Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

As a road grader removed sod to clear out and push back the edge of Frye Road, and a road sweeper cleared the remaining dirt, Commissioner Brendan Kearns and Larry Robbins, county engineer/highway director, discussed paving schedules on Thursday.

Tribune-Star/Howard GreningerVigo County Commissioner Brendan Kearns looks over a map of Lakewood subdivision near Riley with Larry Robbins, county engineer/highway director, as the two discuss improving South Canal Street.Other subdivision road improvements are slated for next year.

Frye Road is one of seven roads the county will repave this year at just over 22 miles in part with matching funds from Indianas Community Crossing grant as well as from the countys motor vehicle highway, cumulative bridge and economic development income tax funds.

In all, the county is spending $6.5 million to repave between 65 and 67 miles this year, before the snow flies.

Community Crossings covers the asphalt component, but this is the county, the machinery and manpower, doing the improvements before hand, Kearns said, standing along Frye Road as county dump trucks passed.

A large section of Frye Road is to be paved next week. Improvements extend from Indiana 46 to Margaret Avenue.

We had kind of a rough start this year with the [COVID-19] virus and everything going on, and we got behind on mowing and grading some roads, Robbins said.

We had people out that were COVID-related issues on the highway department, Kearns added.

Robbins said the best way to maintain county roads is to keep water off the road surface.

This grass came over the edge of the road and then water sits, Robbins said, pointing to the edge of Frye Road. That is the section of the road that deteriorates and crumbles, he said. With dirt and grass taking over the edge of the pavement you get four to five feet of pavement that lays in water, then the subgrade gets wet and everything is impacted.

We are pulling back these road shoulders and reshaping some of the ditches, to get water to run in the ditch where it is supposed to be instead of out on the road, Robbins said.

Vigo County maintains 826 miles of roadway, with 671 miles of paved roads and 155 miles of gravel roads. Other roads paved using Community Crossings funds this year include Old Paris Road, Thralls Road, Park Avenue, Grant Avenue, Oregon Church Road and Louisville Road.

Tribune-Star/Howard GreningerRough road: Vigo County Commissioner Brendan Kearns inspects alligator cracks along South Canal Street in Lakewood subdivision. The road is under consideration for repaving this year, with other sections of the subdivision slated for improvements next year.

The county, Robbins said, uses a PASER system to evaluate roads. PASER, an acronym for Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating, is a system to visually rate the surface condition of pavement, from a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being pavement in a failed condition and 10 being pavement in excellent condition.

Roads are evaluated on issues that include surface cracking, there is alligator cracking, there is rutting and shoulder cracking, Robbins said.

The system provides a recommendation for repair. Roads with a rating of 7 to 9 may require chip and seal or a microsurfacing overlay. Get down into a 5 or 6 rating, the road requires deep patching or surface overlay work, while ratings of 4 and 3 require rebuilding the surface with two inches of asphalt overlay. A rating of 2 or 1 is a complete road replacement.

For new road construction, most of the county roads are four inches [of asphalt] while others, like Springhill Drive, are up to 10 to 12 inches, Robbins said.

That rating system is being used on other road work on tap for this year.

Kearns said he is evaluating repaving South Canal Street in Lakewood subdivision, a road that pass in front of Riley Elementary School.

Since we are paving Frye Road behind [the subdivision] and Louisville Road, this is a good opportunity to keep that momentum going and keep those improvements going, Kearns said. It costs about $79,000 per mile just for asphalt pavement, excluding road preparation, the commissioner added.

Sign up for our newsletters to get the latest, breaking news.

Robbins said South Canal Road had a rating of 5 in 2018, so it likely has a rating of 4 now, he said, adding the road has not been improved for about two decades.

Kearns, while inspecting the road, said this is what is called alligatored. You can see how it kind of looks like an alligators back. The problem with this is when water gets in there, those alligator cracks get bigger. In the winter time, that will freeze and pop out that asphalt.

Robbins suggested a phased improvement for Lakewood subdivision, with improvements done on roads on the east side of the lake this year, with road improvements on the west side next year.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

See original here:
Vigo County looks to repave 65 miles of roads this year - Terre Haute Tribune Star

Photographs have a way of capturing emotion. A photo may echo sadness and desperation, as is the case with Dorothea Langes 1936 photograph known as Migrant Mother, showing a distraught mother and her children during the Great Depression. It may capture the spirit of triumph, as is accomplished with John Rooneys iconic 1965 shot of boxing heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali standing over opponent Sonny Liston. A photograph can also appear to signify hope and joy, la Alfred Eisenstaedts V-J Day in Times Square.

