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This article reports on how innovations are changing the way health care is delivered and how hospitals are designed. Hospitals have been quick to embrace sophisticated diagnostic equipment such as MRIs, CAT scanners, and digital X-rays, yet stagnant capital budgets have made them laggards in installing technology and communications gear that are ubiquitous in other types of facilities. The following case studies illustrate ways that architects are integrating new technologies into three markedly different health care projects. At 1.6 million square feet, the Gonda Building is the largest construction project in the long history of the Mayo Clinic. But size isn't its biggest claim to fame: At its core, the building represents a new initiative to integrate various medical practices to improve collaboration among caregivers and provide more convenience for patients, who won't have to be shuttled throughout the hospital for tests and treatments. This approach of taking testing equipment to patients, rather than the reverse, is gaining a foothold in other health care facilities, as well.

This article describes how economics, politics, ambition and architecture finally converged at Columbus Circle in New York, New York state to create a $2.2 billion AOL-Time Warner Center building. The prominence of the site and its unique shape challenge city planners, the developer and architects. Steve Ross, the chief executive officer of the real estate development firm The Related Companies, is building the Center. The Municipal Arts Society and other groups sued to stop the project, charging its overwhelming scale would exacerbate existing traffic and pollution problems at Columbus Circle.

It's tempting to think of soft materials like carpets, textiles, and coverings as mere decorations or backdrops for the indoor spaces they occupy. But interior architects choose these materials with great care, knowing they convey as much of a design aesthetic as the layout and lines of the enclosing space itself. As they have done with building construction, innovations in digital design techniques and manufacturing methods have changed the way these products are made. Designers within mills and independent textile artists alike are using a combination of technologies to make their ideas into reality. The tools they use include design software, scanners, and image editing applications.

Educators and principals at large architectural firms say that IT skills, if promoted correctly, can sometimes open the door to the boardroom. In addition to stalwarts like CAD, rendering and modeling software, architects hoping to use technology as a fast track also must be adept with applications that streamline communications with clients, manage project schedules and crunch return-on-investment numbers. Added points come with the ability to create Web sites. Web technology helps practices create intranets to distribute in-house expertise to the entire staff in the form of electronic resources such as detail and image libraries, marketing materials and project schedules.

Discusses the use of independent contractors by architectural firms to cope with problems of hiring architects in times of economic uncertainty. Benefits of hiring independent contractors by the firms; Risks related to tax laws involved with independent contractors; Impact of the fear of Internal Revenue Service on the decreased use of independent contractors.

Focuses on the significance of the digital technology software computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in architecture. Function of the technology; Benefits of the technology for architects; Depiction of temperatures and airflow in a structure by the system; Developments in the model of the software.

Focuses on the need for security diligence on electronic documents. Threats over the design errors of a CAD software; Problems in having unauthorized access of architectural drawings; Accounts of damaged claims resulting from computer crashes and expenses.

The article deals with the use of guidance systems by elevator manufacturers in skyscrapers. A number of major elevator vendors offer their own versions of high-technology guidance systems that use cyber-smarts to load elevator cars by grouping people going to similar areas in a tall building, rather than letting them randomly select cars themselves.

Archiving project information was once merely a matter of collecting, organizing, and filing away paper drawings, each one created anew as design progressed. Chicago, Illlinois based architect Kristine Fallon, president of Kristine Fallon Associates, heads the project, which involves a team of architects, academics, museum curators, and technology experts who are reviewing the challenges of maintaining digital archives and will ultimately provide recommendations for best practices. To combat obsolescence of archival documents, a proposed global registry could alert architects to digital file types that are in danger of disappearing and provide a way for architects to reformat their files.

Once upon a time, the design of a museum or exhibition took a backseat to its content. Today, design is content, particularly when a museum's mission is to convey information, rather than show objects. For these projects, display technology has come to play a central role, and it has evolved to the point where its hardware can recede into the background so that visitors are not only immersed in content but can interact with it, as well. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California taps the energy of artists to create experimental exhibitions in its Boone Children's Gallery.

Architects aren't strangers to using consultants. Designers regularly employ specialists to fix engineering, lighting, landscaping, and other important details in their projects. These days, architects are turning more frequently to a new type of consultant for the digital age—one that specializes in networking, telecommunications, and audio/visual systems, as sophisticated communications technologies become essential elements in buildings. The elevated role of communications consultants results from the increasing willingness of corporations, universities, healthcare organizations, and others to embrace maturing technologies like videoconferencing and so-called "converged" networks, which merge data and voice traffic over a single digital infrastructure.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, the iconic residence in Western Pennsylvania, had a dirty little secret. The exhilarating concrete terraces that hover over Bear Creek seemingly defy gravity, their support coming from reinforcing steel within the concrete. Fears that terraces would eventually fail surfaced during construction of the house, but no one knew the full extent of the danger until the mid-1990s. Fallingwater wouldn't be around for another six decades unless it underwent drastic structural renovation. Its restoration needs are not unique, but the Wright site is noteworthy for the range of technological tools architects and engineers are employing. Used by chemists and metallurgists for years, these technologies are now being adopted to gain a complete understanding of a building's condition while causing the least amount of damage. Thirty-seven states now give an additional tax credit of 10 percent, and many are considering extending credits to historic homes.

The article focuses on software piracy. The Washington D.C.-based Business Software Alliance (BSA), composed of software companies such as Microsoft Corp., Adobe, Apple Computer Inc., Autodesk Inc., and Bentley Systems, considers anyone who makes illegal copies of commercial applications a pirate. Across all industries, about a quarter of the commercial software in the U.S. is being used illegally, representing approximately $2.6 billion in lost revenues for software companies, according to the BSA. Fines can range up to$ 150,000 for each copyright infringement, in addition to charges of two to three times the standard price for any software a violator must purchase so that the number of licenses they own is equal to the number of people using the software.

Focuses on the application of design software tools for residential designing. Importance of design software tools; Categories of residential design softwares; Brief description of various residential design software tools used by architects in creating residential designs.

Discusses the usage of digital technology in architecture. Impact of digital technology on architecture; Introduction of internet telephony technique in architecture.

Presents several architectural computer software. Introduction of Architectural Desktop software; Cost for computer aided design upgrade; Strategy to cut cost on software upgrades.

Focuses on the conversion of Ryan School to residential area for low income families in Nelson County, Virginia. Use of electronic monitoring and data-analysis technologies in the structure; Components of digital technologies for residents; Significance of monitors for caregivers.

This article reports that Kaiser Permanente (KP), the largest health-care provider in California, is using design templates created with the help of two San Francisco architecture firms to build three new hospitals now under construction. Eventually, these templates will guide construction or renovations of 20 KP health-care facilities by 2013, says Christine Malcolm, KP's senior vice president for hospital strategy. The Oakland-based company hopes template designs will mean faster approvals, fewer change orders, and improved patient care. KP isn't the only health-care organization thinking along these lines.

The article reports that in recent months, federal judges in Mississippi have been part of a pilot project launched by the U.S. General Services Administration to use virtual reality in the design process. Twice last year, the judges donned red-and-green 3D glasses, like those from 1950s movie theaters, to view stereographic representations of their new courtroom in Jackson long before its construction. Sponsors of the pilot project hope the design team and client can flag problems with sight lines, lighting, and materials before the courtroom is built, to avoid retrofits or costly change orders.