Pretty much any way you measure it, the construction and architecture industries have taken a significant hit since the financial market collapsed over a year ago.  Over at Software Advice, Don Fornes takes a look at the trends in construction software during the current recession to see how firms have attempted to save time, money, and energy – at a time when jobs are hard to come by and competition is as stiff as ever.  Check out the article, here.

The trends aren’t surprising:

• The demand of estimating software is up.
• LEED credit tracking software is in high demand
• Stimulus funds are not affecting IT spending

Estimating software demand is up

When the jobs are limited and the number of competitors trying to get the same job is greatly increased, its as important as ever to get the numbers right.  When the bids roll in, you need to be right on the mark in order to secure the project.  Not only does the software more accurately calculate the cost, it also saves time in calculating numbers with spreadsheets or even old fashioned pencil and paper.  While a recession may have spurred the use of estimating software, I imagine this is a trend that will continue long after the recession has eased.  In the end, more accurate and speedy estimates will improve the construction and architecture communities.

LEED credit tracking software is in demand

We’ve reached a point of no return, and its where sustainability becomes the norm and not the exception.  Once seen as a bonus if a building achieved LEED status, it will now be the only way to design and build a project.  And while LEED has made attempts to streamline their points system and the way certification is achieved, its still a time consuming process.  Not only that, the credit tracking needs to be accurate so buildings are truly achieving the goals they have set out to achieve.  With the use of LEED credit tracking software it is easy to integrate sustainability with construction and design.  There is a slight increase in upfront cost when constructing a sustainable building, which includes the LEED application fees.  However the money is recouped during the life of the building and clients are going to expect sustainable and LEED certified buildings moving forward.  The uptick in LEED credit tracking software is a bright spot even during this low time.

Stimulus funds not affecting IT spending

Off all the trends, this seems like the hardest to quantify.  But I am not surprised by the trend that exists.  For me, the purpose of the stimulus funds, and there were a lot for the construction sector (including many projects at my firm), is to have an immediate impact, hence stimulus.  So it makes sense that this money is not being spent on software that may aid firms in successfully gaining work, but rather spent immediately on the project and put directly into the economy.  The stimulating of the construction and architecture industries does not have time to wait for software to be implemented- such projects will be supplemented with new IT spending but not rely on such.

All of this is very interesting and puts a new perspective on how to quantify the recession on the construction and architecture industries and their response to it.  Please leaves your thoughts and comments.

Soon the Richmond Gas Company Building will be no more.  Click here for news story.

The first time I set eyes on the Richmond Gas Company Building, I knew it was the perfect building for my thesis.  While it wasn’t exactly what I had researched during Fall Semester 2008, it fit the parameters I set forth as an ideal building.  The building had long been abandoned but through its history it had played an important role in the cultural history of Richmond, Indiana.  Because of this the building plays an important role in memory and identity of the community.  And that was the heart of my thesis.  I want the building to be preserved because of the important role its had in the area, but I also wanted to explore how the existing memory and identities associated with the building could play a role in the adaptive use.

I spent several occasions in the building.  I photographed it.  I surveyed it.  I touched it.  I experienced it.  And in the end, decided my proposed adaptive use of the Richmond Gas Company Building, would be about experiencing the building.  And in the following documents I laid out my ideas.  They are just my idea worked on for only a handful of weeks.  The important factor was preserving the building.  I presented my ideas to Richmond in April and members of the community had their own great ideas.  But it seems at this point it was all for naught.  But maybe not.

I now have a catalog of over 100 photos of the building.  I have fairly accurate architectural drawings of the building.  I have a 3d model of the building.  I have what it looks like will be the best remaining archival documents of this building.  While the building may be demolished, it will be preserved through these documents.  Is that acceptable?  No, but it seems as things have reached the end and if this is the best we have, well at least we have it.  Please check out the documents below.  Some of the information included are: historic photos, building history, existing photos (as of January 2009), proposed adaptive use changes to the building, and much more.  All the items are COPYRIGHT 2009 Gregory Dowell.  If you want to re-use them, please contact me for permission.  Over the next few days I will be creating a photo gallery with the best photos I have of the building.

(Please be patient when downloading files.)

