Trending Positive

2^nd half construction forecasts now have been released by a few of the groups I follow and the news continues to be good.  Depending on the analyst, non-residential building is up 5-7% so far this year and the backlogs/starts continue to be strong lending quite a bit of confidence in the belief that 2018 and now 2019 should be solid.  You may see some reports showing forecasts slower than this but keep in mind these forecasts get revised and in the last 2 years pretty much every one has been revised upward.

Obviously the political landscape all over the globe has the ability to change all of this immediately but for now, the trend is certainly our friend.  Also the Dodge Momentum Index and the Architectural Billings Index both just reported strong results in their June reports and both have been on fire all year.  This is surely a great run from economic side- lets make the best of it industry wide!

Elsewhere

--  We as an industry have a ton of providers of materials on a job.  There’s the glass, metal, hardware and components like sealants, caulk, shims etc.  We all want to promote everything we do… but context is needed when the promotion comes.  If you show a picture of an entire skyscraper but you only did a fraction of the material and it’s not really shown, should you promote that entire job as yours?  Or at least leave the impression that it is?  It’s misleading and not right.  Our industry had an example of that online last week and it was disappointing in that it happened, but also that it was never addressed or corrected.  As an industry we take a lot of heat on many things that are not our fault, so it sure would be nice to not bring on extra woe unnecessarily...especially a potential misrepresentation of product on a project.  So when you see the beautiful photo and not a rendering of the completed 609 Main project in Houston, credit for the massive amount of glass in the picture should go to Viracon (tower façade) and Novum (Podium).  Harmon was the glazier.  Congrats to those companies for a job well done!

--  Get Well SOON wishes to an old and great friend Danny Danese of Thompson IG.  Danny is an awesome man that has a heart as big as the globe.  I have absolutely no doubt that he’ll be back at it on the road and out and about in no time after this health concern. 

--  Congrats to Seth Patterson of Thermal Windows on his promotion to VP of Commercial Sales.  Seth was always very welcoming whenever I would see him at GlassBuild and he knows his stuff!  Good to see him moving up the ladder…

--  One week ago I talked “green” rating systems with WELL vs. LEED… After posting I got some excellent feedback from one of the people I consider the smartest in our world- Kerry Haglund of the Efficient Windows Collaborative.  Kerry left the following message on it.

Max, just a bit of clarification on LEED vs WELL. LEED is about energy efficiency/conservation and the built environment. WELL is all about the health and well-being of the people in the buildings and occupied spaces. WELL focuses some on efficiency strategies but only if they are for the benefit of the occupants. So, the two standards/rating systems are not comparable. Though they can be done in conjunction and there are a few strategies and preconditions/optimizations that can satisfy both WELL and LEED. If you need more information, just let me know, I'm a LEED AP as well as a WELL AP :-)

THANK YOU Kerry- I appreciate the additional information and I think with how important this subject is (overall sustainability and how we rate and track) I will be getting with you to get and share more insight with the industry!

--  Last this week, the Top 300 Architectural Firms list was released and for the 6^th straight year Gensler was number 1.  Not a lot of movement amongst the top 25 showing the big players continue to dominate.

LINKS of the WEEK

Hard to believe this is true… 27 contacts… in one eye…

You know this is coming to the US somehow. 

Get ready for more mosquitos…. Yikes.

VIDEO of the WEEK

The new baseball stadium in Atlanta is getting rave reviews (though I can’t get on of the glazing companies to ever talk to me about their role… that’s another story for another time) and I love seeing time lapse videos of how things are built.  Check it out!