Regardless of the scene or sentiment that is captured in a photograph, images from throughout history have the ability to freeze moments in time. In doing so, they allow future generations to peer into the past and obtain glimpses into life before their own, whether its the major events (e.g., Nat Feins The Babe Bows Out or Abraham Zapruders JFK Assassination, Frame 313) or the small moments (e.g. W. Eugene Smiths Country Doctor, or the first-ever cell phone photo, Philippe Kahns image of his newborn daughters first moments).

Like any time period in the age of photography, the 1800s in America has been widely chronicled, in images dating back to the early years of the century. A look back on the images will take viewers to the countrys first boardwalk in New Jersey, make them grapple with the realities of the Civil War, and bring them along a journey to discover the evolution of transportation over the course of the decades.

To learn more about 19th-century America through photographs, Stacker compiled a collection of 50 essential images that capture what life was like in the 1800s. Photos are sourced from a wide range of government databases and national photo libraries. From photos depicting iconic inventors and activists in action, to those simply depicting a day on the beach, each of these images shines a light on a small corner of American life between 1800 and 1899. Read on to view fascinating images and learn more about the events and trends that shaped 19th-century America.

You may also like: 100 iconic photos that capture 100 years of world history

View post:
50 photos from American life in the 19th century - Helena Independent Record

A digital advertising and buyer expertise chief, Evan Kohn is chief enterprise officer at Pypestream, the place he created PypePro, an AI onboarding methodology utilized by Fortune 500 companies.Extra posts by this contributor

When folks attain out to customer support, theyre in search of greater than an answer to their quick drawback. They need empathy and understanding. What theyre typically met with is a queue.

Nothing frustrates folks greater than calling buyer help and getting caught in a loop. Based on a research by Vonage, 61% of shoppers really feel interactive voice response (IVR) actively poisons the customer experience and solely 13% discovered it extra useful than calling a human immediately.

Like many options, IVR falls short in personalizing the client expertise (CX). A buyer calls in for a selected activity like paying a invoice and as an alternative cycles by way of a one-size-fits-all menu that in actuality suits no one. Experiences like this clearly point out to clients a model doesnt care about them as an individual, solely as a case quantity.

Personalizing the expertise is a begin, however this isnt the top. Prospects will count on a one-on-one interplay the second they enter your customer support channel. To make that occur, AI and analytics are creating scalable alternatives to point out your clients how a lot they matter to you. Manufacturers making the most of that chance can create unequalled CX that units them far forward of their competitors.

Personalization has develop into a preferred buzzword in recent times, however true personalization is way tougher to achieve than many firms understand. That was the case in 2016 when companies first hopped on the chat bandwagon. The potential for a brand new communication methodology was there, however the one-size-fits-all method firms took in growing their interplay platforms created extra issues for patrons than it solved.

What they missed is find out how to create digital experiences through which clients converse with automation that adapts based mostly on person context. Data like their services or products historical past and preferences needs to be pulled up the second a buyer engages. Knowledge on disposition, tone, sentiment and acknowledged intent ought to affect how the client strikes by way of the system and reaches their desired finish objective. That navigation needs to be easy and go nicely past text-based communications, together with immersive UX choices like maps, surveys, carousel picks and extra all in a spirit of reducing the cognitive weight for the client.

Tech specialist. Social media guru. Evil problem solver. Total writer. Web enthusiast. Internet nerd. Passionate gamer. Twitter buff.

Read the original:
mmWave 5G Network Will be Exclusive to iPhone 12 Pro Max, Will Launch in Only Three Countries - Best gaming pro

The Lied Place Residences building, which when finished will be Lincoln's second-tallest building at about 250 feet, has started to rise above the Que Place parking garage next door.

The Lied Place Residences building, which when finished will be Lincoln's second-tallest building at about 250 feet, has started to rise above the Que Place parking garage next door.

Nebraska construction firms seem to be weathering the coronavirus pandemic well, according to the results of a national survey released Wednesday.

The survey from the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk found that as many firms operating in the state have added employees as have cut them over the past few months.

