Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Brian Libby: Given that Death by Design at Alcatraz is a mystery, did you know who the killer was before you started?

Anthony Poon: No. I had no arc. At first, I was writing about a character. Then I decided to kill this person off. I was probably a good halfway through writing the novel, and I still didnt know what the ending was.

Youve probably heard the phrase that writers often fall into two categories: the planner or pantser. A planner would be someone like J.K. Rowling, having the entire seven-book Harry Potter series arced out and the characters outlined before she started writing. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants and include people like Stephen King. In interviews, King just says, Look, if you need to plan your book, then youre not a writer. Some of his books are better than others, but he just writes and sees where it takes him. I feel the same way.

The question of rigid composition versus improvising also relates to being a pianist. Could you talk about that?

Growing up, my training was classical music. Its this process of aiming for perfection, a flawless performance. Playing a piano sonata, there are a hundred thousand notes and youve got to hit them all right. If I would get one note off, my piano teacher would say, That whole performance is ruined. But what I really got interested in was something beyond technical proficiency. Youve got to be able to add a voice, a story, some kind of narrative to what youre performing. Thats what I eventually learned about jazz. It blew my mind that these pianists would just sit at the keyboard and start making things up. I was at a performance called The Jazz Bakery, where the pianist asked the audience to throw out numbers between one and eight. Then he associated those with notes on the keyboard because there are eight notes in an octave. Through that, he started to improvise and build a song, and his ensemble jumped in. It was incredible.

Your thesis at Harvard was about how jazz improvisation informs the architecture process. What did you learn?

Architecture is very methodical. It takes a long time to produce a building. There are a lot of practical considerationscode, budget, square footage. You cant just whip out a building the way a jazz musician would whip out a piece. But in the creative process, I always ask: Why cant we just grab colors and make an idea? Why cant we just have this sort of jazz-like conversation of bouncing ideas and just grab something from that, and make that the basis of an entire building design, whether its a library or museum or a house?

Lets go back to this question of architecture and narrative. Could you talk about the importance of storytelling in design?

Its all about communication. Everything that I do creativelypainting, music, writing, architectureis all a form of language. In architecture, we look to our clientswho they are and what they areto craft a story. If its a family, we want to know how they celebrate the holidays, if the in-laws stay with them, whether they have dogs. And thats the story we tell when we design a house. For designing a school, we ask: whats the educational methodology? How do the teachers teach? How do the students learn? Same thing when we do an office: whats the corporate culture, whats the mission statement? And obviously, when we do a religious project, there is an entire set of beliefs that need to be somehow expressed in architecture. Whats exciting about music and architecture, and what makes them different from writing, is that they are abstract. Its kind of open-ended communication.

Besides being a mystery, Death by Design at Alcatraz reads like a satire of architects and their clients. Did you enjoy puncturing egos a little bit? After all, in your memoir, Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you write about realizing you didnt want to design big arenas and corporate projectsyou wanted to design more intimate spaces for people.

Well, its funny the timing of your question. I just came back from Modernism Week in Palm Springs, where I did a presentation on ego and arrogance. The lecture was saying that society has granted us architects a tremendous amount of influence and power. And the question is what have we done with it? Whats also interesting about your question, though, is I didnt think of Death by Design at Alcatraz as a satire. Maybe the developer is an amalgam of two or three actual clients blended together. But these architects, theyre all people I know.

What we talk about at my firm is that good design belongs to everyone. It could be a restaurant where everyone can go and eat. It could be a design of a bench. It could be a corporate headquarters or a public school. There isnt any specific kind of project that I seek. Its more about harnessing the talents that my team brings, and then reaching as many people as possible.

Where do you stand on the introvert-extrovert scale? Because architecture, especially when you get to a certain scale, is teamwork. Painting, which youre also acclaimed for, is a more solitary activity.

Im probably somewhere in the middle but skewing a little towards the extrovert side. Some of these art forms are solo explorations, but I dont see the art being complete until it reaches the audience. The enjoyment for me comes from people engaging the art, or better yet, if its going to hang in their living room or their conference room. Thats the completion of the artistic arc.

With any kind of artist, both introversion and extroversion are tapped. In architecture, for example, the introverted, introspective, self-examining qualities usually launch the design process, and the extroverted side leads a team, sells the idea to a client, and supports the creative ego.

In Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you described how San Franciscos Portsmouth Square in Chinatown inspired you to become a designer. The park dates to 1833, but its 1963 redesign was derided at the time for raising the park to fit a parking garage underneath. What made it special to you, and the community?

I would answer that question with a question: Isnt it incredible that it is a parking structure and an extraordinary park? A structure like this would often be an eyesore. But they found a way to maintain an active plaza on top. It acts like a blank canvas, and you watch the community paint their life onto this canvas, whether its old men gathering together to play chess or children playing on the play equipment. It was across the street from the church that I went to as a kid. Its just that kind of wonderful, idyllic place that you dont imagine would be in such a dense area. Im looking at Portsmouth Square, not as an architect fetishizing its design, but as what it offers to the community: to have a Tai Chi class at 5:00 in the morning, a wedding there at noon, and kids running around in between. Thats the power of architecture.

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Whether it's Music, Painting, or Writing, Architect Anthony Poon Has a Story to Tell - Metropolis Magazine

The week moves on here as FC Dallas begins to put the Texas Derby behind them and begins to prepare for another rival in Kansas City this weekend.

