A couple of weeks ago, I was in the Twin Cities visiting some customers. While there, my friend Randy Manthey and his wife Christine invited me to their new flat in downtown Minneapolis. Vélo North Loop, in the Warehouse District near the M River, caters to an active lifestyle, particularly those who bike. They have street level …
There was a time when people saw the creation of new structures as the epitome of growth, even if that meant tearing existing buildings down. Between the post-World War II years and the 1980s, many a historic building was razed in the name of “urban renewal” and “progress.” Gratefully, an undercurrent of historical preservation arose, …
Lately, our folks have been involved in more urban projects than in the past. On these jobs, space is premium and “VT” or vertical transportation comes into play. Over the past couple of years or so, we have completed four projects where retail sits above parking. Shopping carts must be transported back and forth. Beyond …
Years ago, a mentor of mine shared that he believed opportunities and technology will have an ever-accelerating speed to market in the construction industry. He was right. Until the advancement of the microchip and computers, changes were slow and steady. But starting in the 90s, what was unachievable began to become achievable. A few technologies …
Birmingham, where our company is headquartered, is a city in transition. We are seeing a renaissance in the urban: Warehouse and industrial areas transforming into top entertainment districts. Long empty buildings being filled with bright new talent and young people. Historic spots getting the credence they’ve always deserved. One locale that’s seen particular change is the …
It wasn’t that long ago–five years maybe–that submitting items to an architect for approval meant making six copies to stamp. We would file two copies and the architect would distribute his four to various engineers and decision makers. Talk about a “paper trail.” Our filing cabinets were bursting at the seams. These days, the process is managed …
We recently used Reflectit, a relatively new product brought to the market by Dryvit, on an interesting urban project. Station 22, a Birmingham fire station circa 1930, sat empty for years. Our customer and our team both thought that if the station could be saved, it could provide an interesting link between the current Lakeview entertainment …
Yesterday evening, I had dinner at the Federal Reserve where Lake Forest College economics Professor Robert Baade gave a presentation on the economic impact of sports venues. Dr. Baade is recognized as an expert, consulting nationally and internationally with countries including South Africa and Brazil. I left with a few interesting takeaways: The social value of stand-alone sports subsidies does …
iPads have invaded our office. And our job sites. And our work trucks. We obtained them mainly to run PlanGrid, another tool for our PMs and our project superintendents on the job sites. PlanGrid is a cloud-based system. Our guys create a project, then upload plans, specs, reports and schedules. Their mobile app syncs with online …
Recently, we’ve been working on new construction for Sprouts Farmer’s Market, a specialty grocery concentrated on healthy living. Their management team places a focus on lowering carbon footprint, and we’ve been a part of those efforts in regards to refrigeration. The old standard HFC refrigerant has a number of environmental concerns and regulatory pressures have added economic …
I just returned from the ICSC ReCON conference in Las Vegas, which some refer to as “the Super Bowl of real estate.” About 40,000 from the industry attended, and I found a sense of resilience and optimism. Now more than ever, bricks and mortar businesses are competing with pure Internet sales to create the ultimate …
RFID (radio-frequency identification devices) have been around for about 10 years. These microchips with antennas transmit data wirelessly and are about the size of the head of a match, up to the size of a business card. They were initially used for pallet and case control at the distribution level, but we’re seeing them do so …