Want to feel like a Kid again?

If you could design a children's museum, what would it look like? This is not a rhetorical question. No two architects think alike on this subject. If I tried to design a children's museum it might look like a giant box of crayons or something like that.

As I watched the structure going up on a new children's museum we are building, I scratched my head a little bit. Understand that from the perspective of a builder, a building with few walls or ceilings which are plumb or level goes against everything we know.

If one were in charge of design on a children's museum, how would one know if the design was a good one? Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder and I have seen a few children's museums in my life. Clearly this is one type of building for which few standards exist.

From an architect's perspective, this must be one of the most fun designs they will ever do. As a builder I can tell you we may never feel that way until construction is complete. Believe me, more than one craftsman has been seen scratching their head on this site.

Yet, when we recently installed glass in the Kansas Children's Discovery Center, the building's design started to make more sense to me. Check it out. If this doesn't look like a building you would want to explore, then you should check your pulse because clearly this will be a building for children of all ages to enjoy.

Find out more by visiting www.kansasdiscover.org. While you are there, you might think about making a donation.

Joseph Bramlage

-Director of Marketing

Tomorrow's Energy Today

Lately I’ve seen a lot of commercials on TV telling me to feel good about “going green.” It all sounds good. I like the idea of driving a clean efficient car, which doesn’t require regular oil changes, or coolant flushes. If I could afford a Tesla Roadster, I would love an electric car with a 200-mile range that can dust a Porsche in the quarter mile. A battery-powered car with a 40-mile range, however, is not practical for my needs. I think even the most ardent environmentalists would agree that alternative energy needs to be practical and affordable.

Call me a skeptic, but I don’t believe politicians and environmentalists all ride bicycles to speaking engagements, or even drive around in all-electric cars. I'm willing to reduce my carbon footprint, if those calling for us to conserve, and "go green" reduce their carbon production to the same levels before pointing their fingers at the rest of us.

If it makes economic sense, let’s keep building windmills and solar energy centers. We must not, however, put an abrupt stop to the drilling for oil and digging of coal unless $9/gallon fuel and $600/month heating bills are a reasonable price to pay for avoiding drilling accidents. Remember when fuel went over $4/gallon? I do, and I didn’t like it much. Most of us need to drive, or ride in cars, to make this economy productive.

In our business, we view buildings as opportunities to provide practical solutions. Solving energy problems, requires practical thinking. I like the idea of a ground source heating system, such as the one we are installing at Wamego Central School.

Taking heat from the earth in winter, returning heat to the earth in summer just makes sense to me. Drilling 50 holes in the ground to install coolant lines can make a mess, but once this solution is in place, it’s say goodbye to the natural gas company.

Is this Critical Environment Construction^TM? Well not exactly, but it is practical thinking to use a heating and cooling system that will pay for itself in less than 10 years and after that costs little to operate. Look for more details regarding this project in the months to come.

Joseph Bramlage - Director of Marketing and Information Technology

Caught for a Cause

Our big fundraising event for Victory Junction, Catch for a Cause, on Hillsdale Lake was a big success, netting about $20k to go toward construction of the Kansas City camp. If you don't know about Victory Junction you need to visit their website at: http://www.victoryjunction.org/

I'd like to send out a special thank you to the many volunteers, sponsors, and fishermen (men, women and children) who entered the fishing contest. I wonder, should it just be fishermen &

women, or fisher-persons? I digress. Weather didn't cooperate with us, at least the weather may have scared some people away.

We were lucky that the big storms seem to hit before and after each event. Aside from some wet fishing weather and a lake with fish who didn't want to be caught, the event went very well.

The photos are very deceptive because in between the thunderstorms we had some good old fashioned hot and humid Kansas Summer weather. Given that some areas received 4 to 5 inches of rain over the weekend, we were really lucky with the weather. The Lord must have been looking out for us and apparently he heard all the prayers from volunteers asking him to hold off with the storms while we completed this event.

It looks like we may repeat this event next year and our 2nd Annual KBS Ultimate Tailgate Party at the American Royal in Kansas City is being planned now. Watch for more information on both these future events.

