Construction Stewardship

Last weekend, I was hanging out on the porch of preservationist Bob Yapp’s 1859 mansion in Hannibal, Missouri which he has meticulously restored into the Belvedere Inn Bed and Breakfast. Bob and I were sharing a number of war stories about the preservation business and he told me a great story about his father. His father was a weekend warrior who worked on his 1907 Craftsman style home. One day he said to young Bob, “We don’t own this home.” Bob became alarmed that the family was moving so his father clarified his statement. “Yes, we bought this home, but we are stewards of this house. Being a good steward means every time we fix something we must do good work that lasts so the next family can enjoy it as much as we have.” That interaction had a life changing impact on young Yapp and made me think about how few people in the construction business truly embrace the role of being a good steward.

Stewardship is an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of all resources. It can be applied to many practices like the environment, business, economics, government, theology, etc. This principle, essentially, is the guiding force to do what’s right for the long term. Most often that involves short-term sacrifices. Unfortunately, the American culture has become more driven by immediate satisfaction. We devour fast food, demand a rising stock market, have instant access to information, pop pills for quick remedies, and require prompt returns on real estate transactions. I am concerned that our obsession for immediacy is making us become poor stewards of our resources.

The neglect of the concept of stewardship is rampant in the construction industry. Most developers are in the business to earn a quick profit for their shareholders. They are not in the business of promoting the general welfare of the community. So it makes sense from their perspective that a city block needs to be razed to make way for the new office complex. The positive ROI they generate in a 20-year period far surpasses what could be generated from the existing structures. But where does this leave the community over the next 100 years? Many a city in the US has been carved up by misguided development that just doesn’t make sense over multiple generations. The Best Buy and Kohl’s stores will be long forgotten when the shells of their non-distinct buildings clutter the landscape.

We are also seeing a significant increase in the tearing down of established neighborhoods because the value of their land has increased to the point that it is desirable for constructing a modern McMansion. This movement called “mansionization” has resulted in an estimated 32,000 homes being leveled across the country in 2014 so an owner can have 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms like one finds in suburban America. This clear-cutting of the vintage housing stock is obliterating the character of many a community. My old neighborhood where I lived in the mid 80’s in Dallas is totally unrecognizable today because of this phenomenon.

This isn’t to say there hasn’t been redevelopment of existing structures. Historic tax incentives and a rising appeal of classic architecture has sparked an interest in the restoration of historic buildings for use as loft apartments, offices, hotels, and specialty retail stores. Unfortunately, in an effort to achieve a quick ROI on this work, the construction team resorts to substandard materials and processes to reduce the cost of the restoration. Other projects are driven by unrealistic energy efficiency expectations, the naive desire to eliminate maintenance, or the achievement of LEED points. For example, the 75-year-old windows on these projects are often replaced with a system that has a useful life of 20 years. Instead of restoring an existing window that was designed to last for 100’s of years, they swap them with disposable replacements. Bob Yapp’s father would not be impressed.

The key to combating these disturbing trends is to embrace the concept of stewardship. When one understands how briefly we all occupy this land and accepts a responsibility to leave it in a better condition, stewardship will become second nature. I hope that someday this manner of living will become mainstream rather than an ethos shared by a radical minority.

Re-View Project Highlight: Vance Federal Courthouse

Re-View manufactured historically correct wood window replicas for the Vance Federal Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama. This Classical Revival building was constructed in 1921 and has been on the National Register since 1976. This U-shaped building occupies an entire city block.

The window replicas were made of mahogany and have laminated glass reinforced with aluminum muntin bars for safety and security reasons. The casements have unique hardware that lifts the sash so it can be hinged to the interior of the structure.

Legal Lottery

It is Time to Vacate Occupied Construction

I am finishing up a three-month complete kitchen remodel at my house and have had my fill of the chaos, clutter, and disarray. If you have ever remodeled the most used room in your house, you know what I’m talking about. It got so bad the other night that I was accused of displaying male menopause behavior. While I have been complaining about the endless hours of work and the omnipresent dust, it made me think about the challenges we have in performing construction work on occupied buildings. I would submit that restoration work on occupied buildings is becoming increasingly more challenging for the construction team. What was once a common practice is now complicated by legal battles and exorbitant costs to accommodate the occupants. Unfortunately, I think our days of working on occupied commercial buildings are soon to come to an end.