According to the survey, 32% of Nebraska construction companies have furloughed or terminated employees, but an additional 32% have added workers.

Both of those rates are slightly higher than national figures, which show 29% of companies have furloughed or terminated workers, while only 23% have added workers.

Over the past 12 months, 36% of the state's construction firms have reduced their headcount, while 36% have kept their numbers steady and 27% have added workers.

The companies that are adding workers are having a tough time finding them, with 82% reporting difficulty finding hourly craft workers, a much higher percentage than the 52% nationally reporting difficulty.

Few firms have survived unscathed from the pandemic amid widespread project delays and cancellations, Ken Simonson, the associations chief economist, said in a news release. Ironically, even as the pandemic undermines demand for construction services, it is reinforcing conditions that have historically made it hard for many firms to find qualified craft workers to hire.

See the article here:
Nebraska construction firms holding their own in pandemic, survey shows - Kearney Hub

A Dallas builder plans to start construction soon on an affordable housing community in Garland.

OM Housing is building the 112-unit Lakeview Pointe Apartments, a $30 million rental community on Lake Ray Hubbard. The 122,000-square-foot project will be located at 3102 Zion Road, and more than a third of the units in the apartment building will be priced at market rate.

The rental community off Interstate 30 will be built using tax credits from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Bank OZK, Capital One Bank, Freddie Mac and Boston Financial provided financing for the project.

The community will include a swimming pool, a clubhouse with a kitchen, a coffee lounge and a community activity center for children.

HEDK Architects designed the project, and the general contractor is Spring Valley Construction.

This is a strong example of housing credits being used as an economic incentive tool in a public-private partnership, CEO Deepak Sulakhe said in a statement. Developing eco-friendly communities is something OM Housing prides itself on.

OM Housing has been in business since 2005 and has developed more than 7,000 housing units valued at more than $550 million.

The Garland project is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2021.

Read more:
Garland apartment project will bring affordable rental units - The Dallas Morning News

A look at the websites of Nashville's high-end apartment buildings reveals a common thread: expansive shared workspaces, outdoor patios and pools, event venues, hotel-like services and organized community activities.

Some of Nashville's newest apartment buildings aren't just selling a living space anymorethey're selling a lifestyle.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of those highly-advertised amenities in March, leaving these buildings to find creative ways to offer residents virtual and sanitized versions of thatpromised lifestyle. Some had the serendipitous realization thatwith a few tweaks, their existing amenities were surprisingly well-suited to "the new normal."

Kenect Nashville's 16,000 square foot shared workspace, shown here in an artist's rendering, is expected to be complete in October 2020.(Photo: Courtesy of Kenect Nashville)

Residences at Capitol View, which opened in the North Gulch area in 2018, boasts a ground floor with restaurants that consistently offered carry-out options during COVID-19 shutdowns, shops and a Publix grocery store.

"It was a selling point before, and I think even more so now, having those things so close to you and being open is really important," Ashley Van Fossen, community manager at Residences at Capitol View, told The Tennessean.

Kenect Nashville, a new apartment building and social club hybrid on 19th Avenue South, embraces a similarmodel. Though it is still under construction, it will offer 21,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor in 2021.

A 16,000-square-foot coworking space with plenty of room for social distancing is slated to open in late October, and the building will eventually include a community kitchen, a gym and fitness studio, soundproof studios, outdoor spaces and more. Memberships to the social club amenities are also available for non-residents (residents have automatic memberships).

An artist's rendering depicts Kenect Nashville's fitness center.(Photo: Courtesy of Kenect Nashville)

"All in one big building, it offers you everything that you need within reach," saidAvi Niego, Executive Director for Kenect Nashville. "You don't really have to go anywhere if you don't want to. And obviously, there's some advantages to that during the pandemic."

The move toward sleek shared workspaces, event spaces and other lifestyle-centric amenities has been several years in the making for Nashville's apartment offerings.

In 2014, a 275-unit luxury apartment building on Davidson Street, now called Infinity Music Row, announced that it would feature a shared recording studio and a live performance venue with seating for 50. A 328-unit SoBro building now called The Burham Nashville announced plans for a two-story coworking and events space on its ground floor in 2017.

