Photo credit: Sthanlee Mirador for SIPA via AP Images
Photo credit: Sthanlee Mirador for SIPA via AP Images
Once Henry Ford’s Model T made automobile ownership commonplace, architects began designing homes with garages. According to this source “In the 1920s, garage design began to evolve and become more specialized. Garages began to be built with specific features such as windows, workbenches, and storage cabinets.”
Not-so-coincidentally, this was about the time problems started out in the garage.
For almost a decade, the annual Acme Brick What’s Hot and What’s Not in home design makes an educated guess about the trends homeowners can expect in the coming year. Looking back on these articles, the predictions have proven to be amazingly accurate. However, it should be noted that this has almost nothing to do with the training or artistic sensibility of the author.
It’s no coincidence that most, if not all, fire training facilities and fire houses are constructed of brick. Why? Safety. The men and women who fight fires for a living know how quickly buildings constructed of synthetic siding or wood can be consumed and destroyed when a fire is ignited. These professionals have first-hand, and often tragic, experience with the ferocious speed of fire.
The legendary co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, Adolphus Busch, needed cross-country rail service to move his beer, and during his travels, he became convinced of the opportunities for great wealth possible from investing in real estate in Dallas, Texas. The former German immigrant’s business instincts proved to be as good as his skills as a brew master.
Feature image credit: Erin McCormack, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The “Beyhive” is buzzing like it has never buzzed before. Why? The last few days have seen some big news about arguably THE power couple of the entertainment industry.
Architects and builders have first-hand experience with the importance of exterior cladding for both aesthetics and energy conservation of a structure. Poor-quality materials and inefficient or even confusing installation requirements can wreak havoc on both short- and long-term performance of the building, its tenants or residents, and the reputations of the professionals who designed it.
Buying an existing home or building a new one is one of life’s big decisions, primarily because of the amount of money required to participate in the process. Both sides of the purchase transaction — the builder/seller and the buyer — struggle with the cyclical nature of mortgage interest rates and the supply and demand of available homes.