Since Re-View specializes in restoring historic windows on national landmarks across the country, we have a great deal of background in working on occupied structures. Over the past ten years, we have seen a dramatic increase in conflict related to the work being performed. The construction process affects the atmosphere of an occupied environment. In addition to the noise and displacement associated with construction, occupants are subjected to dust resulting from activities like masonry restoration, demolition, and plaster repair. Fumes from new materials, finishes or adhesives also cause an invasion of foreign material.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines the impacts of particulates, biological materials and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Terms like Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) are becoming commonplace. Other terms such as mesothelioma and silicosis [ are becoming known to the general population. The effects of mold were well documented in the 90’s. Basically, advertising by attorneys and the proliferation of material on the internet has made the general public very well informed on all the dangers associated with occupied construction work.

It’s hard to find someone who is not familiar with the growth of all types of litigation over the past thirty years. Cases such as the McDonalds coffee lawsuit, tobacco litigation, and new forays into suing purveyors of junk food are universally known. Children are even suing their parents these days. One of the fastest growing segments in the advertising industry is the legal field. The proliferation of radio, television, and billboard advertising for legal services over the past ten years is staggering. What this means is that your construction project can easily become fodder for the next big legal revenue opportunity.

While the legal field has been ramping up its efforts to drum up business, there has been a change in mentality of the typical American. There is a growing segment of our population that has become conditioned to the concept of getting something for nothing. The rampant rise in gambling is a direct result of this shift in mentality. Opportunists see frequent examples of people scoring million dollar awards at the local casino and read about the latest Powerball or Mega Millions winners. This behavior has also given birth to what is called the legal lottery where people are using lawsuits to score their next windfall.

What does this mean to the construction industry? If you are an owner, architect, general contractor, or supplier you are in the cross hairs of this trend and it is only getting worse. There are things that can be done to mitigate exposure such as more efficient containment, training, testing, and stricter project management. New developments in low VOC finishes and materials are a positive development. If matters continue to get worse, however, the renovation of occupied spaces may become a thing of the past.

Re-View Project Highlight: Minnesota State Capitol

The Minnesota State Capitol located in St. Paul, Minnesota was designed by Cass Gilbert and completed back in 1905. The original windows had been replaced with aluminum windows 30 years ago and something needed to be done since the replacements had exceeded their useful life. Re-View was selected to bring the windows back to their original state with some added features.

The aluminum replacements were removed revealing the original wood window frames. Re-View restored the wood frames using restoration epoxies and replicated wood parts. We used an original complete wood window that still remained in the building as the basis of design for replicating new wood sash. The sash were constructed from a wood called Accoya that is more durable than teak and has a 50 year warranty against wood rot. On the interior surface, Re-View laminated recovered 100+ year-old pine from the Idaho Lakes so the interior surfaces of the windows would match the existing woodwork in the building. Re-View glazed the sash with laminated insulated glass with Low E coatings to improve the energy efficiency, security, and sound transmission. The sash were connected to chains and balanced on new pulleys and lead counter weights.

Since some of the individual double hung windows were six feet wide by thirteen feet tall, the sash weighed in excess of 250 pounds. Re-View incorporated a combination of historic metal and modern weather stripping in order to seal the operating windows. Many of the installed windows were tested for air and water infiltration by an independent testing agency and it was determined that they were twice as tight as the published ratings for modern replacement windows. In the next phase of the project, Re-View will manufacture and install interior ballistic windows made of steel and ballistic glazing in high security sections of the Capitol.

Technology Update

I read a couple of articles recently that serve as great examples of how our obsession with technology is compromising our ability to function properly. One is a boxing match on March 27th where a boxer had his cell phone fall out of his pants during a boxing match. See the video.  Don't want to miss a call or a text message even if you are in the midst of a boxing match.

The other is the result of a recent Penn State study of 152 college students who admit to texting during class, while taking a shower, and even while having sex. The participants responded to a 70-question survey about their personal texting habits. Over 34% say they sent or receive more than 100 texts in a day and all of them check their phone every four minutes for text messages. See the article.

