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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA--(Marketwired - Nov. 4, 2014) - CSA Group, a global provider of testing and certification services and a leading standards development organization, today announced its lab in Irvine, California has been accredited by International Accreditation Service (IAS) to expand its scope to include testing electric vehicle supply equipment, and lighting systems for both indoor and outdoor use.

The new accreditation expands the services the Irvine facility offers to include electric vehicle charging equipment and luminaries testing and certification for Canada and the USA. It also enables the Irvine facility in California to serve its customers locally and help provide faster and more efficient services for global customers.

"The expansion by IAS broadens the services offered to our clients," says Fabio Furlan, Operations Manager for Irvine. "We are pleased to be able to add this testing capability to our facilities, and offer our North American and global customers more comprehensive service along with the confidence of knowing their products are being tested to the high standards for North American markets."

In addition to the above services, the facility in Irvine, offers testing in the areas of medical and laboratory equipment, information technology equipment, fuel burning appliances and components, pool and spa products, home appliances, transformers, power supplies, water pumps, and energy efficiency verification for ENERGY STAR. CSA Group is planning to expand its facilities across North America over the next year to meet the growing needs of its clients. CSA Group also has certification and testing labs throughout the US including Cleveland, Atlanta and Dallas and employs more than 1,800 people across the globe.

For comprehensive testing and certification services information or a project quote for CSA Group - Los Angeles Testing Laboratory, contact CSA Irvine Sales at 949-733-4300 or email CSAIrvineSales@csagroup.org.

About CSA Group

CSA Group is an independent, not-for-profit membership association dedicated to safety, social good and sustainability. Its knowledge and expertise encompass standards development; training and advisory solutions; global testing and certification services across key business areas including hazardous location and industrial, plumbing and construction, medical, safety and technology, appliances and gas, alternative energy, lighting and sustainability; as well as consumer product evaluation services. The CSA certification mark appears on billions of products worldwide. For more information about CSA Group visit http://www.csagroup.org.

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CSA Group's Los Angeles Laboratory Granted Scope Expansion to Include Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment and Lighting ...

4/4 Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFoH8QNZfo list=PLM4S2hGZDSE686AJC8_HVnAQD32BeS-1U index=1 First broadcast: Oct 2014. Medieval historian Dr Janina Ramirez l...

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4/4 Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age - Video

3/4 Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFoH8QNZfo list=PLM4S2hGZDSE686AJC8_HVnAQD32BeS-1U index=1 First broadcast: Oct 2014. Medieval historian Dr Janina Ramirez l...

By: Art Documentaries

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3/4 Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age - Video

Vistosi meets Indian Architects
Matteo Moretti, General Manager - Vistosi.

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Vistosi meets Indian Architects - Video

Chase Donoghue - Architects - Broken Cross Drum Cover
Chase Donoghue, 16 years old, St. Catharines, Ontario Canada. This is my cover of Broken Cross by Architects! This is one of my favourite songs off of their new album specifically for the kick...

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Chase Donoghue - Architects - Broken Cross Drum Cover - Video

We Architects - Heartless Ft Bright Lights
Feel The Magic Of UNITY Tracks [A division of 1HourUNITY] Follow 1HourUNITY: Follow us on Facebook: http://goo.gl/S5TGkk ...

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We Architects - Heartless Ft Bright Lights - Video

John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, said the six members who resigned had done the honourable thing in the circumstances. Photograph: Dara Mac Dnaill.

Two former presidents and four other council members of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland have resigned over what they claim to be serious governance failings in the organisation.

Their letters of resignation were delivered in advance of an extraordinary general meeting of the institute in Dublin tonight which was called to debate motions relating to implementation of a controversial amendment to the Building Control Act.

The six who resigned were members of an RIAI reform group campaigning against the amendment, which makes it mandatory on architects, engineers or other building professionals to certify that new building comply with regulations.

Other issues raised by the group included claims of a recurring and increasing deficit in the RIAIs accounts, its dual role as a membership organisation and a regulatory body for architects, and the lack of open debate to end a growing alienation among members.

At last nights meeting, a motion tabled by the group which includes former RIAI presidents Joan OConnor and Eoin Cofaigh calling on the council to seek a revocation of the building control amendment was defeated by 165 votes to 102.

Another motion, which had the support of the institutes officers, calling on members to support the councils efforts to have the new regulations amended to reflect concerns of architects about consumer protection, was overwhelmingly carried.

RIAI president Robin Mandal, who chaired the meeting, said afterwards that the six had resigned because they didnt get their way in changing its policy. Institute director John Graby said they had done the honourable thing in the circumstances.

Ms OConnor said she was resigning because the council had not made material progress on any of the issues raised by the reform group and failed in its responsibilities to ensure that the institute was solvent, well-run and delivering the outcomes for which it is set up.

She claimed that the RIAI president and some members of the 24-strong council try to suppress contrarian views on the building control amendment. Those who held such views were effectively gagged (and) subjected to ridicule and hostile interrogation.

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Architects council members resign over governance failings

The project will cover around 37 acres of space and see up to 600 lodgings built.

"The selected sites represent varied opportunities for both land and housing that can be quickly developed," said Jean-Louis Missaka, deputy mayor in charge of urbanism.