Residences at Capitol View shut down its shared spaces during phase one of Nashville's pandemic plan, and fitness classes, bingo games and trivia nights went virtual, Van Fossen said. They launched a courtyard concert series, featuring a DJ and local musicians that residents could watch from their balconies and patios. A "wellness room" could be reserved for exercise or meditation for a single resident, with cleaning between reservations.

The Residences at Capitol View now regularly cleans its shared poolside chairs using a steam sanitizing machine due to the coronavirus pandemic.(Photo: Courtesy of The Residences at Capitol View)

When restrictions eased, the building reopened its shared workspaces and fitness center with social distancing rules. Virtual offerings will continue as long as there is a need, according to Van Fossen. Three private workrooms and a conference room are now offered for two-hour bookings.

"We definitely saw an increase in (workroom) use, especially with so many people working from home and wanting to get out of their apartment for a couple of hours, it just gives them that ability," Van Fossen said.

The Residences at Capitol View offer three private workrooms that can be reserved for two-hour blocks. The rooms are sanitized between reservations.(Photo: Courtesy of The Residences at Capitol View)

Kenect Nashville similarly pivoted cooking demonstrations, music shows and fitness courses to a virtual platform for residents whohave already moved into the building as it continues to take shape. By October, the coworking space will offer a change of scenery for those working from home, a place to print documents, and spaces for small meetings, all regularly sanitized.

"I think there was a ... shift already in creating a new product, a new way of living, but the pandemic kind of accelerated it," Niego said. "... For the next six months to a year, it's probably the new reality we have to adjust to."

The pandemic led to buyer and renter hesitation in the Nashville housing market in the spring, but people are still moving to Nashville, and some apartment complexes are looking to attract new tenantswithmove-in deals.

Van Fossen said Residences at Capitol View saw interest in new leases drop at the beginning of the pandemic as employers put hiring on hold and uncertainty abounded, but lease renewals rose.

"In the last two months, we've definitely seen leasing pick back up," she said. "Not quite pre-March numbers, but there's definitely more of an interest."

The health and economic concerns brought by the pandemic may actually accelerate population growth in smaller cities like Nashville, according to a summer 2020 report by Marcus & Millichap, a national brokerage firm. More people working from home, social distancing needs and economic instability may lead to people looking for less expensive, less dense housing than can be found in larger cities,the report states.

The club room and all shared amenity spaces at The Residences at Capitol View feature WiFi.(Photo: Courtesy of The Residences at Capitol View)

The number of Nashville apartment complexes offering move-in incentives has increased significantly from last year, according to a report from real estate website Zillow. In July, 37.9% of Nashville rental listings offered some type of concession, including a month of free rent, waived or reduced deposits and fees, gift cards or perks like free parking. In July 2019, 21.1% offered such incentives the same percentage of Nashville rental listings with concessions in Februarybefore the pandemic hit.

But the typical rent price remains steady: $1,662 per month in July, up 2.3% year over year, according to Zillow.

Van Fossen's building is offering a $500 gift card at move-in on certain units, according to its website. They also offer a look-and-lease special for those who apply within 48 hours of an in-person or virtual tour: waived application and administration fees, credited toward the first month's rent.

A representative for Kenect Nashville said demand has been fairly steady, and the building has "stayed leasing consistently." Because the building and some of its amenities are still under construction, Kenect Nashville is offering one month of free rent and a waived administration fee with a 12-month lease. Other incentives are available for faculty members of the nearby Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

As cities around the nation shut down in an effort to slowthe spread of the virus, the housing rental industry faced a dilemma: capturing interest without the aid ofin-person tours.

Bevan White, vice president of marketing at Pegasus Residential, a southeastern property management company with properties in Tennessee, told Zillow that the company switched to virtual leasing in late March, increased concessions at some properties and added smart home features in others to increase value and interest.

"Teams have used teaser photos, pre-recorded walk-throughs of amenities and even personalized recorded messages to capture renters' interest before conducting a full virtual tour," White said.

Virtual tours have proved to be a vital tool for Residences at Capitol View, Van Fossen said, so much so that she thinks they will be a permanent feature.

"I think it's really great for people moving (from) out of state, or people that are super busy and aren't able to stop by," she said.

Reach Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephenson@tennessean.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731.

Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2020/09/04/covid-19-nashville-apartments-tenants/3450122001/

See original here:
Nashville 'lifestyle' apartments turn to virtual events, move-in incentives during pandemic - Tennessean

San Diego County has built more housing in the first six months of this year than it did at the same time in 2019 despite a months-long pandemic.