Hi-tech Lowdown

The Negative Effects of Technology on the Construction Industry

Last week while I was enjoying a Spring Break vacation in Sarasota with my family, I was amazed to see my daughter swimming in the pool with her iPhone. Apparently she had purchased a special case that allows her to text while in the water. I can’t believe the way that smart phones have turned people into zombies. You see couples at dinner glued to their phones instead of talking, and groups of kids interacting with their handsets instead of playing together. Watching my daughter be unable to go for a swim without a phone made me sick. It also made me think about how technology has adversely affected business in general and the construction industry in particular. Although technology has been a boon to many facets of our industry, there are aspects of technological developments that have severe negative consequences.

Now let me preface this post by explaining how fascinated I have been with technology for the past 35 years. I am not a technophobe who is making Orwellian predictions, and I have never referenced the movie 2001: The Space Odyssey. I used to love to program in BASIC back in my college days. I purchased a $4,000 IBM XT for my home back in 1984 and lugged a 20-pound Compaq computer around to conduct business when portable computing wasn't even on the map. My businesses have invested in the latest hardware, software, and computer controlled manufacturing equipment. I currently own three different smart watches and Apple hasn't even released its iWatch yet. So on the technology spectrum, I run pretty close to the bleeding edge. So why would I post a criticism of technology’s negative effect on the construction industry?

I am concerned that technology is distracting our attention from what is important. While high-tech tools can make our lives easier, they can also become a permanent crutch that diverts our attention from critical factors. We become so addicted to the convenience, we forget how to do the tasks that technology is performing on our behalf. Just as we have forgotten phone numbers of loved ones with the advent of a contact database, we've forgotten how to do basic things that are critical to business. We spend more time in front of our computers than we do engaging with associates and customers.

Technology also has a habit of forcing us to become slaves to the high-tech monster. We now spend hours scanning data, inputting information, and reading irrelevant documents. Just think of the time you spend wading through mounds of daily e-mail messages. Add to that the depletion of employee productivity while they scan Facebook and shop on eBay while work needs to be performed. And top it off with the millions of dollars businesses spend on IT work to keep the monster healthy and protected from cyber-attacks. Our dedication and commitment to technology has become frightening.

So how does this affect the construction industry?

Architects were early adopters of technology, primarily through the use of computer aided design. On one hand, CAD has been one of the most incredible software tools to be developed, allowing amazing precision and reducing drafting time. On the other hand, CAD also provides a platform where one can create designs without having a solid understanding of whether the rendering will be structurally feasible. Back in the day when architects produced drawings by hand, they had to have a broad understanding of construction means and methods as well as structural elements. I have seen many a frustrated general contractor who has been forced to make sense of construction documents that have been hastily assembled by inexperienced CAD practitioners. Although CAD is a great tool, it can’t make up for a lack of understanding of basic construction principles.

The use of word processing software for the creation of specifications has also been a boon to the design community. The time it takes to pull together a 500-page project manual has been dramatically reduced since it’s so much simpler to collect detailed product specifications from manufacturers and from agencies like CSI. Unfortunately, this ease of spec assembly also makes it very easy to cut and paste incorrect data. It is very common to see finished specifications that reference an element copied from another source that has no relevance to the project at hand. Specifications slapped together with the help of Microsoft Word can create more problems than they solve.

Technology also creates challenges for contractors. Although tools like cell phones, tablet computers, lasers, estimating software, and spreadsheets have made everyone’s life easier, they also create problems. New means of communicating such as texting, e-mail, and cell phones can create a flood of information that becomes overwhelming. It is not uncommon to have to wade through a couple of hours of correspondence in a typical day. Estimating software and spreadsheets make it very simple to manage a complex network of numbers. Conversely, they also increase the risk of making a simple error that can mean the difference in making or losing money on a contract. Contractors are also having a more difficult time finding labor to perform the work since our labor pool is more interested sitting in front of a computer than swinging a hammer.

