Hanley Wood University Courses: Continuing Education for Building Professionals

The demand for expertise concerning the built environment's influence on economics, climate change, and society is escalating. Leading architects, engineers, and designers are proactively staying informed and fulfilling their continuing education requirements through resources like Think Wood’s library of CEUs. Hanley Wood University stands as a premier destination for construction professionals in search of continuing education and training programs.

The Importance of Continuing Education

Architects, builders, contractors, remodelers, and other professionals who are obligated to obtain credits, certifications, or training rely on Hanley Wood University for the necessary courses to maintain their professional expertise. These courses are essential for staying up-to-date with the latest advancements, technologies, and best practices in the construction industry.

Overview of Hanley Wood University

Hanley Wood University offers a wide range of courses catering to various professions and covering essential topics in both residential and commercial construction. Originally designed to provide continuing education for architects needing AIA credits, the university now serves AV professionals, builders, concrete contractors, interior designers, lighting designers, masonry contractors, remodelers, and other industry professionals. All courses on hanleywooduniversity.com are free and accessible 24/7, 365 days a year.

Partnering with Associations

Hanley Wood University collaborates with national associations to deliver courses and credits required for professionals to maintain their memberships and certifications. As an American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Services (AIA/CES) provider, the university offers AIA-approved programs that help architects fulfill their annual continuing education requirements, including earning health, safety, and welfare (HSW) and sustainable design (SD) credits. The NAHB University of Housing also recognizes Hanley Wood University’s training and education programs that meet their requirements for construction professionals to earn professional designations.

Top CEUs and Their Impact

Hanley Wood University, through platforms like Think Wood, offers numerous CEUs covering a wide array of important and game-changing topics. These courses address everything from calculating a building's wood carbon footprint to reimagining the future of the built environment, the latest advances in wood research and design, and wood’s role in the green building movement.

Here are some of the top CEUs:

How to Calculate the Wood Carbon Footprint of a Building

This course thoroughly covers life cycle assessments (LCAs), environmental product declarations (EPDs), carbon footprint, embodied carbon, and whole building LCA (WBLCA) tools. It explores the principal methods and tools used to assess the carbon impact of building materials.

Advances in Wood Construction and Sustainability: Reimagining the Future of the Built Environment

This on-demand webinar provides a unique look into how the use of wood-through adaptive reuse, low-carbon design, sustainability, and as an educational experience-supports projects’ needs and goals. Two firms, CO Adaptive and Lord Aeck Sargent, share their experiences using wood in sustainable ways.

Innovations in Wood: Understanding the Latest Advances in Wood Research and Design

This on-demand webinar dives into how specifying wood in building design has numerous benefits, including elevating the design of the project, enhancing sustainable initiatives, and incorporating mixed materials for innovative buildings.

Architecting Change: Design Strategies for a Healthy, Resilient, Climate Smart Future

Design teams share innovative strategies, such as incorporating greenspace, community building + placemaking, lowering building carbon footprints, and designing for density and affordability, to address some of the most urgent global issues.

Designing for Durability

This insightful course addresses common misconceptions and makes the connection between materials and building durability, even as the use of wood expands.

Multifamily Mid-Rise Wood Buildings: A Code-Compliant, Cost-Effective and Sustainable Choice

This course identifies the sustainability and economic benefits of using wood construction for mid-rise multifamily or mixed-use buildings. It helps in understanding wood framing solutions that address common issues while minimizing the carbon footprint of the building.

The Role of Wood Products in Green Building

This CEU explores how material choice greatly affects the environmental impact of buildings, both during construction and over the building’s lifecycle. It also covers tools and certifications for green building, recognizing wood’s contribution to improved energy performance over time.

Resilient Wood Construction: Designing for Earthquakes & High Winds

This course explains how properly designed and constructed wood structures that comply with building code requirements are resilient and perform with minimal damage during seismic and high-wind events.

Designing Beneficial Spaces for Living, Working, and Well-Being

This course focuses on occupant health and well-being, emphasizing the importance of indoor spaces, where Americans spend approximately 90% of their time.

Mass Timber Building Enclosures

This on-demand webinar discusses key building enclosure design considerations for the construction of mass timber structures, which are growing in popularity throughout North America.

The Wood Institute: A Hub for E-Learning

The Wood Institute provides free, on-demand content from Think Wood, WoodWorks, and the American Wood Council. It includes over 190 CEU courses accredited by AIA, ICC, GBCI, and others.

EDCO Products and AIA-Approved Online Training

EDCO Products offers American Institute of Architect (AIA) approved online training through Hanley Wood University. These courses can be used to meet the annual continuing education requirements set forth by the AIA and some state departments of labor. The CEU course offered by EDCO explores the benefits, applications, and installation considerations for pre-finished steel siding and roofing products engineered for maximum strength and durability on multi-family/senior living structures. The course showcases innovative products with many sustainable and high-performance attributes, providing an overview of steel siding products for building enclosures, particularly steel siding products with pre-finished steel siding panels. It also explores the benefits, applications, and installation considerations for pre-finished steel roofing, a product engineered for maximum strength and durability on new and existing structures.

Biophilic Design

Creating spaces that embrace nature has both physical and mental health benefits. These benefits enhance the occupant's experience in an indoor space creating the ambiance of outdoor living. Biophilic design has solidified itself as a staple of modern building design, quickly moving from a trend to an established design principle. An increasing number of building owners and tenants are interested in incorporating biophilic design into their commercial spaces, and because biophilic design IS the future of design, architects and designers are stepping up to meet the need.

ARCHITECT U: Continuing Education from ARCHITECT Magazine

ARCHITECT U, formerly Hanley Wood University, is brought to you by the team behind the award-winning editorial content at ARCHITECT magazine. It offers more than 150 AIA CES approved courses, all free and available 24 hours a day. ARCHITECT U reports AIA and IDCEC credits on your behalf and provides a certificate of completion.

The Controversy

There are concerns about some of the courses offered. Some push propane for outdoor barbecues and patio heaters, which are fossil fuels. Others promote "leveraging VRF Technology"- Variable Refrigerant Flow, which some consider an abomination due to the pumping of high GWP refrigerants. Additionally, there are courses on "Architectural Polymers" sponsored by the Vinyl institute. In a world where reducing fossil fuel use, minimizing refrigerants, and rejecting PVC and vinyl are priorities, these courses are controversial.

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