Author: Laura Black
For years, 3D printing in construction has been viewed as an emerging technology with enormous potential. The industry celebrated demonstrations and prototype homes, but many questioned whether the technology could scale, satisfy building codes, and become a practical solution for residential development. Today, new trends are beginning to shape the market. One of the biggest trends is the move from single demonstration projects to entire communities built with robotic construction technologies. Rather than proving a printer can build one home, developers are now focused on creating repeatable, scalable processes that can help address housing shortages while improving efficiency. As an…
As demand for affordable housing, sustainable building practices, and faster project delivery continues to grow, 3D printing is emerging as a transformative technology with the potential to reshape development. For builders, developers, contractors, and construction professionals, this evolution represents both an opportunity and a challenge, requiring new skills, innovative business models, and a willingness to embrace technologies that are redefining how communities are designed and built. Driven by advances in automation, robotics, and material science, entire neighborhoods are now being built using large-scale 3D printers that can produce durable, energy-efficient homes in a fraction of the time required by traditional…
Twice this year, my home has gone dark in the middle of what used to be ordinary summer thunderstorms. Quite frankly, I am over it. Our nation’s infrastructure should be strong enough to withstand your typical Midwest thunderstorms. This isn’t the first time I have written about storms knocking my power out. Back in 2020, I wrote about a tornado that tore through my town, when entire neighborhoods were left without power for days. I have also written about being without power when a blizzard and sub-zero temperatures came through my region. This year alone, Chicagoland has already seen multiple…
It is the last day of June, and we are wrapping up our summer blog series for National Safety Month. We have already examined the importance of the underlying foundational culture, top construction hazards to prevent, the cost of ignoring safety, particularly in small businesses, the elements of a good toolbox talk, and the importance of near miss reporting. We can’t do a summer blog series without mentioning a big risk: summer heat. Heat-related illnesses can develop quickly, affect even experienced workers, and become life-threatening if warning signs are ignored. As temperatures continue rising across the country, heat safety has…
Have you joined us for our blog series this National Safety Month? We have already examined the importance of the underlying foundational culture, top construction hazards to prevent, the cost of ignoring safety, particularly in small businesses, and the elements of a good toolbox talk. Today, let’s turn our attention to one of the overlooked safety strategies in construction safety: near miss reporting. Many workers and supervisors focus only on incidents that result in injuries or property damage. But near misses—events that could have caused harm but did not—often provide the clearest warning signs that serious problems exist. Ignoring those…
June is National Safety Month, and we are embarking on a blog series looking at how to heighten safety in the construction industry. We have already examined the importance of the underlying foundational culture, top construction hazards to prevent, and the cost of ignoring safety, particularly in small businesses. Today, let’s turn our attention to one of the most effective safety strategies, which is also one of the simplest: toolbox talks. Everyone knows them. Everyone loves them. These short daily or weekly safety conversations may only last 10 minutes, but they can prevent serious injuries, improve communication, and strengthen safety…
June is National Safety Month—a moment to pause and recommit to making worker safety a 365‑day priority for every worker, on every job, every day. One of the biggest misconceptions in construction is that serious safety incidents only happen on large, high-profile projects. Let’s unpack this today. In reality, small construction projects can be just as dangerous—and sometimes even more dangerous—because safety procedures are often less formal, oversight may be limited, and crews can become overly comfortable in familiar environments. The financial costs alone can be overwhelming, especially for small construction businesses. A single injury can lead to medical expenses,…
June is National Safety Month, and today we continue our blog series looking at how to heighten safety in the construction industry. Construction remains one of the most hazardous industries in the country, and while technology continues to improve jobsite safety, many of the same risks continue to cause serious injury, and even death, each year. With that in mind, let’s take some time to look at the top construction jobsite hazards in 2026 and what we can do to prevent them. The top construction hazards are not necessarily new hazards. Rather, what has changed in recent years is how…
Summer is approaching. Those of us here in the United States just celebrated Memorial Day, which is often the unofficial kick off to summer and with June right around the corner, it is the perfect time to launch a summer safety blog series to help construction teams stay safe during the busy and risky months of the year. As many might already know, June is National Safety Month. In the next several weeks, we will cover some of the biggest safety challenges facing construction teams in 2026, from heat exposure to near-miss reporting and toolbox talks. But before we get…
I had an opportunity to attend my fifth grader’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Day this year, and I have to say it was well put together, but there was something missing that I have rarely seen presented at the grade school level. Let me paint a picture. STEM Day is a district-wide event where fifth graders are bussed to the middle school and seventh graders run large experiments for the students, with parent and teacher help and involvement. There were different pods, so to speak, with similar experiments in each pod. It was very well run with some…