// FC Dallas //

Catch out the latest Big D After Dark podcast show here:

FC Dallas Announces Official Watch Party Series Presented by Heineken | FC DallasWatch parties are back for another year when FCD is on the road, starting this weekend.

// MLS //

Chance creators: Who are the architects of MLS's most dangerous moments? | MLSSoccer.comEven though FCD is scoring goals at a good rate so far this season, they don't have one of those architects like this list shows.

Mixed results so far in 2022 for Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto | US Soccer PlayersMontreal and Toronto are improving in the Eastern Conference, but the Vancouver Whitecaps are already running into trouble in the West.

Loss was reminder to Sounders to never let their guard down - Sounder At HeartSounders had never before lost a game they led by two goals until this past weekend, which could be a good wake-up call for them as they head into the CCL finals.

LAFC sign Nathan Ordaz to homegrown contract - Angels on ParadeI keep having to remind myself that teams like LAFC are still fairly new here and that their academies are also pretty new too. Just the fourth HGP signing by them.

Major League Soccer has to hold its TV partners to a higher standard - Dynamo TheoryHouston fans are still feeling the sting from the Memo Rodriguez free kick that looked like a goal on some angles. I do agree though with this that TV partners need to all be using the same stuff, so if one has a goal-line camera, they all should.

Columbus Crew tactical review: Black & Gold ends losing streak at Sporting Kansas City - Massive ReportAfter being beaten in their last four games, the Crew secured a positive result using tactics that were out of character for the team.

Revs desperately searching for consistency in 2022 - The Bent MusketThe Revs haven't been themselves this season, or at least a version of themselves that earned a Supporters' Shield trophy last year.

Link:
Tuesday Links: FC Dallas notes, who are the best architects in MLS - Big D Soccer

Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio have been selected to lead a multi-million-dollar overhaul of the Barbican Centre, a beloved but aging Brutalist landmark and multidisciplinary arts and cultural hub that anchors a sprawling post-war housing estate of the same name in Central London.

We are interested in the notion of revealing, of finding places of untapped potential within and around the walls of the Barbican, remarked Simon Fraser, partner at Allies and Morrison, in a press announcement. Not only will this approach offer substantial savings in embodied carbon, and respect the Centres significant heritage value, but it opens a myriad of opportunities for creative, inclusive reinvention.

The two London-based practices, both boasting a number of high-profile cultural projects under their respective belts includingTate Britain, Shakespeares Globe, and the Museum of London, triumphed in a closely watched international design competition launched by the City of London Corporation in September 2021. A total of five shortlisted teamsrevealed in Januarywere in the running, with Allies and Morrison and Asif Kahn Studio winning out over Adjaye Associates with Benedetti Architects and PUP Architects; BIG with Avanti Architects and POoR Collective; Diller Scofidio + Renfro with McCloy + Muchemwa, and Purcell; and FCBStudios with Bureau de Change, Schulze+Grassov, and Thinc.

Joining Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio on the larger project team are heritage experts Alan Baxter Ltd, engineering and sustainability consultancy Buro Happold, theatre, acoustic, and digital design consultancy Charcoalblue; lighting design firm les claireurs, and Oakland, Californiabased art, urbanism, and landscape architecture practice Hood Design Studio. Also on the team are artistic advisors Julien and Nadia Fall.

The team showed total commitment to preserving the Barbican Centre building as a much-loved global icon, while ensuring it remains a leading creative centre for generations to come, said Tom Sleigh, chair of the City of London Corporations Barbican Centre Board. Were delighted to have this world-class design team working with us to help deliver our creative vision, while also making major improvements to the Barbicans environmental performance.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape the future of this iconic centre for arts and learning, and strengthen its ability to play a leading role in the recovery of the City, and the capital, from the pandemic, he added.

All shortlisted proposals were evaluated by a panel of external specialists in equity, diversity and inclusion, and heritage and sustainability who were joined by representatives from the City Corporation and members of its Barbican Centre Board as well as senior Barbican Centre staff.

The panelists were:

As previously reported by AN, the scope of the Barbican Renewal Project, estimated to cost in the range of $68 to $204 million (50 to 150 million), will entail upgrading venues, bringing underused spaces back to life, and improving the welcome, wayfinding and digital technology at the site, reflecting the energy of Londons many communities and the Barbican Centres commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, per the City Corporation. As mentioned in the above quotes from Sleigh and Allies and Morrisons Simon Fraser, sustainability-minded fixes will play a prominent role in the exhaustive-yet-sensitive refresh of the Grade II-listed structure. The City Corporation has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon status for its own operations by 2027 and its investment and supply chain by 2040 as part of its Climate Action Strategy.

Remarked Asif Khan in a statement:

My dad first brought me to the Barbican just after it opened to the public in 1982. From those early visits as a two-year-old we would spend countless Sundays enjoying the free programme and public spaces. For him, the lake was a reminder of the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. For me it has always felt like home and has been a constant presence in my life. Who would imagine that exactly forty years later there would be an opportunity to contribute towards its future? Amazing things happen like that in this city.

This renewal project will care for the things we all love about the place, solving parts which could have been better, but most importantly helping to open up the Barbican to London and Londoners in ways that couldnt be imagined before. The incredible team we have assembled to bring about this change are embarking on this journey with great excitement and dedication to the vision for the Barbicans new life.

With the winning team now announced, its vision will further be refined and developed with extensive engagement from Barbican stakeholders. The full design brief can be viewed here.

AN will report back when that vision is made public.

Continue reading here:
Allies and Morrison, Asif Khan Studio tapped to revamp Barbican Centre - The Architect's Newspaper

If you want to work with cloud technology, you need to know AWS. This exam training bundle will teach you.