Richmond Gas Company Building PowerPoint Presentation

Richmond Gas Company Building Book Report

Richmond Gas Company Building Thesis Report

- Gregory Dowell

Since I completed my thesis involving the Richmond Gas Company building I have kept a watchful eye on developments surrounding the building.  When I began my thesis the building was at crossroads.  There was a large faction ready to demolish the building considering it an eyesore and hazard.  The was another prominent but smaller contingency trying to save the building and make it useful once again.  As the thesis progressed it seemed as though the tide was slowly turning and there was a a reasonable chance the building would not be demolished.  The community of Richmond, along with a few people with some say, enjoyed the spotlight I put on the building through my thesis and were at least willing to listen.  And as of today, the building still stands, just as it did when I first happened upon it 9 months ago.  But that may be about to change, and not for the better.

On Monday I received an email from a gentleman who took keen interest in my project since his father worked in the building.  The email linked to a newstory about a tragedy at the building.  You can find the story here.  A teenager fell through the building’s roof and was in critical condition after being airlifted to the hospital.  And not surprisingly, the chorus for the building’s demolition reached a crescendo on Monday afternoon.  People cited the unsafe conditions of the building, how the city failed to properly keep out trespassers, and how it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

I can vouch for the ease of getting in the building.  I spent half a day in the building getting photos and surveying the building to use for my thesis.  The building is in obvious disrepair and I was extremely cautious deciding where I stepped while in the building.  Here are some photos to illustrate the condition of the building.  Note the condition of the roof.  Nobody should have even considered stepping on it.

Main Space of Richmond Gas Company Building

Conditions inside building

The city is the one who allowed the building to fall in disrepair and failed to properly secure it, as to make sure no one was able to get in the building.  And now a teenager who appears to have made a very bad decision (I don’t have any updates to the story) is critically injured but somehow its the building’s fault.  Maybe its the cynic in me, but I think the city was waiting for something like this to happen so they had good reason to not only demolish the building, but to hasten the process.  The building needs work, I know that as well as anybody, but its salvageable.  Unfortunately this incident has probably brought us to the beginning of the end for the Richmond Gas Company building.  I’ll keep my ears tuned in as ever, because I can’t let my first attempt to save a building end like this.

On the same day the World Monument Fund announced its biennial Watch List of cultural heritage sites facing neglect, demolition, or disaster, the city of St. Petersburg, Russia approved the construction of a 77-story skyscraper in the heart of the Czarist era city.  St. Petersburg is not on the WMF Watch List (though it was on the 2008 Watch), but it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and UNESCO has threatened to revoke the city’s heritage designation if the construction does proceed.  And so the battle continues.

There is no easy answer when it comes to preservation and progress.  Like a lot of things in life, each side takes an extreme view of the other, when in actuality things are really more towards the middle.  Preservation is not anti-progress.  Progress is not anti-preservation.  Or at least neither should be.  There is a way to integrate preservation and progress.  However, plunking a 1300 foot tower in the middle of a city which has strictly regulated building heights in the city center for centuries is simply ridiculous.  St. Petersburg boasts a well preserved collection of 18th and 19th century Baroque and Neoclassical architecture and a contemporary skyscraper will be simply out of context.  I’ll be watching this one carefully.

The WMF Watch List is as eclectic as ever.  From Machu Picchu to the 3000 yeard old petroglyphs in the Diamer-Basha Dam area cultural around the world is at risk.  These are irreplaceable artifacts, innovations, and products of humans.  They are so important they belong to the entire human race and deserve all the protection they can be afforded.  Once they are gone, there is no way to get them back.  The sites on the WMF Watch List are living history.  As American’s its eay to think that these places are only ancient/old and found in foreign countries, but of the 100 sites on the 2010 list, nine (9) are found in the United States.  And while the Taos Pueblo is old, there are also two Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings as well as the bridges of Merritt Parkway in Connecticut which are just 70 years old.

I’m predisposed to care about these things.  It’s what I do.  I hope the rest of you realize the real sense of urgency there should to be protect these sites.  Again, once its gone, its not coming back.  Check out the list, maybe you’ve been to one of the sites or a lot of the sites, they’re more prevalent than these laundry list of sites lead you to believe.  Protect our (humanity’s) history.

