The ACI Foundation is now accepting applications from graduate and undergraduate students for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The CIT fund has an interesting initiative for a building envelope program.

The American Concrete Institute, in collaboration with NEx: An ACI Center of Excellence for Nonmetallic Building Materials, has released two new resources for fiber-reinforced polymer reinforcement.

The role of polyisocyanurate insulation in high-performance systems.

Prefab construction is here, and it’s happening. The combination of a severe labor shortage and extreme shortfalls in housing supply is driving a renewed interest in prefabricated construction as a more cost-efficient alternative to traditional building.

One of the most prominent offsite construction award programs, the Building Excellence Awards showcase the projects that best demonstrate the design flexibility, long-lasting energy performance and resiliency of SIPs.

The Structural Insulated Panel Association announced the winners of its annual Building Excellence Awards, an off-site construction awards program that recognizes outstanding residential and commercial projects.

A K-12 school in rural Alaska, a zero-energy-ready timber-frame home, low-income housing with a high-performance shell...the winners of this year’s Building Excellence Awards are a strong testament to the benefits of SIP construction.

Portable power drills are some of the most useful tools in the construction industry, but without taking the proper safety precautions they can quickly become some of the most dangerous.

Loading docks generally aren’t known for their stylishness, but a new such structure at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is breaking with that tradition. The addition of glass curtainwall and a protective overhang clad in copper-toned metal tiles create a real visual pop in the middle of the airport’s runway area.

CertainTeed, a leading North American manufacturer of building materials, today announced the launch of Terminus Transitions and Terminus Glazing Channels as new product extensions to the company’s Terminus Perimeter Trim line. The Terminus Perimeter Trim line is a premier suspension system accessory that allows for easy installation of suspended ceilings with exposed edges, including clouds, peninsulas and islands.

During a time where there is a need for affordable housing, Westlake Royal Building Products, one of North America’s largest manufacturers and distributors of exterior and interior building products, celebrated its 300th home built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity - MidOhio, an organization that aims to build homes, empower families and develop communities. On Thursday, Sept. 15, the keys to a three-bedroom, two-bath single family home were turned over to a partner family in Columbus. For this home, Westlake Royal donated 20 squares of siding, including Exterior Portfolio Vinyl Siding and Portsmouth Shake & Shingles Siding, as well as Royal Shutters, Mounts and Vents accessories - marking its 300th siding donation to Habitat MidOhio over the last 20 years.

Westlake Royal Building Products has been named 2022 Vendor of the Year by Carter Lumber, one of the nation’s top building materials retailers. Despite industry shifts and challenges, the partnership has remained strong, allowing both companies to continue meeting the needs of customers.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Ft. McMurray, which is located about 300 miles north of Edmonton, in Northern Alberta, Canada. It’s not the northern most point on the road but you can see it from there. The area is a phenomenon because it contains the largest known cash of petroleum in the world. You didn’t know that? Well, neither did I until recently. The amount of oil sand in Alberta is enough-at their current rate of consumption-to provide Canada all of the petroleum it would need for the next 475 years. It’s enough oil to meet the needs of the entire planet for the next 15 years.

I met Kevin Moyer at the national plastering contest held last year in Long Beach, Calif. I listened as he spoke of the future of the plastering industry and the need for skilled plasterers to meet the expected demand of a trade once in decline, but now on the eve of a renaissance. I asked him then if I could have the opportunity to interview him for Walls and Ceilings and recently our schedules permitted us to get together.

My journey through the inner sanctum of the USG Research & Technology Innovation center continued through one testing laboratory after another, each with its own specialty… With over 100 years of innovation and leadership in the walls and ceilings industry, there is no aspect of the business that has escaped the purview of the USG scientists.

Created in the 1960s by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration as part of the “War on Poverty,” 40 years later, Job Corps continues to enjoy strong bi-partisan support in Congress. It continues its mission to help young men and women fulfill their life’s potential, and it may just be part of your solution to meeting the demand for skilled labor in today’s transitional labor market

Since the early 1980s the percentage of the construction industry that has been dominated by unionized companies has decreased, that is until the last few years. Something has changed. Unions offer training programs, a ready supply of skilled labor, and a level playing field of wages and established fringe benefits.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 6 million citizens or legal residents of the United States between the ages of 18 and 64 who are actively seeking work, but who are unemployed. What happened?

It is estimated that there are over 24 million U.S. Military Veterans. More than 2 million of them are under 35 years of age, and many of those are in need of good paying jobs.

I recently had the opportunity to revisit Chicago, the home of one of my personal heroes, Byron Dalton. To most in the industry today, the name Dalton has little or no significance. But to some of us older die-hard plastering fanatics, Dalton could be considered the American patriarch of the plastering trade.

