildings,
has been established by the University.

The Center for Research and
Innovations in Buildings (CRIB)
will include in its program, development
and innovation in structural
and architectural concepts, systems
components and use of novel
materials, says its director, Lev
Zetlin of New York, University
professor of civil engineering and
architecture.

Center researchers will introduce
basic research and scientific approach
into a field "dominated by
arbitrary and empirical technical
decisions in application and selection
of building systems," Mr.
Zetlin said. "The center will be the
first established effort that is
science oriented for new hardware
for improving our environment," he
added.

The construction industry is a
fragmented one, Mr. Zetlin said and
"we need to bring basic sciences
into a field that has not been
involved in significant technological
change. Construction today reflects
man's immediate needs and there
has been very little progress made
toward long-range needs," he
added.

With land at a premium, "we
may have to consider development
of buildings that move, how to
construct cities on the ocean bed
and cities built high above ground.
The problems of structural design
will be our concern in CRIB," Mr.
Zetlin said.

"The theoretical and experimental
research of the center will
be directed toward solving problems
of our present and future
massed-society and creating novel
tools for urban planning," Mr.
Zetlin said. Included are such
problems as economical high-density
dwellings, structures associated
with transportation and environmental
control and other architectural
and structural systems
indispensable to sound future
urban planning.

Mr. Zetlin, an internationally-known
consulting engineer is head
of Lev Zetlin and Associates of
New York. He has designed pre-stressed
runways for the United
States Navy and earthquake resistant
construction in the Panama
Canal Zone and the Caribbean. He
is presently a consulting engineer
for a series of hangars and terminals
for the giant airplanes of the near
future and supersonic transports
that will follow. His New York firm
has completed or has under contract
approximately 2 billion dollars
in engineering projects.

Using traditional techniques to
build adequately in quality and
sufficiently in quantity to meet the
needs of society "will impose an
enormous national economic strain
and drain on resources," Mr. Zetlin
explained.

"There should be drastic review
of present architectural concepts
and engineering techniques and
introduction on a wide scale of
innovative thinking and processes.
This can best be achieved through
an interdisciplinary effort among
professions traditionally engaged in
building as well as in these sciences
and humanities outside the field,"
he added.

To date, most efforts to meet
the urgent problems of a growing
population have centered on improving
the efficiency of planning
focused on traditional basic working
units such as a house, pavement
or a bridge, Mr. Zetlin said.

"It is to innovate and to
improve the basic working unit,
both by utilizing the present
advanced technology, or to develop
new technology if need be, that the
center will set as its main goal," he
noted.

The University's center will
include four divisions. The division
of technological information will
collect information of accomplished
research data and processes
in other industries, such as space
and military and their adaptation to
the building industry. The division
of concepts and evolution of
systems will consider development
of a new generation of building
components and integrated systems
and introduction of new materials
into building systems. The division
of theoretical synthesis and experimentation
will carry out laboratory
testing and development of new
theories and appropriate design
criteria for the new generation of
building systems.

The fourth division — industrialization
and management — will
study the areas of building codes,
union practices and construction
market evaluation for the new
generation of building systems.
Engineering and architecture students
pursuing advanced degrees
will be brought into the center for
specific projects under direction of
civil engineering and architectural
experts on the faculty.

Lawrence R. Quarles, dean of
the School of Engineering and
Applied Science, said that with the
"critical need for development of
housing it is essential that totally
new concepts be explored. Mr.
Zetlin's vast experience in the
structural field will be of immense
importance to the new center."

Mr. Zetlin has pioneered novel
structural concepts and techniques
in suspension structures which have
been used in numerous projects
including civic auditoriums in
Utica, N.Y., and Salt Lake city,
Utah. He also developed a concept
for a suspension bridge over Baltimore's
Inner Harbor which eliminates
the need for heavy and costly
decks and stiffening trusses.