More than any American newspaper, The New York Times has excellent coverage of architecture, both domestic and abroad. It’s not my first source for architecture related news, but its nice to see at least a weekly piece dedicated to architecture. This week’s story is the classic progress vs. preservation battle that’s all too familiar around the world. More often that not, progress wins out, while making a mockery of preservation. That mockery is facadism or facadomy, which is the practice of demolishing a building but leaving its facade intact for the purposes of building new structures in it or around it. The story is Stuttgart’s Hauptbahnhof, an early building of German Modernism, built by Paul Bonatz in the early 20th century against plans to “upgrade” the station, Stuttgart 21.

I visited Stuttgart this summer and though I spent less than a day there, I was taken by the city’s authentic charm.  In a country that struggles to be authentic with its history, Stuttgart does it better than most other German cities.  I could not stand the day I spent in Dresden because it was impossible to know what was old, new, or a reconstruction.  This was not the case in Stuttgart which has a lovely city center, which will be utterly destroyed if Stuttgart 21 comes to fruition.  Unfortunately it looks as though Stuttgart 21 is a done deal, with the compromise between progress and preservation once again being facadism.

Stuttgart 21 intends to save only the main hall and tower of the station.  But the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof is not simply its main hall and tower.  It’s the building it is because of the entirety of the building working together harmoniously.  Not to mention the interactions and life that takes place in and around the structure.  Buildings are not historic and significant only because of their architecture, form, and other spatial qualities.  By taking away the “guts” of Bonatz’s Hauptbahnhof, its no longer a culturally significant building.  And this is how facadism makes a mockery of preservation.  It is a half-assed gesture to the preservation community that the building is “being saved”, when in fact it is being completely bastardized.  In most cases it would be better to simply demolish the building, commemorate it with a plaque and let people remember the building through drawings, photographs, and more importantly their own memories.

This is not an anti-progress argument.  This is a think outside the box argument.  The stock of historic and culturally significant buildings is only going to increase as time progresses and we must do a better job recognizing the importance these structures play in a community.  So when the time comes where progress is necessary (in this case the high speed train is a wonderful idea to connect the whole of Europe) we must look at ideas that integrate and adapt old and new to work seemlessly together but don’t create a false history, a false memory, or a false identity.  And ultimately that’s what I tried to achieve with my Master thesis.  While it seems like lost battle after lost battle, the preservation community must continue to fight and make people understand the true value on these buildings and not only the bottom line and greater efficiency of a new building that totally ignores history.

Here is a slideshow with the existing Hauptbahnhof, as well as, the planned Stuttgart 21.

It’s been a while, and for that I apologize.  Things have been busy, but not so busy that I haven’t had time to blog.  My excuse is that for all intents and purposes most of my time has been spent on my classified Washington, D.C. project.  So really there isn’t much I can tell you and I know that reading about generalities really isn’t exciting reading.  I can mention that last week we conducted surveys to complete HABS (Historic American Building Survey) drawings for the most significant spaces in the building.  Well most of them are quite significant.  Somehow a bathroom snuck onto the list of rooms receiving HABS drawings.  At the end of the project I’ll be able to explain why, but don’t hold your breathe, that’s not until March 2011.

However, recently it seems as though two new, smaller (much smaller) projects are on the table.  One is a historic property in West Dundee, IL and the other is a RFQ/proposal for the La Point-Krebs House in Pascagoula, MS.  The projects will be along the lines of a Historic Structure Report, rehabilitation/restoration plans, and general guidance on protecting the historic buildings.  The size and scope of these two projects makes it possible for me to be involved from the start with all aspects of the project without too much involvement from a higher-up.  I’m just getting started on the legwork and will keep you up to date as the projects progress.

In the mean time check out some architectural photography I took this past weekend down at Millennium Park as well as a video of the changing colors of Zaha Hadid’s pavilion.

For the second time in six weeks I’m off to Washington D.C. for work.  Well actually I’m heading to D.C. tomorrow evening and spending the weekend with a friend before meeting up with the survey team on Monday morning.  This is just one of what seems to be many trips to the nation’s captiol for work so I thinking about picking up a second gig as a congressman.  They seem to fly in and out as they choose voting on bills they want and missing votes as they please.  I think I can fit that kind of effort into my schedule.  So I’ll report back here some time next week.  In the meantime enjoy this classic.

So I started The Rookie feature to update you about the goings-on of my first year in the business.  And for four weeks that’s what its been.  And for weeks to come that’s what it will remain.  But right now the majority of my work hours are being consumed by a project I can’t tell you about.  It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about it, but I can’t.  The project is classified.  Yeah, I had to get security clearance to work on the project.  It’s really cool and when the time comes the project is unclassified I’ll tell you all about it.

