American Technical Publishers

Last updated

American Technical Publishers (ATP) is an employee-owned publishing company located in Orland Park, Illinois. ATP publishes training materials for career and technical education, industrial training, and apprenticeship programs. It is the only employee-owned career and technical publisher in the country. [1]

Contents

History

ATP was founded in 1898 by R. T. Miller, Jr. as the American Technical Society (ATS). The ATS published instructional materials for the American School of Correspondence, which was also founded by Miller. In 1902, Miller moved both companies from Boston to Chicago. Today, the building that housed both companies is recognized as a Chicago landmark.

During World War II, the ATS changed its primary publishing material to vocational training materials for preparation of industrial workers for the war effort. In the early 1960s, the Vocational Education Act of 1963 and subsequent appropriations provided increased federal funding for the expansion of vocational education programs. This act allowed companies, such as the ATS, to develop new training materials for vocational studies.

In March 1980, the company American Technical Publishers, Inc. Profit Sharing Retirement Plan and Trust purchased the assets of the Society. The Society then became known as the Technical Foundation of America, and ATP became its own company. The current President is Robert D. Deisinger. [2]

The ATP Building

An exterior shot of the LEED-Certified ATP Building. Building 1 16x24.jpg
An exterior shot of the LEED-Certified ATP Building.

In November 2008, ATP opened its new headquarters building in Orland Park, Illinois. In order to reduce the harmful effects a building can have on the environment, the ATP Building was constructed as a sustainable green building, conforming to the established LEED requirements. The building was built by Morgan/Harbour Construction and has earned LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. [3] Some of its green features include sunshades on exterior windows and raised flooring. The sunshades on the exterior windows reduce the amount of energy needed to warm and cool the office by offering a natural way to control temperature. The raised flooring also reduces energy by minimizing the amount of ductwork. [4]

In October 2010, the Economic Development Council for the Southwest Suburbs, an organization affiliated with the Workforce Development and Community Services department at Moraine Valley Community College, presented ATP with the Sustainability Award for its new building and commitment to sustainable practices. [5]

Products

ATP publishes career and technical (formally vocational) training materials for a variety of fields, such as electrical, construction, welding, culinary, CAD and technical drawing, and boiler operations. Materials include textbooks, workbooks, instructor resource guides, and digital media.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpentry</span> Skilled trade

Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry. In the United States, 98.5% of carpenters are male, and it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999. In 2006 in the United States, there were about 1.5 million carpentry positions. Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century; now this old-fashioned carpentry is called timber framing. Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training—normally 4 years—and qualify by successfully completing that country's competence test in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and South Africa. It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bamboo floor</span> Type of flooring

A bamboo floor is a type of flooring manufactured from the bamboo plant. The majority of today's bamboo flooring products originate in China and other portions of Asia. Moso bamboo is the species most commonly used for flooring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central New Mexico Community College</span> Community college in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.

Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), formerly Technical Vocational Institute (TVI), is a public community college based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1964, CNM offers associate degrees, professional certificates, and training options.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green building</span> Architecture designed to minimize environmental and resource impact

Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfortable and efficient use of space, and being in harmony with nature Buildings that live in harmony. Green building technology focuses on low consumption, high efficiency, economy, environmental protection, integration and optimization.’

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cascadia College</span> Community college in Bothell, Washington

Cascadia College public community college in Bothell, Washington, on a shared campus with the University of Washington Bothell. Established in 2000, Cascadia was built to serve the cities of Bothell, Woodinville, Kirkland, Kenmore, Duvall, Carnation, Sammamish, Redmond and other smaller communities within the greater Seattle area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas City Convention Center</span> Convention center

The Kansas City Convention Center, originally Bartle Hall Convention Center or Bartle Hall, is a major convention center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was named for Harold Roe Bartle, a prominent, two-term mayor of Kansas City in the 1950s and early-1960s. Its roof is suspended by four tall art deco inspired pylons, as a component of the Kansas City skyline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LEED</span> Standard for green building design

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings, homes, and neighborhoods, which aims to help building owners and operators be environmentally responsible and use resources efficiently. By 2015, there were over 80,000 LEED-certified buildings and over 100,000 LEED-accredited professionals. Most LEED-certified buildings are located in major U.S. metropolises. LEED Canada has developed a separate rating system adapted to the Canadian climate and regulations.

The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in United Kingdom. First introduced in 2006, it is a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes with a view to encouraging continuous improvement in sustainable home building. In 2015 the Government in England withdrew it, consolidating some standards into Building Regulations.

