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DYK: Rattleshake
Did you know that Snakes can help predict earthquakes!?
WELCOME TO STEVE'S BUILD BLOG
Exploring the challenges and opportunities in building.
Introducing BuildUSA,Prototype Initiative and Optimized Building
What’s it all about:
Steve’ Build Blog (SBB) is all about the challenges building faces and the solutions being developed. Overtime SBB will be introducing BuildUSA (BUSA), the Prototype Initiative (PI) and Optimized Building (OB), combined they offer solutions to forward looking, integrated and collaborative, Building Teams.
Monthly Theme
Throughout 2023, SBB will organize content via a “Monthly Theme”. Building, encompasses an extraordinary amount of topics, and “Monthly Theme is intended to make the content more useful. If you have any suggestion, please reach out and let us know.
April 2023 Monthly Theme:
The Building industry impact on our communities, punches well above its weight. Not only does it drive the economy for building services and building materials, including manufacturing, transportation and distribution networks, but it has immediate impact on the Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment (FFE) industry that will fill the building and make it operational for the future tenents.
DYK: Rise & Shine
Did you know that Space missions have been using solar energy to power spaceships since 1958, including the International Space Station?
DYK: Letting The Bubble Pop
Did you know in 2009 after the housing market crash a small business filed for bankruptcy every eight minutes?
White Paper One: Building is Changing Are You?
One of our greatest public works yet, White Paper 1, will uncover all the current problems in the building world today and present solutions through industry changing innovation and widespread...
What Is the Meaning of Optimized Building?
Both industry professionals and members of the general public often have a hard time describing what constitutes a great building. Typically, people...
DYK: Noah’s Ark
Did you know that Global warming is causing the sea level to rise in two ways??? First: the glaciers and ice sheets worldwide are melting and adding water to the ocean. Second: the volume...
DYK: Powered by The People
Did you know that there are 30.2 million small businesses in this country? Small businesses comprise 99.9% of all United States businesses
Successful Innovation Is Always a Zero-Sum Game
When I was a kid, bringing home a new toy, piece of sports equipment, or gadget always gave me a special feeling of excitement. I have vivid memories of a...
The White Papers Are Here
Click Here To View (Est. read time: 5 mins) The white papers are coming! Check out this introduction for a brief description on the upcoming series of white papers that BuildUSA has to offer. These...
DYK: Volcanos, Earths Untouchable Oil
Did you know that volcanoes and geysers are examples of geothermal energy? Geothermal energy is plentiful, but geothermal power is not. Temperatures increase below Earth’s surface at a rate of...
DYK: Worlds First Skyscraper?
Did you know that the Home Insurance Building in Chicago is generally considered the world's first skyscraper? Completed in 1885, it was the first to use a curtain wall construction on a steel...
DYK: Unnatural Selection..
Did you know that the world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to a new United Nations...
DYK: Its Getting Hot in Here, So Recycle All Your Clothes
Did you know that it is expected that the planet’s temperature may rise at least another 2 degrees Fahrenheit up to 11 degrees in the next 100 years!? That doesn't sound like much but that's enough...
DYK: Less Power
Did you know 75% of the energy we use comes from non-renewable energy such as oil, fossil fuels, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy?
Floating Cities.. They. Are. Here.
Floating cities, Lego house? What more could you want.
Augmented Brick Laying
3D AR tech meets constriction.
The Future of Mobile Living & Fold-able Building Technology
Ten Fold Engineering presents their fordable designs concepts.
Inside Kendall Jenner’s L.A. Home!
What Skills Do You Need to Be an Architect?
Llyan Austria breaks down the tools, skills and practices that is required to be a successful architect! Drawing? Creativity? Math?
DYK: Set Course for Tatooine
Did you know that according to astrophysicists and Einsteins theory of relativity, a warp drive is physically possible? Now we just need to find the right materials and energy requirements to...
Food and Building Got it Wrong!!
In an earlier blog post I tried to establish parameters around what the definitions of quality for Building might look like. In looking at this issue for the...
The Borg vs. Kirk vs. Spock
What does Building’s future decision-making look like? Star Trek offers us three models, each embodied in a specific character. Will it...
DYK: More Power!
Did you know 75% of the energy we use comes from non-renewable energy such as oil, fossil fuels, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy.
DYK: More Than Just a Mattress
Did you know one in 10 Europeans are conceived in an Ikea bed?
DYK: Grab a Coffee?
Did you know Starbucks' round tables were created specifically so customers would feel less alone?
