The Inside Track – November 2012
Welcome to The Inside Track! This page provides the latest news, highlights and case studies from our
partners in the architecture and building industry.
AIA-Accordion
Highlights
Viracon Wins Three Local Business Awards Luncheon Celebrates Manufacturer’s
Week in Owatonna, MN
OWATONNA, MN – Viracon, the nation’s leading single-source architectural glass
fabricator, has received three awards for its contributions to manufacturing in the
city of Owatonna. The awards were presented during a manufacturer’s luncheon,
hosted by Viracon on behalf of the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce and Tourism
on Wednesday, October 24, 2012.
Continue Reading
Viracon To Introduce DigitalDistinctions™ at Greenbuild 2012: See the Latest
in Printing Technology Applied to Architectural Glass at Booth #3676N
OWATONNA, MN…Viracon, the nation’s leading single-source architectural glass
fabricator, will showcase the latest addition to their decorative glass portfolio,
DigitalDistinctions™, at the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in San
Francisco, CA, November 12-14.
DigitalDistinctions is a digital printing solution from Viracon that allows a building
designer to insert their artistic expressions into a glass façade, enabling a vast
selection of colors to be applied to a single lite of glass. DigitalDistinctions is highly
customizable to high-resolution images, patterns, text, textures, dots and lines, just
to name a few.
“I’m very excited to add this new technology to our extensive product lines and
offerings,” says Kevin Anez, Director of Marketing and Product Management. “With
more than 40 years of experience in this industry, we have spent a great deal of
time evaluating various technologies and options to find the one that would best
match the needs and demandsof architects and designers in North America and
around the world. I’m impressed by the products we are producing, and our
customers will be amazed at our new capabilities.”
Continue Reading
Zipcar is a new Advantage partner
Zipcar for Business is the smarter transportation solution to all your company’s
needs. Taking taxis to client meetings and going to the rental counter are
expensive and inconvenient. Not only are Zipcars around the corner from your
office, but they’re also near your next business destination around the US,
Canada, UK, and Spain. Drive hybrids, sedans, or pick-ups by the hour or the day
with exclusive low rates from Monday to Friday. (Gas and insurance included.)
Plus, members of the AIA save $75 on a membership. Sign up
today:www.zipcar.com/aiarchitects.
BSD Announces: Enhancements for Expandable Specifications
Atlanta, Georgia―Building Systems Design, Inc. (BSD) today announced major
enhancements of its award-winning construction specifications software product.
The fall release of BSD SpecLink-E® includes many new features, but one of the
most unusual is an enhancement to its innovative expandable database function.
Continue Reading
Boston Chapter Construction Specifications Institute posts their 20122013 Program Calendar
To learn more, click here
ARCOM to Sponsor U.S. Department of Energy: Solar Decathlon 2013 for
Third Consecutive Competition Year
ARCOM to Donate MasterSpec Library and LEED Requirements Resource to
Collegiate Design Teams for Next Year's Program
Salt Lake City, Utah (August 15, 2012) — ARCOM has announced its sponsorship of
the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013, an award-winning program
that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered
houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive.
ARCOM, a Solar Decathlon sponsor since 2009, has been a long-time supporter of
schools of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, and other
construction-related programs by donating MasterSpec licenses and Masterworks
software for teaching purposes.
Continue Reading
Viracon Names Sales Representative for Utah Region
Effective immediately, Viracon is pleased to announce that Ryan Hoffman will be
taking over as the Viracon sales representative for the Utah market. This move
allows Cameron Scripture recently named, Western Regional Architectural Sales
Manager to better focus on his new assignment. Ryan has demonstrated that he
has the essential selling and marketing attributes to take on this additional
responsibility, we are proud of his accomplishments thus far and, look forward to
watching Ryan create success in this new territory.
For the past 6 years, Ryan Hoffman has had the responsibilities of a field sales
representative for the Northern California and Northern Nevada markets. Before
this time, he worked in Technical Services, Architectural Promotions, and
International Sales departments at Viracon. In his new role, Ryan will maintain his
current markets and expand his responsibility to cover all of Utah.
Viracon’s Statesboro, GA Facility To Re-Open in August: Upgrades Maintain
Facility’s State-of-the-Art Glass Fabrication Capabilities
OWATONNA, MN – Viracon, the nation’s leading single-source architectural glass
fabricator, will re-open its Statesboro, GA manufacturing facility next month.
Employees will return to work and production will resume on August 13th. For the
past six months, Viracon has spent $6 million refurbishing the facility’s equipment
and infrastructure to ensure it maintains cutting-edge performance for the next
construction up-cycle.
Continue Reading
W.P. Hickman Adds Two Key Employees
The W. P. Hickman Company has hired two new employees to fill key roles. Pat
Gallagher has been hired to fill the role of National Sales Manager and Kevin
Bramlett is the new Manager of Lean Operations. Both roles are newly created
positions at the W. P. Hickman Company.
Continue Reading
W.P. Hickman Company Awards Welding Scholarship
The W. P. Hickman Company announces that the William P. Hickman Welding
Scholarship has been awarded to George Fowler, second-year student at Asheville
Buncombe Technical Community College.
Continue Reading
Premier Glass Products Joins Viracon’s External Sales Team: Company to
Provide Architectural Sales and Customer Management for Texas Region
OWATONNA, MN…Viracon, the nation’s leading single-source architectural glass
fabricator, is pleased to announce the addition of Kyle Jones and his company,
Premier Glass Products (PGP) to its external sales team. PGP will be responsible
for architectural sales and customer relationship management for the entire state
of Texas.
PGP is a manufacturer's representative agency engaged in the promotion, sales
and service of a variety of products purchased through the Glass and Glazing
Industry, Window Centers and Lumber Yards. The agency has more than 140 years
combined industry experience.
