Do you ever wonder if some of the tried and true ways of
doing things will ever get disrupted? A
few years ago a speaker at GlassBuild America brought up the possibility of
“leasing” the building products installed into buildings. Presumably allowing the payments to be spread
differently and if necessary opening that area up for upgrades. Obviously that’s MUCH easier said than done
and that was the last I have heard of that.
Recently another approach started to gain steam- breaking the
traditional funding of buildings from the bank model to a crowd funded
one. Crowd funding or crowd sourcing is
a popular way to get things going in different parts of our world- especially
on the entrepreneurial side. But a
building investment? That’s surely a
different game. Yet it is happening and
you start to wonder could this be a true way of getting structures built- and
if so how will it change our approach on the building product side- if at
all. I’m curious if anyone has had to
work on a project like this and if there were any noticeable differences….
Elsewhere…
-- So a new thing that happened to me for the first time in all
my years of travel… through tons and tons of nights away… I was a part of a
hotel evacuation. Not a fire drill and
return to the room, but an actual evacuation.
Oh and all of it with no power too.
So the hotel I was at lost electricity around 10PM. It did not phase me- I don’t watch TV usually
and had enough juice in my phone to use that as flashlight and for
reading. I fall asleep and all is well
until 3AM when I hear loud banging on the door.
I’m thinking its gotta be for another room down the hall- someone drunk
needing back in their room. But the
banging continues and then I hear “hotel management…open up” as well. So I drag myself to the door and find the
hotel manager and 3 firefighters. They
tell me hotel is being evacuated, everyone must go now. And take everything with you…. Oh and the power is still out too… anyway you
can only imagine the adventure from there.
Trying to gather everything while still trying to get my bearings
etc. I get it all together and go down
to the lobby where I am told a room at a hotel a mile away is available for
me. So off I went… still amazed this
was happening. Made it to new hotel,
checked in and got another hour of sleep before having to start my very tired
day. Evidently at the evacuated hotel
they were thinking there was a gas leak so thus the urgency but I am not sure
if anything ever was found. But this was
surely a first (and hopefully a last) for me.
-- Interesting issue in Ohio where a bill going to the General
Assembly there would give cities the right to decide if they want to pay
prevailing wages on taxpayer funded projects.
So obviously if you are a glazier there this gets you one way or
another.
-- Use of wood in tall curtain walls had a few hits in the
media this week. Wood has always been a
player on the residential window side and there’s been some folks pushing hard
for timber curtain walls for commercial projects (large and small) but it’s
been a true niche play really. This blog post really dives deep and paints a picture for growth. So I’m curious industry folks… what do you
think? Are timber curtain walls big
players in our future?
-- If you have not seen the latest from the new Apple
headquarters building, please check out my video of the week. Good one for the glass and metal geeks out
there.
-- Last this week- great tweet heads up from Thomas Lee of Lee
& Cates Glass pointing out a story from Norway. NRK a broadcaster there instituted a new
commenting policy on their stories. You
now have to answer 3 questions about the story before you can comment on an
article. It’s meant to deter “trolls”
from taking over the comment section.
Obviously trolling still will happen but hopefully with less frequency.
LINKS of the WEEK
-- The most bizarre sports story of the week- both teams trying
to lose the game.
-- This story gets the range of emotions going- and go to the
comments and get flared up again. Bottom
line, good work by a judge dealing with lack of respect…
-- This is insane- parents in North Carolina can decide to put
their concussed kids back into the game if they want? No.
Please no.
VIDEO of the WEEK
The new Apple HQ are almost done and looking amazing. The plan is to open to employees next month. New video was just released… so for those of
you who haven’t seen yet- check it out
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