Well, it isn’t often that I curl up for a night of TV watching, but I did so this past weekend because two different shows on two different channels featured people I know. The glass industry took center stage Friday night; it’s just a pity that both stories were stories about murder. The first was a Dateline NBC report about Amber and Josh Hiberling of Tulsa, Okla. Seems newlywed Ms. Himberling was seven months pregnant with her first child when she and her husband had an argument that somehow lead to her husband’s fall from the 25th floor of an apartment building there. She contends her innocence. The jury did not believe… Read More »
As expected, it’s happened and now that it has, you need to act. You need to act because it’s the right thing to do and besides, if you don’t, it will cost you money–not hypothetical, not theoretical but real and actual money. Please don’t avert your eyes because yes, I am talking to YOU. As anticipated, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has proposed an amendment to its BSR/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Addendum 189.1am-201x, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2011) that, according to ASHRAE “tightens the prescriptive requirements for window-to-wall ratios from 40 percent for all buildings to… Read More »
Dear Scott, Loved, loved, loved your article “The Battle for the Wall” on page 36 in this month’s USGlass magazine. Heard your speech about same at the BEC Conference. And it seems our major nemesis—an enemy called ASHRAE—has set its weapons on glass again. I think you identified our biggest long-term problem spot on, as any insightful general should do. But hey, I am a good lieutenant in the war to save our industry, so I wrote a battle plan. Forgive me for being so forward, Scott, as I know you are the general and I a mere lieutenant in this war. But I thought about it and here are the… Read More »
This is a new week and new blog and a new topic. But in case you missed it, I need to update last week’s blog. You see, I actually wrote it last Sunday. Last Sunday on a plane. Last Sunday on a plane on the way to the Boston Marathon. So you already know how this sad story ends. In case you missed it, Ellen Rogers wrote up a short news article about it last week. You can see it here. And I bring it up again for two reasons. First, I just wanted to say thank you to all the people—you overwhelmed me—who were kind enough to call and/or… Read More »
It was the proverbial dark and stormy day in late December when we first met. Most meetings we hold have some levity to them, but not this one. Some of us spread out across the wooden conference table; others stood against the back wall of the room, one joined us via conference. Banter was non-existent and the pallor of the room was morgue-like. What had gotten this team of experts so somber? The occasion of our meeting was to discuss an action unprecedented in the history of USGlass magazine: the creation of a special issue focused on a single topic. And that topic was to be school safety. Our meeting… Read More »
As the Glass Association of North America (GANA ’s) Building Envelope Contractors (BEC) Conference comes to a close, I can’t resist some final thoughts about all that I saw during the past two days. Here’s my top five: There were a ton of glazing contractors here. It was heartwarming, and hopefully a sign of good times to come, to see large numbers of contract glaziers big and small, attend. This is as a great a sign of an industry come back as I have seen thus far. The guys that were here, are here to stay. Thomsen’s speech got great reviews … but. Nearly everyone to whom I spoke about… Read More »
Scott Thomsen just might be the Colin Powell of the glass industry. He opened this morning’s session of the Building Envelope Contractors’ (BEC) Conference with a methodical, well-researched and persuasive case for the redefinition of the industry’s competitors and its future. Watching Thomsen reminded me of watching the well-respected and long-admired Powell systematically lay out evidence for action before the UN and other bodies. And, while the data upon which Powell relied was ultimately proved flawed, Thomsen’s won’t be. And the conclusions he drew from it will ultimately be shown to be prophetic. In little more than an hour, Thomsen logically showed the glass industry why it needed to change,… Read More »
I am writing this on Sunday Saint Patrick’s Day. In the morning. On a plane. At 6:30 a.m. Just let that sink in a minute. The sun has yet to rise on the second weekend day that should, but won’t, start devoid of work and end with corned beef and cabbage. Yet I am hurling myself in a long metal tube at unsafe speeds toward the Sodom of North America. Yawn. What could ever possess me to do this?You know what caused this. I’m headed to one of my favorite conferences of the year, the Glass Association of North America’s (GANA) Building Envelope Contractors (BED, no wait that’s BEC, sorry… Read More »
The residential homebuilding market has also been the bellwether of the entire construction industry. This miner’s canary, which has lain barely breathing for more than three years, has started to chirp again. I thought of this a few weeks ago, while watching a presentation at the HSG Summit in Florida by Alan Beaulieu, an economist with ITR Economics. Alan and his brother, Brian, are both economists and many years ago, Brian came up with an algorithm that he used to predict changes in the economy. He proceeded to show a series of graphs with his modeling followed by what actually happened. By golly, he was right. Alan said that in… Read More »
Mornings are not my friend. Never have been. If I had my way, the day would start around 11 and sail on past midnight. But some changes in my schedule that began last August have become habit and I now rise pretty much every day at 4:47 a.m. (well 4:45 seemed so middle-of-the-nightish) and continue on until I collapse around 10 at night. I try to keep to this schedule lest I fall back into my old ways (meaning my bed) which is how I have come to be writing this in the 5 a.m. hour of Sunday, February 24th. So when the sky and the coffee are both real… Read More »
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