The increase is marginal just 64 more homes but is notable because it is the only county in Southern California that did not build fewer housing units. Its at least one sign that the construction industry has managed to stay productive during the periodic lock-downs related to rising COVID-19 infection rates.

San Diego County built nearly 4,000 housing units in the first six months, said the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California, or about 1.6 percent more than last year. That compares to the seven-county average decline of 12.5 percent for Southern California.

Construction has been spurred in part by fewer homes being listed for sale, which has led to a recent spike in home prices across the region. That has builders trying harder than ever to keep up, said Alan Gin, economist at the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego.

The demand side is still strong and has not been affected by this downturn, he said. I think the reason for that is a lot of the damage in terms of job losses has been in lower paying jobs. Those workers werent likely to be home buyers anyway.

The median home price in San Diego County has climbed throughout the COVID-19 crisis for a variety of reasons, say experts, including low mortgage interest rates; buyers seeing increased value in homeownership while stuck at home; and sellers still not wanting to put homes on the market, leading to intense competition for new homes. The median price in the county recently hit its highest ever, $634,000.

Meanwhile, most of the job losses have been in low-skill, low-wage jobs, which has translated to San Diego Countys first rent drop since the Great Recession.

Gin said the high home prices make the construction of new homes in the region more profitable than ever, even if land constraints mean builders cant turn out nearly as much product as theyd like.

There were 1,771 building permits pulled for single-family homes in the first half of the year, up 20.2 percent from the same time in 2019. Meanwhile, multifamily building which includes apartments, townhouses and condos was down 9.5 percent with 2,217 permits filed.

Apartment construction has fueled building activity for years in San Diego County while single-family homes have been more like an afterthought. More recently, though, multifamily construction has been on the decline for several quarters as the pace of rent price increases slowed. It takes years for apartment complexes to come to fruition, so the recent decline probably has more to do with rent growth slowing in 2019 than the pandemic.

Borre Winckel, CEO of the Building Industry Association of San Diego, said the building permits still reflect an industry and region struggling to keep up with demand. Since 2015, San Diego County had typically built 9,500 to nearly 10,000 homes a year. Last year, there were 8,053 homes constructed, a significant drop mainly attributed to slowing multifamily building, which was a disappointment to housing advocates.

The roughly 4,000 homes constructed so far is behind the pace to produce 10,000 homes for the year a recent benchmark many advocates aim for, even though they say it falls short of what is needed.

In the grand scheme of things, those (2020) numbers dont add up to a hill of beans, Winckel said, in terms of satisfying true housing demand.

He typically points the finger at the high costs of regulation in California as a reason why builders cant construct more homes, but said the city of San Diegos push for more housing is a reason why San Diego County could be standing out with more building.

Winckel said the regulatory environment for San Diego is relatively better than other major metropolitan areas in the state.

As much as I like to dump all over the City Council for not getting it, he said of the need for more housing, they get it more and better in comparison to Los Angeles, San Francisco or San Jose.

Ventura County had the biggest drop in home building in the first six months of the year, down 43.3 percent. Santa Barbara County was down 41.3 percent; Orange County down 31.6 percent; San Bernardino County, down 18.1 percent; Los Angeles County down 7.4 percent and Riverside, also down, by 6.5 percent.

Construction is considered to be essential work under federal COVID-19 guidelines, allowing homes and apartments to keep going up while jobs in other sectors were suspended.

Murtaza Baxamusa, director of planning and development for the San Diego Building Trades Council, said it is a good time to be a construction worker because demand has not seemed to slow.

There is work now and there is work coming up, he said.

Baxamusa said if there is a larger economic downturn with foreclosures it could change things. But he said he has a hard time imagining it in Southern California because of so many large projects in the works, including San Diegos efforts to create a new entertainment district on the former Pechanga Arena site with at least 2,100 housing units.

Data for building permits in the research councils report is provided by the Construction Industry Research Board, which contacts all 58 counties and 538 cities in California for permit data. It sometimes is different from the widely used Census data that provides estimates and has been criticized for a wide margin of error.

Read more from the original source:
San Diego home building up slightly so far this year even in a pandemic - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Each day, a small squad of about 20 state inspectors visits hundreds of Washington businesses on the sly.