These include an electricity sub-station at Parmentier, which the mayor wants to see transformed into a "popular, quality cinema" and the old Massna station in the 13th arrondissement. Also up for grabs is vacant land in the 19th arrondissement, along with a 16th-century mansion house in the chic 5th and the former Paris government prefect headquarters by the Seine in the 4th arrondissement.

Perhaps the most challenging prospect for architects is to suggest designs for a future building bridging the peripherique or Paris ring road - at the Porte des Ternes.

Ideas are to be sent early next year, with a short list drawn up by July and the winning tenders announced next December.

Those chosen will then have the option of buying or renting the sites they will transform.

The ambitious plan comes as Paris's town hall faces stiff resistance to a project to build the Triangle Tower, a 50-storey, 590ft high pyramid-like structure, due to overlook Paris from its southwestern extremity at the Porte de Versailles, already home to a vast exhibition centre.

The council of Paris is due to vote on the project this month, with the Socialists' green partners due to vote against, along with part of the opposition centre and Right.

Mr Missika said a vote against would send "a very bad signal to the outside world, where France already has a reputation of being a country that is struggling to enter modernity."

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Paris mayor calls on world's top architects to 'reinvent Paris'

San Francisco rejected the plan, Chicago officials welcomed it with open arms, and now, mere months later, following promises of organic sponginess from George Lucas himself, Beijing's MAD Architects have unveiled their preliminary design for Chicago's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. It looks part moonscape, part rising conical mass, part melted pile of marshmallow goop, and 100-percent MAD. Let's take a look, shall we?

Like MAD's previously unveiled live-in landscapes, this conceptas the firm describes in a press releaseblurs "the line between structure and landscape," exploring "the relationship between nature and the urban environment." Under the mountainous structure, three levels of exhibition space connect "in infinite loops," reaching an observation deck and restaurant with 360-degree views, where the stone surface that rises from the harbor "crescendos into a 'floating' disc." At once "primitive," "futuristic," and "timeless," it seeks to be "more than a building," providing Chicagoans with "an urban vista for social interaction, bringing people closer to each other and to nature."

Image via MAD Architects

Aside from gallery space, the museum's conjoined slopes and hills include four theaters, an education center, and archival space, according to Gizmodo, totaling about 400,000 square feet. As the facade slopes toward the ground, it merges with a sinuous stone sidewalk that carves out amphitheaters and public green spaces from the 17 acres the museum is sited on. Surrounding it is the full panoply of lakefront Chicago attractions, including the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, and Northerly Island, which, like the Lucas Museum, had its landscape designed by Chicago's Studio Gang.

MAD cites Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe as inspirations for the project, drawing a connection to the rising conical design of Wright's Guggenheim Museum and kissing the ring of the city's one-time modernist master-in-residence. By integrating the "natural beauty of the park and Lake Michigan with the powerful man-made architecture of Chicago," MAD aspires for its design to join the ranks of the city's most recognizable landmarks. Architect Ma Yansong, who worked as an intern architect in Chicago before founding MAD, points out to Gizmodo's Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan that "even Mies was alien to Chicago" at one point.

Image via MAD Architects

The museum's holdings will a potpurri of high and low American artwork, including Norman Rockwell paintings and cover art from a MAD more recognizable to the average American teenager. And, of course, Star Wars stuff, although Lucas managed to hold off from directly referencing the franchise in the design of this building. According to Gizmodo, the team will go into schematic design now, and present a final proposal to the city in the spring of 2015.

Here's MAD founder Ma Yansong discussing his concept for the museum:

UPDATE: Curbed Chicago rounds up some of the critical reactions to the museum, including not-so-serious comparisons to Jabba the Hutt, and very serious characterizations of the design as a "land-eating colossus" that would be an illegal intrusion onto the lakefront. Also worth noting: the building has an estimate price tag of $400M, and would be four times the size of the rejected San Francisco proposal.

Our First Look at the Radical Design of George Lucas' Art Museum [Gizmodo]

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Rendering Reveals: MAD's Lucas Museum is a Moon Mountain with a 'Floating' Halo

Brick-and-mortar retail has been increasingly troubled over the years as online shopping has become near universal. In a fitting turn of events, server hosting companies are increasingly turning to vacant retail locationsas a source of cheap floor space for server farms. In fact, your local mall could be hosting several small clusters of servers any youd never know it.

Millions of square feet of retail space sit idle across the US as department stores continue to close up shop in marginal markets to focus on the ones that remain profitable. These large open spaces arent good for much without serious refitting, but several aspects of your average department store makes for an excellent server room.

The basic construction makes it easy to reinforce the walls and roof to withstand tornadoes and hurricanes, which is important for servers hosting vital information. The lack of windows is also a big plus. Some malls have also served as bomb shelters in the past, so its possible the structure is already sufficiently sturdy that little to no modification is needed. No matter where a company decides to set up a server room, they will have to add a high-capacity fiber internet connection. That sort of thing doesnt come standard with a vacant Target store.

In some cases these retail spaces have been empty for years, so any economic activity is better than none. However, the handful of employees it takes to run a small data center dont compare to the small army of employees it takes to run a department store.

One notable drawback of this new residential data center approach is the relative lack of security. An active mall isnt going to be suitable for housing certain kinds of sensitive data and services. However, smaller customers like law firms and hospitals that need a few racks to save important documents can get a good deal on server space from a company operating out of what was once a K-Mart.

Now read: NSA data center will use 1.7M gallons of water per day to read your email

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Your local mall may also be a data center