DYK: Lithium, Gold of The Future
Did you know lithium is an element of growing importance due to its use in batteries used in cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles? Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina account for over 50% of easily...
DYK: BIM is Leading the Future
Did you know that 45 percent of architecture firms use BIM?
Systems, Standards, Templates, Workflows & Modules
Music, mathematics, language, computer coding are all highly formulated and structured, yet at the same time, recognized as some of our most creative systems. ...
Ignorance is Not Bliss
At any given point in time there is a ratio of Knowledge, Resources, Skill-Sets and Customs (KRSC) that combine to provide a potential optimum for life. ...
Change is Tectonic
CHANGE IS TECTONIC The current group of blog posts are being written in a very uncertain environment. Testing has just begun to accelerate and the COVID-19 numbers continue...
DYK: Construction Industry’s Place in the Market
Did you know the construction industry has an average unlevered beta of about 1.33? This means that if the market itself is neutral (at a beta of 1.00) than the construction/engineering industry has...
DYK: The Healthcare Budget
Did you know that the U.S. spends 3.5 trillion on healthcare per year? This is more than every other country and about 18% of our countries' gross domestic output (GDP). Of that $3.5...
VICIOUS vs. VIRTUOUS CYCLES
VICIOUS VERSUS VIRTUOUS CYCLES I would argue that all of our activity, both in business and in everyday life, can be organized into one of two cycles: ...
Back To The Future
Back to the Future A brief look backward into Building’s history and an even briefer glimpse into Building’s future A successful building process requires expertise from diverse fields of...
They Don’t Build Them Like They Used To
Growing up I would often hear the phrase “they don’t build them like they used to.” The saying implies that older buildings are better than new buildings. Better design, better construction, better...
What Can We Learn From Other Industries?
One of the (few) benefits of Building’s late arrival to the innovation/disruption(I/D) party is the fact that we have the opportunity to watch countless other industries go through wholesale...
Does Technology Make Life Better?
I made my first big tech purchase in the early 1980’s. At the time, it felt like a rite of passage, like getting your first driver’s license or buying your first home. In fact, it was almost as...
The Thrill of Victory (Winning) and the Agony of Defeat (Losing)
If you ever played on a seesaw in your younger years, you know that it helps to have a partner of approximately equal weight as yourself on the seat facing you. This way, the seesaw situation...
Money, Money, Money!!
One evening in 1983, I was drinking beers with a friend and discussing how I was going to turn my current carpentry work into a robust building and design business. As we were talking, I jotted down...
Expressways, Expectations, Happiness
Expressway Syndrome Do any of you remember living through the creation of a new expressway? In the Chicago area, there are numerous expressways: Lakeshore Drive...
Good Questions Can Answer Themselves
Eureka! Have you ever found yourself driving down the highway obsessing over a seemingly impossible problem Then, all of a sudden, you hear something on the radio, or see a billboard or a license...
DYK: Land Use -The Magic .6% Percent
Did you know that photovoltaic (semiconductors that convert sunlight to electricity) would just need to cover 0.6% of U.S. land area to generate enough electricity to meet national demand.
DYK: Pipes and More Pipes
Did you know water systems maintain more than 2 million miles of distribution mains? In 2000, nearly 80% of systems were less than 40 years old, while 4% were more than 80 years old. From 2001 to...
DYK: Water Costs More Than Waste
Did you know that U.S. water systems need to invest $472.6 billion over the next 20 years to continue providing clean safe drinking water?
DYK: How Much Water Do We Use?
Did you know in 2015, total U.S. water use was approximately 322 billion gallons per day where California and Texas accounted for 16% of U.S. total water withdrawals?
DYK: Where Does Your Water Come From?
Where Does Your Water Come From? Approximately 87% of the U.S. population relied on public water supply in 2015; the remainder relies on water from domestic wells.
DYK: Renewable Energy Needs Critical Elements
Did you know silicon, tellurium, and indium are necessary parts of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels?
DYK: What Makes Technology Click
Did you know rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements used in various products such as alloys, batteries, and catalysts? No readily available substitutes exist for most rare earth elements....
DYK: Landfills What A Waster
Did you know in 2015, 52.5% of MSW generated in the U.S. was disposed of in 1,738 landfills? Imagine what it's like today!!! The 2017 combined capacity of the two largest landfill corporations in...
DYK: Garbage Can Cost You
Did you know the generation of MSW from private consumption in the U.S. is approximately $21.32 per pound or 47 lbs per thousand dollars? Comparable generation rates (in lbs/thousand dollars) are 40...