Despite recent inroads from competitors, Amazon Web Services remains king of the cloud. Whether youre looking for a full-time career change or want to start a side hustle, The 2022 AWS Certification Paths Bundle is a step in the right direction.

This comprehensive bundle is curated and offered by CramWise, a leading educational organization that specializes in providing robust exam prep materials for AWS, Cisco and CompTIA certification exams. CramWise provides comprehensive exam simulations via their exclusive CramWise Exam Environment, allowing students to test their knowledge and gain confidence before sitting the real exam.

If youre interested in cloud computing, this bundle will get you on track to ace four essential certification exams: AWS Solutions Architect (SAA-C02), AWS SysOps Administrator (SOA-C02), AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C01) and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01). Youll have unlimited lifetime access and updates to each of the exam paths, so you can take as much time as you need. When youre ready, you can simulate the real exam with performance-based questions based on the official AWS certification exam objectives.

Prepare yourself for a career in the cloud. Right now, you can get lifetime access to The 2022 AWS Certification Paths Bundle for 85% off at just $29 (normally $199) while supplies last.

Prices and availability are subject to change.

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Study with these practice exams to become an AWS cloud architect - TechRepublic

Property Details:

Location:6009 Rodgerton Drive, Los Angeles, California

Price:$2,295,000

Year Built:1991-1993

Architect: AGPS

Footprint: 2,083 square feet (two bedrooms, two baths)

From the agent: "Exceptional and award-winning architectural statement nestled beneath the iconic Hollywood sign in Beachwood Canyon. Built as the architects own home, The Experimental House is an internationally published creative space by AGPS, and is as inspiring as it is versatile. Like an urban loft in the lush and quiet hills, the home features two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a sprawling two-story living room, and an open loft. There is also a large studio space with a separate entrance. A true architectural in its innate wisdom and creativity, this is the first time ever offered on the market."

More here:
An Architect Couples Experimental House in the Hollywood Hills Hits the Market for the First Time - Dwell

As architects grapple with low fees, fluctuating workloads and lengthy procurement procedures, a new wave is going it alone: putting their money where their design ethos is and developing their own buildings.

Its not easy. There are multiple challenges involved in acquiring land, raising finance, building and selling for a profit. It requires knowledge and keen business skills which famously are not often taught at architecture school. And, meanwhile, DIY architects have to juggle their work for existing clients. But architects who take the plunge find developing can benefit their practice in a range of ways, potentially including if they get it right making some proper money.

Because its so difficult to make money from architecture, architects are looking around at the other kind of things they can do, says Amanda Baillieu, co-founder of Developers Collective, which helps designers become developers. But, she adds, in contrast with most developers, profit is not always the only motivation: Architects want to build something that showcases what they are capable of.

Suzi Winstanley, director at Turner Works, says her practice has benefited enormously from taking on a public tender to design and build Pop Brixton, a temporary space in south London which supports independent businesses. We used it as a way to expand our portfolio, and it has shifted the practice into doing public works, she says. The practice went on to win projects including Peckham Levels and a temporary building by Hackney Bridge.

Winstanley adds that development projects help balance workloads, as a major problem for architecture practices can be peaks and troughs. Working as your own client allows more flexibility, as there are fewer deadlines outside your control that you have to meet.

Architects who develop also learn a clients language and get an insight into their perspective skills which can help them win work and work more smoothly with clients.

The main niche for architect-developers is small and complex sites which larger developers are less interested in, according to Baillieu. Planning is a major risk for a developer, but thats where architects have an advantage they understand that risk, she says.

There are several approaches to finding sites, including working with estate agents and land promoters and keeping a lookout for auctions but these options come with a danger of overpaying. Finding derelict plots in the neighbourhood where you live and work, and then approaching the landowner directly, can be a better bet. Small, leftover sites are good which nobody else is going to develop because they cant be bothered, says Baillieu.

Raising capital is also a problem, especially for a first-time developer without cash to invest from previous projects. One place to start is grants from Homes England or the government, for instance, that are keen to promote small developers and regenerate brownfield sites and high streets. Another option is to speak to a variety of investors, including potential buyers. Once the planning stage has been completed, it also becomes easier to borrow from high street banks, although this is still expensive.

Despite the global pandemic and Brexit and material prices which swing wildly by the day Baillieu says it is nevertheless a good time for architects to get involved. There is so much uncertainty in the market its a good time to buy sites, she says.

There is also the political will for more design-led development of small sites and homes in particular. Housing secretary Michael Gove said last month that there are all sorts of unhappy consequences of the cartel of volume housebuilders who operate in a particular way. If that sentiment led to further financing of small developers and a greater emphasis on selling small sites held by the public sector, it could present a golden opportunity for architects to get involved.

A series of mini-profiles of architect-developers will be published this week, starting with Mae and Pitman Tozer

Architects as developers: The new wave of practices building their own projects

Read more here:
Architects as developers: The new wave of practices building their own projects - Architect's Journal

Per Wikipedia, The Martha Mitchell effect refers tothe process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health clinician, or other medical professional labels a patients accurate perception of real events as delusional, resulting in misdiagnosis. Per Sundance, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and ultimately Netflix, The Martha Mitchell Effect is one must-see doc.

