The research report Building Finishing Contractors Market Global Industry Analysis 2019 2025 offers precise analytical information about the Building Finishing Contractors market. The report identifies top players in the global market and divides the market into several parameters such as major drivers market strategies and imposing growth of the key players. Worldwide Building Finishing Contractors Industry also offers a granular study of the market dynamics, segmentation, revenue, share forecasts and allows you to make superior business decisions. The report serves imperative statistics on the market stature of the prominent manufacturers and is an important source of guidance and advice for companies and individuals involved in the Building Finishing Contractors industry.

This Building Finishing Contractors market report bestows with the plentiful insights and business solutions that will support our clients to stay ahead of the competition. This market report contains categorization by companies, region, type, and application/end-use industry. The competitive analysis covered here also puts light on the various strategies used by major players of the market which range from new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and many others that leads to increase their footprints in this market. The transparent research method carried out with the right tools and methods makes this Building Finishing Contractors market research report top-notch.

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Competitive Landscape

Global Building Finishing Contractors market is highly split and the major players have used numerous tactics such as new product launches, acquisitions, innovation in products, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to increase their footprints in this market.

Key players profiled in the report include: APi, Performance Contracting, Cleveland Construction, Irex Corp Of Lancaster

Market Segmentation

Building Finishing Contractors Market report segmentation on Major Product Type:Drywall And Insulation Contractors, Painting And Wall Covering Contractors, Flooring Contractors, Tile And Terrazzo Contractors, Finish Carpentry Contractors, Others

Market by Application: Here, various application segments of the global Building Finishing Contractors market are taken into account for the research study.

Utilities, Commercial, Residential

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Regional Analysis

The Building Finishing Contractors market report keenly emphasizes on industrial affairs and developments, approaching policy alterations and opportunities within the market. The regional development methods and its predictions are explained in every key point that specifies the general performance and issues in key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, South America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Various aspects such as production capability, demand, product value, material parameters and specifications, distribution chain and provision, profit and loss, are explained comprehensively in the market report.

Key Questions Answered in Global Building Finishing Contractors Market Report:-

What will the market growth rate, overview, and analysis by type of global Building Finishing Contractors Market in 2026?

What are the key factors driving, analysis by applications and countries Global Building Finishing Contractors Market?

What are dynamics, this summary includes analysis of the scope and price analysis of top players profiles of Global Building Finishing Contractors Market?

Who are the opportunities, risk and driving forces of the global Building Finishing Contractors Market?

Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Building Finishing Contractors Market?

What are the Global Building Finishing Contractors market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?

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Global Building Finishing Contractors Market 2019 by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 - The Industry Press Releases

Teenagers at Seminole Ridge High School partner with Habitat for Humanity to gain marketable skills and learn the value of community

WESTLAKE - Seventeen-year-old Danielle Shumard is building a house framing, plumbing, electric, everything.

The 1,200-square-foot residence will have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a front porch and a shed by the time she is finished.

And then she will give it away.

The junior at the Weitz Academy of Construction at Seminole Ridge Community High School in Westlake is one of 170 students in six classes working together to build the modular house.

It will be the schools eighth since partnering with Habitat for Humanity in 2005 on a project that teaches kids marketable skills while helping those in need.

"We rely on each other every day for everything," Shumard says about her fellow students. "When everybody comes together and is working hard, thats when you really see it pay off."

The school provides the tools, work space and kid power, and Habitat for Humanity donates most of the materials. The remainder of supplies come from local residents or businesses.

Upon its expected completion on Tuesday, the four modules that make up the home will be trucked to Belle Glade, where they will be assembled and the finishing touches applied before being presented to a deserving family.

"I want to be there," Shumard says. "Weve seen pictures and videos, and the looks on their faces when the houses get there its nice."

Under the supervision of faculty, local contractors and county inspectors, students build each house from the ground up, studying safety and learning basic construction while also developing architectural design, engineering and project management skills.

"Drywall is fun for me," Shumard says about her favorite task. "You see the walls when they are bare, and then you see something go up, and youre like, this house is actually going to go somewhere!"

The Weitz Academy of Construction is one of six academy programs construction, automotive, television production, biotechnology, information technology and ROTC that attract students from all over the county.

Shumard, who is also in ROTC, plans to attend college and become a construction manager. But not every student is as focused.

"Ive got kids that want to be engineers and kids that dont know what they want to do," says teacher Rick Terkovich who modeled the construction program after a similar one in Marathon. "To me, thats the beauty of this. We give kids the opportunity to do it all."

The teens learn what they do and do not like to do while they develop skills that can help them get into good colleges or make them immediately marketable in the working world.

"Recruiters are coming in because they dont have enough people," says Principal James Campbell of the demand for students graduating from the construction program. "They know these kids know what theyre doing."

While many graduates plan to attend college, not everyone has the desire or means to do so. And because of todays lack of qualified construction industry workers, any kid who wants a job when they graduate typically gets one right away, Campbell says.

"The pendulum shifted too far toward Everybody must go to college," Campbell says. "College is certainly a path we want to encourage, but there are other routes you can take to a successful career."

At 16, Blake Farnham already knows more than many adults about construction.

"If something breaks, I can help fix plumbing or help with electric," he says.

Farnham is in his third year of the construction program. He plans to attend college for chemical engineering and says hes proud of accomplishing the daunting task of mastering the many skills required to build a house.

"It definitely boosts my confidence, because then I can help other people," he says. "Like freshmen next year . . . Ill be able to tell them how to do it properly."

Plus, the class is fun.

"Instead of just a boring class, he jokes around," Farnham says about Terkovich. "Hes not a mean teacher he is fun to be around."

For Terkovich, a fun-loving jokester with undeniable reverence for his students, the feeling is mutual.

"I have a lot of fun working with kids seeing them succeed and seeing a family get a home," he says. "That, and my wife makes me come to work. She wont let me stay home."

wrhodes@pbpost.com

@WendyRhodesFL

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Westlake students build house, then give it away... for the 8th time - Palm Beach Post

ARLINGTON, VA (STL.News) On November 9th, NuWave Solutions employees donated their time and talents to support Habitat for Humanitys Randle Highlands Townhomes construction. This was the second annual contribution to the build. Eric Crenshaw, one of the original volunteers stated, It was exciting to see the progress made since last year. I feel invested in this community because were here, year after year, making a difference. Ken Taborn and his daughter Jordan both participated. Ken said, You cant image doing this before you get here, afterwards youre wondering why you havent done it sooner. Just knowing that someone will have a home because I donated a few hours, is extremely rewarding. This years team cut and hung drywall, installed trim, and caulked units for weather sealing. NuWaves contribution helped move DC Habitat closer to their goal of reducing poverty housing and homelessness in the nations capital. Thank you to the employees for their time, dedication, and commitment to this goal.

We look forward to our next Team Build with Habitat for Humanity!

411

Originally posted here:
NuWave Solutions Gives Back to the Community By Donating Time and Efforts to Habitat for Humanity - STL News

Theres something about shipping container buildings that gets people excited.

Perhaps its seeing something so mundane and functional become beautiful and personal? Or witnessing Tetris-like blocks stacked, disassembled and reassembled to create architecture? Or the fact that they can (sometimes) be cheaper, faster and less wasteful than traditional architecture? Cargotecture, as it is often called, fills up Instagram feeds, design blogs and shelter magazines.

And its market is expected to grow about 6.5 percent a year between now and 2025, according to Bigmarket Research.

New York because of its high construction costs, strict codes and dearth of space is not exactly the worlds cargotecture capital. But there are several homeowners and designers bringing the trend to town, both in the city and in areas like the Hudson Valley and the Hamptons where its easier to build such residences.

Stefano Giovannini

Chris Graham, 38, who works for Amazon Music, and his wife Clara Pregitzer, 35, who works for the Natural Areas Conservancy, had never thought of living in a shipping container house, but after staying in one via Airbnb, they realized it could be a good option.

The Gowanus residents tapped Brooklyn-based firm Contanium, which supplied the metal-sided, one-room structure that would become their weekend cabin on 6 acres in the Catskills town of Livingston Manor.

I was worried I would feel like I was in a small box, says Graham. But I was surprised by how spacious it was.

Contanium was able to quickly deliver a house that was off-grid a composting toilet run off solar panels sits in a separate outhouse and within budget. It was done in four to six weeks in 2017, Graham adds. You place it on the ground and youre good to go.

