Our new mini-series Building Science breaks down the technical craft of designing buildings, using amusing anecdotes from a variety of experts. Hosted by building engineer and construction consultant Foster Lyons, this first episode features a rich conversation between four experts who take on the formidable topic of managing the effects of water on masonry buildings. From cornices to quoins, material science to mortar chemistry, and every other factor that protects a building from water damage, their conversation covers a variety of topics for architects and designers who want to learn about designing better buildings, and reveals that those classical design details on older buildings are far more than just decorations.
Foster Lyons, of Foster Lyons Building Science, hosts a four experts in this episode: Peter Marciano, of Legacy Building and Consulting LLC, who has three decades of experience doing building evaluations on flat-roofed masonry buildings in New York City; Christine Williamson, a building scientist, educator, and founder of the Instagram account @BuildingScienceFightClub, an educational project that teaches architects about building science and construction; Anthony Catania, an architect with his own firm who focuses on traditional urban building types, previously from Michael Watkins Architect in Washington D.C.; and Mark Santrach, an urban design consultant with his own firm, Design Reconsidered, previously at Hart Howerton in New York.