Construction Trends
New Deep Foundation Systems: Spiralweld and DTH
Steel driven piles have been around since the early 1900s and continue to be used effectively. With steel piling, one uses HP steel shapes. HP is so named because, looking at…
Leadership
Cruising Altitude.
Time is what we want most, but what we sometimes use the worst. Time is also our greatest commodity. In business, there are some fields where this is more obvious, like…
Read MoreCustomer Relationships
Shift Your Thinking to the Long Haul
In the world of social media and Web 2.0 (or 3.0, depending on your stance) it often seems the world is speeding past us. Some of the bad business habits…
Green Building
Building Automation for Energy Savings
In Texas, we are closing out a unique institutional project. This former skating rink has been made over to become an educational facility designed and built for LEED certification. Many…
Leadership
True Grit.
Charles Portis penned the novel True Grit in 1968. It was subsequently made into a movie in 1969 and a remake was released in 2010. The story is of a…
Customer Relationships
BIM, IPD and Project Efficiency Lessons Learned
We are about to start a project that has been in the pre-construction stages for two years. We’ve used of a couple of relatively new tools during this planning period: BIM…
Community Service
Streetcar Desire
Recently, I participated in a working panel concerning urban growth and development. Led by Roger Millar of Smart Growth America, it highlighted the Portland Streetcar Initiative, with the idea of bringing…
Commodities Pricing
Save Cost and Carbon Onsite
In this economy, reusing, repurposing and recycling construction material can make the difference in meeting a budget. Additionally, our experience shows that a portion of customers, whether they be landlords…
Customer Relationships
How to Break Communication Barriers in Business
You might build the best mousetraps. You might even deliver the best service. But if in the process your communication style misses the mark, you can negatively affect the way…
Continuing Education
F-Numbers and Concrete Flatness
We recently we had a project where very tight tolerances for the floor finishes were important. I thought I would share what this measuring system is all about, and give…