Each time Contanium builds a home, it becomes a model the firm can mass-produce. Take the Ashokan ($12,000), a 20-foot-long container with insulated windows, sliding glass doors and plywood floors. Theres the Saugerties ($32,000), also 20 feet long, with built-in windows and doors. (A 40-foot version is $52,000.) It comes with hardwood floors, insulation, a pine-paneled ceiling and walls, a solar energy system, a wood pellet stove, kitchen cabinets and a jug-ready sink.

All are meant to be affordable, easy to install and less wasteful than new construction. Theyre not only off-grid (hence the composting toilets, wood stoves, solar panels and jug sinks) but also easily moveable (often placed on gravel, without foundations). Many serve as temporary lodging for clients building another house, as guest houses or as rustic retreats.

Were offering an opportunity to experience more minimal living, but thats only for people who dont desire all the comforts of on-grid living, says Tim Gilman-Sevcik, Contaniums head of development. Our belief is that off-grid and without impact should be the new American dream.

Matthew Carbone

At the other end of the spectrum are the luxury container projects by New York- and East Hampton-based MB Architecture. The firms work has progressed from (among other projects) a small Hamptons art studio (made from two containers) to the Media Lab at Bard College (made from four) to their latest, an 1,800-square-foot home in Amagansett consisting of a four-container living space, a one-container cantilevered bedroom and a one-container guest suite connected by a small passage. The U-shaped structure is wrapped around a tree.

You cant tell the home is made from containers from the inside, thanks especially to the double-height living room, a luminous, 17-foot-tall area whose grid of four windows overlook a pool and the horizon beyond. Its got a temple-like affect, says firm principal Maziar Behrooz. An epic sense.

The project, largely fabricated off-site, cost about 30 percent less than conventional construction, according to Behrooz.

The Hamptons is a good place to get this done, adds Behrooz. Traditional construction has gotten so expensive that people cant even afford to build small homes anymore.

What has been called the first container home in the Hamptons, informally known as the Beach Box, is currently on the market for $1.87 million with James Lancaster of Compass.

Stefano Giovannini

Owned by William White, the 58-year-old CEO of broadcast promotions agency Firefly Creative Entertainment Group, the home at 1932 Montauk Highway in Amagansett, just 600 feet from the ocean, was built using six containers. Brooklyn Heights-based container fabricator SG Blocks worked with contractor Andrew Anderson to put four bedrooms and a pool deck on the ground level, with the living room, kitchen, dining room and a roof deck above.

The 2,000-square-foot home, White tells The Post, doesnt feel like an industrial shipping container at all (or a dumpster, as some snooty friends like to joke).

The faade is clad in cedar and sandstone; the front yard is planted with sea grass, as is the roof deck; most walls are clad in white drywall; finishes are uniformly modern; and there are many windows with ocean views. The only hints of the containers corrugated (ridged) construction come via one wall on the ground floor and a ceiling on the top floor. Its become a house party hot spot for Whites family and friends.

Its so unconventional, he says. And thats why everyone just loves this house.

New York-based Steele House, working with its in-house architects and other firms like Brooklyn-based Big Prototype, have created four custom container houses in the Catskills, all incorporating a metal pitched roof to accommodate the areas weather.

Founder Tim Steele, who likens his products aesthetic to industrial farm buildings, says his homes are comparable in price to affordable stick-built residences, coming in at roughly $200 per square foot.

Steele is working on another home in Hudson, NY, and is developing several container home prototypes to produce across the country that range from the Escape Pod, one room made from just one container ($80,000) to the two-story Cantilever House ($285,000).

He works closely with his clients, who are often moving outside the city but still able to work remotely.

The movement has staying power, he adds: Its not a fad. Its been going on for a while now.

One of the most notable local creators of cargotecture is Lot-ek (pronounced low tech), a New York City architecture firm that has championed the style since the 1990s. Its partners Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, have designed dozens of container edifices in and around the city.

Their Carroll House, completed in 2016 on a corner lot in Williamsburg, features 21 containers stacked and then cut diagonally across the top and bottom, creating a trapezoidal form that creates privacy from the street, and opens up in incredible ways from inside, thanks to a collection of stepped, easily accessible exterior spaces.

The owner, local restaurateur Joe Carroll (of Fette Sau and others), has listed the home for $5.5 million with Jon Capobianco of Compass.

Danny Bright

More recently, Lot-ek completed a carriage house on Irving Place in Clinton Hill for artist Markus Linnenbrink, gallerist Cindy Rucker and their daughter.

The architects inserted bright orange container forms into the core of a two-story industrial building (which they first gutted), installing a stacked container penthouse above. Tolla compares the design to a jellyfish landing on the roof, its tentacles reaching down.

We didnt want what everyone else wants, says Linnenbrink. To me, its always been a dream to do something with a building thats not the regular thing to build a place where you really want to live.

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Inside the amazing houses made out of shipping containers - New York Post

Master of Plasters products boast an impressive portfolio and have been incorporated in significant restoration projects such as the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Gibbes Museum in Charleston. Lauren attributes the companys success to its authentic, high quality materials as well as the customers who specifically seek them out. These are people who appreciate craft; the artistry, chemistry, and science behind the material; and understand how earthen plaster, hand-applied, changes the experience of a place, Lauren says. The success of Master of Plaster is proof that small-scale manufacturing can be very successful.

She attributes this success to quality control and direct interaction with clients. Lauren values working with customers so that she can educate architects and designers in addition to do-it-yourself amateurs. Plaster is a straightforward process, but understanding the materials is the main challenge, she says.

Clients seek her out for her expertise, and she wears many hats within her familys small business. On any given day, Lauren creates custom colors and mixes sample plasters for clients, explains and gives advice on how to use their materials, prepares plaster presentations for design firms, and develops plans for restoration projects repairing surfaces, from damaged walls to fallen ceiling medallions. A few of her favorite recent projects include developing the colors and wall finishes of The Fat Radish, a farm-to-table restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, and a non-toxic nail spa at The Cigar Factory in Charleston called The Water Room.

Lauren certainly has a vivacious energy about her familys small manufacturing company, but most stirring is her passion for plaster. She demonstrates through her artwork that plaster is a material with possibility. Lauren forages for wild flora and fauna to impress into plaster. She produces a seasonal series of plaster impressions of magnolia flowers. Magnolias bloom only at specific times of the year in the South, which reflects what she says her artwork is all about the cycle of life. The way that natures textures relate to place, element, and time fascinates me, and capturing a specific moment in time by accentuating the textures interests me the most. Delicate impressions of wildflowers and plants at different stages of life illustrate Mother Nature at her most beautiful as an evolving force.

The aspect Lauren likes best about her artwork is that it truly can be returned to the earth and thus continue the cycle. Local Columbia boutique hotel Hotel Trundle sought out Lauren not for plaster walls but rather for a piece of her artwork featuring impressions of local ferns to grace its new lobby. Unique commissions like these motivate Lauren to continue her plaster crusade.

The design world is trending towards plaster, and it comes at a time when sustainability is at the forefront of discussion in business. Lauren expresses great enthusiasm for plaster as a material that meets all the requirements for a sustainable future. Much like the food renaissance that has flooded the grocery store and restaurant scene with high quality, organic food, so, too, are artists, architects, designers, urban planners, and homeowners asking questions about health and sustainability for our built environment.

Sustainability is not about instant gratification; rather, it is about effort a little more attention to detail, a little more elbow grease, to create healthier and longer-lasting buildings. The famous architect Antoni Gaudi, a noted favorite of Laurens, once stated, Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.

Laurens work, in all aspects, speaks to this belief most beautifully; she is one of the many artists and designers promoting the great efforts of countless visionaries before her who celebrated nature in all her glory and who fought for her preservation.

Read the rest here:
Beneath the Surface - Columbiametro

Theres no getting around it: Its impossible to be a profitable construction firm without effective construction management.

If youre new to the industry, you definitely cant afford to be subpar at construction management: Construction companies that have been in business for less than a year fail at a rate of 36.8%.

But why is construction management important? First, we need to define the term.

Construction management is a professional service that involves providing a project owner with management of all aspects of a construction project, from planning to scheduling to budgeting to execution.

A construction manager is responsible for the end product of a project and everything that leads up to it. There are many types of construction software that can help with management, offering features such as accounting, materials management, and document management, to name just a few.

Youre in the business to make money, so budget is always going to be first and foremost in your mind. If youre not doing an effective job of construction management, the first place youre going to notice it is in the pocketbook.

Effective construction management must include good budgeting. That means planning in advance by mapping out exactly what materials you should have on hand, how many man-hours you need to employ, what subcontractors youll need to pitch in, and so forth.