We walk into Safeway like were a customer, said Tim Church, spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Industries.

These inspectors normally investigate things like wage theft or workers compensation fraud, but now theyre following up on complaints about employers refusing to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

These Covid cops have done about 6,000 undercover spot checks of businesses this summer.

Their mission: to see if complaints like these are for real:

Since July, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries has handled about 12,000 complaints from the public about employers skirting the state-mandated measures to beat a highly contagious coronavirus.

The complaints come in to a hotline run by the states Emergency Operations Center, which farms them out to the Liquor and Cannabis Board (for restaurants and bars), the Department of Licensing (for hair salons) and Labor and Industries for most other sectors.

The alleged violations have ranged from construction sites with nobody wearing masks to warehouses not sending workers home who have flu-like symptoms.

Complaints received by the Washington Dept. of Labor and Industries of employers in King and Pierce counties allegedly violating the state's pandemic-safety rules.

Labor and Industries generally gives worker complaints higher priority than those from the public, although Church did not know how many safety complaints the agency has received from employees about their workplaces.

Church said he did not know how many formal inspections the agency has conducted or how many fines it has imposed connected to pandemic safety.

Very few complaints result in penalties for employers, though they often do result in improved safety practices, Church said.

The agency starts by contacting an employer to let them know a concern has been raised. If the problem remains after a spot check, a formal inspection and investigation may be launched. If the problem remains unaddressed after the investigation, the agency sends a cease and desist letter.

Only then, if the problem continues, does the agency levy a fine.

Its a fairly small number that end up in the taking formal action category, Church said. Most do what we need them to do if they spend time with us.

Penalties included:

In King and Pierce counties, Labor and Industries has received 377 complaints about alleged violations of the states mask requirements and other pandemic safety rules, according to data obtained with a KUOW public records request.

Out of those complaints, 113 were against the construction industry more than any other sector.

"Its not as visible in most other workplaces," said Mandi Kime, safety director for the construction-industry group Associated General Contractors of Washington. "If somebodys driving by a construction site, theyll see if people are wearing masks or not."

Inspectors found violations at 12 construction companies, nearly half the total violations in the two counties.

While there have been complaints, many have not resulted in citations, Kime said . No AGC contractors have been written violations so far due to the diligence of our membership and my team.

Kime said the construction industry has not had a disproportionate number of Covid-19 cases.

While most complaints released to KUOW focused on businesses not protecting their employees or customers from the widespread virus, one person had the opposite concern.

Mandatory masking and the increase of CO2 causing headaches, dizziness, nearly passing out, that person complained.

A Labor and Industries staffer contacted the person to correct the mask misinformation.

Left message with complainant and sent email regarding the fact that surgical masks are not going to increase CO2," the staffer noted.

More here:
Covid cops do thousands of undercover 'spot checks' to protect public health - KUOW News and Information

Sustainable, renewable, and versatile: Its hard to find a better building material than wood. Its often the builders go-to, whether for a single-family home in the suburbs or a low-rise apartment complex in the city.

And its growing even more versatile. Thanks to a slate of relatively new engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timber and glued laminated timber, wood is becoming bigger and stronger. These engineered products, known as mass timber for their glued-together thickness, are increasingly finding their way into construction projects around the world, from an eight-story apartment building in Portland to two 10-story office buildings now under construction in Toronto to an 18-story mixed-use tower in Norway that is currently the worlds tallest timber building. Unlike concrete, which produces an estimated 5% of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions every year, mass timber sequesters CO2, turning buildings into environmentally friendly carbon sinks.

With global temperatures on the rise and wildfires regularly breaking out in places such as California and Australia, combustible wood may seem like a risky way to build for an uncertain future. According to experts, though, these mass timber products may become a more affordable and sustainable choice for builders looking for fire-resistant material. Due to its plywood-like layers, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, has been found to char during a fire at a slow enough rate that it can take more than 90 minutes of burning for a structure to collapse. By comparison, tests done on single-story wood-frame homes resulted in collapse after just 17 minutes. But while collapse may be delayed, the added fuel load of mass timber can speed up the initial growth rate of a fire. Completely fireproof wood buildings are conceivable but not feasible. The goal is to increase their fire resistance. On this front, CLT is promisingbut theres still much to learn.

