The best holiday and glass under attack

A very interesting series appeared on CBC last week on the condos in Toronto and some of the issues these structures are having. The blame was placed squarely on the glass and design. As I have written here before Toronto is going crazy with building and the liberal use of glass is exciting. However its pretty obvious from this piece, not everyone loves our products like we do. But I also think the article was very one sided and was disappointing that no other viewpoints (“pro” glass) were included. Plus they wiped our world with a very large brush, placing blame on so many components that it’s virtually impossible for one entity to defend. Not to mention, the buildings in Toronto are different than the condos in New York as they have more material from all over the world, just not North America, so some of the failures most likely are from a poor quality, non certified plant somewhere far far away. Believe me I can go on and on, but we’ll save you the banter. Bottom line is we as an industry never can put our guard down because around every corner lurks a critic.

Elsewhere

-- The Architectural Billings Index popped back up in October. That said I am really looking forward to seeing this coming summer how the predictions truly translated out. That will at least give us a feel for the accuracy of this entire study.

-- Congrats to good friend Mike Dishmon on his new gig at Virginia Glass. Mike is a fantastic guy and will make a great addition to a Virginia Glass team that is making some serious positive noise out there.

-- Went for early holiday shopping and I have to congratulate any parent who has to shop at stores like Hollister. I know the kids love the clothes, but the store is so dark and loud that trying to buy stuff is a challenge. Obviously though its working. Just amazed that it does. And these last few sentences mean I am really old…

-- This is an amazing story that includes breaking of tempered glass. A disgruntled customer rams her wheelchair into an entrance door breaking the glass and door. Worth the watch.

-- Pretty cool that the folks at Viracon jumped into the Twitter fray. You can find them at @ViraconGlass. They really “get it” and are already a must follow.

-- Good luck to Charles “Mickey” Michie of Southern Stretch Forming as he runs in the annual Dallas Turkey Trot with 30,000 of his closest friends. Sounds like fun though for me on that holiday the only running I want to do is to the dinner table!

-- Last this week… as most know I love Thanksgiving, and despite the tumult that I have run into the past two years around this holiday, it is still my favorite. There’s a lot to be thankful for and this is the time you start to reflect on that. As an industry we should be thankful for the technological advancements from the primaries and other manufacturers. That will only make our lives and businesses better. We should be thankful that is was probably a busier year on the commercial side then it looked to be back in February. Hopefully momentum will stay positive and we can keep riding the storms out. Finally, we should be thankful for the people that make up our industry. We have the whole mix, from intelligent to quirky, intense to mellow and everything in between. And yes, so many of us can’t get out of our own way some days, but we are what we are. Anyway, those traits are what make us special, different, and the best industry around. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!

LINKS of the WEEK

-- Interesting read on a South Pacific country that is in absolute peril thanks to climate change. 50 years left...

-- Get ready those low special tax exemptions are about to go away. I am not sure I feel too much sympathy though for a few people in this story.

-- The modern day "play with fire, your gonna get burned" story. Man tries to steal electric and gets zapped.

VIDEO of the WEEK

At the time of posting, Youtube was down. So we'll skip it for now... yes I know you are crushed!! Sorry.