The following video breaks down all the stakeholders in a construction projectwithout a construction manager keeping tabs of all these domains, you cannot expect your project to complete within budget:

Its not good enough to know exactly how much, say, roofing material you need to buy. If you order those materials too late in the project timeline, your workers wont have materials to work with when they reach that phase of the project. That means delays as they wait around for the materials to arrive since they cant start on the next phase until they complete this phase.

And that, of course, means lost profits as you pay more for man-hours and expenses creep up.

Brian Mooney, the general manager at Turner Construction Cincinnati, likens construction management to an orchestra that we try to conduct. And this analogy is an apt one: By employing effective construction management, you can tie deliveries to certain dates and make sure labor, materials, and equipment are all working hand-in-hand to make sure your project delivers on time.

Equipment needs attention, too. You cant just ignore the needs of a backhoe and expect it to still work for you. If you arent effectively managing a construction project, you may fail to allocate enough time for your workers to maintain a vital piece of equipment, orworseyou may fail to train them on maintenance at all, leaving you up a creek as soon as your equipment breaks down.

Equipment can cost you big time, and not only in terms of opportunity cost when you arent able to complete work due to malfunction. It can also cost you in terms of how much you spend on the equipment itself. Equipment that isnt properly maintained will break down more frequently and need to be replaced soon. Some machines can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, and that kind of unexpected expense can quickly wipe out your profit margins.

Whether youre talking about the Occupational Health and Safety Administration or just local building regulations, the construction industry has to navigate all sorts of red tape to legally construct a building. If you are just winging it on a project, you may put yourself in jeopardy of having your project shut down or leave yourself vulnerable to lawsuits that could destroy your company.

A good construction manager should have all their ducks in a row on the job site. A construction management software tool with a document management feature can help you keep all required documents in order, so that you can show any inspector who comes sniffing around.

Communication is absolutely essential on a construction site. You have many moving parts, in domains ranging from labor, to materials, to equipment. Unless everyone involved is talking to one another, youre asking for a disaster.

For example, if you tell one worker to start putting up drywall in a section and then tell a plumbing contractor to start installing pipes in the same area, youre going to have problems. At that point, you will have to tell one of them to sit on their hands until the other finishes work, costing you precious time and money.

Good communication is vital for safety, too. If you have heavy equipment working in an area, you need to communicate that to other workers in the area so they can know to avoid it for the time being.

We have a plethora of resources for construction managers new to the industry to start learning about their trade. Whether you want to understand more about the discipline of construction management, the skilled labor shortage, or just how to manage subcontractors, weve got you covered.

Here are a few articles to get started:

But as a construction manager, youll find you wont get far without the right construction management software at your business. Check out our Buyers Guide and then reach out to our team of advisors for a free consultation on the best software for your business needs.

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5 Consequences Explaining the Importance of Construction Management - Software Advice

The U.S. Green Building Council recently announced LEED Positive a vision statement and LEED development roadmap that USGBC hopes will lay the foundation fora regenerative built environment.

We must do all we can to leverage our tools and resources to scale up reductions in carbon emissions associated with buildings, communities and cities, saidMahesh Ramanujam, USGBCs president and CEO, at its Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, held in Atlanta, Nov. 20-22. LEED must evolve qualitatively and quantitatively.

The vision will guide USGBC in transitioning LEED from strategies that reduce the harm done by buildings to strategies that cause no harm. It is aimed at beginning the process of healing and repair, said Ramanujam.

The visions are:

At the annualGreenbuildconference, attended by more than 10,000 people, USGBC also launched Insight, a data-driven tool that highlights building project design features that can lead to better performance.Insight is available as a feature of theArcplatform and provides information on the design attributes of LEED-certified buildings within a specified geographic region. Project teams can then compare and rank potential sustainability strategies to see how they stack up against the performance of other buildings.

Insight was created over two years in partnership withSkanska a developer and contractor and also a USGBC member company.

For the past 18years, BuildingGreen has picked 10 green building products that significantly improve upon standard practices. The 10 picks reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and contribute to building project resilience, says the green building consultant.

They are: 1) Alpen ThinGlass Triple and Quad, which is so thin it can be used in place of standard double-pane windows;2) CalPlant medium density fiberboard, a rice-based agricultural fiber that is making a strong comeback, with a formaldehyde-free MDF that performs better than wood-based products, says BuildingGreen; 3) ChargePoint smart charging stations, which are electric vehicle charging systems that use software to optimize the experience.

4) CL-Talon 300 incorporates thermal breaks throughout its cladding system and includes an innovative framework that speeds installation, says BuildingGreen;5) Duracyl International Inc.s Corques Liquid Lino uses the same natural ingredients found in standard linoleumbut in a fluid-applied form that takes less carbon to produce and less time to install.

6) EP Henry andSolidia Technologies ECO Bristol Stone with Solidiapavers are the first commercially available products made from Solidia cement, produced using less water and emitting fewer greenhouse gases; 7) Hanging GardensSmart Blue Roof Stormwater Systems not only store water on rooftops but also communicate with other systems to become part of a site-specific or municipal stormwater system.

8) Johnson ControlsYORK YZ Magnetic Bearing Centrifugal Chilleris the first to be optimized for use with a next-generation refrigerant with a global warming potential (GWP) of only 1, says BuildingGreen. 9) R-50 Insulation Systems LLCRich-E-Boardencloses vacuum insulation in a protective layer to push the limits of thermal insulation, achieving R-50 in a 1.5-in.-thick panel; 10) USG Corp.'s USG Sheetrock Brand EcoSmart Panels can be used as a drop-in replacement which reduces embodied carbon without requiring any other changes to the building, says BuildingGreen.

Also at Greenbuild, the Carbon Leadership Forum launched its Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator--a first of its kind interactive database in North America. One feature of EC3, a cloud-based EC management tool that is open-source and free for all to use, is a tie-in with Autodesks BIM 360.

The software developer expects to maintain the integration between BIM 360 and EC3, improving the user experience based on beta user feedback, and exploring additional ways of visualizing EC on the building model using the embedded Forge Large Model Viewer.

Autodesk Sustainability got hooked on EC3 at a demonstration of an early version at the Global Climate Action Summit in 2018 and decided to become a sponsor of the project. EC3s database of EC metrics for building materials, and the methodology the tool uses to guide architects, engineers and contractors in making climate-smart material choices made perfect sense as part of a BIM workflow, but the connection to any project model was missing, says Autodesk, which set out to build that connection to make EC management easier, faster and visually intuitive.

The BIM 360EC3 integration greatly accelerates materials data entry by allowing teams to take advantage of existing model data, quickly extracting quantity takeoff from a Revit file on BIM 360, and automatically populating the materials schedule in EC3s web interface, says Autodesk. The integration also leverages the power of visualization, automatically turning the model into a highly interactive EC heatmap.

Users start by activating the EC3 integration through the BIM 360 Apps tab, and granting EC3 permission to read their model data once logged in. Clicking the Import from BIM 360 button in the EC3 web service displays the users BIM 360 file tree in EC3, allows selection of a specific Revit file and loads the model data (including quantities) into EC3.

Users can organize building elements by Uniformat, Masterformat, or BIM. As users assign materials collections and specific materials to building elements, the conservative and achievable global warming potential for each element is color-coded onto the building model. Clicking the Show 3D model button opens the Large Model Viewer (LMV), where the ratio between conservative and achievable GWP for each building element defines its color.

Red elements are true hotspots where thoughtful procurement can dramatically reduce embodied carbon by 40% or more; yellow elements have around 30% GWP savings potential;and green elements, less than 10% potential savings, says Autodesk. Visualization draws attention to those high-risk-high-opportunity elements, and helps users focus on climate-smart procurement efforts. Selecting an element and clicking the EC3 button in the LMV displays specific GWP range and potential savings values for that element savings.

Users also have access to the full range of LMV features, including turning elements, assembliesand object categories on and off, and querying complete BIM data per selected element, says Autodesk.

In other news at Greenbuild, the Green Business Certification Inc. announced itadded two sustainability credentials to its suite of green business services. Originally developed by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, GBCI will maintain, promote and deliver the ISSP Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA) and ISSP Certified Sustainability Professional (ISSP-CSP). The credentials provide third-party verification of competency in the field of sustainability and recognize individuals committed to sustainability.

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More Tools, Green Product Picks and Goals from Greenbuild - Engineering News-Record

The steel skeleton of the new federal courthouse in Harrisburg is going up, up and up this fall, taking the fortunes of several dozen construction contractors with it.

