Last June, Retrofit Chicago’s Commercial Buildings Initiative was launched as part of the Obama Administration’s Better Buildings Challenge. Today 32 buildings are participating in the CBI, a voluntary effort to increase energy efficiency in commercial buildings larger than 200,000 square feet. The goal is to reduce energy use by at least 20 percent within five years.
The buildings participating in the CBI include some of Chicago’s most...
As I travel the country working with builders I am always on the lookout for emerging trends. There is a hot one cooking right now—decorative ceilings.
This trend is borne from another—the open floor plan. Consumers love the open floor plan concept. One room flows into another. The kitchen and dining space meld with living areas. Living in an open floor plan (for most buyers) is functionally ideal. There is a problem with the open plan concept, however; the individual spaces tend to...
In 2008 the Dallas Cowboys were the featured team on HBO’s Hard Knocks. Hard Knocks is the reality documentary series that takes you behind the scenes during an NFL training camp.
Yesterday I attended a Construction and Safety Expo outside Chicago. General contractors, Sub-contractors and Safety Suppliers were dishing on their skills, networking and drinking by noon.
A little off the beaten path—but well worth the drive—is Mason City, Iowa, home to the last standing Frank Lloyd Wright hotel. My partner and I had the pleasure of staying at the Historic Park Inn last week. The 1910 landmark is so named because of its location across the street from Mason City’s Central Park.
As part of a $20 million renovation, one of the historic suites was restored to 1910. Of...
Do you remember the last time you received a piece of personal U.S. mail (not counting bills)? According to a recent study, the average American receives a piece of personalized U.S. Mail every six to seven weeks – and this includes birthday, holiday and other family generated cards. Wow, what a metamorphosis in personal communications in the past 20 years!
This same study also said that one of the most impressionable (good) forms of communications is - you guessed it, a piece of...
A question that regularly arises is how to sustain quality management or to put it another way, what are the reasons for quality management failing? There have been two significant studies on this issue and their findings cited the following obstacles.
Lack of leadership for quality
Lack of planning for quality
Inadequate resources for quality
Inadequate human resources development and management
Lack of customer focus
Ultimately it was found...
As a self-confessed Frank Lloyd Wright dork, you would think I already knew about the Historic Park Inn in Mason City, Iowa—the last remaining Wright-designed hotel on the planet. But it wasn’t until I received my copy of Arts and Crafts Homes magazine that I learned about this national treasure. Originally built in 1910, the Park Inn Hotel was recently restored to all its Prairie School glory. The hotel has 27 guest rooms, one of which...
A good friend of mine who is also a 40-year veteran of the construction industry has taught me a lot about relationships over the past few years. He has been a tireless advocate of relationships his entire life, spending countless hours working, molding, and shaping both his personal and professional contacts.
I have to admit, I admire the amount of time and effort he puts into his relationships, and it’s paid off tremendously.
Often times I’ve walked with him on a jobsite, a...
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