June 2010

The Prez Sez ....

We’ve gotten behind with the Madspec, so my column this month is a bit longer than normal. I have some old business to cover and we have also reached the end of the fiscal year and the end of my term as President of our Chapter. It’s actually hard to believe that this is my last Prez Sez after four years of doing this. I would like to thank all of the board members and committee chairs who have served with me during this time. You help make this Chapter as great as it is. Kent Calloway, CSI will take over as President. I hope you will support him as well as you have supported me during my tenure.

Our March meting gave us a great look at where LED lighting is headed in the future. There are a number of practical uses for LED lighting today, but it won’t replace fluorescent lighting completely on your current projects. LED certainly offers opportunities to create point source lighting in very tight spaces. It also offers very low energy consumption. However it will not be economical for lighting an open office space for some time. I would like to thank Liesel Whitney-Schulte of Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp. for her fantastic presentation. I would also like to thank Kelly Thompson, CSI for not giving up and making this event happen.

Over the last year or two I have become very disappointed in the news media and how they choose to cover news stories. It seems that they feel the need to spin or exaggerate everything to get people to watch their show. Most of the cable networks have extreme examples of this and it makes it hard for me to even call it news. Some of the worst examples I can think of nationally are Chris Matthews, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Grace. Of course we all know why they do it. T
elevision and print media is all about ratings and readership. That’s how they sell advertising and that drives profit.
My level of frustration reached its peak after a story ran in the local paper recently about a Madison business man running for the Senate. This business man is heavily involved in commercial real estate and owns properties all over the city. The article pointed out that he has not paid any State income tax for the last two years. Of course they failed to mention WHY this had happened. Apparently they wanted us to believe that he had done something illegal. What he had done was legal, but it certainly doesn’t seem right.

After reading this story and follow-up articles that cleared up some of the facts, I had a bit of a revelation. Although the media has made the choice to use questionable ethics in covering news stories, the problem really lies with us, the viewers and readers. Apparently we love this stuff. We have reached a point as a nation where we want to be entertained not informed. I for one would love to have a news channel that didn’t spin everything just to create headline. (And no, the “No spin zone” of Bill O’Reilly doesn’t even come close.) I hope American’s will stop choosing to watch these news shows and start to reward those who try to uncover the facts of a story.

So, what does this have to do with architecture and construction? It reminds me of the big push for every product out there to be GREEN. Let’s face it, not everything is green. Maybe a product has high recycled content, but it uses massive amounts of energy to recapture those elements, or it uses highly corrosive or dangerous chemicals in the process. Did we gain anything by using that product with high recycled content? Probably not.

I think the first thing that needs to be examined is the energy consumption of a building. After that, everything good we do for the environment is icing on the cake. A building should be well insulated, air tight, and use mechanical and electrical equipment that uses less energy. I don’t believe that LEED certification is the answer by itself, but it has gone a long way in promoting energy efficient design. Don’t fall for “green wash.” Figure out if the products you’re planning to use will really help the building occupants and our environment.

We will be having a summer event at Capital Brewery again this year. See inside for details! As I pass the gavel to the next President, I will continue serving on the Board as Immediate Past President and I will take over the Madspec as editor. It has been an honor serving you. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sincerely,
Curt Norton, CSI, CCS
CSI-Madison Chapter President