A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to present a model of behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable engineering</span> Engineering discipline

Sustainable engineering is the process of designing or operating systems such that they use energy and resources sustainably, in other words, at a rate that does not compromise the natural environment, or the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This article provides examples of green building programs in the United States. These programs span the public, private, and non-profit sectors, and all have the goal of increasing energy efficiency and the sustainability of the built environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable flooring</span>

Sustainable flooring is produced from sustainable materials that reduces demands on ecosystems during its life-cycle. This includes harvest, production, use and disposal. It is thought that sustainable flooring creates safer and healthier buildings and guarantees a future for traditional producers of renewable resources that many communities depend on. Several initiatives have led the charge to bring awareness of sustainable flooring as well as healthy buildings. Below are examples of available, though sometimes less well-known, eco-friendly flooring options. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommends those with allergies to dust or other particulates choose flooring with smooth surfaces – such as hardwood, vinyl, linoleum tile or slate.

The Chicago Center for Green Technology was a 34,000-square-foot (3,200 m2) US Green Building Council LEED Platinum certified building located on a plot of 17 acres (69,000 m2) in Chicago's East Garfield Park Community built to showcase green technologies. This was the first municipal and brownfield site to win a LEED Platinum award. This project was completed as part of Mayor Richard M. Daley's Chicago Brownfield Initiative (CBI). The center offered workshops focusing on green technology and sustainable design, a green building resource center, and self-guided or guided tours to visitors.

Green building on college campuses is the purposeful construction of buildings on college campuses that decreases resource usage in both the building process and also the future use of the building. The goal is to reduce CO2 emissions, energy use, and water use, while creating an atmosphere where students can be healthy and learn. Universities across the country are building to green standards set forth by the USGBC, United States Green Building Council. The USGBC is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed and built. This organization created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which is a certification process that provides verification that a building is environmentally sustainable. In the United States, commercial and residential buildings account for 70 percent of the electricity use and over 38 percent of CO2 emissions. Because of these huge statistics regarding resource usage and emissions, the room for more efficient building practices is dramatic. Since college campuses are where the world's future leaders are being taught, colleges are choosing to construct new buildings to green standards in order to promote environmental stewardship to their students. Colleges across the United States have taken leading roles in the construction of green building in order to reduce resource consumption, save money in the long run, and instill the importance on environmental sustainability on their students. It is a better way to motivate new generation to live a sustainable life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Calgary Water Centre</span> Office building in Calgary, Alberta

The City of Calgary Water Centre is the headquarters of Calgary's Water Resources and Water Services' staff, housing its 460 professional and 314 field staff. The four-storey office building was completed in 2008, and upon opening was both the largest LEED-rated office building in Alberta and Alberta's first Gold-certified building. The building was designed through a collaboration between Sturgess Architecture and Manasc Isaac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainability at American Colleges and Universities</span>

"Sustainability," was defined as “development which implies meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”as defined by the 1983 Brundtland Commission. As sustainability gains support and momentum worldwide, universities across the United States have expanded initiatives towards more sustainable campuses, commitments, academic offerings, and student engagement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Hall (Willamette University)</span> Building on the Willamette University campus in Salem, Oregon, U.S.

Ford Hall is a four-story academic hall at Willamette University in Salem in the U.S. state of Oregon. Completed in 2009, the building houses classrooms, offices, and laboratories from several disciplines of the school's College of Liberal Arts. The 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m2) structure cost $16 million and earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification upon completion for environmentally friendly features and construction. Ford Hall is named in honor of Hallie Ford, who contributed $8 million towards construction of the building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability</span> Offices, Lecture Hall in Canada, Canada

The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is located at the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Point Grey Campus in Vancouver. The building is dedicated to research collaboration and outreach on urban sustainability. It was officially opened in November 2011.

Green Building Initiative (GBI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that owns and administers the Green Globes green building assessment and certification in the United States and Canada. It was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Morgan State High School</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Mount Morgan State High School is a heritage-listed state high school and technical college at 4 Central Street, Mount Morgan, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1908. It was formerly known as Mount Morgan Technical College. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 4 December 2015.

References

  1. "Chris Proctor - 2002 Hall of Fame Books Inductee". Publishing Executive. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  2. "About American Technical Publishers". American Technical Publishers. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  3. "Morgan / Harbour Construction Wins the Gold". Morgan/Harbour Construction. Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  4. "Building in Orland Park, Ill., Earns LEED Gold Certification". ENR Midwest. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  5. "Moraine Valley's Business Champion Award winners announced". Moraine Valley. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.