Running at just under a brisk 40 minutes, Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchys all-archival short which recently screened at the virtual Full Frame in the NEW DOCS section and is set to play in the Persister Shorts: Mothers Day program at the hybrid Hot Docs spotlights the titular figure, once only known to the public as the outspoken (read out of bounds when it came to the women of her day) wife of President Nixons attorney general (read criminally convicted henchman). The Arkansas-born, paparazzi-loving socialite was also a heck of a brave soul, whose inability to ignore her moral compass may have brought down the entire Nixon administration. (At least Tricky Dick thought so. Then again his many failed efforts to silence her including drugging and kidnapping may have played a role in that vitriol.) Her rectitude did, however, most assuredly bring down Martha Mitchell herself.

Its a tragic tale made all the more poignant by the filmmakers deft mixing of Mitchells many controlled interviews and television appearances with her off-the-cuff phone calls. (The UPIs Helen Thomas was both a trusted confidant Mitchell could dial up at all hours and one of the few journalists to actually take her seriously.) With a face that belied an emotional truth deeper than words, Mitchell was equal parts media savvy and heartbreakingly honest. Someone whose trauma had always been hiding in plain painful sight.

Fortunately for history, we now have a doc-making duo that bothered to look. The Martha Mitchell Effect debuts online April 28 at Hot Docs (geo-blocked to Canada, unfortunately) before heading to Netflix.

Filmmaker: So how did this film originate? Was the idea sparked by the Watergate-level corruption of the Trump years? The anti-gaslighting groundswell of MeToo?

Alvergue: Yes and yes. We were both devastated by the 2016 election and looking to tell a female-driven story that could shed light on the present. Marthas story really checked all the boxes. But more than anything we were captivated by what a savvy, hilarious and telegenic person she was; and dismayed by how effective the gaslighting campaign to silence her had been. She is truly a hidden figure of the Watergate era. Now seemed the time to resurrect her story and restore her agency.

McClutchy: Yes, the impeachment scandals of the Trump administration clearly resonated, as did the reckoning around MeToo. We were fascinated with how this conservative Republican wife became one of the first prominent figures to call out the Nixon administration and the retaliation that followed. She was the unlikeliest of people to do it and had a lot to lose. When I first heard her story I was floored.

Filmmaker: How exactly did you acquire the archival material? Is it all in the public domain?

Alvergue: I wish! We first started at the Nixon Library. We knew about the Haldeman Super 8 collection, which is a treasure trove of home movies shot by Nixons young cabinet members. That is in the public domain. But unfortunately, and not surprisingly, there isnt much of Martha there as they were not big fans of hers.

So we knew we would have to seek out primarily news stories to visually illustrate her journey. Luckily, the press followed Martha everywhere once they discovered how outspoken she was, and she in turn would play to the press. But so much of the visual archive in the early 70s has been lost; there was a lot of footage we knew about that we couldnt exhume. It really was a two-year research expedition to uncover sources, ranging from national to local news outlets, YouTube to eBay. As well as mining the archives of journalists. One found an interview tape in his attic that hadnt been broadcast since 1972.

McClutchy: We also took an early research trip to the Library of Congress where we uncovered rarely heard interviews that Martha had given. Its such a thrill to find these gems of archival material. It makes the hunt for more all the more exciting. And then prior to the pandemic both Anne and I researched in person a couple of times at the Nixon Library, which became our main and crucial resource. Were archival nerds and absolutely loved researching there in person. Once the pandemic hit, we still hadnt completed our research. It was only through the Herculean efforts of archivist Ryan Pettigrew that we gained access remotely to even more material.

But our research also extended far beyond the Nixon Library. There were many hours spent on the internet digging in archives, library collections, news outlets and more. It was always the random research finds that were the most thrilling.

Filmmaker: I found your editing choices quite remarkable. The decision to close in on Marthas face, for example, making us aware of the heavy emotional toll speaking truth to power takes on the individual, really prioritizes the woman over the media circus perpetually surrounding her. So as the editor, Anne, can you talk a bit about what that process was like?

Alvergue: We knew from the start we wanted to prioritize the archival and immerse the viewer in Marthas world. Given that her version of events was buried under the prevailing Watergate narrative, we also wanted to lead with her voice as much as we could to return some agency to her own story. But we were limited by the archive. There were some great pop cultural TV show segments, but most of what we uncovered were news stories; there was very little verite footage of Martha, and no home movies.

For Nixon we had the Haldeman Super 8 collection we could pull from, so his story feels much more observational. What raw footage we could find of Martha was mostly interview outtakes. But we were lucky enough to work with the incredible editor Toby Shimin for a week in the final stage of the edit. She really mined these outtakes, slowing down the closeups of Martha to highlight her pain and frustration, particularly during the height of the gaslighting campaign. You can almost see her reacting as if in real time. And by staying within the native 43 aspect ratio of the footage we could focus on Martha and Martha alone in these key emotional scenes.

Filmmaker: When it comes to the historical record, the tragedy of Martha is that her story had been hijacked so thoroughly by the white men around her, her narrative told almost solely through the white male gaze (despite legendary journo Helen Thomass Sisyphean efforts). So was it difficult to even locate enough material to reflect a more nuanced perspective?

Alvergue: Part of the story of this film is how Martha was framed by the media and the White House, which was told predominantly from a male gaze. But we knew we could counteract that somewhat by isolating her interview bites and foregrounding her voice throughout the narrative to tell her side of the story.

We also had the White House tapes, which were much more revealing than the official party line, and allowed us to investigate the media machinations of Nixon and his cabinet; and how they orchestrated public information vis a vis Watergate and Martha. For me, one of the biggest revelations from the tapes was how much Nixon gossiped about Martha pre-Watergate, and then was obsessed with containing her post-Watergate. There was a lot of fear surrounding her and what she might expose.

