Construction Informer

What does Mill Avenue in Tempe, AZ have in common with Clarendon and Wilson Boulevards in Arlington, VA? You guessed it. They are both finalists in the American Planning Association’s (APA) Great Places in America: Streets. These streets are designated as such because they are places of “exemplary character, quality and planning.” The organization also cites them as places where people want to be and to live and work. There are slide shows of the various winners at the Web site.

Besides the great streets there are categories for neighborhoods and public spaces. Downtown Salem, MA and Greater Park Hill in Denver, CO were in the top 10 neighborhoods, and Portland, OR’s Pioneer Courthouse Square along with Charleston, SC’s Waterfront Park ranked in the public spaces category. APA says the public spaces honorees are places that help promote social interaction and a sense of community. Great streets have both form and composition, character and a sustainable environment. The other category, Great Neighborhoods, capitalize on architecture, design, scale and other attributes to create visual experiences and other qualities.

There is a lot more at the links above along with the complete list and plenty of pictures. There are also guidelines for those who would like to submit an entry for next year’s event.

If you want to get a glimpse of what web site professionals consider to be cutting edge in web site design look no further than the Web Marketing Association’s WebAward. Now in its 11^th year it names the best web sites in 96 industries to, “provide a benchmark by which all website development can be judged.” As you might guess the construction industry is well represented in these awards and looking over the winners can give you some ideas about not only new purposes for your site but also new presentation.

The judging is a very thorough process and among other things it looks at design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use.

I looked at a few of the winners. The MGA Roofing site took top honors in the construction category. I liked the little hammer hammering away in the upper right corner but because I was studying the page for a while I kind of wished it would have stopped after a few blows. That page totally encapsulated the entire business and made it very easy to quickly understand what the company does, how it does it and how to do business with it.

The second site I looked at was Inarco, a Canadian design/build firm (my description) that took one of the Construction Standard of Excellence awards. This was a very slick site with quick graphics and short text blocks. Again, it was very easy to quickly understand what the company was about, how it operated and how to do business with it.

The Homebuilding Standard of Excellence award went to EverGrain a composite decking company. This site really managed to convey the “feeling” the company wanted you to get about composite decking. And again, it was easy to understand and easy to figure out how to get linked up with a dealer. I had a little trouble with this one since I expected a homebuilder’s site, so seeing a vendor caught me off-guard. Maybe these categories need to be considered a bit more.

All-in-all it looked to me like the days of the long page that you scroll down through are passing and more and more focus is going into pictures/video and high quality text. I suspect there are many people in the business of construction who can’t afford a web designer or web design firm. I’m thinking of low volume contractors, cabinetmakers and specialty trades-people to name a few. They are serving a small, local clientèle and they use a simple approach to their web presences. Who is showcasing their efforts? After all, if what they are doing works for them, then it works. If you’d like to share the link to your small construction business website leave it in the comments section and maybe we can also encourage some recognition for the “It’s pretty darn good, even if I do say so myself,” websites.

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Designing and building “can” structures tops the list of things to do for architects, engineers, students and other construction professionals when they want to do some public good and test their skills. The sponsoring organization, Canstruction® is a foundation of the Society for Design Administration in Alpharetta, GA, which in turn is an affiliate of the American Institute of Architects. Participants design and then build large structures made completely from full cans of food. After the competitions are finished the food is donated to the local food banks.

This week Canstruction competitions are taking place in Jersey City NJ, Halifax NS, Long Island NY, New Orleans LA, and Minneapolis St Paul MN and the November list of events includes 11 cities. All told there will be more than 100 Canstruction competitions for the 2007-2008 cycle at the end of which a final judging selects the national winners. Last cycle’s winners included awards for jurors’ favorite, structural ingenuity, best use of labels, best meal, honorable mention and most cans.

The structure on the left below was the winner of the Structural Ingenuity Award and is entitled Möbius Strip. That name refers to a surface that has remarkable properties, including one-sidedness. It’s complex but if you are the curious type you can read all about it here. The structure was designed and built by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects and uses 3,500 cans. The photo comes from the Canstruction news release and was taken by Kevin Wick.

The second photo is an Honorable Mention Finalist and is called Passion To Feed and was built by Fluor Canada Ltd., UBC Engineering Students, Vancouver, Canada. They used 6,400 cans. The photo comes from the Canstruction news release and was taken by David Roels.