KB Home Moves in to Converse

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HBW subscribers looking for residential construction job leads and home building permit activity information have their eyes on KB Homes’ new Converse, Texas development. KB Homes welcomes all to Windfield, their expansive new planned community in Converse, Texas. Homebuyers will be able to choose from over a dozen fully customizable one- and two- story floor plans.  Residents will enjoy living within minutes of the Houston Loops 1604, 410, as well as IH -35 & IH-10, which places them near major employment corridors, For Sam Houston, Randolph Air force Base, Brooke Army Medical Center, and attractions throughout central Texas.  Families in Windfield will also find themselves convenient to A-rated middle schools and high schools.

 

The floor plans featured in Windfield come from KB Home’s signature Sterling collection. The development will feature 115 single-family homes ranging from 1,516-2,960 square feet, with accomodation for up to 6 bedrooms, 3½ baths and a two-car garage. KB Home’s San Antonio division president Brett Dietz says that “we are excited to invite home shoppers to visit Windfield and discover everything this new neighborhood has to offer.” Dietz stresses that the Sterling offers everything “from exquisite exteriors and curb appeal, to spacious living areas perfect for family gatherings and entertaining.”

 

If Windfield’s configurable lofts, open kitchens, and spacious master suites aren’t impressive enough, KB Homes is offering Energy Star appliances and other energy-efficient features. Each home is Build San Antonio Green certified to be water- and energy- efficient to conserve natural resources as well as cut down on the monthly utility bills. The WaterSense water fixtures that are standard in all of Windfield’s homes will help homeowners conserve almost 30,000 gallons of water and nearly $300 on their utility bill each year. High-performance windows and insulation, along with radiant barrier roofing and programmable thermostats will help reduce household energy usage as well.

USGBC Announces 3 LEED Courses to Grow Your Business

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LEED certification has become a highly-sought-after credential for developers and builders alike. But initial LEED certification is only the first step in a career-length journey into mastery of LEED principles. Continuing education units are integral to the LEED certification system, because you need to accumulate a number of units to qualify for re-certification every four years. The United States Green Building Council offers online courses to help LEED-qualified professionals earn their CEU’s and keep their knowledge and skills up-to-date.

One webinar offered by the USGBC is the “Optimization of Commercial Building Systems: Technologies, Practices and Strategies” course. This course focuses on the tools, tech, and best practices for energy management in commercial buildings. The course will teach building professionals how to minimize energy use by maximizing their HVAC and lighting systems. Variable-frequency drive (VFD) and Light-Emitting Diode (LED) retrofits will also be discussed. According to the USGBC, “operational practices, often the lowest cost energy conservation measures, can provide significant returns in energy and dollar savings. Efficient scheduling and sensor error remediation can produce results with very little investment.” This webinar will cover operational adjustments, airside economizer optimization, slider controls for lighting and ventilation as well as fan controls for improving indoor air quality. 1 CEU, $45.

Another popular webinar offered by the USGBC is the “Basics of Building Sciences” course. The course is designed to provide a solid foundation in basic building science principles. Participants will be introduced to the “house as a system” model. In addition to addressing the fundamentals of heat, air, and moisture flow in buildings, this model is useful for improving and assessing building performance.  Two key objective of the course are to “recognize the basic principles of building science as they relate to heat, air, and moisture movement in a building, and to examine the multiple components of the building envelope and how they interact with each other to produce an efficient system.” The review questions that appear throughout the presentation aid participants’ retention of information, to help pass the end-of-webinar test in order to receive the CE credit. 1 CEU, $45.

To learn more, or to enroll in these webinars or any of the USGB’s LEED courses, check out Education @ USGBC.

Build Faster, Cheaper, and Greener With 3D Modeling

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3D modeling technology is gaining ground as a means to drive efficient, green construction efforts. Use of 3D modeling as a design tool improves the quality of technical information that builders can get from tech specs.

Higher-quality information will help builders greatly reduce production time, waste in offcuts, abortive work, and bring an end to chronic over-ordering of building materials. When laid out in the 3D Building Information Model (BIM), new build properties can be tested before implementation, a move that can reduce the cost of property development by 20% or more.

Even better, 3D modeling can help reduce waste and costs for remodeling and refurbishing existing buildings, too. This is especially important for historic preservation efforts, where detailed historic architectural information must be overlaid with the more recent infrastructural information as well as the proposed renovations and alterations.