Joseph Bramlage

Director of Marketing

Bomb Proof Construction

Recently in Moscow, terrorists blew themselves up on crowded commuter subway trains killing dozens of innocent people in the processes. Such an action makes little sense to me. Isn’t strapping a bomb to your body and blowing yourself up, like taking an express elevator to a meeting with your maker?

What does one expect to say upon arrival? “Lord, (Allah) I’m here for my reward now and I’m bringing 39 of your innocent children with me to prove I am worthy of my reward.” More likely you might be saying, “WOW, I guess someone left the thermostat set on 3,000 degrees!”

Back here on earth, we mortals are simply left wondering how to prevent a recurrence of the same deadly event. We turn to the government to protect us and they respond with long delays at airports and subways while they search 85-year-old ladies and young children. I hear the terrorist in Russia were women. So I guess searching women and children no longer sounds so crazy.

If you are in the construction business, like me, you might be wondering if there is a way to make buildings bombproof. There may be, but to do that would surely be expensive. It seems like when we make one area of our life less vulnerable, terrorists simply move on to something easier to attack.

Terrorists seem to prefer picking low hanging fruit and they are far too cowardly to stand up and fight for their cause. They simply send misguided or lost souls to do their dirty work while they hide. If someone chooses to kill him or herself, while taking innocent people with them, there is little the rest of us can do. I guess we will have to let God sort things out in the aftermath.

Joseph Bramlage - Director of Marketing and Information Technology

Earthquakes

Lately we have seen a lot of news about earthquakes. What happened in Haiti was tragic and unexpected. What was not unexpected was the generosity of the American People who rushed in to help, providing millions of dollars worth of monetary aid, food and assistance.

I have never experienced an earthquake, even though I did work in Los Angeles for a while. I mentioned to the locals in L.A. that I’d like to experience an earthquake one day. My colleagues just laughed at me and said, “No you don’t, really.” Coincidentally, the day I left to return home to Arlington, TX, a fair-sized earthquake hit the L.A. area. I just barely missed the experience due to being on an airplane somewhere over New Mexico. Phew!

Having spent some time reviewing construction drawings in L.A., I understand the implications of designing buildings to survive an earthquake. Concrete columns, which in Texas would have been about 15” in diameter, are instead so large one could not reach around them with both arms. Masonry structures are discouraged in an earthquake because it will just simply shake apart. The only way to use masonry is to reinforce it with concrete, steel or some other more stable material. Steel works well because it flexes, but in a high-rise structure, you must consider that a building that is allowed to sway during an earthquake can make the occupants sick in a simple windstorm.

Critical Environment Construction™ takes many different forms. As is the case with most types of CEC™, to make a building truly earthquake-resistant one must be able to adopt a non-traditional view of design.

Joseph Bramlage - Director of Marketing

Constructing With Snow

The 2010 Olympics are underway. I’ve marveled at the snow construction. The Canadian Olympic committee had to import, by truck, needed snow to construct a snowboard cross track and the half pipe course. These tracks are amazing—more like a sculpture than a construction project. How does one learn to do that kind of work anyway? You can be sure, a lot of experience was required.

I’m old enough to remember Jim McKay’s opening sequence for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. In his words, “the human drama of athletic competition and the agony of defeat.” As a child I learned when to look at the TV, upon hearing these words, to see Vinko Bogataj slide off the right side of the ski jump ramp. This ski jumper survived his terrible accident with only a few bruises and a mild concussion. He returned to competition the very next year. [Link]

This year, we were reminded that in the Olympics, especially the winter games, margins for error are razor thin and errors in judgment can be fatal. During a practice run, luge slider, 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili from Georgia, lost his life in a fatal accident on the luge track. He misjudged a turn and sailed out of the track hitting a support column. Naturally, the designers and builders of the track, which was an amazing feat of construction, did their best to make the track safe. Now the memory of this fatal accident will be with them forever.

