Builder 100 2008

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Builder 100 2008

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Men: PLEASE Stop Wearing Pink Ties

It's hard to believe this has happened (or that I'm writing about it), but the "power tie" color of 2008 seems to be PINK. Sorry if I'm not PC about this... but dude, I can't take you seriously in a business situation if you're sitting across from me wearing a pink tie. Pink shirt ditto.

Sorry. Please go change your clothes.

Ladies - you're not off the hook here either. Pink is a color for little girls under the age of 7, not business executives of either gender.

I Want to Join the E-Street Band

For Christmas, my wife scored us primo seats to the E-Street Band's visit to Rochester, NY. on March 6 '08. I'm sure many of my readers have seen Bruce Springsteen in concert - until last night I never had.

What a remarkable thing we experienced.

Rochester NY, dead of winter, "the boss" packed the war memorial arena (now the "Blue Cross Center" or something) to the rafters. That part isn't so remarkable, since "Miley Cyrus" no-doubt could do that. What got me (and I mean GOT me - in my gut) was the way this man...and his band of 30-some years connected with a slice of America 20,000 or so strong. I've never seen anything like it. No politician, no musical artist, no sporting venue, no other cult of
personality or any kind - nothing else comes close in my experience.

The audience ranged in age from little kids tagging along with their parents (or in many cases - grandparents) to the parents of the parents of the parents, and - I don't want to get corny here - but it was clearly a slice of American pie. Most everyone in attendance knew all the words to all the songs (even the new ones) and weren't afraid to join in. At times the crowd sing-along was as loud as the E-Street Band, even when they were blasting full-tilt.

For those 2 1/2 hours everyone forgot about their aches and pains (literal and otherwise) and were somehow transformed back to a night in the '70s, maybe listening to "Rosalita" at a local show in Jersey... or "Born to Run" in when the Boss came to SUNY Binghamton.. or the '80s for "Born in the USA".... or the '90s (erase that '88-95 stretch with no E-Street Band from
memory).... or maybe even to hear the new tunes on 'Magic' performed live. Unlike so many "come back" albums (Springsteen never went anywhere to 'come back' from) it deserves a place at the table with the classics.

Anyway... In an era where other touring "classic rockers" are merely shells of their former selves...one original member (barely functional) surrounded by half a dozen clueless (but technically perfect) clean-scrubbed 20-somethings fresh out of music school (paid for by
mommy and daddy)... the E-Street Band is the real deal. The same folks who have toured and recorded and hung out with Springsteen from the beginning. Good players - you bet - but not virtuosos, not hot-shots. Just some guys (and gals, pardon my non-PC prose here) getting together and playing the songs. Some of the folks in the front row painted a "Rosalita PLEASE" sign...Bruce grabbed it, saying "Man, I don't know if we remember it but we'll give it a shot..." and they were off and running. Maybe it was on the set list all along, but no matter - they gave it their best and brought the house down.

You got the feeling that just like the other 20,000 of us in the audience, those guys had spent the past 30 yrs watching each others' kids (and grand-kids) grow up, shared quite a few 'through sickness and through health' ups and downs...and hung out together. Super-bowls and backyard BBQs.

And unlike acts like the Stones, or the Eagles, or U2, or even the much-hyped Led Zep reunion... The E-Street Band didn't act like they were doing us a big f'ing favor to come play for us. Instead, they thanked us for having the party - like they would have driven up to Rochester, NY in the dead of winter for the get-together with friends and family...concert or not.

Buzzwords of the Month

"Workforce Housing" - a.k.a. cardboard multi-family (or I suppose, 'cabbage row' single family detached housing) designed to "affordable" by the new crop of urban professionals with their shiny new "green collar" jobs. And the old-school blue collar jobs too.

I started hearing this term a few months ago... and it was all over IBS_2008. Having grown up in a company town where my uncle built a good share of company housing (A.K.A "Workforce Housing" from last-century) this is really nothing new. People working somewhere need a place to live near where they work... or eventually you don't have any worker-bees. Ask people struggling to work in Aspen or Palm Springs what their daily commute is like, and how long they'd like to keep making it to keep their $10/hr (or less) jobs. With $4-5/gallon gas looming (and other energy and transportation costs rising proportionally) - that whole scene is not long for the world IMO.

Of course, "Affordable" means if you're moving into the San Fran bay area maybe you'll only have to mortgage $350/SF, down from today's $450/SF. Meanwhile, in Canton, OH, it's still tough for builders to to get $100/SF on a hard cost of $60. This speaks to the "intrinsic value" of housing, and what I call the "Beanie Baby Trend" - but that's another post for another day.

Conestoga Laminated Log Homes - "Green" and High-tech log homes

Saw a very interesting factory tour for Conestoga log homes http://www.conestogaloghome.com/) on PCN (Pennsylvania Cable Network - a state government channel on our local cable system). Conestoga manufactures a laminated "Log" out of dimensional lumber using scrap wood, fingerjoints and etc. (you know the drill) -- what caught my eye was their use of hsbCAD, (http://www.hsbcad.de/) a very advanced German CNC machining package that sits on top of Autodesk Architectural Desktop.

With this software they can actually simulate how the milling machinery will process each
piece. It's years ahead of what we think of as residential "CAD" - because it's designed to power the factory floor, not just design the building like a SoftPlan or Chief Architect (or CADsoft). The software also creates labels for every "log" in the package which are placed prior to shipment. Even electrical boxes are pre-routed into the logs (although these are done off-line... not part of the CAD-CNC process). The company built some very interesting machinery for these processes.

The laminated log approach also allows for a split design that can be insulated with rigid foam. The finished product looks more like "log cabin siding" than real logs, but it's a much greener choice if you're looking for the "log look".