McClutchy: Were also incredibly lucky that intrepid women journalists back then like Helen Thomas and Winzola McLendon took Martha seriously and listened to her. Without them, we wouldnt have the record we do in order to tell a more nuanced story. And Martha was savvy in developing these relationships with the press so that she would have some agency in telling her story. So these were women who were proactively building this historical record together.

Filmmaker: Upon her death a floral arrangement spelling out Martha was right was sent anonymously to her family, and yet in the decades since shes mostly been forgotten as a heroic American. That said, there does seem to be something of a Martha revival lately, with Julia Roberts even playing her in the Starz seriesGaslit(based on theSlow Burnpodcast) premiering this month. Any thoughts as to why shes being resurrected at this moment?

Alvergue: I think this country is so divided politically that Americans are now thirsty for outliers individuals who are brave enough to cross party lines and risk it all to speak truth to power. And for those few who do speak out we are seeing the same blowback now that we saw then, particularly against women. Treating your opponent as an existential threat, to be dehumanized and then marginalized, is a political tactic used time and again.

I also think we are in a period of looking back at the past through different lenses, and seeking out those who were lost to history. Watergate was one of the 20th centurys biggest political scandals, and yet we know nothing of the women that were involved. As the 50th anniversary of the break-in approaches, we have an opportunity to revisit who was overlooked and in Marthas case, silenced for political gain.

McClutchy: Fifty years after Watergate were facing another existential crisis in our democracy. Its not surprising to me that a story like Marthas is capturing our collective imagination. People are looking to history to help navigate where we go from here.

We were actually at a film festival recently and a young liberal filmmaker said to me, I just really want my conservative Republican dad to see your film so we can talk about Martha. And I thought, yes! Please connect and have that conversation with your dad. If our film can spark a dialogue then thats one small step to a healthier democracy.

Link:
The Tragedy of Martha is That Her Story Had Been Hijacked So Thoroughly by the White Men Around Her: Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy on The Martha...

By By TRACY HUTCHINS - Apr 14, 2022

Tracy Hutchins is executive director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance.

Executive Director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance

By now, the shortage of workers across all occupations has been well documented. However, the shortage facing the skilled trades is not new or a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The declining number of those entering the skilled trades including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers is reaching a critical point everywhere, the Upper Valley included. The result is long wait times to have necessary work completed and higher costs to consumers.

Struggling to hire people is not new for contractors in the Upper Valley, explained Jeff Acker, president of HP Roofing in White River Junction. Lack of workers for the trades has always been an issue. Its not the result of the pandemic.

The demographics of the Upper Valley make it hard to find skilled tradespeople here, Acker said.

This area has an older (relative to median age of other states) population that has resources and there a lot of second homes. We dont have a metropolitan area to draw on for workers, he said. And the reality is, kids that grow up here tend to leave. They want to try out living in Colorado or Boston.

Adam Cole, president of Cole Electric in Thetford, agrees.

There is a profound skilled trade shortage, Cole said. We used to get people just dropping by an application. Now we run an ad for three months and not get a single person apply.

Cole also believes the shortage of tradespeople is not due to the pandemic, but rather goes back to the 2008 recession.

There used to be 22,000 people employed in the skilled trades in Vermont in 2008. Now there are 15,000, he said. After the recession, the industry never recovered. People got out of the business.

Jay Boucher, founder of Defiance Electric in Enfield, sees the shortage as stemming from even further back than 2008 and believes the industry has changed.

When I was coming up, there were general contractors and they had their own teams of carpenters, electricians and so on. Now, those people are subcontractors, he said. Subs have to work double time to accommodate the general contractors schedule they get a higher profit margin when they are under schedule. It puts a lot of pressure on the subs and it hasnt made being in the business very pleasant.

The Vermont Department of Labor correlates Coles claim: From 2007 to 2022, Vermont saw a 9% decline in the number of people employed in the construction industry.

According to the report published by the Vermont Department of Labor, Vermont Declining and High Demand Occupations 2020, electricians, plumbers and those in the construction and extraction occupations are listed as high demand occupations. However, the skilled trades often are not seen as a viable career option by many young people or their parents.

Boucher sees changes in the education system as part of the problem.

There used to be industrial arts in every middle and high school, he says. Now if our kids want to explore the trades, they have to go to the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center which takes time out of their regular school day.

Cole agreed.

In high school, I dont think the electrical trade is seen as a viable option, which is too bad, he said. After a four-year training program, you have a valuable skill that you can take anywhere.

Finishing a skilled trade apprenticeship and training program can be the start of not only a marketable skill needed anywhere in the country, but also a skill with good earning potential.

There is tremendous pressure on kids to get a four-year degree, Acker said. I have three kids of my own that have graduated from good colleges and all three got jobs out of college making less than I pay my starting roofers.

Acker does not believe its a college versus noncollege issue.

I think we miss the kids who have graduated from high school and dont know what they want to do or dont want to go to college right away, he said. Those are the kids who we need to reach that could benefit from learning a trade. After their training, they often can start in the mid-50s ($50,000) and are already earning a solid middle-class income.

According to labor market data from both Vermont and New Hampshire, the mean wage for someone in the construction trades is $26 per hour.

Boucher also believes that the state licensing board has inadvertently made it more difficult for young people to explore a career in the trades.

Kids used to be able to work summers as an assistant to an electrician to see if they liked the work, he said. Now thats not possible with the licensing requirements. There should be a program to entice kids to try it out.