CLT, which has been around for 30, 35 years, has only really started to be used as a larger building material in the last 10 years or so. So suddenly we need to start understanding how it performs in fire, says David Barber, a fire engineering expert and principal at Arup.

Most of the buildings that burn in wildfires are single-family homes, and most of these are built with traditional two-by-four wood framing. Because CLT can be around 20% more expensive than an average light-framed wood home, it isnt often found in single-family homes, but rather in taller buildings that need more structural support. These uses tend to be more expensive than traditional concrete or steel constructionone feasibility study of a hypothetical 10-story apartment building found CLT to be between $6 and $10 more expensive per square footbut Barber says costs are coming down.

Compared to the recent past when CLT would be used sparingly as a wall or floor plate in a low-rise apartment or office building made of concrete and steel, Barber says engineered timber products are being used more intensively now in ever taller projects. The way were using them is just different. Part of that is a desire for taller and larger buildings and a desire to build more efficiently, which means you end up having engineered timber materials pushed beyond what they were often traditionally used for, he says. That leads to these materials sometimes being used in ways that havent been fully tested. Fire codes are now beginning to be updated to include materials such as CLT.

Prior to the 2021 edition of the code, being able to go this high with this type of construction wasnt really permitted. It wasnt really anything that had been tried before, says Val Ziavras, a technical services engineer at the National Fire Protection Association, a fire safety nonprofit that develops codes and standards for buildings, services, and installations. Its a fairly new phenomenon, and the codes always take a little time to catch up with new technologies.

CLT is used most often in apartment buildings that are under about 10 stories tall. Ziavras says the codes are clear that CLT is fire-safe in these types of projects, but theres still some ambiguity about how the material itself is used. Often, its used simply as a workaday structural beam, and its covered up with fire-resistant gypsum board to enhance its safety. But, increasingly, some designs call for the CLT itself to remain on display. From what Ive heard people want to use it because, lets face it, wood is beautiful to look at. So why would you want to build with it and then have to cover it up? Ziavras says.

Exposed wood might not be the safest choice. In 2018, the NFPA released a study on the fire risk of CLT in tall buildings. The testing process included building six rooms out of 175-millimeter-thick CLT wall panels and lighting them on fire. Uncovered CLT elements fully caught flame 3 to 5 minutes earlier than covered elements. But because of the slow rate at which the fire can burn through CLTs many layers, their slow charring rate, CLT elements can withstand flames and remain structurally intact for much longer than frame-built wood buildings. The key thing is that all building materials are vulnerable to fire. They all have strengths and weaknesses, says Barber, who notes that CLT buildings in the U.S. require sprinkler systems that would prevent all but the most extreme fires from engulfing an entire building. Even so, a building made primarily out of wood is inherently a greater fire risk than one made primarily out of concrete or steel.

And though wood is no stranger to fire, mass timber forms such as CLT may actually become preferred building materials as they become more cost-competitive with concrete and steel. And builders will see that the fire risk of CLT is relatively low overall. At the moment it probably is still a niche product, Barber says. In 5 years time or 10 years time it probably will be, I would hope, a lot more mainstream.

Go here to see the original:
Mass timber is the future of architecture. But can it survive a world - Fast Company

In Orlando, Baldwin Park rentals as they looked while under construction. Private entrances and ... [+] separate garages allow more physical distancing. Generous balconies are in greater demand in a time when fresh outdoor air is desired more than ever.

I recently overheard a developer lament, amenities used to be about getting people together; now its all about keeping people apart. I couldnt disagree more. Its like what my daughters principal said: we should never do social-distancing. We sometimes have to physically distance, but we have to keep people socially connected.

Developers are now working out creative solutions to straddle this tricky line, and these solutions will be showing up in the marketplace in the near future.

Apartment developers are taking a fresh look at what they will build going forward, taking into account todays new health concerns. Some are going back to the (literal) drawing board, re-working their planned layouts, and in other cases are just emphasizing the already-existing designs that are likely to work best in the years ahead. Still others are hesitant to change much of anything, citing the economic model that might not show financial justification for elevators with facial recognition technology in their particular style of building. The scale and type of changes that make sense will vary according to the type of building and the particular market audience.

I consult for rental apartment developers on the subject of what renters want, what my clients should present to the market, what the supportable rents will be, and which groups will be the audience for that product. Many of them are pivoting toward layouts that reduce the likelihood of microbe transmission such as more and larger balconies, outdoor/rooftop common spaces and touchless elevators for high-rises, and private ground-floor entrances for garden-style developments.

