Sunday, October 20, 2019

Huge Step for Education

One big story that I failed to cover more adequately from GlassBuild was the Friese Foundation stepping in to provide very generous support of the MyGlassClass.com  program.  This new philanthropic organization headed up by industry veteran Don Friese is awesome and by them stepping in to help continue the build on the educational needs of our industry is nothing short of incredible.  We need to keep growing the educational offerings at every level and we need keep gaining knowledge as an industry.  This support will go a long way to accomplishing those goals.  It comes as no surprise to me that Mr. Friese would be on the forefront of this- class acts do class things and his desire to see this industry evolve positively is amazing and appreciated.  If you missed the video announcing this- check this out… great insight and comments!

Elsewhere…

--  On the good education approach- kudos to Guardian Glass for their “Ask the Expert” series.  Really well done approach and good use of the “YouTube” space.  Smart work for sure… but my only beef is I needed more of Chris Dolan.  I think he’s holding out on sharing his expertise with the rest of us! 

--  I caught the latest Mission Impossible movie recently and loved the starring role Glass had it in… especially the skylights.  Really cool scenes there…

--  What a weird stretch we are in with forecasts and indexes.  They are all over the place but one interesting nugget is the single family housing side of things is having a nice run.  This is encapsulated somewhat in this tweet from Robert Dietz Chief Economist, National Association of Home Builders

Total housing starts falls back in Sept on multifamily volatility. Single-family starts edge up to a solid 918K annual pace. Single-family permits also up, and have improved each month since Apr. Single-family starts have grown each month since May.

As we know residential work can be a signal to the commercial side.  So far it’s been a bit puzzling to get a feel so we’ll keep watching.  Interestingly enough the Dodge Momentum Index had a big September thanks to a nice month on the commercial side.  So we continue to monitor the roller coaster…

--  Bird friendly glass was back in the news this week in a big way… the NASCAR Hall of Fame had a severe issue with bird strikes.  There is no doubt this movement to bird friendly glazing is needed and no doubt also that it’s a space that is growing extremely fast.   Time to get on board with the process if you have not… here’s a great piece from Glass Magazine from earlier this year with excellent insight on glass being the solution…

--  Last this week… This was something that tickled my interest…the top Architecture schools in the US.   I usually keep up on top schools for everything but I have to admit I did not realize some of these schools were big architecture players.  Specifically Syracuse.  I thought for sure that university was more known for its broadcasters than anything else.  Anyway fun read…

LINKS of the WEEK

--  I just found a bunch of old floppy discs and reminisced about using them… having no idea that amazingly the US Military STILL is using them!  Wow… (UPDATE- supposedly this story is incorrect- so keep that in mind)

--  This is a football play you don’t see much…

--  Great story about the “Pizza guy” and his work and rise… not to mention his compassion.

VIDEO of the WEEK

This one is going to appeal to a VERY small part of my readership… so we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the best baseball season ever… The Pirates 1979 championship and the classic  “We are Family” tune that went with it.  I LOVE that song and team and it makes me always think of my Dad… so in honor of that time and the anniversary of the thrilling game 7 win (10/17/79) here’s the final recap video and great song at the end starting at the 2:21 mark.



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