Manufacturers and distributors have benefited from having an online platform for storing technical product data. This enables a typical manufacturer to post detailed information on product details, drawing files, performance data, and installation instructions. In the past, this information was communicated directly to customers by a salesperson who had extensive training and served as a technical consultant to architects and contractors. Now manufacturers hire salespeople and train them on where to direct customers for the technical data. They have sparse background on the particulars of their product offering. Gone are the days where the sales consultant would train architects on product design, structural issues, finishes, and general construction practices. This information is now gleaned from accessing the internet. Architects have reduced their direct contact with manufacturers to AIA approved CES presentations that are bland overviews of the product segment. The main source of construction information has transferred from the trained consultant to Google.

I’m not the only one who fears the direction technology is taking us in. Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates have all been recently quoted on their concerns for the negative effects of our high-tech explosion. Musk was recently quoted as saying, “Artificial Intelligence is the biggest existential threat to mankind.” Gates was quoted as saying, “It’s a scenario that doesn't bode well for our future as a species.” I don’t know if I think the current challenges we struggle with today are that monumental, but it is something to think about for the next couple of decades. My immediate concern for now, however, is that I have a daughter who lives her life in a small box called an iPhone. 

Redefining Sustainability

My company is currently in the process of restoring over 1,600 window sash for a large historic project in Buffalo, NY. As I recently walked through our plant and saw the thousands of windows in various stages of repair, I reflected upon how we were repairing windows that are over 135 years old. This made me think about the current state of the construction industry and what our expectations are for the life of a building structure and the components that make up that structure. Over the past ten years, there has been a great deal of talk about Green Buildings and sustainability, but how many of these “Green” commercial or residential buildings are designed or constructed to last for centuries? When will the life cycle of the structure and the construction materials themselves become factors in the sustainability criteria? It seems to me that more effort is placed on whether a material is recyclable than whether it can perform over the long haul. It is time that the design community, manufacturers, and construction processes begin to consider the life of the building if we are truly going to incorporate sustainability in our industry.

Back in 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council developed the LEED green building rating system as a way to guide building owners to be environmentally accountable and to use resources responsibly. The LEED system has had a profound effect upon the design community by motivating advancements in energy efficiency, use of recyclable materials, incorporation of natural daylight, and reuse of water. The LEED program made the word “sustainability” a household term over the past ten years, but has it truly redefined sustainable design? I would submit that LEED has been most successful in motivating changes in how structures consume natural resources and how the structure can be recycled at the end of its useful life. Very little emphasis has been put on designing a structure and using component materials that will last for many generations.

I like the definition of sustainability from author and professor Geir B. Asheim. “Sustainability is defined as a requirement of our generation to manage the resource base such that the average quality of life that we ensure ourselves can potentially be shared by all future generations.” I would submit that true sustainability in the construction industry implies that we construct edifices that can be used for many generations. It does not mean that we build a structure that has to have its major components replaced every 20 years.

Take windows for example. The major window manufacturers have developed designs that require the replacement of the entire window once the insulated glass seal has failed. Although the window is made of materials that can be recycled, it isn’t designed for multi-generational, long-term use. Changes in the glazing details that would facilitate glass replacement could dramatically extend the lifespan of these products. Other manufacturers use inexpensive materials such as vinyl for major structural members that have spurious life expectancy. Ask any window manufacturer for the life expectancy of their products and they will refer to their 10 year product and 20 year glass warranties. Is it unreasonable to expect a window to last for more than 20 years? I don’t think so.

Other products such as appliances, finishes, roofing, HVAC, lighting, siding, etc. also have very limited life expectancies. Some promote lifetime warranties that are so burdened with legalese they are rendered useless.  By limiting the warranty to the original purchaser, prorating the warranty every year, and limiting exposure, the warranty actually protects the manufacturer more than the purchaser. American manufacturers have become more concerned with cutting costs than building better products. If manufacturers made changes in designs and the base materials used in fabrication, they could dramatically improve the expected years of service. Although many of the changes in materials will increase prices, there is a market for more durable products.

It’s time that the construction industry begins to take the life cycle of our new structures more seriously. We need to make advances in the quality of our construction designs and materials for the industry to truly become driven by sustainability. We should view our work as a testament for future generations rather than a disposable structure that will eventually be long forgotten.