My family business has been supplying plaster, masonry and concrete materials to Chicago’s construction industry since 1873. As a child I loved exploring our century old timber framed office building and warehouse lofts looking for long lost “treasures.”
Homeowners are spending more time and energy on their homes and properties than ever before. With the DIY movement on television and the big box home improvement chains, folks are showing great interest in creating and enhancing their “outdoor living areas”.
The U.S. Virgin Islands were slammed by Hurricane Marilyn in September of 1995, and Bill Coulbourne was asked to join a team of disaster relief specialists on site. “The engineering consulting firm I was working for had a contract with FEMA to provide a disaster response after major events,” he recalls.
The 200-mile drive across northern Wisconsin was typical even as a first-time adventure. Route 29 east and the roads from Eau Claire were easy to follow to Peshtigo. Abandoning the office and the design environment to locate and research materials for special building applications is a well-developed firm practice.
In 1984, Dr. Robert Ulrich published a study in which the effect of the hospital room environment of 46 patients recovering from gall bladder surgery was observed. The individuals were patients at a suburban Pennsylvania hospital between 1972 and 1981, when recovery from such surgery required a two-week hospital stay (now it’s two to three days).
BY JOHN STUART
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