USGlass magazine Archives

It’s Not Unusual

By Debra Levy on July 6th, 2020

Hard to believe that July is happening while I am still waiting for April, May and June to occur. The only thing usual during this time is the unusual, and the only thing ordinary is the extraordinary. I will explain. The ordinary things we usually do—the haircuts, the beverage sipped from the coffee shop table, sending the kids off to summer camp—they are all quite unusual now due to the world’s microscopic guest star—and I don’t mean guest star in a good way. Just about everything we do has been disrupted. And like any good open, laissez-faire ecosystem, disruptors are ripe to take advantage of the change. The report I first… Read More »

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Brought to You by the Letter E

By Debra Levy on September 19th, 2019

Anyone who has been a kid, or raised kids or grandkids, in the past 50 years knows how the show Sesame Street usually starts. It opens with a Muppet popping up to tell us which letter of the alphabet is sponsoring the program on that particular day. Well, if GlassBuild America 2019 (GBA) had a Grover, Elmo or Big Bird pop up, they would surely say “this show is brought to you by the letter E.” E? Yes, here’s why. The e-vent which ended today at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, is both exhaustive and exhausting, but it’s also an exhilarating ode to the glass industry played out… Read More »

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The New Order?

By Debra Levy on March 4th, 2019

What will the future customer of the contract glazier look like? Though no one can know for sure, one thing is certain; that customer will look nothing like he does today. “The days of getting three bids and choosing the lowest one are pretty much gone,” said one such customer recently. Let me explain. Mike Staun is the associate director of construction for Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and, as such, he oversees a construction budget of more than $1 billion a year, spent on P&G properties, including one of their newest ones in West Virginia. Staun spoke last week at the IMPACT/Ironworkers Annual Convention in Las Vegas. He provided a… Read More »

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Jumbo Tentacles

By Debra Levy on August 27th, 2018

While jumbo glass has been around for a while now, the number of companies that manufacture it has increased rapidly. You’ll see offerings from so many companies that I bet within the next five years jumbo won’t be jumbo anymore; it will just be one of many glass sizes available. These new sizes are serving as the impetus for new products and variations of current ones in a variety of related fields. Specifically: 1. Jumbo coated glass: While jumbo glass gains in usage and popularity, so will its ability to be coated with a variety of coatings. Vitro’s new high-performance magnetron sputtered vacuum deposition coater debuted last month in Wichita… Read More »

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A Month’s News–In a Week

By Debra Levy on August 6th, 2018

Last week was a very busy one in the glass and metal news business. Late on July 31, the news that Kawneer’s parent, Arconic, was seeking to sell Kawneer and its Building and Construction Solutions (BCS) business was announced. And that’s just the beginning. “Obviously, we are at the very beginning of the process, but I wanted to let you know that our commitment to you, our valued customer, remains unchanged by this news,” said Arconic BCS president Diana Perreiah in a letter to customers. “For our team, it’s business as usual and we will continue our focus on delivering for our customers through continued investments, innovation and service.” The BCS… Read More »

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That Championship Season

By Debra Levy on July 9th, 2018

I was out of the office on an extended Fourth of July trip last week and got back yesterday morning. So what’s the first thing I wanted to do? Run into the office and see the proofs of USGlass magazine’s New Products Guide, slated to run in the July issue of the magazine. And that’s exactly what I did. I was craving innovation and I wasn’t disappointed. The relative dearth of new industry products during the recession-laden end of the last decade has been replaced by a cascade of new and important products. Though you’ll see many of them in the July issue, today I want to focus on the… Read More »

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How the Pie Slices

By Debra Levy on January 16th, 2017

Nick St. Denis, USGlass magazine’s research editor, just completed two major studies—one of the contract glazing industry and the other of the manufacturer/fabricator segment. While summary results of both with be available during the upcoming GANA Building Envelop Contractors (BEC) Conference, Nick has been kind enough to delve into the contract glazier research in two areas that are of intense interest to me. They most likely will be to you, too. Here are my conclusions in those areas, based on a review of the data: Gargantuan Growth: The size of the contract glazing market has increased tremendously over the last five years. In fact, it’s nearly doubled. And as we… Read More »

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Bye Bye Pittsburgh

By Debra Levy on August 1st, 2016

And now it’s done and the word is out. The deal that sells PPG’s glass business to Vitro has been inked and the details announced. All that waits is the blessing of the regulators and the official closing in a few months. PPG gets $750 million dollars in cash and relief from a business it says is successful, but not strategically compatible with its future. Vitro gets a $1.1 billion business for a good bit less than that, a strengthened foot- and plant-print in North America and a robust and innovative research component. Just two days after the deal was announced, editors Ellen Rogers, Nick St. Denis and I conducted… Read More »

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In the Heart of Texas

By Debra Levy on April 11th, 2016

The crowds were steady both at the seminars, above, adn the Glass TEXpo trade show.

Well, every once in a while you get to have a really special experience that touches you on both the personal and professional level. A visit to San Antonio last week did just that for me. The original reason for my half-week visit was Glass TEXpo™ 2016, the semi-annual regional trade show that is sponsored by USGlass magazine and the Texas Glass Association, but it turned into even more. On Thursday I got to visit the Façade Tectonics symposium being held at the University of Texas Downtown San Antonio location. I was able to participate in two sessions that were eye-opening, and I’ll cover them in weeks ahead. But I will confess… Read More »

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Golden Year

By Debra Levy on March 16th, 2015

You’ve done it. You know you have. Because everyone does, and you can’t help it. You’ve engaged in goal talk. You’ve set ‘em, made ‘em and missed ‘em. And you have done so with every type of goal there is—personal, professional, realistic and lofty. So have I. When I started with USGlass magazine nearly 23 years ago, I had a lot of goals. My first one was to keep the doors open, one day at a time (USGlass wasn’t in the best shape then). Funny how ignorant I was about starting a business. I thought you started it, worked like crazy to get it going, then you could sort of, well,… Read More »

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On the Road with USGlass Magazine