Some people got it and some people don’t. Some people are naturals and others struggle. Some people have to draw it out and some go by the seat of their pants. “What is it?” It’s the ability to visualize, to see the end result of an outdoor design, to know what is going to work and more importantly to know what is not going to work.
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.
Engineers and architects choose to specify concrete masonry units (or more commonly called, CMU’s) for their variety of beneficial material properties. According to ASTM International, this low-maintenance material is ensured to meet all minimum design expectations.
Increases in population, urbanization, and changes in climate have placed increasing numbers of the US population into areas that are subjected to higher and more damaging winds. This increase in risk has prompted a response by the building codes. In fact, the 2015 edition of the International Building Code (IBC) [1]now requires that most schools and emergency facilities located in a significant portion of the Central US contain tornado shelters.
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