3D BIM begins by scanning the building inside and outside with a tripod-mounted laser scanner that is calibrated to millimeter accuracy. The laser scanner charts all building surfaces as coordinate points along an x-y-z graphical plain. The laser scans are repeated from multiple angles to make sure that nothing is missing or left out. The laser data is then uploaded to the computer and rendered to link the coordinates from each of the scans, which process creates a detailed 3D digital model of the building.

Regardless of whether it’s built from scratch or made from scans of an existing building, once constructed, the 3D model is attached to a number of cross-indexed databases, which allows for a number of different stakeholders to access real-time updates and alterations that have been made to the 3D model.

In addition to the 3D structural model, 3D models of the water, electrical, gas, HVAC, and other utility infrastructure can be superimposed on the existing model. These infrastructural renderings are also uploaded to the shared database. This allows stakeholders to easily and quickly access the specific information about particular plumbing and power junctures without having to trawl through masses of renderings and information. It also allows designers to test green technology retrofits and improvements virtually to measure the benefits before those improvements are implemented.

Lennar Hiring Builders & Subcontractors

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The huge shortfall in the national construction labor industry has hampered expansion and growth in the construction industry, and Lennar plans to do something about it. Lennar’s expansion across of South Florida has been stymied by the lack of builders to help realize their goals. To remedy this shortage, Lennar held an employment expo on October 9 at the Signature Grande in Davie to recruit contractors and subcontractors.

Lennar is seeking subcontractor specialists in roofing, fencing, painting, electrical, plumbing, masonry, and other trades. Project managers and construction managers are also invited to see what Lennar has to offer. Positions are available with Lennar properties all across Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Lennar’s Mira Lago development in Parkland has 700 home sites ready to be built on. This extraordinary development features custom homes situated along the shores of Parkland’s largest lake. Many homes will be nestled onto their won private lake peninsulas. Nearly every home in Mira Lago will have a panoramic lake view, and home prices begin in the mid-$500k range.

Vaquero Trails in Davie is a 16-acre property that will feature 78 townhomes ranging from 1,887-2,208 square feet, and range in price from $347,990 – $382,990. This pocket neighborhood will feature a community recenter with a fitness room, swimming pool, and cabana.

Lennar’s intimately-scaled Aspen Glen property in Boynton Beach will feature 45 luxurious homes featuring 4 & 5-bedroom floorplans ranging from 2,014-3,130 square feet. Homes being in the mid-$300k range. Located between Delray Beach and Palm Beach, Aspen Glen is close to A-rated schools, shopping & dining, and world-class entertainment.

Located in the heart of Palm Beach county, Lennar’s Capistara development offers 7 unique designs in an exclusive gated community of only 110 homes, many of which are situated on oversized lots. The close proximity to A-rated schools, shopping dining, and local attractions, along with a convenient commute to I-95 make this development an ideal place to call home. Floorplans range from 1,882-3,528 feet and 3-5 bedrooms, and home prices start at $325,990.

If you are interested in working with Lennar to develop any of these fine properties, email Lennarcontractors@Lennar.com or visit the Lennar website for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meritage Moves from Mega-Communities to Micro-Neighborhoods in Austin

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HBW subscribers eyeing Austin residential construction job leads already know that Meritage Homes, renowned for its grandly scaled housing developments, is downsizing to meet the demands of Austin home buyers. Their latest project, South Austin’s Solavera, is part of the city of Austin’s infill strategies meant to generate housing near the city’s centers.

Of this new emphasis on urban infill, Meritage’s Austin division president Charlie Coleman says that “We’re trailblazers…Over the past year our strategy in Austin has changed” to include the infill projects in major cities where the company is well-represented. No doubt that part of the reason Meritage has adopted this strategy is because of the profound lack of otherwise entitled A- and B- grade lots available in urban centers and the lack of entitled land tracts in the outskirts of bustling urban areas.

Meritage will continue building its large suburban communities in Buda, Lakeway, and Pflugerville, but their latest move will put them in direct competition with infill specialists and Austin locals PSW Real Estate, who are developing pocket communities along the Spicewood Road Corridor. PSW focuses on sustainable design and building for the urban Austin environment for families who want to live in walkable communities near their workplaces and favorite entertainment haunts.

Meritage’s Solavera is slightly over three acres in size. It is located at 2807 Del Curto Road, just east of the South Lamar Boulevard and Manchaca Road intersection. The fully entitled yet thoroughly vacant site was purchased this year from Four Seasons land and Development LLC principal Shawn Breedlove.

By December, the infrastructure work will be finished and building will begin on the single-family detached houses. A debut event showcasing the community for select realtors happened on October 9. Next week will be the VIP event for potential buyers.

