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Surveyors: Stand up and be heard
Michael J. Pallamary Construction & Building MaterialsOne of the best ways for an organization to advance is to have a unified voice, one that represents a broad spectrum of interests, common to all members. The medical profession learned this a long time ago with the universal adoption of the Hippocratic Oath. In the United States, this concept evolved into the canons of the American Medical Association, commonly known as the AMA.
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Housing shortage prompts multifamily construction revival
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsMultifamily construction activity slid in 2017 in the face of rising vacancy rates and concerns about overbuilding. That trend has begun to shift direction in recent months as the market for single-family homes remains constrained by shortages of available and affordable new and existing homes.
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Is customization the way forward for hotel design?
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesAs competition from shared accommodations and niche offerings increase, large hotel chains and even some boutique hotels are seeking new ways to attract guests to their properties.
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Europe prepares for perfect storm over F-Gas
Andrew Gaved ManufacturingI promise not to make every dispatch this year an update on the general alarm surrounding the EU F-Gas regulations, but having declared a crisis back in January, I feel duty-bound to keep you abreast of what I believe the TV newsrooms call a developing situation.
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No end in sight for remodeling industry’s upward trajectory
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsEarlier speculation that the red-hot remodeling industry might begin to cool down in 2018 appears to have been premature. Despite challenges of labor shortages and rising materials costs, market conditions are generally favorable for remodelers of all stripes. A number of factors are coalescing that likely will not only continue to drive positive growth this year, but may also outpace that of recent years.
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Design collaboration is not design by committee
Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesHave you ever heard that phrase "design by committee" when someone talks about a building or an object like a car or piece of furniture that doesn't quite make sense? It usually means there are some good parts and some bad parts, but overall it's just not good design.
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Fighting city hall over land
Wendy Lathrop Civil & GovernmentOnce upon a time (1989 to be exact) in a place not so far from where I live, a man (Francis Galdo) bought a home across the street from a vacant parcel owned by the City of Philadelphia. That parcel, along with others, had been acquired by condemnation in 1974, subsequent to a 1956 consenting ordinance and 1962 agreement to the Pennsylvania Department of Highways plans to establish and occupy certain rights of way, streets and traffic interchanges as part of the construction of the Delaware Expressway within the city.
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Bridging the manufacturing skills gap: A work in progress
R.V. Scheide ManufacturingFor more than a decade, labor market specialists have been warning that the United States is not training the required number of students in science, technology, engineering and math to remain competitive in the digitized global economy. But where exactly these shortages exist and how exactly to do address them remain unanswered questions.
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Minneapolis’ Super Bowl LII stadium sports innovative sustainable…
Michelle R. Matisons Facilities & GroundsWhether you are a football fan or not, you probably know that Super Bowl LII is scheduled to happen Feb. 4 at the new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. Beyond excitement for the game itself, there's a lot of buzz about the stadium itself, which can seat up to 70,000 fans.
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State of the Union: What about rural broadband expansion?
R.V. Scheide CommunicationsFor a man who enjoys putting his name on buildings, President Donald Trump spoke surprisingly little about rebuilding America's infrastructure in Tuesday night's 90-minute State of the Union address. In fact, Trump spent slightly less than two minutes on the topic.
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