But when it comes to city-based, minority-owned businesses, nobodys been able to get inside the projects fenceline to date.

Not one, said the Rev. Franklin Allen, president of the Greater Harrisburg Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Not one.

Its exactly the result regional civil rights leaders warned about starting last winter, as construction contracts were starting to be let on what will become a $150 million public building on the corner of Sixth and Reily streets in Harrisburgs Midtown District.

But Allen and others are still battling, and still hopeful, that as more of those Tier One sub-contractors arrive on site next year and start hiring those who will actually do the work and receive the paychecks for it, the storyline will start to change in favor of city businesses and residents.

We are endeavoring to schedule a meeting with contractors that have yet to perform (work at the site), Allen said this week. "There has been a little movement. However.... we will need a real breakthrough to avoid a protest during the ribbon cutting. I expect God will deliver one.

On one level, Pittsburgh-based construction manager Mascaro Construction Co. contends construction firms in South Central Pennsylvania have been well served by the courthouse project. Work on project kicked off in late 2018 and the building is scheduled for opening by early 2022.

Mascaro has said about 67 percent of the dollar value of the contracts let to date have been signed with 23 firms in Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties. That number ticks just a little bit higher if you count single firms in both Cumberland and Perry counties that also made the list.

The value of individual contracts was not shared with The Patriot-News / PennLive, for proprietary reasons.

That equates to a cool $80 million-plus that is staying with regional employers like Kinsey Manufacturing of York; the Smucker Company in Smokestown, Lancaster County; or Hershocks, Inc. and Novingers Inc., both of Harrisburg.

Thats a much higher degree of local hiring... than we would typically expect on a project outside of a large construction market, said Will Powell, spokesman for the federal General Services Administration.

What can also work to the regional workforces advantage is that theres not always a straight line between what contractor has received a job and who is going to staff it.

For example, the main plumbing contract for the courthouse has been awarded to W.G. Tomko, a contracting firm based in Finleyville, Pa., in Washington County. But when Tomko fills out its workforce for the Harrisburg project, it will turn to Local 520 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, which represents workers through south and north-central Pennsylvania.

Tomko spokesman Justin Hensberger said those workers might live in Harrisburg or an hour-and-a-half away; in the construction world both would be considered local, because theyre driving to and from the job site every day, as opposed to staying in hotels.

But theres local, as the construction industry defines it: Are the workers able to drive home at the end of their shift? And then theres local as community leaders see it: Is anybody who lives in the city where this building is rising - where nearly one in three residents live in poverty - seeing a paycheck from its construction?

Its the view through the second of those filters that still has the African-American leaders who last winter launched weekly protests at the courthouse - Jericho Marches, as they have come to be known - on the march.

To some degree, the tension is the inevitable result of a minority-owned contractor community in Harrisburg that is largely made up of smaller businesses who dont have the capital or resources to compete for major public works contracts.

Mascaro, whose representatives referred most questions for this story to the GSA but did supply information to PennLive on its business outreach efforts, had three major meet-and-greets to which scores of suppliers and contractors were invited in 2017 and 2018.

Invitations to bid, in addition to traditional trade publications, were distributed to 11 business and trade organizations, including the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Diversity Coalition.

In addition, Mascaro participated in a city government-sponsored event for minority and women-owned businesses in June 2018.

But in the end, only one minority-owned business has landed a contract thus far: Trihanson Development of Carlisle.

Trihansons owner, Carlisle resident Jameson Christopher, told PennLive hed been watching the courthouse project from Day One as a potential source of business, and hes worked over the last two years to build a relationship with Mascaro representatives.

In the end, Christopher, who is African-American, said his efforts paid off.

He didnt get the main painting contract for the building.

But Mascaro officials reached out to him directly and offered to split off painting of the courthouses interior stairwells to Christophers firm. I just thought it would be best to get something rather than nothing, and then start working with the company, he said in an interview.

Its called building a relationship, Christopher said. "Thats just something thats done in every aspect of our world."

Many other minority contractors especially those who told PennLive they didnt have the size or financial resources to bid on the tier one subcontracts are still hopeful about landing jobs as subs to the subs as the building takes shape.

One of those hoping to get the courthouse on his work calendar is Dwight Henry, owner of Goal Line Construction in Harrisburg.

Henry has been in contact with Smucker, the Lancaster County drywall contractor, about getting his crew hired on once the work moves to the interior of the rising building. Theres been open interest in having some kind of sit down, without any guarantees, Henry said. I guess thats hope.

Smucker officials did not return messages left for this story.

Same deal for Shariah Brown, owner of Personal Touch Cleaning Services, who hopes to get involved in final clean-up after construction, but before the building is turned over to the government.

Its in your hometown, and its a nice project, and of course, its federally-funded, Brown said, noting shes been told the package for the kind of finishing services her crews provide wont be awarded until 2021, and that she is on the list. So whatever they send us, we plan to bid on it.

Landing such work is not only important for the bottom line now, Henry noted, but also in helping businesses like his build their capabilities so more can compete directly for future contracts, and help more families share in the cycle of investment that follows.

The answers for these and other contractors is is still perhaps a year away.

According to the GSAs Powell, the courthouse project is about 25 percent complete now, with most of the work centering around the erection of its steel frame.

Construction activity should hit its peak next summer, when Powell expects daily average employment at the site to hit about 150 workers.

Allen and other African-American leaders say that is the immediate focus of the Jericho Marchers. If you have to be a sub (contractor) of a sub of a sub, Allen said, thats OK as long as youre getting in the door.

Mascaros proposed project cost, as schemed out in 2017 bid documents, is $158.4 million.

The aggregate value of all sub-contracts awarded through September is $124.9 million. GSA would not release the individual value of each sub-contract, which it holds as proprietary information. So its impossible to know the dollar value of the contracts with these firms.

But in its bid package PennLive obtained redacted copies of the package hrough a Freedom of Information Act request to GSA Mascaro had established a goal of awarding $35.7 million in contracts to all small business categories, including:

Of the 65 total sub-contract packages awarded to date, 21 have gone to 15 firms that are in categories that the federal government has classified as small or disadvantaged. By classification, they are:

Small Business Enterprises: E&E Contracting, McConnellsburg; Macri Concrete, Harrisburg; Tyndal Flag Service, Harrisburg; Goodwin, New Castle, Del.; Bailey Landscaping, Harrisburg; Port Elevator, Williamsport; Miller Church Interiors, New Holland; Gibble Construction, Elizabethtown; and TuboTek, Shermans Dale.

Women Business Enterprises: E&E Contracting, McConnellsburg; Fisco Flooring, Dauphin; Franco Associates, Pittsburgh; Reed Building Systems, Hummelstown; VO George, Pittsburgh.

Minority Business Enterprise: Trihanson Painting, Carlisle.

Service-disabled veteran-owned Small Business: Harnden Group, of Harrisburg.

Mascaro noted that its large business sub-contractors and suppliers are also encouraged to use additional small and disadvantaged enterprises where possible and applicable to the scope of work they were providing.

Allen said even as his Jericho Marchers fight for more Harrisburg resident and African-American employment at the courthouse, he hopes their work will have an impact far beyond this project.

His long-term goal is to put the concerns of city residents front-and-center to the developers of Harrisburgs next set of office towers: a new academic / lab building for Harrisburg University; a replacement for the current state Archives, and a new state office building.

Were not getting our due share, the NAACP president said. But our protests are not over. They will continue until the blue ribbon is cut for this building, and the next building, and the next building.

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As new federal courthouse goes up, Harrisburg-based firms struggle to get a share of the work - PennLive

The team at Superchief Gallery was working late into the night building a giant, bloody severed penis. The art gallerys edgy sensibility had always generated hype, but over the preceding few years, its hard-partying brand had spread its wings, as it set up permanent warehouse spaces in New York and Los Angeles, held massive parties in Miami, and cultivated lasting relationships with established media companies like Juxtapoz and Vice. The next day, on April 27, 2018, Superchiefs New York location, a cavernous 7,000-square-foot warehouse space in Ridgewood, Queens, was opening a solo show for Mike Diana, the first artist ever to be convicted of criminal obscenity in the United States. In honor of the gleeful debasement that defines Dianas work, Superchief was installing a towering, dismembered human figure in the gallery, and as carpenters built its splayed, marionette-like wooden arms, a small crew knelt on the gallerys black concrete floors, cutting strips of fabric and tackling the dick problem.