Acker, Boucher and Cole said their businesses put a great deal of time into training new employees.

We hire unskilled workers and I spend the majority of my time training and incentivizing, Acker said.

Cole Electric will train and sponsor an electrician apprentice to obtaining their license with the state.

Training is a lot of effort on our part, Cole said. We dont see a lot of productivity from a first-year apprentice. In year two, we expect them to be able to do some things on their own and by year four, they may be training newer apprentices themselves.

Defiance Electric offers a structured program to new apprentices.

They have to go to school, Boucher said. They typically start at 60% of a full journeymans wage. But they get an increase each year of their apprenticeship and at the end of four years, they are making a starting journeymans salary.

As the shortage of skilled tradespeople continues, the salaries continue to become more competitive.

At the end of the day, its a market and we have to be competitive, Acker said. We offer sign on bonuses, referral bonuses if an employee brings in another employee, and loyalty retention bonuses.

Defiance Electric became a union shop to address not being able to find skilled workers.

When the union first contacted us, we laughed, Boucher said. But when we looked into it more, it wasnt going to cost us more plus we didnt have to do all the HR administration ourselves. The union provides a more comprehensive benefits and wage package and we have a fixed rate for health care insurance for three years. It allows us to be more agile. If we get a large project and need more people, we call the union and they send us workers.

Cole Electric too has raised its pay scale to compete for workers.

Ive been trying to proactively increase pay rates, Cole said.

However, he sees the high cost of housing in the Upper Valley as driving workers out of the region.

We are pricing people out of the Upper Valley, Cole said. A lot of our people live in Bradford and north or west. They cant afford to live here so they drive an hour or more to go to work.

Acker, Boucher and Cole all agree that a career path in the trades offers much opportunity.

Our society could do a much better job of acknowledging that the trades is a good job, Boucher said.

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Where have all the tradespeople gone? - Enterprise - Enterprise

Ahead of the shows premiere on Wednesday, the cast and crew of The Wedding Singer are working hard to make SUNY Oswegos first live musical in over two years a success.

The Wedding Singer is the musical theatre adaptation of the 1998 film of the same name, a romantic comedy set in the 1980s that tells the story of a lovestruck wedding-reception singer and his journey to find true love.

I think its a fun rom-com that anyone can enjoy, said student Abigail Hines, who plays the role of Julia in the show. Theres comedy, theres the romance of it, theres dancing I think everyone will really enjoy it.

The shows setting in the glitz and glamor of the 1980s requires a particular attitude from the actors, one that must match the loud and colorful aesthetic of the time.

I think theyve had fun immersing themselves in that time period, said theatre faculty member Jonel Langenfeld, the shows director. I think theyre having fun, embracing all the bright colors and the style of dance and the style of singing, because theres some real rocker numbers in there.

The style of the 1980s even extends to the stage and character design, where dazzling lighting, costumes and setpieces will decorate Tyler Hall's Waterman Theatre to contribute further to the shows spirit and themes.

We really tried to take a lot of the elements from the 80s into our mix, said theatre faculty member Greg Brewster, who serves several roles in the crew, as lighting designer, scenic designer and production electrician. We really did some research and pulled back to my early childhood years, and was able to use that as inspiration for the show.

I think what we have for the show does look really good, said student Sydnei Williams, the musicals stage manager. We have lots of cool effects with the fog and smoke, and having the disco ball for certain songs, and just overall all the line sets we have make the show look cool.

Also contributing to the grand energy of the musical is the large ensemble cast, which presents unique challenges for the cast and crew.

Its like organized chaos backstage, said theatre faculty member Cole Sostak, the shows production manager and one of three scenic designers. It has definitely taken a lot of work from the students and also the faculty and staff to come together and collaborate in a way that we havent really done before.

As a musical adapted from a film, the show changes settings frequently, which requires a variety of sets to be prepared in advance. With a relatively small group working backstage, the crew has to work hard to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Movies, they definitely have a lot of different locations, so it can be difficult to have so many set pieces, said student Kayden McLeod, assistant stage manager. Most plays that start off as plays, theyll limit how many scenes they have, or make it so that the scenery is reused a bunch of times as they revisit rooms, but you dont get that opportunity here.

After a long hiatus between live musicals, the cast and crew hopes to make The Wedding Singer a fun, energetic and lighthearted experience for the audience.

The biggest reason we picked this show is because we thought it would be fun for our students, fun for our audience to just take a breath after the downer that the last two years have been, said Sostak. We really just want to bring everyone back with a big celebration.

The show is recommended for those aged 13 and up. It opens Wednesday, April 20, for a preview premiere at 7:30 p.m., with further 7:30 p.m. showings from April 21 to April 24, as well as a Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m., all in Waterman Theatre.

Tickets are free for Oswego students, and $15 for staff, faculty, alumni and the general public. They are available at tickets.oswego.edu.

- Written by Collin Knapp of the Class of 2023

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Musical theatre and the 1980s return this week with 'Wedding Singer' - SUNY Oswego

By Greg Paeth

Laptop or toolbelt?

That could be a fundamental question for people launching a career or decidingmaybe after 10 years in another fieldthat they want to learn a trade that might be more fulfilling and pay better than a desk job.

As the weather warms and construction season kicks into high gear, people who have a trade and a solid work ethic are in demand throughout Kentucky and elsewhere in the country, according to contractors and building industry insiders in the state and a national organization that knows every nuance of the industry.

