Letters

In reference to our April 2008 story on fiber optic skylights (“Fiber Optic Skylight Illuminates Maryland's EnviroCenter,” p. 46), BD+C reader Gersil Kay wrote:

In my 1998 book, Fiber Optics in Architectural Lighting, I showed similar technology created by TIR in Canada. Even before that, CLI was asked to bring sunlight into a ski lodge with glass fiber optics.

Last month, in London, I walked Bond Street with a pencil and notepad listing all the jewelry stores using glass fiber optics in their windows. They were the majority.

One Aldwych, an elegant London hotel, has glass fiber optic ambient lighting in the ceiling and directional beams in the stairs. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have been using this technology for decades.

Indeed, this most energy-efficient source/system is widely employed abroad as just another lighting tool.

I'm glad that the United States is finally catching up with the rest of the world.

Gersil N. Kay, IESNA

Conservation Lighting International Ltd.

As someone with nearly 40 years of history in the business of building, I take [Barry B. LePatner's] comments on construction as a “very dysfunctional industry” (BD+C April 2008, p. 74) as a personal challenge both to me and the many fine builders, engineers, architects, designers, contractors, and trades- people who make the art and science of building a remarkable process.

I come from a family with a long history in building. For three generations, we were building recyclers, moving buildings of various types and sizes all over the country. Today, as the fourth-generation builder with my daughter as the fifth, we specialize in rebuilding 50- to 150-year-old structures. To do this, we must rely on many types of people with many types of skills.

Yes, I know more people want to make the design and building process a manufacturing process with production lines and robots. But the one amazing thing about building is that it involves more than just the mind—it also involves the heart. It is as much art as it is science. Why put a wall here versus there? What size and type of windows should be installed? Why chose that color? This comes down to more than just a rote process.

The art of juggling 30-40 crews in rain, mud, and snow, and still meeting completion dates is a skill that is less about computers than it is about the psychology of people. The ability to manage people to get them to do what you need and when you need it comes from understanding that everyone must be managed in a different way to maximize their talent. For some, it is a pat on the back, others a joke, and others a kick in the butt. Interestingly enough, this holds true for everyone from lawyers, architects, and engineers, down to the laborers that clean up the jobsite. A computer can't tell you this. Nor can a robot on a production line. They can produce a building just like they produce many cars, with no heart and soul! If you want a building that uplifts your spirit and moves your soul, you need to look at who is going to be creating your project, what process they use, and how they approach each and every assignment.

Is construction sometimes dysfunctional? Sure. But taken as a whole, in this mostly pre-packaged world, I think the industry is something pretty wonderful that I am proud to be a very small part of.

Michael J. Crowe, President

Crowe Construction Management

St. Paul, Minn.