Demand for the units has proven to be so strong that Meritage will hold a pre-sale lottery to determine potential homeowners for the community. Buyers must pre-qualify for a home loan of $520,000 or more to be selected for the lottery. Final home prices for the contemporary-styled homes are as yet undecided, but are expected to begin in the $600’s for floor plans ranging from 1,814 to 2,866 square feet.

Vernacular Architecture and Smart Planning Bring Huge Returns to The Waters

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The incredibly ambitious, experimental, master-planned community of The Waters, located in Pike Road, Alabama, has brought incredible returns to this formerly tiny suburb of Montgomery. Built along Cameron Lake, a 200-acre manmade water recreation area, The Waters’ experimentation with architectural design, mixed zoning, and a wide range of housing costs has already produced fantastic results. The latest coup for The Waters development team is the Pike Road school district’s decision to locate a new school near the community.

One key to the wild success of The Waters is that the architectural design of the community is based on the Alabama’s vernacular architecture. There are no mock villas and palazzos, or sprawling pseudo-adobe pueblos, or “traditional English cottages.” Instead, builders are using the visually distinct, traditional housing style that is unique to the Alabama region as the design palette for the town that looks like the quintessential Southern town.

This is in large part due to Town Architect Steve Mouzon’s belief that “whenever you go to a great place, it doesn’t have every style in the world, it has an architecture of that place… The greater the place, the easier you can nail down the architecture to a very small window on planet earth as to where it is. That is a characteristic of greatness — you might say it’s the gateway to greatness.”

Mouzon notes that each of the local builders brought on board share the same design principles, which helps make the town visually striking. “I can pull anyone off a scaffold,” Mouzon explains, “and they can tell you a shocking amount of information about architecture and why they do what they do.”

This emphasis on tradition in design is combined with a cutting-edge approach to mixed accommodation types that include one-bedroom homes and live-work units as well as multi-family condos and single-family homes located near retail, restaurants, and other commercial businesses. The town is thriving on local trade, which Mouzon finds impressive because, “There are 100 rooftops supporting 10,000 square feet of commercial…Conventional wisdom says it takes 1,000 rooftops to support a corner store. We have one-tenth that many supporting 10,000 square feet (six businesses) on the ground floor.”

The Waters offers stunning amenities, such as a large saltwater pool, lighted tennis and basketball courts, and a community pavilion with meeting house and grilling stations, a playground, a dog park and parkland trails. The town also offers world-class fishing on Cameron Lake, which features a marina and courtesy access to kayaks, piers, fishing boats, canoes, beaches, and a cruise boat. Construction is slated to continue through spring of 2015.

Georgia Developer Crown Communities in Hot Water

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Atlanta-based developer Crown Communities, which was acquired by mega-developer D. R. Horton in May of this year, is reeling from the ire of dissatisfied homeowners. According to the Better Business Bureau, the Conyers-based firm has responded to over 107 complaints in the last three years, and dozens more remain open.  The majority of the issues involve the homes and Crown’s servicing of them, and warranty/guarantee problems.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, faulty air conditioners that broke within months of closing, un-level wood floors, cracked driveways, dead grass sod, and leaky plumbing top the list of property complaints. Service complaints involve failure to conduct warranty inspections, poor quality of customer service, and failure to appear for repair appointments.

Last month, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division fined Crown subdivision Pillon Communities $13,750, and ordered them to correct erosion control and water quality violations at their Grove Landing property.

According to the BBB website, Crown Communities has a rating of B-. A number of factors went into this rating, which include company size, number of complaints, and recorded resolutions of those complaints. They achieved this rating because the number of complaints about the company were somewhat offset by the company’s attempt to address those complaints. Investigations are conducted by the BBB in cases where there seems to be a mismatch between the rating given and the company’s customer satisfaction record, and it is entirely possible that Crown Communities will face investigation proceedings.

Crown Communities has 12 subdivisions in Aiken, Richmond, and Columbia counties with homes for sale. It has also developed neighborhoods in Athens, Columbus, and Atlanta as well as towns in South Carolina.

Contour Crafting May Upend the Construction Industry

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This year’s winner of the Create the Future design contest might have totally changed the game for the construction industry. The annual competition, sponsored by Comsol, Mouser Electronics, Analog Devices, and Intel, was launched in 2002 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine to stimulate and reward engineering innovation. USC Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Dr. Berokh Khoshnevis  is the inventor of the Contour Crafting method, a computerized construction process that prints large-scale 3-D structures directly from Architectural CAD models.