There seems to be no disagreement about whether theres a shortage of people working in the building trades right now and that the gap between available jobs and available tradespeople is widening.

Workforce availability in the construction industry is a huge challenge for all of the trades right now, said Lynn Stetson, CEO of the Builders Exchange of Kentucky in Louisville, a 900-member organization that informs members about upcoming construction projects and makes blueprints available to prospective bidders online or in plan rooms in Lexington and Louisville.

In some cases, it has arrived at somewhat of a desperation mentality, she said in describing the competition for tradespeople. Its really a situation of no holds barred. Everybody can be as creative as they want to be in luring workers, said Stetson, whose organization was created in 1927.

Doug Wilburn, president and CEO of D.W. Wilburn, a commercial contractor and construction management firm in Lexington, said theres nothing new about the shortage of tradespeople, although it may be far more acute today.

Its been going on for the last 30 yearsyou can see it. The American people feel that they can find better jobs and they dont have to do the dirty, rough work out on a construction site, said Wilburn, who started in the industry as a mason before founding his own company in 1986.

In recent years, Wilburns company has tackled some huge projects in central Kentucky, including City Center in downtown Lexington, the UK Federal Credit Union and the Capital Plaza redevelopment in Frankfort.

Right now, Im okay, Wilburn said when asked whether hes hunting for more people. But if I wanted to add 10 experienced tradesmen10 experienced carpenters, 10 experienced concrete finishers, 10 experienced anythingI couldnt find them. I might be able to pull those guys in in the next two months.

Subcontractors he works with routinely talk about how difficult it is to find experienced craft workers, said Wilburn, whose company has about 100 employees.He said he doesnt offer any special bonuses to attract employees.

We are already paying top dollar for that reason (to retain workers and stay competitive), he said, adding that his carpenters and concrete workers typically make $60,000-$70,000 plus benefits.

Hispanic workers are critical to Kentucky contractors, Wilburn emphasized.Right now, if you took the Hispanic labor out of the construction industry, it would all but shut it down. I believe any general contractor you talk to would tell you the same thing.

Addressing the challengeNailing down the scope of the shortage can be tricky.

An estimated 60,000 building-trade jobs will be opening up in Greater Cincinnati over the next 10 years, according to Brian Miller, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Northern Kentucky, a region inside the Cincinnati metropolitan area of about 2.2 million.

At the national level, the number is staggering.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) issued a call to action in early March to combat the housing industrys chronic skilled-labor shortage. The association said it needed a plan to retrain, recruit and replace 2.2 million skilled carpenters, framers, electricians, plumbers and other tradespeople in the next three years.

It is one of the greatest challenges right now in our industry, said Chuck Fowke, a Florida custom builder and chairman of the NAHB. And its likely to get worse before it gets better.In an effort to address the shortage of people in the building crafts, some contractors are offering signing and recruiting bonuses while others turn to trade schools, community colleges and their own on-the-job training programs to ensure they have enough skilled people now and for the future.

Somewhat surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of people who were interviewed said the shortage of tradespeople hasnt had a huge impact on completion dates for their projects.The skilled-trade shortage is absolutely immense, said Miller. Just open up Google and look for anyone involved in construction and theres a workforce shortage that is just astronomical.The Building Industry Association of Northern Kentucky, which was known as the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky until about five years ago, now owns and operates the Enzweiler Building Institute, a construction trade school in Erlanger.

Were seeing the graying of our skilled workforce turn into the retirement of our skilled workforce and the wages are shooting up because of it, said Miller, pointing out that Northern Kentuckys booming logistics industry has attracted hundreds of people who might have had a construction job in the past.

Working with the City of Covington, the organization has been awarded state and federal money that is being used to open a second Enzweiler trade school. The $1.2 million project is scheduled to open later this year in a building that had been part of a strip shopping center in the citys Latonia neighborhood. Courses will include training for carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders and HVAC installers and technicians. Annual tuition will range between $2,600 and $3,800, depending on the program.

Covington also is working with the Building Industry Association and Enzweiler on a separate specialized trade school that would focus on the restoration of historic buildings in a city that dates to 1815, Miller said. About half of the homes in Covington were built before 1940.

Millers comments about the scarcity of tradespeople were echoed all over the state.

Bruce Maybriar, the professional development director for the Building Industry Association of Central Kentucky, is also alarmed about the shortage of tradespeople.

We do see a demand. We see that across the board for all the licensed trades as well as carpenters, roofers, bricklayers. And theyre experiencing the same thing in the service industry and the food industry. There are just not enough people out there to go around. As a result, the trades have increased their salaries tremendously to be competitive in this market, said Maybriar, whose Lexington-based organization covers a contiguous 10-county region.

The association in Lexington, like the Northern Kentucky association, also operates a trade school, the Building Institute, that dates to 2014, when some members were having a tough time filling jobs, Maybriar said. The institute offers classes in the three mainstream building trades that are licensed by the state: heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); plumbing; and electrical work.

Working through the Building Institute cuts the average completion time for electricians from four years to two and the plumbing and HVAC training from two years to one. People who complete the program and pass a state test attain journeyman status, which allows them to get a license and own a business in that trade.

The first graduating class in 2016 had just 11 members. Since opening, 138 people have completed the program and 75 students are enrolled this year. Many of them work at their trades during the day and do classwork in the evenings, Maybriar said.

The Building Institute balances its enrollment with job demand.

We always worry about saturation rates. We never want to graduate more students than the industry can hire, Maybriar said.