Part of the piece was this guy had a dick that wrapped around the gallery. It was like 80 feet long, said Jeanne Hurd, an artist who was then an unpaid volunteer at Superchief. They were trying to fill this dick with balloons to make it hold up, and I suggested filling it with inflated garbage bags instead, she added.

Ed Zipco, one of Superchiefs owners, had been standing nearby and took notice of her time-saving innovation. He was like, Jeanne youre a genius, you can have any job you want here, she said. At first, she was elated, though she wasnt sure if Zipco was serious. As was often the case, Hurd alleged, he was tripping on acid. The next afternoon, Zipco was still interested in hiring Hurd, but she was disappointed to find out the gig only paid $100 a week for four shifts, each between six and 10 hours. It wasnt enough to pay bills, though Hurd also worked at a coffee shop and figured the experience and exposure would be worth draining her bank account. (Hurd was, according to her, unfairly, fired for lateness in 2018.) Besides, as Zipco always reminded his crew, he doesnt think of Superchief as a business: its a family.

Founded in 2012 by Zipco and partner Bill Dunleavy, Superchiefs tastes favored body horror and creative oddities, drawing on street art, comics, digital works, and LGBTQ cultural communities to build broad rebel aesthetic. Superchief New York was, as one former employee puts it, a blob that in addition to showing art, housed artists studios, a cyclorama photo studio, and a film screening area. It evolved into less of a classic art gallery and into a sort of event space, a hangout where skaters, graffiti kids, and art nerds congregated, and a nightlife scene, inviting packed-out dance parties like Fight Club, and WWE-style drag-wrestling extravaganza Choke Hole.

Dunleavy, a photographer and grown-up punk-rock guy described by former employees as chill and kind of quiet, ran West Coast operations, while Zipco controlled New York and a number of other projects and events under the Superchief name. (Zipco and Dunleavy did not respond to interview requests for this story.) Broad-shouldered, with a red-blonde beard and slicked-back hair, Zipco had a reputation for being a provocateur with an edgy sense of humor. In 2015, for example, he was criticized for using a fatal beating that took place across the street from one of his galleries to promote an event, telling Gothamist that the death was nice, in a weird way, and a bit of Old Brooklyn. He added that he wasnt trying to disrespect somebody deads family. Zipcos twisted take mirrored the curation at Superchief, where the art often channeled the same morbid fascination and thirst for authenticity.

Art exhibitions, which often traveled between Superchief locations, included group shows and solo shows for emerging artists, like muralists The Yok and Sheryo, as well as sculptor Sarah Sitkin, whose well-received Bodysuits exhibition featured wearable suits fashioned from silicon and latex meant to realistically mimic the human body. Zipco reportedly built his talent pool from a core group of artists he knew from his tenure as a photographer for Vice in the late 2000sthat era looms large at Superchief, through talent like international street-art star Swoon, or UFO 907, whose spray-paint alien octopi were once a load-bearing piece of the Williamsburg-area landscape.

Despite that legacy, Superchief has stayed relevant, surrounded by a virtual colony of young volunteers and art students. Zipco and Dunleavy have a knack for connecting with artists that are speaking to a lot of younger people, said Caitlin Crews who volunteered for Superchief in 2016. Former Superchiefer workers in their early 20s say they were drawn in by minimal psychedelic artists like Lilkool and Yung Bachelor, the magical, animal worlds of Boy Kong and muralist Lauren YS, and photographers like Parker Day, whose freaky, super-saturated portraits ooze joy and dread, connecting like a gentle slap in the face. From a curation standpoint [Superchief is] so good, Crews argued. But in terms of execution and the people management part? Horrible.

According to the dozen former or current Superchief crew members interviewed for this article, the gallerys hyped reputation has only been made possible through labor practices that they allege are illegal, unethical, and unsafe. More than a simple dispute over wages, or even just the latest example of the unfortunate-yet-unsurprising prevalence of unpaid labor in the arts, numerous former Superchief crew members allege that Zipco fosters unhealthy relationships with his employees and relies on emotional coercion and drugs to manipulate people. Zipco did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but according to former employees and volunteers, he regularly evaded conversations about payment, pleading poverty or allegedly demanding that they be grateful for the opportunity.

Its like a cult, Hurd said. Recently, anger from Superchief alumni has bubbled out onto social media with former gallery associates decrying a work atmosphere they describe as pure chaos, an ongoing abuse of power andmaybe most devastating to the gallerys brandsuper wack.

Ed Zipco grew up in Florida and became a photographer for Vice when the magazine was still a countercultural phenom, before the multibillion-dollar valuations, in an age when Brooklynites were dipping in dumpster swimming pools, the economy had dipped into the toilet, and the Hipster Grifter was on the loose. Zipco launched his own magazine, Chief, in 2006, and in 2009, with Dunleavy, it morphed into Superchief.tv, a blog that kept a party calendar, riffed on fashion, and offered irreverent takes on the days headlines.

William Medonis said he worked on a team of what he described as about a dozen unpaid, unstructured, quote-unquote interns who posted on the Superchief.tv blog. Medonis, now 27, said one day in 2011, Zipco walked in and said: Look, were going to start a gallery. Superchief Gallerys first location was just literally some dudes loft, he added, and he and the other interns went from doing magazine stuff to just all-hands-on-deck, lets all work for this art gallery. Zipco was already well-connected: He knew [musicians like] Matt and Kim, Zebra Katz, he knew Ninjasonik, said Medonis. Soon Superchief was holding successful art shows and parties around the city.

Superchief ran through a handful of spaces in Soho, the Lower East Side, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, toeing the limits of gentrifications reaches and drawing raucous crowds, at one point pulling off a string of 52 art shows in 52 weeks, all while dodging noise complaints and landlords. The blog faded away completely and the gallerys partnerships with downtown and Brooklyn bar spaces like CultureFix and Tender Trap eventually fostered a business model that Paper described in 2013 as based around selling drinks, not paintings.

Volunteers came and went, but in some ways, the inner circle at the gallery was actually like a family. Over long weeks that could stretch into 70 or more hours of work, crew members grew close. We all loved each other, said Hurd, now 21, a diminutive woman with soft features and short, dark, tousled hair. She felt like they were doing something important, she remembered, clawing their way into a stodgy art world with spray paint and street smarts. We were these cool misfit artist kids coming together and pulling off these big shows.

But Superchief isntand has never beena collective, or a co-op, or a nonprofit organization; its a business whose product is as much a vibe as it is art. Superchief is a clout machine, said Rben Temmeli, 24, who worked at the gallery for about two years. Coming to Superchief means a famous artist might talk to you. And they might remember you depending on what you did. Many of those who worked for free or below minimum wage were lured by the social aspect of the scene, like Temmeli, who said that, at first, he was mostly looking for new friends. Others were there for pure networking reasons or Instagram trophies, but the majority were young artists, like Hurd, or aspiring gallerists hoping to advance their career.

Even as the gallery continued to grow, Superchief New York never seemed to have the funds to maintain a real payroll. From her experience working with museums and arts nonprofits, Crews said she immediately realized that something at Superchief wasnt right. They were doing so much, said Crews, and that labor rested on young people and particularly young people of color to pull it off.

Jetaime Pizarro, Superchiefs general manager who quit in late 2018, sat cross-legged on a bench in the backyard of her Bushwick apartment building, her shaved head grown in enough to cover the tattoos on her scalp. Recently, she and Temmeli hired a lawyer to pursue legal action against Superchief and recoup unpaid back wages. (They have yet to file a lawsuit.)

She said that during her two years at Superchief, she managed gallery, event, and studio operations, as well as building and staff management, and promotion. Pizarro said after interning for several months, she was hired in 2016, at $10 per hour for 25 hours a week of work. Soon after, she says, Superchief began building out its Ridgewood warehouse and operating in Miami, and her schedule ballooned to 70 or more hours every week, though she was still only being paid for a part-time schedule. Even after an eventual raise, she was still making much less than minimum wage.

But she and Zipco were close, even though, she noted, they sometimes clashed. She remembered that Zipco called her his best friend and described himself as both mentor and father figure. That kind of rhetoric had an emotional impact on her. Growing up, she said, My father wasnt in the picture, and we were always financially struggling. According to Hurd, Zipco wanted Pizarro to see him as a savior. She was really struggling when she met Ed. He took her under his wing.

