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This is the political season and without a doubt, there are two very controversial candidates for president of the United States. The union constituency that has been her bedrock throughout the primaries supports Hillary Clinton, but now she has stepped into my space and yours as well.Last week Hillary Clinton was speaking in Ohio when she said something that made me sit up and take note. Not that I had not heard or seen the words before, but this time it had an edge to it that I had not seen or heard before.She said, “Right to work is wrong for workers and wrong for America.” She went on to repeat her oft spoken pledge that “If I am elected president the unions will have a champion in the White House and a seat at the table.”
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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Gulf Coast area community colleges will host Date with Destiny, a free one-day conference on Oct. 13, 2016 for women who strive to work in the petrochemical industry.
Sponsored by Shell Oil Company, Date with Destiny is an annual conference designed for high school juniors and seniors, current college students and recent college graduates. Attendees will learn how to network, apply for petrochemical jobs, write résumés and interview with employers in the industry.The morning will begin with a welcome by David Smith, Shell’s manager of operations and craft recruitment, followed by the presentation “A Day in the Life of an Operations and/or Crafts Woman” by Christine Smith, a Shell production team leader. David Esquibel with Shell’s Workforce Community Strategic Initiative will also speak to the audience about scholarships. A panel discussion will be held before lunch and include insight from Shell maintenance and operations staff and contractors Jenny Weinmann, Terri Hardy, Sara Kenerly, Miranda Weldon and Monique Bryant.
October 07, 2016
We take note of developments in the 3D printing world, and a recent article in Forbes titled “Can 3D Printing Transform Construction?” by Freddie Lawson caught our eye.Why? Mainly because it refers to the Daedalus Pavilion designed and built by a joint venture of Arup and AiBuild for the nvidia GPU Technology Conference. The pavilion was built using a large scale 3D printer, new GPU processors and learning software. Additionally, it looks fantastic and opens another door into the possibilities for early adopters of 3D printing in the construction industry.
October 06, 2016
Contractors are not the only builders. Chambers of Commerce around the US and the globe are historically true builders as well. These business organizations help build community, recruit new company relocations, advocate for new infrastructure, educational facilities, and sports facilities. All of those facilities and projects create construction jobs in their local regions.We were surprised recently to see that the Bellevue Washington Chamber of Commerce had issued a statement that they would not support the Sound Transit 3, or ST3, infrastructure proposal on the ballot in the Seattle region in November.The ST3 package is a $54 billion transit package of short and long-range projects to be built over the next 20 years. Truly these are long-range infrastructure projects.
October 05, 2016
Number of metros with job gains hits three-year low; nonresidential starts rise sharplyEditor’s note: Construction Citizen is proud to partner with AGC America to bring you AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's Data DIGest. Check back each week to get Ken's expert analysis of what's happening in our industry.Construction employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased from August 2015 to August 2016 in 220 (61%) of the 358 metro areas (including divisions of larger metros) for which BLS provides construction employment data, decreased in 76 (21%) and was stagnant in 62, according to an AGC release and map on Wednesday. (BLS combines mining and logging with construction in most metros.) The number of metros with increases was the smallest since April 2013 but the number with decreases was similar to other months; this could suggest contractors in some metros are unable to find the workers with requisite skills. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area again added the most (11,400 combined jobs, 12%), followed by the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif. division (10,200 construction jobs, 11%) and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (10,200 construction jobs, 17%) and the %).
October 04, 2016
Hi there. The Chamberlin Man here.As you know, time, weather, pollution, corrosion and general use cause buildings and parking garages to show visible signs of their age and ultimately prompt owners and managers to seek restoration and repair services. Parking garages are in a class by themselves because of the wear and tear generated by the structural load and movement due to vehicular traffic and weather changes. The Chamberlin team are aces when it comes to parking garage remedies.You know what else we specialize in? Proactive maintenance that can save a boat load of money and ultimately increase the lifespan of a building or parking structure. Like anything else, the longer you let something go, the more it is liable to cost you.
October 03, 2016
Michael Burns and Brian Sanders of Lone Star College-North Harris talk about the Construction and Skilled Trades Technology Center which is currently being constructed on that campus.
September 30, 2016
One of the many things we strive to do for you at Construction Citizen is keep up with current trends in the industry. Admittedly, my friend Jim Kollaer does a better job of it than I do - whether it’s twisted towers, the role of drones in construction, or 3D printing. You can see all of Jim’s articles here.One of the particularly interesting trends emerging now is the fact that wood – yes, wood – is making more appearances as the material used for the skeletons of tall buildings in the United States and elsewhere.Smithsonian.com just published an article about a building in Minnesota called T3 that, when completed, will be the tallest wooden structure in the US. As the publication put it, the irony of its cutting edge nature is “that its cutting-edge nature rests on an old-school material: wood.”
September 29, 2016
Professors try their best to convince their architectural students that they “rule the world and the jobsite.” Many of them grow to believe that myth and some of them live that way. Few are well-versed on jobsite safety. Even if they are among the few who receive training, occasionally the most safety-conscious architect makes a simple mistake and pays for it with his or her life.According to reports, Bruno Travalja, architect and owner of Crowne Architectural Systems in New Jersey, was doing an inspection and some last minute measurements on the 42nd floor of a mid-rise tower in New York City when he fell to his death in a tragic accident.
September 28, 2016
MAREK CEO takes a look at how our broken immigration system is negatively affecting people right here in our own community.
September 27, 2016