COVID, natural disasters create more hurdlesHowever, the workforce shortage in the construction industry is not a recent development.

Trades are huge andthere was a shortage even before COVID. Then, unfortunately, COVID made it worse, said Anetha Sanford, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Kentucky in Frankfort, which has some 5,400 members across the state.

Huge projects that create thousands of jobsthe kind of news often made by Toyota or Ford in Kentuckydominate headlines while essential building trades rarely get much attention, she said.Right now, trade shortages are a critical problem in Bowling Green and Western Kentucky, where contractors are struggling to keep up with the workload after deadly and devastating tornadoes struck last December, Sanford said.

In Bowling Green, where builders were already scrambling to keep pace with rapid growth, the tornadoes cut a swath of destruction through the city after dealing sledgehammer blows to Mayfield, Dawson Springs and several other cities, killing about 80 people throughout the state.

The Dec. 11 tornado that resulted in 17 deaths in Bowling Green coupled with the shortage of tradesmen and supply chain woes were devastating, said Anita Napier, CEO of the Builders Association of South Central Kentucky in Bowling Green.

We need builders to framers to just about anything that has to do with a home, she said. You would say we are in desperate need of all kinds of workers hereanything you could name we dont have a surplus of.

People who know the building industry say it could be at least three years before Bowling Green returns to pre-tornado levels, Napier said. She said shes concerned that people who cant find housing quickly will move away and never return.

Although his company didnt have to deal with anything as dramatic as a killer tornado, F. Hunter Strickler, executive vice president of Louisville Paving and Construction, acknowledged that finding trades workers can be problematic.

We have faced challenges hiring experienced tradespeople for some time now, so it is not out of the ordinary. But during 2020 and 2021, with the uncertain climate around COVID, it became even more difficult to attract tradespeople and in particular qualified CDL (commercial drivers license) drivers, Strickler said.

We have completely revamped our onboarding process to improve our retention and a large part of that is providing mentorship opportunities for our team members. We have multiple internal programs that provide professional development for team members wanting to progress through our organization and boost their professional skills. Our Leadman BUILDS Program develops our future foremen and superintendents, and our leadership development program is a one-on-one mentorship program meant to promote leadership development across our organization, he said.Like a number of other companies in the state, Strickler said Louisville Paving pays bonuses to attract tradesmen.

We regularly offer signing bonuses across almost all trades positions in order to attract top talent. We also have a robust team member referral bonus because we believe great team members are our best resource to attract other great team members. We want to reward our own for building great teams, he said.

Mark Hill is the vice president and region leader in Lexington for Messer Construction, a Cincinnati-based company that has offices in Lexington, Louisville and Newport, where it operates as EGC Construction. In Lexington, Hill said, the company hasnt had too much difficulty retaining a core of about 40 tradespeople and 40 other employees. It then hires subcontractors to handle plumbing, electric and HVAC. Tradesmen on the Messer payroll in Lexington include carpenters, cement finishers, equipment operators and laborers.

But he acknowledged that Messer, which has 10 offices in five states and 1,300 employees, has had challenges finding tradespeople in other markets in recent years.

Companywide it has been an issue. Nashville is super busy right now, and there definitely are challenges down there with finding skilled, experienced craft workers, said Hill, whose company also works as a construction management firm.

Hill said hes had good luck hiring people who have gone through programs at the Southside Technical Center in Lexington and Bluegrass Community and Technical College, which has seven campuses in and around the city.

Recent Lexington projects by Messer include the $241 million Lexington Convention Center project that began in 2018 and included the renovation of Rupp Arena and the Eastern Kentucky University Powell Student Center. The company also acted as the construction manager for the renovation of the state capitol, a project that may cost $100 million.

Better than a bachelors?Without any prompting, Maybriar, Stetson, Miller, Wilburn and Hill all commented about trades work in comparison to jobs available to college graduates.

Theres a large emphasis on kids going to college; getting them to go into the construction trades is a bit of a challenge, said Hill, whose company offers apprenticeship programs for carpenters and laborers that are certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. You know, college is not for everyone.

High school counselors want to send kids to a four-year school, said Stetson, adding that the Builders Exchange has made an effort to link young people who want to learn a trade to contractors who need help.

Attitudes about blue-collar trades also influence career choices, Miller said.

Culturally, weve been suffering from a lot of things (and one of them is) the demeaning view of the trades. You go over to Europe and the carpenters, the installerstheyre looked at like theyre artists. Here, theyre looked down upon by some people, Miller said.

Using data he gathered from ZipRecruiter, an online employment site, Maybriar said average salaries for many of the trades exceed the $40,100 average salary for college graduates in Kentucky.

The average journeyman plumber makes about $51,400 a year, a couple hundred dollars less than a journeyman electrician, Maybriar said. A journeyman who works in HVAC has an average annual wage of about $43,400, he said.

Two of the three numbers stacked up pretty well with statewide figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS figures were about $1,200 higher for electricians and HVAC work and roughly $6,000 more for plumbers, according to Millers research.

At entry level positiona helper, which would be the equivalent of an apprentice in a trade unioncan sometimes make $20 an hour, Maybriar said.

The trades have come a long way, and theyre paying very, very well. Students in our program make money during the day and attend classes at night, Maybriar said.

Tuition is $8,000 for either the one-year HVAC or plumbing programs or the two-year course to become an electrician.

If theyre not employed when they graduate in the trades, we give them 100% of their tuition back. I do not think UK or UofL makes that offer.

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Construction: Building a Plan to Address the Workforce Shortage - The Lane Report