Months after she quit Superchief, Pizarro started speaking out on Instagram. In a series of posts beginning in mid-May, Pizarro, who is black, compared working at Superchief to slave labor. In the posts, she claimed she was promised $15/hr which quickly became $5.50/hr, and alleges that Superchief gets cool off the unappreciated, unlawfully underpaid, back breaking work of disadvantaged POC staff. Zipco, she alleged, had been aggressively leading me to believe he had my best interest at heart. While constantly denying me time off, ability to sleep and do basic human functions. Her posts are filled with supportive comments from former Superchief employees, both paid and unpaid.

One post included a picture of Azealia Banks performing at one of Superchiefs 2018 Art Basel parties, an engagement that, according to Pizarro, ended with Azealia Banks burned, not properly paid and letting @edward.zipco know point blank that she would not be working with him anymore. (Banks did not return requests for comment.) On Instagram, Pizarro tagged organizations that have worked with the gallery, including Vice, Juxtapoz, and the Scope Art Fair.

Like other former employees interviewed for this story, Pizarro lived in a room at the gallery for a time, and during that time she alleges, most of her wages went immediately back to Superchief for rent. When [employees] were living in the space they were constantly there, said Hurd. Pizarro said once she moved in she was never off the clock.

Having people in the gallery all of the time was important to Zipco. It gave the appearance that the party was always going, and visitors and scene hangers-on could show up there all hours of the day, said Temmeli. From the employees perspective, he added, once they started logging all those long, late nights and living there, You feel like you guys are really building a life together. That same bond eventually became a kind of trap. There definitely was a very real feeling of oh, Im going to lose all the people close to me right now if I walk away from Superchief.

Pizarro claimed that she endured the dizzying schedule, in part, because Zipco promised she would eventually be given his position, that he was training her to take over the New York gallery. Zipco told her that Superchief was always just on the verge of making real money, and soon theyd be able to do things right, pay people what they deserved, and free him up to take on new cities and projects, leaving her and the other dedicated staff to run New York. After more than two years, none of his promises materialized and Pizarro was burnt out, her mental and physical health in shambles.

When she finally quit, Zipco told her that she needed to go to therapy. In a moment that, according to Pizarro, showed how off-base the relationship had become, Zipco dismissed her concerns about wages and hours. He said hearing you guys talk about this stuff is like having kids and working hard to give them food, and having them tell you that they dont like what theyre eating. Since she began posting about her experiences at Superchief, Pizarro said that shes been contacted by people who had the same story play out with them, all the way back to 2012. Theyre all just as angry about how it happened. They were all lied to in the same way.

Like Pizarro, Temmeli also lived in the gallery. He said that in exchange for helping out, Zipco let him crash on the couches. Eventually, that arrangement turned into a regular gig with some responsibility, including operations and construction. He was fired in April after months of increasingly angry confrontations with Zipco about how the gallery was being run. He said that during the time he worked at Superchief, he was paid $325 per week for what he described as unlimited hours of work. At one point, he said, he was not paid for a period of months, and then eventually only paid part of his earnings, and told he could either take it or leave it.

Temmeli said Zipco told him the same things he said to Jetaime, youre going to inherit Superchief, I want you to take over my role Im talking, in the middle of the night, crying, talking about how Im like a son to him. Temmeli said he always found Zipcos family schtick a bit corny, but he believed, if it did become successful, then Id be able to be like, Yo look, were making millions now, give me mine. I thought Maybe this will pay off in the end. Zipco, Temmeli said, wants you to feel like hes promising the world and all this shelter and stability. And at the same time, he puts in the back of your mind that it can all be taken away at any moment.

Outside of his pseudo-paternal relationships with employees, art is a family business for Zipco. His grandmother, Anita Shapolsky, is a venerable gallerist on Manhattans Upper East Side who also runs an arts foundation in Pennsylvania. Shapolsky, now in her 80s is, according to Hyperallergic, a veteran of the New York School, of mid-20th-century abstract expressionists. She has plugged Superchief in interviews, and two former employees who claim to be familiar with Superchiefs finances said that shes invested at least $150,000 in her grandsons business. Shapolsky said that while she had lent Superchief money, over the years, she had never invested in the business.

Ed comes from pretty good money, like from his grandma, said Medonis. He remembered that Zipcos family would hire him for odd jobs at the Shapolsky Gallery or other family-owned businesses. Lara Goetzl, who managed Superchief Gallerys earliest incarnations in 2012 and 2013, also worked for Shapolsky. I love Anita, shes a real one, said Goetzl. She remembered Shapolsky buying a piece of art from Zipco in the gallerys early days. I, of course, rolled my eyes at, but she didnt want to hear any of that because hes her grandson.

Back then Zipco wasnt pushing the gallery family narrative, Goetzl said, but the labor situation wasnt too different. She was the gallerys sole paid employee and was usually directing 15 or more unpaid part-timers. The size of the Superchief New York crew ebbed and flowed over the years, but former employees said things really became strained around 2016, when the New York gallery suddenly needed to staff out a giant warehouse space, juggle operations in new cities, and manage mainstream art-world partners. Over the last few years, at any given time there would be anywhere from five to 50 volunteers cycling in and out, along with maybe 10 staff members, some of whom were paid regularly and some of whom were just thrown 50 bucks here and there, said Temmeli.

Unpaid workers might be bartending (a coveted task, since it came with tips), working the door or merchandise booth at events, performing administrative tasks, painting, or building installations with the paid crew. Isaac Parker, a former Superchief employee, estimated that during the time he worked there, roughly two-thirds of the work done at the gallery was completely unpaid. The term intern was sometimes used to describe these workers and occasionally an actual intern would arrange college credit for time spent at Superchief, though the vast majority were simply volunteers, with no educational pretext. In a March Facebook post, for example, Superchief announced it was looking to ADD TO THE A-TEAM with a call for volunteers to help out with admin, art handling, production, and ALL of our events!

In almost all cases, its illegal for private businesses to use unpaid, recurring volunteer labor and in order to hire unpaid interns, for-profit businesses must meet a series of strict guidelines, including notifying interns of their unpaid status in writing. According to the mandates of the New York State Department of Labor, the companys system of informal payments that allegedly left many employees far below minimum wage likely violated a number of labor laws and tax laws. Former Superchief workers said that when they complained about wages, Zipco would, depending on his mood, either lecture them on how they should be more grateful for the opportunity, plead poverty, or apologetically tell them he was new at this, and still figuring things out as a business owner.

Despite the high-profile shows and media attention, in a way, Superchiefs success is illusory said Christopher Bleuze-Carolan, a 31-year-old video artist who managed personnel, logistics, and the gallerys tech and digital art offerings. Bleuze-Carolan says he was promised a piece of the company, but was fired earlier this year, and hes now in my own legal situation with Superchief and Im working that out currently. (Bleuze-Carolan worked as an unpaid intern at Kotaku in 2011.) Bleuze-Carolan is trying to negotiate with Superchief for some kind of compensation and has not yet filed a lawsuit against the gallery though he wont rule out the possibility of eventually suing to recover lost wages. The business, he said, is frequently on the brink of financial collapse, and On paper [Zipco] has nothing.

Though Zipco doesnt take a salary, Pizarro and Bleuze-Carolan allege that his personal finances are inextricably tied up with the gallerys finances. He doesnt often buy himself new clothes or anything like that, said Pizarro, but his cell phone bill? Paid for with Superchief money. His food and drugs? Paid for with Superchief money.

Zipco likes to call Superchief a DITDo it together, project as opposed to a DIY, Pizarro said. Were on a ship, he would tell his workers, or were pirates, were at war. According to one of Superchiefs Facebook pages, the gallery is a community center. And Zipco seems to exploit that sense of community, many of his former employees described how warm and charming he could be. But that too could cross workplace boundaries. One Superchief associate, who asked not to be identified, said they noticed in the early days, a lot of people [Zipco] ended up hiring were people he hooked up with. Goetzl added that [Zipco] wasnt sexually inappropriate with anybody, but he would certainly make comments about women being attractive or not attractive enough, things like that. According to Pizarro, Zipco once told her he was always happy when pretty interns quit, because then I can start dating them, and made other, similar remarks that left her worried he saw our interns in a sexual manner.

Similarly, Hurd alleged that in late 2018, she saw an Instagram call for volunteer figure drawing models that left her infuriated. Though it was slightly censored for Instagram, the entire photo is me up close nude, she said. Jetaime and I and a couple of other girls organized a live art night, Hurd explained, and she regularly modeled. A picture of her in little but sparkling clown makeup and a ruffled collar had been repurposed for the recruitment advertisement, a use Hurd said she definitely didnt consent to.