I was 14 years old and the tool I held uncomfortably in my hand had long ago been relegated to the bottom of a pick-up truck tool box; the dark and dusty graveyard where old trowels with rusted blades and popped rivets go to die. You see plasterers very rarely throw away their old trowels; they just put them out to pasture. A quality built trowel will serve its purpose for many years, even decades if cared for properly.

Online Blogs, Chat Rooms, and Community Forums; these cyber communities have become the modern version of the neighborhood bar, the office water cooler, and the campus coffee shop...

Have you ever been to an industry trade show? I usually attend several each year; the INTEX Expo, World of Concrete, and this year I had the opportunity to attend the Remodeling Show sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders at the Convention Center in Baltimore. You can always tell when a trade show is in town. Local restaurants and hotels are filled with small groups wearing matching shirts.

Plastering being one of the oldest of occupations, or as I am fond of calling it, the second “oldest profession” is represented in the United States and Canada by the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, which was chartered in 1864 and is the oldest of all the active building trades unions in North America.

“Some men must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I stood along the rail of an upper tier at the Nashville Convention Center, home of the 2009 AWCI Convention and Intex Expo trade show. I watched two middle-aged men approaching each other on opposing escalators, one going up, the other going down.

I know that it has been a while since I was a small remodeling contractor, but has the state of the art really fallen this far?

When I first began to learn how to plaster, if someone would have told me then that it would one day become necessary for me to learn to speak Italian, I would have chuckled and turned away.

As the director of a national training program for plasterers, I help develop and implement training criteria and curriculum materials for young people just entering the trade. So, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to witness young men and women, who’ve got a few years under their belt, excelling at the craft-especially in a down economy! 

Are contractors who pay their employees cash or who misclassify their workers as “subcontractors” for the purpose of avoiding taxes, worker compensation insurance cutting into your business?

Dimitris Spiliadis’ great-grandfather once owned a hotel in Constantinople, which was lost when the Turks invaded the magnificent and historic city (now known as Istanbul).

We’ve all watched and enjoyed the Discovery Channel television show “How It’s Made” and maybe even had a passing thought about how great it would be to have such a program showcase and explain to the general public what it is we do.

The plastering trade has, for thousands of years, passed down the knowledge and skill of the trade from one generation to the next. Except for the inclusion of modern machinery, the way and manner plaster is applied to a wall really hasn’t changed much since before the time of Christ.

Back in the 1980s, the term “Trickle Down Economics” was coined to describe a theory that if we gave incentives to business owners, they will in turn invest and expand their operations, thereby creating new jobs and greater opportunity for all. Economists and politicians are still debating if the policies of the ’80s helped or hurt the country.

He was born in a dusty little town in nowhere New Mexico, coming of age during the height of the Great Depression.

 Over the past 15 years, building information modeling has developed into the undeniable future of the architecture and design industry.  

Founded in 1965, LPA Inc., is known as one of the largest integrated design firms in California. With extensive experience in public and private architecture, LPA designs a diversity of facilities that span from K-12 schools, colleges and universities, to civic, corporate, religious and retail establishments.

As the Principal-in-Charge for Cuningham Group developments in the United States and abroad, including numerous Urban Entertainment Centers in the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea..

Principal Matthew J. Bell was elected to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows, and is W&C's Architect of the Month for February.

Architect, Dan Wells, builds children's home in Cambodia.

As a leading architectural design and planning firm in the Midwest with a history dating back to 1967, Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf is based in Indianapolis.

Elias Vavaroutsos, AIA, is the Design Principal with Goettsch Partners in Chicago.

Kesel has been recognized for his work on the Lyric Opera of Kansas City—Richard J. Stern Center.

Introducing the FlexSpray Pro 18V – the future of handheld sprayers from Titan. Built with JetForce Technology, this beast combines the power of airless and the control of HVLP into one versatile sprayer.

With the introduction of Tectum DesignArt– Lines Finale PB ceiling and wall panels, Armstrong World Industries offers architects and designers an opportunity to deliver unique visuals created by panels providing excellent sound absorption.

Werner introduced on Feb. 5 the new Bantam Switch, the first reverse-system self-retracting lifeline, for pros working at height. The SRL transfers weight of the housing unit from the user’s back to the anchor point and lightens the load to 0 pounds.

On Sept. 4, Werner introduced the new LevelSafe Pro, the easiest and most effective way to level a ladder. Working on uneven ground is a common challenge for the industry. The new Werner LevelSafe Pro system provides an easy and precise way to level a ladder.

ClarkDietrich has introduced ProChannel Ci Cladding Support with Grip-Deck TubeSeal Technology. The new cladding support system is designed for residential and commercial applications and protects against air and water intrusion.