Garfield Pool Makes Opening Splash

Saturday, May 28th, 2011, KBS and the City of Topeka cut the ribbon on an exciting new pool at Garfield Park in North Topeka. In spite of the cool weather, swimmers from North Topeka showed up to see the new pool.

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-05-28/brrrr-garfield-park-pool-opens-saturday

Emporia Community Building Ground Breaking

NASCAR driver and Emporia, KS native Clint Bowyer was in his home town to host a groundbreaking ceremony on the Emporia Community Building which he is funding. KBS Constructors is proud to be associated with this project. On a cold March morning the groundbreaking took place. There is a video available on YouTube if you would like to see the festivities.

Clint Bowyer Gives Back to Emporia

Emporia, KS (February 28, 2011)— NASCAR driver and Emporia native Clint Bowyer, has made a generous donation to build a new Community Building in Emporia. The new facility is to be of timber frame construction, with 6,500 SF of meeting space, a catering kitchen, and restrooms. Outside there will be a patio and fire pit, surrounded by berm seating and a covered serving area. This project also receives great support from Lyon County, who will provide street and parking improvements to support the facility.

"We are thrilled to join The Bowyer 79 Fund, The Emporia Community Foundation and Lyon County to deliver this new community building," said Dan Foltz, President of KBS Constructors. “KBS is honored to work with design partners Burns & McDonnell, PKMR Engineers and Central Kansas Engineering Consultants to bring this new facility to Emporia. “ Rob Cunningham, Project Manager for KBS Constructors said, “With design nearing completion, we expect to begin soliciting prices from area subcontractors in March, with an anticipated construction start in April. “

Best Solutions are Not Always Apparent

As we go through life we form assumptions based on our experience. My life experience normally serves me well in this regard. However, there are times when I am surprised by my own assumptions which turn out to be wrong.

For instance, a recent experience we had while constructing a church sanctuary, taught me that I needed to re-think some things I have learned over the years regarding constructing buildings.

Structural steel was, and still is, a cost effective way to construct a large volume interior space. However, few church congregations will accept a painted steel structure as the finished ceiling of their church. This means the contractor must construct some kind of ceiling in addition to the roof structure. This is not an inexpensive task if the desired ceiling is to be a high cathedral ceiling constructed of drywall or plaster, for it requires the use of a lot of expensive scaffolding and it is very labor intensive.

Suppose you construct the building of wood structural members which are pre-finished instead? These types of church sanctuaries were once common in the US, until steel became relatively inexpensive in the latter half of the 20th Century. As a result, steel became almost a default building material for this type of structure, especially in the great plains where forests are pretty much non-existent. So what has changed?

Steel prices have gone up dramatically in the last 10 years with increased demand in the world market, primarily from China. Wood has gone up as well, but not as dramatically. Consider that with this type of wood structure, often called glue laminated structures, what you are using for the structure becomes the ceiling too.

To some people's eyes, including mine, the inside of a wood structure is much more warm and inviting than a drywall, plaster, or acoustic tile ceiling. So, when we were able to save St. Bernard's $100,000 and still give them a beautiful building, we not only found a solution to save them money it was also a very attractive solution. At least this is my opinion. You be the judge.

Joseph Bramlage

Director of Marketing

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