In the construction business, judgments are made all the time. In our business we often work around high voltage equipment, and around bacteria, viruses and airborne contaminants. We cannot afford mistakes, for mistakes can be devastating. When working in critical environments, one wrong move or a mistake in judgment could cost millions of dollars or could even be fatal. Preparation and planning are keys to success and more than 20 years of experience with construction in these environments is useful too. Keeping people safe while protecting investments. That’s what Critical Environment Construction is all about.

Joseph Bramlage
- Director of Marketing and Information Technology

Turning a Digital Page Yet Again

I remember seeing A:\ > on a fuzzy green monitor years ago and thinking I was seeing the future. When the first graphic user interfaces (GUI) arrived, it demonstrated potential for improving the user experience. The GUI was called a paradigm shift, meaning a dramatic change in methodology or practice. We have seen incremental improvements, such as better monitors, faster processors, a library of typefaces and proportional character sets. Laser and inkjet printers replaced dot matrix printers. Digital photos and music added richness to the user experience. Laptops became more portable, yet the design of personal computers and the user interface have remained relatively unchanged for years.

For me, another paradigm shift arrived with the Internet. Being connected is now essential for business. Many of us have computers at home connected to the net, as well. There are about 312 million people in the US and approximately 75% of us have access to the Internet. Does that mean 80 million Americans still only read newspapers, watch TV for the news, or mail letters? This is not likely. Being too young or old to learn is only part of the reasons people remain off the net. I think one large barrier is the design of computers. I simply do not like to read news on a computer screen because my computer is often not convenient. Email has changed my life, but even email is inaccessible at times. Smart phones are cool, but I cannot manage data on a tiny little screen and type on a tiny keyboard.

Media readers have been around for a few years, but until last week, these readers made little sense. Apple has quickly taken the lead position in this market. I believe their iPad product represents another paradigm shift and my reasons are simple. The touch-screen interface and potential for hundreds of applications makes information more approachable, efficient, and convenient. I believe my 79-year old mother could even use this product. The iPad’s near instant on capability means convenience and flexibility. I will carry one like a portfolio. It will likely become my preferred method for daily digital tasks such as reading news or email. Expect to see mobile data entry applications, and interactive kiosks. You will see them in police cars and in offices. They will become GPS navigators, maps, a remote for your DVR—the potential is nearly endless.

Other vendors will close rank and follow Apple’s lead. Whichever model you buy, the glue that holds them together is the digital communication network. Without a network, these products become insignificant. Making sure digital networks remain uninterrupted during renovations and construction is Critical Environment Construction^TM. It’s what we do at KBS Constructors. Making sure your portable digital media is delivered portably at all times. That’s pretty critical.

Joseph Bramlage -Director of Marketing and Information Technology

Is it 2010 already?

A friend and I recently laughed about how far off the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the sequel “2010” were when trying to predict the future. Note to moviemakers: When predicting the future, don’t include a date.

I expected to be constructing space stations by now, maybe even a hotel on the moon. But alas, governments are still the only contractors in space. This may explain why construction schedules for space stations are measured in decades.

By 2010, we might have expected to travel to the office in a flying car, powered by renewable fuel and fitting inside our briefcase, right? How naive we were back then!

What I didn’t predict was the amount of interdependence between the industries we serve. What happens when phone service is interrupted, for example? How much does a stock brokerage house depend on their communications system? What about Internet Service Providers or a hospital? Simply stated, these firms cannot tolerate a mistake made by a contractor working in a telephone switch room. Businesses depend on services, such as the communication network, and our customers provide those services. That’s Critical Environment Construction.

Looking forward, I see more of the same. The healthcare industry needs contractors who won’t spread airborne contaminates in their buildings. Fear of bioterrorism requires us to pay attention to similar issues when building animal research facilities.
The future for us is in knowing how to successfully work in these environments. I guess for now we will leave space construction for the government to handle. We have our hands full keeping buildings safe and operational here on Earth.

I’d love to hear your take on it. What will be business’s most critical building needs in the decade to come?

Joe Bramlage
Director of Marketing