Using a four-person crew and simple, inexpensive building materials, the Contour Crafting method forms structural walls from paste-like materials  like concrete, which is extruded in layers directly onto the site and then smoothed into place by a robotic trowel. This flexible building technique easily produces curvilinear organic structures as well the more traditional rectilinear shapes, which has drawn significant attention from architects around the world. Because it uses the precisely necessary amount of building material, the Contour Crafting method radically reduces construction waste.

Contemporary 3-D construction techniques fabricate blocks and components, which are assembled on-site. Contour Crafting is the only technology that builds entire structures on-site. Construction time and costs are drastically reduced with the Contour Crafting method, which makes it ideal for building affordable housing in developing countries and for quickly erecting emergency shelters, hospitals, and food warehouses in disaster-torn areas.

Dr. Khoshnevis has been contracted by NASA to bring his automated construction technology into space. Contour crafting would allow scientists to build laboratories and housing structures in space to host long-term research projects.

Hot Tub Tips for Fall Fun

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The weather has cooled off, and there’s nothing like a soak in the hot tub to shake off the autumn chill. But to make sure your spa is ready to go, it’s important to keep a few tips in mind.

Water Care

Because of the heat and the heavy water re-circulation, hard and scaly water can artificially shorten the life of key components like pumps, fittings, and filters. Have your silver ion cartridge ready to go, and keep some replacements on hand to switch it out every 3-4 months. You should be checking your water quality periodically, but when the tub is in active use, it should be checked daily. The bromine or chlorine levels should be 1-5pp of free bromine of chlorine, with a pH of 7.2-7.8, a calcium hardness of 124-400ppm, and a total alkalinity level of 120-180ppm. Every 3-4 months, it is a good idea to change the water in your hot tub altogether. Make sure to add a spa system flushing product before you drain so you can clean out the biofilms that ave built up in your tub’s inner workings.

Filtration

Keeping your water clear means keeping your filters clean. Are your hot tub filters up to snuff? These filters work hard, but to keep them in shape you need to clean them monthly. Pool filters can usually be rinsed out with a garden hose, but hot tubs are different. They need to be cleaned and sanitized to keep your hot tub healthy and functional. To scrub and sanitize your hot tub filters, try SpaGuard Filter & Degreaser. SpaGuard will keep your filter clean and your water clear. Make sure to change your filters every two years.

Coverage

Make sure your hot tub cover is up to snuff. If the cover is heavy, water-logged, or smelly, it’s time to get a new one. Most hot tub covers last 5 years; 6-7 if the hot tub is indoors and protected from the elements. Every so often, it’s a good idea to clean and condition your cover to remedy the damage caused by the spa’s heat and humidity. A vinyl spa cover cap can extend the life of your spa cover. You could also try the Smartop cover, an all-in-one hardtop solution that keeps the elements and debris out, and your crystal-clear spa water in.

New Office Condos, Retro Locale for Miami Businesses

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One Flagler, the 15-story building at 14 NE First Ave. that is one of the most iconic buildings in Miami, is being renovated into office condominiums. Built in 1952 and designed by internationally renowned architect Morris Lapidus, the 15-story epitome of the Miami Modern, or “MiMo” style, has already seen $10 million in upgrades to the building’s interior. Exterior renovations will be kept to a minimum and largely limited to restoring the building to its original 1952 condition.

Due to a defaulted note, the building’s future was uncertain until Midgard management took over the note and negotiated a turnover for One Flagler in 2010. James Goldstein, CEO of Midgard, says that “The upgrades we have been making are very systemic, but we have been paying attention to details and leaving the most historic features.” Midgard has joined with Miami developer Harvey Hernandez, of Newgard Development, to convert the building into office condos.

The Flagler Building, formerly named the Ainsley Building and later known as the Foremost Building, has had an amazing variety of tenants over the years. The Cuban Consulate had formerly been housed there, as well as the Miami Athletic Club, a branch of the Israel Discount Bank, and several federal offices. A branch of Continental Bank, along with several law firms and investment companies, currently occupies the building.

The decision to convert the building into office condos was not difficult to make. Hernandez explains that “The building needed to be renovated, and we said: ‘How can we renovate this building but at the same time make some business sense?’” In Hernandez’ opinion, investors will be keen to buy commercial office space located downtown in an iconic building designed by a renowned architect. It is also likely that many investors will be owner-occupants, but the investors who purchase space that is already occupied by a tenant might expect returns “in excess of 4.5 percent.”

Midgard is excited at the prospect of preserving the building “for future generations,” Goldstein says, adding, “We love the building.”