Changes are being contemplated right now by most developers at the design stage to possibly add or emphasize things such as:

Some developers are looking into adding more staircases, sometimes featuring an enhanced feeling of openness, and artwork, to provide an attractive alternative to using the elevators.

A developer in Miami Beach starting work on a high-rise apartment building that will feature touchless elevators (using facial recognition), touchless entry doors, elevator corridors that are only accessible by residents, and advanced HVAC systems that will

A rendering of the balconies and outdoor gathering areas planned at 72 Park in Miami Beach.

filter out airborne microorganisms. To be in your own home and able to experience the expansive outdoor world is a recipe for success in this new era. And in a pandemic scenario, when isolating, you will still be attached to the world around you, said Matis Cohen, the developer of 72 Park. The expansive amenity decks and large balconies here will enable people to have a lavish outdoor experience without leaving their building. Cohens smallest units, 455 square foot pied a terres, have an additional 130 square feet of balcony, amounting to a 29% increase in total usable space.

For a broad international perspective on this topic I interviewed Brian O Looney, an architect with award-winning architectural firm Torti Gallas, who just published a book called Increments of Neighborhood: A Compendium of Built Types for Walkable and Vibrant Communities, and we talked about some examples from his book of this type of development. He noted the increased demand for balconies in this time of heightened consciousness about health and fresh air. The biggest change we are seeing (besides more 1BR+Den units in building unit mixes) as a direct result of COVID is an adoption of much larger outdoor patios and terraces in multifamily units, where what used to be a small 5x8 balconies in the United States are now being designed as an outdoor room- minimum 10x12 - similar to those built for decades as part of the culture in Brisbane and the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia, said OLooney.

Some developers were already putting strong emphasis on balconies before the

Balconies are seen on most units at NOVEL Atherton, in Charlotte, NC, by Crescent Communities.

pandemic, and now are well-situated with their product. Crescent Communities for example includes balconies for a large percentage of the units in their apartment buildings. All of our units have a balcony if they are larger than a studio apartment, said Brian Natwick, President and COO of Crescent Communities. And outside air is available in all units. Natwick also noted that Crescent is spacing out the equipment in the fitness centers and moving group fitness classes outside, to the pool deck or other outdoor areas on the property.

For two-story apartment buildings, there is merit in having separate entrances from the front of the building for each unit. Even before COVID, we had been seeing a rebirth of interest in rental housing formats that are stacked, with separate entrances from the street, and upscale walk-up, as opposed to conditioned secure corridor buildings.For many years, conditioned corridor buildings have been preferred for multi-family rental housing for their secure, connected interior environment.Now a number of trends are coming together which are expanding future multi-family offerings, particularly rental offerings, into alternate formats.

An interest in both healthier lifestyles and a renewed awareness in avoiding germ

Centergate Baldwin Park stacked rental units, in Orlando, feature balconies and distinct unit ... [+] entrances and separate garages per unit. This is a Torti Gallas design that is distinct from typical stacked rentals.

transmission in shared touchpoints such as security panels, building entrance door handles, elevator touchpads and recirculated air, is causing the promotion of non-elevator housing formats without shared conditioned lobbies and corridors.OLooney said that distinct direct-from-street unit entrances like those in conventional for-sale neighborhoods will be predominant in upscale rental communities with rental coming more in the form of townhouses, stacked flats and other distinct-entrance formats.We are beginning to see a renewed interest in courtyard housing andgarden apartments, where one can get to ones unit door without having to touch or engage in environments with shared mechanical ventilation.

The business decisions being made by developers now may have an impact on who prospers a few years into the future. A large number of apartment buildings already under construction are going to reach completion during the next 12 to 18 months, just when demand is weakening, which will cause an uptick in vacancies and/or a decline in average rents, particularly in the second half of this year and the first part of 2021. (Though rents should start moving up again by the spring or summer). Developers are looking for ways to stand out among all the competition, and several of them are investing in healthy living technologies, layouts, and programs in order to gain an edge. This being the trend, many of the buildings that will open for leasing in 2022, 2023, and 2024 will have an leg up over buildings built before this crisis.

More here:
New Health-Driven Trends In Rental Apartment Design And Development - Forbes