She was able to get the post taken down and Hurd eventually sent an email threatening to sue Superchief for chronic underpayment and the use of her unclothed image. She never got a response, she said, and she didnt pursue it further because, at that point, I was completely broke. I was just like, youre really going to fire me and then use a cool photo of me to get more people to work for you for free?

Though he always seemed to be navigating some drama with an irate employee or disgruntled business partner, according to his former employees, most of the time Zipco personally avoided confrontation, usually firing people through an intermediary. He was usually jokey said Hurd, but other times he was just snap and suddenly make me feel like I wasnt even a person. He says weird, stupid shock shit, said one former employee, who chalked the behavior up to machismo problems. When he got mad, [Zipco] would talk about stabbing people and wanting to stab people a lot, Hurd alleged.

There were certain things that just seemed to set him off, Temmeli said, like a stray cat that lived on the block, and would occasionally wander into the gallery. Ed definitely fucking hated that cat.

Hurd remembered one day when the cat got inside and people are just petting it and holding it. Zipco, she alleged, walked over and said If I see this fucking cat in the gallery again Im going to kick the shit out of it until its dead. I was so scared, she continued, I thought, how can you say that about a little animal?

Young artists that were drawn in by Superchiefs handmade, punk-rock approach eventually came to resent what they saw as unnecessary workplace hazards and the psychic toll of doing everything the wrong way. Temmeli, for example, alleges poor planning, a dysfunctional environment, and insufficient gear meant his job was frequently physically unsafe. He claimed he never had the right ladders, or tools, or supplies, and cutting every corner was the only way to get anything done. There were no benefits whatsoever, he added, if I broke my leg Id be fucked.

During a particularly difficult project for Scope Art Fairs New York edition in 2019, building and repairing modular walls,Temmeli posted on Instagram that he was told that I was saving Superchief, by taking on the job, That we were going to go bankrupt without it. Short on cash and focused on Miami, Superchief temporarily took the New York gallery off party duty, shutting its doors for weeks to complete the gig, which allegedly made them more than $20,000. It quickly became apparent to workers that Superchief management had underestimated the size of the task.

Temmeli wrote that the job was literally back breaking work leaving him with back pain, insomnia, and respiratory problems from breathing in sheetrock. He said he asked for protective masks, but wasnt given them until he complained repeatedly and the project was already half complete. Since he hadnt been paid in weeks, I couldnt afford to eat or buy clean water during this job, he wrote. In a post that showed him and another bundled up coworker, he claimed the gallery had them working with no central heating during the coldest reported months in NY history. (Temmeli said this was to save money on utilities, but another employee said the heat just broke, Zipco was out of town, and no one else had the authority to hire someone to fix it.) During the Scope contract, he would wake up in the gallery every day with a bloody nose [...] coughing drywall dust.

Temmeli wasnt alone. Many of Superchiefs former volunteers and employees noted the complete disregard for safety. A few former Superchief workers described a trip they took to Miami for the 2017 edition of Art Basel, which Pizarro described on Instagram as a human rights violation. A handful of Superchiefers set up the two venues: One was a downtown Miami space used often by Superchief, where theyd be setting up a complete gallery takeover. The other was the Juxtapoz Clubhouse, a communal space for the California-based arts magazine featuring a number of big-name artists like Shepard Fairey. (On its site, Juxtapoz praised the Superchief crews relentless energy that year.)

From the beginning, both projects were chaotic. Pizzaro said that art had been damaged in transit and, lacking a clear plan, everything was behind schedule. Workers were forced to labor at long shifts, up to 20 hours at a time, only stopping to sleep a few hours on the warehouse floor.

In the middle of the confusion, Pizzaro clearly remembered a jug labeled do not drink, you dont want this. Despite the warning, Pizzaro said that we would all just go to it and chug and it would keep us awake. The jug was filled with water in which an unknown number of acid tablets had been dissolved. Everyone had been up for almost 24 hours of straight work, said Temmeli, and with workers fading, Zipco brought it out, like do some acid, well make it through this last charge. Temmeli said the experience felt weird like wed become a cult, but he drank a little from the acid jug.

Pizarro described a maudlin scene, an unquestionably bad trip, with young artists basically flopping around the space, struggling in vain to get work done as the onset of acid energy met the drugs perception-melting powers. She remembers crying, stuck in a brain loop, as over and over, she tried to clean the same scuff off a damaged canvas. According to Temmeli, Zipcos instructions became increasingly incomprehensible, leaving the dazed crew running in circles to decode his rambling ideas.

Pizarro and Temmeli told the Miami story as an example of how drugs were used to break down their personal boundaries and adulterate even the hardest, longest slogs with the trappings of Zipcos never-ending party, a kind of fun that was no fun at all, and part of a frustrating sleight-of-hand, in which the gallerys labor needs were somehow met without the presence of any real workers worth paying a living wage. Former Superchief workers didnt have a moral problem with drugs, but they pointed out how the equation changes when the person offering them to you is your mentor, and maybe a familial figure, and your boss, and possibly your landlord.

Bleuze-Carolan claimed that he argued with Zipco about making psychedelics available to younger workers, but, he added, it was mere gross negligence, a product of goodif wildly misguidedintentions. Eds not evil, sighed Bleuze-Carolan, Hes just an idiot.

I think what bothers me the most about this whole thing, said Medonis, is that Ed was always like Bernie 2016, everyone should have universal income, just like, supporting these socialist-type causes.

On Facebook, said Pizarro, he reposted this Alexandria Ocasio Cortez post about housing. And someone commented Dude, I think you should remain silent until you talk about why youre exploiting your Black employees. And I commented Thanks for your support and he blocked both of us.

The complaints of Superchiefs former workers are familiar, turned-up-to-11 versions of indignities found in a lot of jobs: the demand for loyalty; the employer that acts like purchasing your labor is an act of charity. And of course, most working media or art-industry professionals cant be totally surprised by the notion of exploiting young creative ambition in exchange for vague promises and a chance for exposure. When she shared her stories with others, Pizarro said they would gasp at the gossip, but most shrugged and said, Oh thats just how it is in the arts. Temmeli heard similar feedback from peers.

Crews, who formerly worked at the Brooklyn Museum, said shes so sick of casual attitudes towards labor in the arts. Its such bullshit, and you can quote me on that. Artwork is work, she said, and a lot of people just dont understand what its like to be super young and not have money in Brooklyn right now. Its hard.

People still involved with running Superchiefs day-to-day operations said that Zipco has stepped back from actively running things at the New York gallery. Allegedly, Zipcos been set up in Florida, on personal time, and its unclear whether hell be returning, though, according to someone with direct knowledge no decisions have been made yet. One of Dunleavys associates from the Los Angeles gallery has allegedly taken charge of the New York spaces operations and, in the past few months, the gallery has supposedly stopped using any volunteer labor.

But whether or not Zipco returns to the gallery he spent years building, these exploited workers are equally part of his legacy. He might have created a persona of a cool guy, as Temmeli described him, that was Superchiefs visionary, overseeing a forever party filled with edgy established artists and young artistic ingenues, clamoring for a place in the spotlight, but his former employees say it was built on the labor of underpaid and unpaid workers, often people of color. They say he sold them a liean old but enduring romantic vision of friends and family who feast on creativity, unconcerned with money. In a scene that now seems telling, at a 2017 show celebrating the gallerys fifth anniversary, Zipco was asked to name his favorite moment during Superchiefs tenure. He didnt have a specific memory to share, but replied, Gettin away with it, before he added, You cant get fired if youre doing it yourself with your friends.

Jed Oelbaum is a writer and multimedia producer in New York.

Originally posted here:
'It's Like a Cult': How a Hyped New York Art Gallery Built Its Name on Exploitation - Jezebel

From the outside, the Canada Training Centrein Kemptville, Ont., 50 kilometres south of downtown Ottawa, lookedlike nondescript military barracks. But its mission was anything but ordinary.

The building, now demolished, was used for nearly 20 years as a training facility for a covert Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) squad tasked with spy operations. Inside, agents learned how to crawl into tight spaces and drill holes through walls to secretly install surveillance equipment.

Years later, some of those officers are wondering whether the building might have been responsible for their own health problems and for the deaths of some of their colleagues.

"The first thing as you walked in, you would smell the mould from the basement. It was almost sickening,"recalledMike, an active RCMP officer who spent weeks training at the facility.

CBChas agreed to give him a pseudonym because of the sensitive nature of his work.

"There were literally hundreds of dead flies in our rooms. We had cleaning staff that would clean the rooms, [but] bythe end of the day, we would go back to our rooms and find more dead flies. It was a running joke asad one, though," he said.

