Firestone Building Products Company, LLC, the leading manufacturer of superior “Roots to Rooftops” products for commercial building performance solutions, today announced the release of its 2012 Sustainability Report. The report, the first for Firestone Building Products Company, covers the fiscal 2012 year and is available for download at firestonebpco.com.

The LEGOLAND Discovery Center Westchester in Yonkers, N.Y., celebrated the completion of a LEGO replica of One World Trade Center by lighting the 12-foot-tall, 100-pound model.

A new report released today forecasts the volume of construction output will grow by more than 70% to $15 trillion worldwide by 2025.

The deadline is for BD+C's 30th Annual Reconstruction Awards is July 19, but if you get me a draft of your entry by July 12 (earlier if possible, please!), we'll read it and give you feedback and suggestions that could help you win. We'll give you enough time to rework your entry in time to meet the deadline.

We do this "Early Bird" service to help you put together the best possible entry - one that will answer any questions our distinguished jury members may come up with. However, we must emphasize that the BD+C Reconstruction Awards program is a juried competition, so there are no guarantees you'll win. We're just trying to improve your odds.

Building Design+Construction is the only publication in its field to recognize the importance of reconstruction in all its forms - historic preservation, adaptive reuse, renovation, fitouts, and reconstruction with addition. And we've been doing it for 30 years. Incidentally, reconstruction accounts for 30-35% of all revenue for AEC firms, so it's a key component of the US/Canada design and construction industry.

Send your draft entry to: rcassidy@sgcmail.com. And good luck!

Historic window experts from Hoffmann Architects look back at the origin of windows in the U.S.

A recent survey of more than 60 building owners and facility management professionals by Mortenson Construction shows that BIM/VDC is top of mind among owner professionals. 

Underestimating thermal bridging can greatly undermine a building’s performance contributing to heating load variances of up to 30% and cooling load variances of up to 200%, says the MMM Group.

New York's Scaffold Law, which “places the burden of responsibility on the contractor to prove that the job site was safe for workers,” could be facing a major change.