I have seen lots of differing opinions, some disagreements and a few heated arguments in my 32 years in the glass industry. But I have to say the 90.1 brawl, the battle for the wall, and even the repair vs. replacement feud, pale in comparison to this one. This one is a full blitzkrieg with all the hallmarks—ideology, politics, money and some personal attacks—of a great war. The subject of this great quarrel is the fight surrounding the importation of foreign curtainwall into this country. To briefly recap, the Commerce Department ruled affirmatively when asked last summer by a group of domestic glazing contractors if its ruling on anti-dumping and… 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 »
If you are in any part of the curtainwall business, you know there has been a quiet revolution going on slowly for the past 15 years—and with lightning speed during the past five. It’s no secret that major Chinese companies have been manufacturing and exporting curtainwall systems into the United States since the late 1990s. The first efforts by these manufacturers were pretty poor; they generally lacked both the quality and design capabilities necessary to provide products in the United States. But in the last five years, most of the major Chinese companies have hired their own U.S.-based professional representatives and made great strides in quality. In short, they’ve gotten… Read More »