Mike completed four three-week stints at the training centre in 2004.

"We trained there, we slept there, we ate there," he said.

Mike remembers one time when colleagues used the oven to warm up a pizza. "A few minutes later, they took it out, and there were a bunch of bugs and silverfish crawling out of it."

The RCMP used the building from 1988 until it closed in 2006. Today, the lotat 270 County Road 44 sits empty.

The training centre houseda school used mainly for recruits of the force'sSpecial Iunit, whose members are called upon to install electronic surveillance equipment during undercover investigations.

For that purpose, the building, constructed in 1961 as a Cold War bunker,was ideal because it allowed the agents topractise their craft away from prying eyes.

"Without getting into the specifics of our techniques, because I'm bound to keep some information secret, we had to drill into concrete, cut into drywall, put wires in the ceiling, work on the roof," Mike said.

Several other Special Iagents Radio-Canada spoke with confirmed both the nature of their training and the state of disrepair at the facility.

"We would be within the structure of the building, up in the ceiling. I mean there was probably not an inch of that building that we would not be in at any given time," one said. "There would be mice feces. We were expected to do scenarios in the basement, and there was black mould. It was a dump."

What some RCMP officers didn't know back then was that the building was not just dirtybut also contaminated.

Tap water contained lead levels 14 times higher than permitted limits, according to a 2005 report done for Public Works, the federal department in charge of real estate assets, including the Canada Training Centre.

"The paint work on the wall is also lead paint and flaking, peeling and mouldy in many areas, ceiling tiles throughout are old, and many show signs of water damage, carpeting is mouldy," wrote an RCMP health and safety officer in another report, also from 2005.

"The kitchen facility used by trainees and staff does not meet public health standards.... Utensils, pots and pans ... are stored in mice-infested drawers and cabinets."

According to inspection reports produced between 1997 and 2007,there was asbestos in building materials, including "the ceilings and floor tiles, roof and siding shingles, drywall tape and plaster." Silica was used "in concrete and bricks throughout the building." Mould was also found, including toxic spores.

Tests also revealed excessive levels of lead as early as 1997, according to the documents.

"I remember being sick every time I trained there. Stomach problems," Mike said.

The health problems lingered long after he left the facility. In 2010, he nearly died from histoplasmosis, a lung infection caused by fungus. Doctors had to remove part of his right lung, and the disease went on to attackhis nervous system.

In a 2011 letter, Mike's physician established a direct link between his condition and earlier "workplace environmental exposure." Mike was forced to take a powerful antifungal drug for nearly two years in order to stop the disease's progression.

Despite all that, Mike considers himself lucky.

Following a months-long investigation, Radio-Canada identified at least six RCMP members who had trained at the facility and who died prematurely. Radio-Canada also reached out to half a dozen members who suffered or are suffering from ailments, including Parkinson's disease.

Mike believes some officers might be suffering from diseases without knowing they were exposed to toxic agents.

Over the years, the training facility hosted members of different RCMP units, includingthe Special Entries Section, as well as employees from different agencies, such as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service andthe Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Maintenance personnel also worked there.

During the 1998 ice storm, the building housed military personnel, emergency workers and community members.

The story of a man nicknamed "Charlie" frequently came up during interviews with Special I members.

Sgt. Charles Moore,a member of the Special I covert squad, was co-ordinator at the training centrefrom 2003 until 2006.

His widow, Jane Moore,said her husband was never one to complain, but she remembershe used to talk about the mould in the buildingand how the carpet under his feet was always damp.

Moore said her husband's health issues started in 2003. He was an avid sportsmanbut had to gradually stop physical activity when he began to feel weak and unsteady. Later, he suffered from dropping blood pressure and incontinence.

Around the same time, an inspection report raised severe issues with the facility.

"The health and safety of our personnel are in jeopardy by using the existing facility," wrote anRCMP occupational health and safety officer in 2005.

"This also goes for Sergeant Moore, who at the present time is using the facility three days a week to prepare and maintain the training aids and equipment."

Despite thatreport, Moore was still working inside the facility in 2006. That same year, he was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder similar to Parkinson's. He died six years later at the age of 57.

Dr. Christopher Skinner, a neurologist at the Ottawa Hospital who treated Moore, agreed to speak about the case with the permission of Moore's widow.

"The unusual thing I find about this case was that it was fairly rapidly progressive. From visit to visit, you could see that he was changing quickly," Skinner said.

According to Skinner,Moore's medical record didn't include toxicology reports, making it hard to establish a direct link between his disease and his exposure to contaminants. Nonetheless, a link is possible, Skinner said.

"We've known for years that certain heavy metals, such as manganese and lead, can affect the motor system, which then causes these symptoms," he explained.

"But it's becoming increasingly known within the neurology world that what we call autoimmuneforms of Parkinson'soccur when you get exposed to some sorts of virus or a fungus, and then your immune system reacts to that, and then it turns on the brain."

According to Skinner, one of the two scenarios might have been at play in Moore's case.

"There is no doubt that he was subject to a fairly toxic environmentand that any one of those possibilities whether it's heavy metal or an autoimmune-triggered disorder could have been perhaps an explanation for why he had a relatively rapid progressive disorder."

Skinner said that a genetic predisposition, combined with an exposure to such triggers as toxic products, can also cause a variety of cancers.

Radio-Canada spoke to the families of five other RCMP members who trained at the Kemptville facility and later died of various cancers.

The five men were between the ages of 39 and 53 when they died. Two died of colon cancer;the othersdied of eye, throat and liver cancer, respectively.

Chris Fedordied of colon cancer in 2002 at the age of 43. His identical twin, Greg Fedor, is also an RCMP officer, but never trained at the Kemptville facility.

"It was weird that one twin would be so sick and the other one not, the DNA being exact," Greg Fedor said. "I got checked right away and have to get checked every two years."

The disease that took his twin was extremely aggressive, Fedor said.

"It was so quick. The doctors said they couldn't understand how quickly this had occurred," Fedor recalled.

It was a common remark from families of the deceased officers, one of whom died of colon cancer three years after undergoing a colonoscopy and being given a clean bill of health.

Relatives of the deceased men also told Radio-Canada they didn't know their loved ones had been exposed tocontaminants.

Without in-depth toxicology reports, CBC is unable to establish a direct link between the building in Kemptville and the diseases that took the officers'lives.

"We complained a lot during debriefings following courses. Everyone was talking about it," one Special I officer who trained in Kemptville in the early 2000s told Radio-Canada.

"The complaints went on for years," confirmed another Special I memberwho trained in Kemptville for a total of 12 weeks between 2001 and 2003. "But you know, it's a good old boys club, and it's like, 'Suck it up, buttercup.'"

In 2005, with no sign of improvement at the facility, Mike and other officers decided to fill out a "hazardous occurrence form."

According to internal RCMP documents, that's what finally led to the scathing 2005 report by a health and safety officer.

"For reasons too numerous to count, this facility should not be used for future training," the officer wrote.

After conducting tests a few months later, a firm specializing in hazardous environments issued a similar warning.

"Due to the water damage, the basement has been deemed to be a high-level mould contamination area and cannot be accessed unless wearing appropriate personal protective equipment," its report stated.

The building was closed in 2006 and demolished the following year.

Mike said he doesn't blame his current bosses at theRCMPbecausethey weren't in charge back then. But he believes the force has a duty tocontact all members who spent time at the facility to inform them they may have been exposed to hazardousmaterials.

Mike discovered the extent of the contamination inside the facility only after he filed access to information requests.

In April 2019, he filed a complaint against the RCMP with Employment and Social Services Canada, alleging the police force violated its obligations. Mike also accused the RCMP and Public Works of having failed to inform employees, partner agencies and members of the public of thehazards that had been identified.

He decided to speak out publicly after hiscomplaint was ruled inadmissible, in part because two years had elapsed since the alleged violations.

"If the RCMP is made aware of new concerns regarding the health and safety of personnel who worked or trained in this facility, it will take follow-up measures,"RCMPspokespersonDaniel Brien told Radio-Canada in French in anemail.

"Staff and those who received training at the centre were informed back then of the presence of contaminants."

The RCMP acknowledges it's responsible for the health and safety of its employeesand insists their well-being is a top priority.Yet several officers told Radio-Canada they were never made aware of all the contaminants in the building.

Public Services and Procurement Canada, formerly called Public Works, referred questions about the building to the RCMP.

Read more from the original source:
Secretive RCMP training facility suspected in illnesses, deaths - CBC.ca