Continue Reading
MasterSpec and SpecText are MasterFormat 2012 Compliant!
Salt Lake City, Utah (April 3, 2012) — ARCOM is pleased to announce that
MasterSpec® and SpecText® master guide specifications are compliant with
MasterFormat 2012 as of the 1st Quarter 2012 updates. MasterFormat™ 2012 was
recently published by CSI/CSC.
“ARCOM is committed to being the leader in specifications by providing the most
current master guide specifications, specification productivity software, and
specification resources," says Christopher Bushnell, President and CEO of ARCOM.
"We work hard to ensure that all our products meet the construction industry's
latest standards, formats, and classification system.”
ARCOM will also discontinue the use of MasterFormat 1995 in its specification and
software products as of June 30, 2013.
For firms with clients requiring specifications to be submitted in MasterFormat
1995, the MasterFormat 2012 to 1995 converter in ARCOM’s Masterworks is
available at no cost to ARCOM clients.
Continue Reading
Product
Announcements
BSD Announces: Major 5.0 Software Release for BSD SpecLink®-E
Atlanta, Georgia―Building Systems Design, Inc. (BSD) today announced a major
software release of its flagship BSD SpecLink-E product for automated production
of construction specifications. The new version of the product includes major
software modifications but no data updates. The biggest change is quite
significant – all data edits in a project are saved immediately to the projects
database on the server instead of being saved initially to a temporary file in the
client software for batch uploading at a later time. This approach results in much
faster operation of many functions (such as section check in and closing), greater
stability in the software, and significantly enhanced data management and
control.
Continue Reading
BSD Announces Keynote Management Tool
Atlanta, GA – Building Systems Design, Inc. (BSD) today announced the release of a
new version of its groundbreaking BIM interoperability tool, BSD LinkMan-E.
Designed to work with all recent releases of Autodesk’s Revit software, the new
LinkMan now incorporates a tab that allows users to import, edit, and connect
keynotes to Revit objects while simultaneously linking the objects to specifications
in BSD SpecLink-E. A unique master keynote has been assigned to each of the
thousands of products and assemblies in the LinkMan database, all of which have
been linked to appropriate sections and paragraphs in BSD SpecLink-E. Objects in
Revit have also been linked to the same LinkMan database, which permits
LinkMan to display any discrepancies between a Revit project model and the
corresponding project specifications in SpecLink – or to update the specifications
automatically, based on the Revit data.
Continue Reading
Viracon Introduces CyberShield™ With Pilkington DATASTOP™: New Glass
Coating Provides RF Shielding for Secure Building Applications
OWATONNA, MN – Viracon announces CyberShield™ - a glass coating specifically
engineered to reduce the transmission of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic
radiation, also known as RF shielding.
“With more data being transmitted and shared electronically, it is becoming
necessary to protect private conversations, boardroom discussions and trade
secret documents from electronic eavesdropping,” says Kevin Anez, Director of
Marketing & Product Management for Viracon. “CyberShield was developed to
help government organizations, businesses, architects and building owners design
secure buildings.”
CyberShield offers electrical attenuation with an average of 45 decibels (dB) across
a frequency range from 35 megahertz (MHz) to 18 gigahertz (GHz), while
optimizing visible light transmission with a neutral glass color. Additionally, glass
performance can be enhanced with low-emissivity coatings and/or silk-screen
solutions.
Continue Reading

ARCOM Launches Ground-Breaking MasterSpec Historic Preservation Library
at AIA Expo 2012


ARCOM Announces Upcoming Masterworks Version for Macintosh ARCOM
Announces New Version of e-SPECS to Integrate MasterSpec with
GRAPHISOFT's ArchiCAD
ARCOM Announces Strategic Alliance and Endorsement Agreement with
Society for Design Administration
Viracon Unveils ClearPoint™
OWATONNA, MN – Viracon, the nation’s leading single-source architectural glass
fabricator, introduces ClearPoint™ - a point-supported insulating glass system that
increases the transparency of glass façades.
Specifically engineered to provide building designers with greater
flexibility, ClearPoint allows architects to maximize clear openings and enhance
aesthetics, delivering a clean, contemporary look both inside and out.
Continue Reading
Case Studies
Newforma
Architecture and Engineering, SHW Group and Newforma Project Analyzer
Aerotek
Quality Improvement
JELD-WEN
Benefits of Windows in High Performance School Designs
LG Hausys
LG Hausys Floors
Tandus
Government Facility Design
NUDO
Updated Operation: University of Iowa Hospital
Unifying Design: Canyon View Elementary School
Industry Knowledge
Graphisoft
GRAPHISOFT ArchiCAD. GRAPHISOFT® ignited the BIM revolution with ArchiCAD®,
the industry-leading BIM software for architects. With GRAPHISOFT ArchiCAD’s
Building Information Modeling approach, architects can explore design ideas with
full confidence, knowing that every detail is being captured and all documents are
synchronized. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative
solutions such as the revolutionary GRAPHISOFT BIM Server™, the world’s first,
real-time BIM collaboration environment. Open BIM design collaboration offers
intelligent, model-based workflow between the members of the extended design
team and architects using ArchiCAD, resulting in greater efficiency in the building
process.
Continue Reading
Reed Construction Data
Find new project listings in your state for FREE with Reed’s accessArchitecture service.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/E5PeDNPC6CM?aia-embed+350+190+@justify
Did you miss Reed Construction Data’s webcast, Flat, down, or UP: Where is construction heading? The
presentation from this webcast is now available.
To see the presentation, please click here
Get Involved with the AIA
Questions or Comments, please contact us.