Sunday, November 22, 2015

A Fascinating Look at The Future

When I was a kid I was always curious on how life would be in the year 2000.  Would there be flying cars?  Would we all be living like the Jetsons?  Obviously that did not happen… but this week my futurist tendencies were tweaked again with a great article on what the construction industry could look like in 30 years.  It’s a great piece featuring several excellent ideas that could be in place long before 2045.   In fact many of the concepts listed are being developed right now so it’s nice to see that there’s a finish line out there for it.  I for one love the robot and lifting technologies.  But I also think the reconfigurable rooms has potential.  I would be scared to death of the driverless trucks and heavy equipment… as I am not comfortable with anything “driverless” at this point.  So check out the piece and dream…

Elsewhere…

--  Ok my technical experts out there… I have one for you to look at.  Comes from one of my loyal readers and I just don’t have the knowledge for the insight needed.  Here’s the deal:

I have a question that may be nothing but with the weather patterns this year water/leaks have become more of an issue than years past. I know the national weather service has changed the criteria for severe thunderstorms but according to the small amount of research I have done wind speeds did NOT change. According to the ASTM E1105 water tests store fronts fail at 60 mph sustained and the weather service criteria for thunderstorms is 58 mph but more and more store fronts are beginning to fail or at least more water is showing up on the interior of buildings and the installs are correct. Has this become an issue everywhere? I am reading that some people within the weather service are wanting to change wind speeds for thunderstorms to 74 mph. My question is…  if this does happen how long will it take the industry to react and change their criteria for store front water testing or will the industry go to curtain wall (or pre-glazed/unitized systems) standard to offset what will become a catastrophic failure for our industry with every store front installed?

If you have some thoughts on this drop me a note or leave it in the comments.  Thank you!

--  A lot of forecasting reports over the last 2 weeks.  The Architectural Billings Index continues to be solid.  The Dodge Momentum Index continues to be mixed.  And this week CMD did a 2016 projections webinar with the main takeaway being commercial construction growing in an average range of 5 to 10%.  So positive trends are continuing, though I think we all are looking at the geopolitical landscape with some concern.  At least I am.

--  Latest update on the growth of the North American Contractor Certification (NACC) program.  A bunch of companies have completed the certification and many are now in the queue.  This is an extremely important process for our industry and if you are glazing contractor, it is absolutely something you should budget for in 2016.  Especially with the certification need showing up in more and more specifications…

--  Watched a pretty cool documentary this week.  “Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead” The Story of National Lampoon.  Really interesting work and all I could think of is our current society is so over the top “PC” that a magazine like that would last about 2 seconds before being bludgeoned by social media mobs and so on. 

--  Last this week…  No blog post next week.  (Unless breaking news happens of course) Next post will be week of 12/6.  In the US it’s Thanksgiving week…. And Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Not even close.  We all have a ton to be thankful for each and every day, and I cherish this opportunity to focus on it.    Have a great holiday week everyone!

LINKS of the WEEK

--  This is awesome.  And needed.  And I’d love to see it grow- a college degree in “Building Arts”

--  I love dogs.  I love stories about dogs too.  This one surely qualifies

-- This is outrageous.  How people can be so dense is beyond me.

VIDEO of the WEEK

Fun video of folks from Ireland trying American cereals and breakfast foods.  They just don’t get the joy of Pop Tarts!




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