I had noted last week that I was afforded a great opportunity while at BEC in Nashville. Troy Johnson, President of Apogee Architectural Services (Harmon) asked if I wanted to visit a jobsite that they had rolling in town. For me timing was a nightmare (with my responsibilities to BEC) but Troy and the Harmon folks were accommodating and at 6:45AM on Day 2 of BEC we shoved off to Nashville Yards Parcel 3a, AKA, NYP3a. When complete the building will be known as the Pinnacle Tower. This is a 37-story beauty that will be in the Nashville Yards sector of downtown. The job is a stunner. Not your typical skyscraper thanks to an inspired design by Gresham Smith. The building narrows as it goes vertical and the glazing is staggered which pops vs the typical symmetrical designs you see often. As someone told me- they called it “a very distinct façade” and it is! What impressed me was the Harmon team overall. Obviously, a small sample size but while I was there it was an remarkable display of craftsmanship, guile, will to get things done, and positive culture. Oh and safety. Safety everywhere. It was organized extremely well making install very efficient overall. Just so freaking extraordinary. Also, as a glass guy in my blood, I was a bit in awe of the Viracon glass. It looked fabulous. (See my project of the week below for more info) As I mentioned on stage at BEC, walking this jobsite made me immensely proud of our industry. The Harmon folks kicking tail, products looking great, and in the end that glazing will be a part of a selling point of this great structure. Very memorable and I’m honored that I had a chance to spend some time there. A sincere thank you to Troy for making this happen (Troy had so much happening, just blown away he took care of me here) and then the incredible Harmon team that was with us including Danny Bostic who I actually worked with in a past life (he was a customer) and Initially I could not remember that! (my poor memory is taking a beating). Danny is a good guy and great talent and thrilled he is doing so well at Harmon. Plus, the awesome rest of the crew that took great care of me there including Tim Ryals, Bill Brown, Hansel Pombo, and Mario Cordova. Those guys are beasts getting the work done and repping our world well! Can’t wait to get back to Nashville once done to check this one out.
Elsewhere…
-- Quick In case you missed it thanks to the goings on in Nashville, my latest podcast was a fun one featuring serious talent. The best spec writer in the land Aaron Pine and the awesome duo of Christina Elia and Brad Leamon of “The Shower Door Guy”- good insights all the way around. Thanks for checking it out!
AUDIO (Also search “From the Fabricator” on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts)
Next pod coming in 2 weeks with another range of sharp folks from our world!
-- I’m gonna keep looking back on some of the best of BEC for a bit- this week, kudos to Tom Jackson of Steel Encounters. 6 years ago, he gave one of the best presentations we’ve ever had and while in some worlds the sequel is not as good as the original, in this case it was- and maybe even better. (Kinda like Rocky 2 was better than Rocky 1). Tom’s run through the culture advancements at Steel Encounters and the continued drive for recruitment was mesmerizing and it featured an incredible video that made me want to run through a wall and join up. Truly an excellent job well done by an amazing human being.
-- One of the bigger stories from last week was Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope announcing the departure of their CEO Bruno Baisiotta. They noted he was stepping down for health and family reasons. Well, I guess it only took escaping from the glass industry to feel better as Bruno already has a new gig as CEO of Covio Holdings, a mineral solutions provider. Huh. Absolutely comical. Not a good look by Bruno (as obviously he had this in the works and used the “health” as an out) and I can’t imagine ownership at OBE are real happy the way this played out. (nor should Covio quite frankly) Meanwhile in the same release noting Bruno’s departure, OBE noted that they had hired Steve Dean as President of the Glass and Glazing division. Immediately I was stoked. I love Steve Dean. Was a past Glass Industry MVP. Then it hit me. The past they listed for Steve Dean didn’t match up to the Steve Dean I know. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there’s another Steve Dean out there who evidently has some talent. Cool. So I look forward to meeting this Steve Dean and wish him the best in his new position. Meanwhile I am sure the “original” (for me and others for sure) Steve Dean was probably getting inundated with messages….
-- I noted briefly that Giroux Glass made news last week with their launch of a new unitized system. They’ll be moving into a state-of-the-art facility in Phoenix to manufacture it and I am pretty confident its going to go well given that Giroux has a ton of talented people leading the way. And while I am at it- a Happy 25th Anniversary to the tremendous team there! Best wishes for another great 25 and more!
-- The VIG space is really gaining steam. The products are looking better, performing better (which already was awesome) and there’s now a legit push for usage. With that in mind, it was not a major surprise that Guardian Glass dipped their toe (and really more body parts than that) back into the VIG pool with the appointment of a Product Manager for Vacuum Insulating Glass. As some of you know, Guardian was heavy into developing VIG for years, then set it aside. Now it’s obviously coming back just in time for more growth in the space.
-- Last this week… Kicking myself as I failed to mention while at BEC I was lucky enough to do my annual Nashville dinner with the great Brian Thomas of Super Sky. Those who know me know I never go out during events like these but I have done these dinners with Brian for a few cycles and it's always awesome to catch up with him. Super Sky is rocking with so many amazing projects (including a beauty opening in my town of Detroit this summer that I am excited about). So thank you Brian and on the Super Sky note, I somehow missed seeing their Jeff Rutledge while there- so hopefully I run into him during one of my Texas appearances in the next couple of months.
LINKS of the WEEK
-- Interesting typo case here.
-- You know the whole 80/20 rule? 80% of sales from 20% of your customers? This company was 100/0 and lost it and now are done. Ouch. Odd.
-- This is depressing- lengths you have to go to for true security… and also wild with the sort of money some people keep in the home/easy to access.
PROJECT of the WEEK
Obviously if I start the blog raving about a project I walked, it has to be the project of the week right?? So we go back to Nashville for what will be known as the Pinnacle Building in Nashville Yards. That glass I raved about? Make up was very cool. 5/16” VRE-46 over ¼” Double Silver Low E with ½ high performance VTS thermal spacer. Harmon unitized it all and this project will be epic when done. Kudos to everyone involved this one. Great work!!
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