Author: Constructech Editors
In the mid-1950s, TV sets were tuned to the Jackie Gleason classic The Honeymooners. Gleason played the character Ralph Kramden, a New York bus driver with big ideas and limited ways to match them with reality. In most episodes, Ralph’s short temper got the best of him, leading him to yell at others and to threaten comical violence, usually against his wife, Alice. Ralph’s favorite threats to her were “One of these days … One of these days … Pow! to the Moon, Alice!” We have no patience with such verbal threats today, on TV or in the real world, but we…
We often think of the word “infrastructure” as meaning roads, bridges, airports, that sort of thing. True, but it has a longer reach than concrete might indicate. The federal government, through the DOD (Dept. of Defense)¸ considers military base housing part of the infrastructure genre. For example, Corvias is a partner to the U.S. Army as part of the U.S. DOD MHPI (Military Housing Privatization Initiative) to revitalize, operate, and maintain on-base military family housing. MHPI has enabled renovations, new construction, and water and energy-saving initiatives, including the largest solar project in Kansas, located at the Fort Riley military housing…
In the minds of many, Canada is a nation of snow and ice year around. Of course, that’s not true—except in the farthest reaches of the Nunavut and Northern Territories—but they do have some cold weather. Because of that, energy efficiency in their houses is a concern and they have been exploring ways to make those homes both weatherproof and efficient. Sonja Winkelmann is senior director for Net Zero Energy Housing at the CHBA (Canadian Home Builders’ Assn.). In an interview, she shared tips on how to build an energy efficient home just as they recommend in the Great North.…
In the beginning, there was time sharing of computer resources. An IBM mainframe computer, located in an environmentally controlled room—somewhere—and multiple “green screen” monitors in restricted areas of the client company. Later there was client-server, a similar format but with the computer onsite, not miles away. Then the desktop PC came along and the buzzword was “networking.” Cables on the floor, on the ceiling, hanging from the rafters, all indicating the company was networked. If the cables didn’t go between the right computers, however, the option was “sneaker net,” where floppy discs were run—literally run in some cases—between computers by…
Some call it “being woke.” Most think of it as being practical in this age of the impractical. It, in this case, is ESG investments. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. ESG investing is a way of investing in companies based on their commitment to one or more ESG factors. It is often also called sustainable investing, socially responsible investing, and impact investing. The environmental factor might focus on a company’s impact on the environment, or the risks and opportunities associated with the impacts of climate change on the company, its business…
New technology is often greeted with suspicion by its target market. Getting over the skepticism requires years in some cases all while the early adopters are gaining the benefits. Developers can field various ways to convince market leaders to try their technology, but demonstrations are probably the best method. That’s one reason trade shows are so popular: cruise the floor, check out the demos, and get hands-on experiences. Although heavy equipment manufacturers put on demonstrations in those same trade shows, the add-on suppliers—those with technologies that work with that equipment but are not vended by the OEMs (original-equipment manufacturers)—to make…
The 2022 World Cup for Soccer—or football as it’s known outside of the U.S.—was held in Qatar. A small Middle Eastern nation, Qatar became the center of attention, in the sports world, for a few weeks. A neighbor, also on the Persian Gulf, is working hard to become the center of attention in business and commerce far into the future. If focusing on outstanding buildings and environmental concerns is the way to achieve that goal, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) should succeed. The largest city in the UAE is Dubai and it has transformed itself from a sleepy backwater desert town…
Because things are getting more normal, more “post-pandemic” even though COVID is still around, people are responding by going out and, hopefully, looking at new homes. But some developments from the past three years are still valid, including virtual tours of homes—the Zoom factor from months and even years of stay-at-home work. For example, UTour is an on-demand interactive self-tour platform that homebuilders can implement in their model homes, or existing inventory, to provide the convenience homebuyers want and the data their sales teams need. The self-guided tour platform lets skeptical buyers personally explore new homes on their own terms…
Construction has been, and perhaps will continue to be, on a rollercoaster ride for several years. COVID-19 has been a major downer, both for individuals and companies. Inflation and interest rate increases are causing more people to re-evaluate purchases, especially the largest one, a home. Residential construction is taking it on chin depending on where you live and commercial isn’t doing much better. The NAHB (National Assn. of Home Builders) lamented that rising mortgage rates approaching 7%, along with declining builder sentiment stemming from stubbornly high construction costs and weakening consumer demand, pushed new-home sales down at a double-digit rate…
Space, besides being the next frontier, is running out in many in-demand areas. Housing starts are stuttering where people want to live, and when the land is that desirable, it’s also much more costly. With a national housing shortage estimated at four million homes, many areas are especially difficult for builders due to diverse local zoning and code requirements, skilled labor shortages, high labor costs, and/or short building seasons. All of which dictate tailored solutions. One approach is modular or prefabricated buildings. While site construction is custom, most modular buildings are assembled from a catalog of parts, like building an…