But for the time being, you can guess all you want, but I won’t tell.  I can’t.  This week I’ve been prepping and planning for the mobilization next week.  The next two weeks are going to be non-stop.  I’ll spend three days in Washington D.C. then back to the Chicago office for 2 days before heading back to D.C. for a weekend with a friend and three more work days in D.C.  Upon returning from the second trip to D.C. I have new employee orientation at company headquarters, which is luckily in town, but not my office.

So there will be no pictures.  There will be no tales of finding this or that.  All there will be is this.  Just a big teaser to tell you that I’m working on a really cool classified project.  But I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all the other stuff I’m doing…as long as its not classified.

I find nothing about riding a swing stage inherently scary.  To me its just like a moving balcony.  There is one thing that may wrack the nerves and that’s the gap.  It’s the space between the swing stage and the building, which usually amounts to no more than a few inches, but you can still see from the top of the building all the way to the ground below.  As long as you mind the gap and don’t look down (which is impossible to do – you have to see just how far up you really are) than riding a swing stage is no different from being on terra firma.  Other than the fact that the swing stage affords awesome views, especially in a city like Chicago.

Today I was on swing stage on one of my favorite Chicago buildings, the CNA Center.  There is nothing spectacular about the building; its run of the mill Modern, but the brick red color really makes it a unique member of the Chicago skyline.  The job at hand was to inspect the paint, which over the course of the last year, was repainted and to perform a critical facade examination.  While it was all business on the swing stage, time on the roof between drops gave me the opportunity to snap some great shots of Chicago from the gravitity defying height of 46 stories or 600 feet.

The Chicago Skyline from the CNA Center

While on the roof I also noticed that Zaha Hadid’s Millenium Park/Daniel Burnham Centennial Pavilion was finally completed and open.  So after work I headed over to Millennium Park to check it out.  You may remember my review of the UNStudio Pavilion, from last week.  Well, the UNStudio Pavilion wins, hands down.  The only way I can describe Hadid’s pavilion is, boring.  It works from one perspective, and that is when its framed by the amazing Chicago skyline.

Zaha Hadid's Pavilion with the Chicago Skyline

While the UNStudio Pavilion was interactive and invited the user to experience the space, the Hadid pavilion actually puts off the user.  It felt more like an art installation than a pavilion.  It’s tight and enclosed within the cloth shell and the roof openings are capped with plastic.  Apparently it glows a multitude of colors at night (and I do plan to check them both out at night) but again this will simply enhance its aesthetics and not its user interactiveness.  And Hadid’s pavilion totally ignores the UNStudio pavilion.  This doesn’t excite me to see any more Hadid projects.

For more pictures from the CNA Center, as well as, the Hadid Pavilion follow this link to a higher resolution gallery.

I was about to turn off the TV after back to back episodes of HGTV’s Property Virgins but the network caught my attention announcing a “special” green episode of House Hunters.  So of course I had to watch.  At this point we’re only 7 minutes in and I’m angry.

• A couple is looking to upgrade from a 800 s.f. loft.  I understand they have outgrown their current 800 s.f. but they want to at least double their square footage and have at least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in their new place.  Extra (and most likely not/under used) square footage adds to the heating/cooling load and therefore is not green.
• They want new construction.  Yep building a new home is very environmentally friendly when there is an available building stock from which to choose.
• Their idea of being green is like most of the world’s understanding: peel and stick solutions such as photovoltaic (solar) cells, EnergyStar appliances, recycled glass tiles, and low VOC paints.
• All the houses have included a grass lawn which, if they want it to remain green in California, will require watering.
• They would have a longer commute to work.
• I can’t continue to list all the hypocrisies of these so-called “environmentally conscious” people.

Don’t get me wrong, the peel and stick solutions are a step in the write direction, but you’re barely being  “greener” than the least green person.  Sooner or later (and we’re well past the time) we must move this idea of being “green” beyond this peel and stick solutions.  There must be a fundamental change in how we talk about and initiate evironmentally friendly changes.  Or at least lets drop the charade.  If you’re going to be green be green.  If you’re not going green don’t pretend you are with these silly gimmicks.