U.S. Housing Starts Top Forecast on Single-Family Homes
December 17, 2015 —
Victoria Stilwell – BloombergNew-home construction in the U.S. rebounded in November, led by gains in single-family dwellings that signal the residential real estate industry will continue to support growth in the world’s largest economy.
Housing starts climbed 10.5 percent to a 1.17 million annualized rate from a 1.06 million pace in October, figures from the Commerce Department showed Wednesday in Washington. The median estimate of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 1.13 million rate. Work began on the most stand-alone houses since January 2008, and permits for similar projects reached an eight-year high.
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Victoria Stilwell, Bloomberg
California Court of Appeal Affirms Trial Court’s Denial of anti-SLAPP Motion in Dispute Over Construction of Church Facilities
March 27, 2023 —
Garrett A. Smee & Lawrence S. Zucker II - Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLPOn February 28, 2023, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One, issued an opinion in Billauer v. Escobar-Eck (D079835), affirming the trial court’s denial of an anti-SLAPP motion stemming from a public debate over a Church construction project.
The Appellant (Billauer) ran several social media sites as a “neighborhood activist.” The Respondent (Escobar-Eck) ran a land use and strategic planning firm in San Diego. The “All People’s Church” had hired Escobar-Eck’s company in 2019 to obtain City approval for a Church campus. During a Zoom presentation by Escobar-Eck to a Church planning group on November 11, 2020, Billauer, as a participant in the meeting sent a chat to Escobar-Eck stating: “I’m going to make sure you get sent back to where you came from.” Over the span of the next six months, from November 11, 2020 to April 8, 2021, Billauer continued the onslaught through a series of five posts on Instagram and Facebook, attacking Escobar-Eck. On December 10, 2020, Escobar-Eck fired back with a Twitter post to Billauer’s employer, Wells Fargo, labeling Billauer as a cyberbullying racist.
Reprinted courtesy of
Garrett A. Smee, Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP and
Lawrence S. Zucker II, Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP
Mr. Smee may be contacted at gsmee@hbblaw.com
Mr. Zucker may be contacted at lzucker@hbblaw.com
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Judge Halts Sale of Brazilian Plywood
June 06, 2022 —
Beverley BevenFlorez – CDJ StaffA permanent injunction was issued by Judge Roy Altman in a Ft. Lauderdale federal court on May 24th that requires the revocation of all PS 1 certificates that were issued by PFS-TECO to more than a dozen Brazilian mills that produced structural plywood for the U.S. market,
reported Business Wire.
“This case highlights how a few bad actors profited by essentially looking the other way while substandard, and potentially dangerous plywood was imported into the U.S. and used to build homes and businesses,”
Michael Haglund, counsel representing the U.S. Structural Plywood Integrity Coalition, of Haglund Kelley, LLP, told Business Wire.
Building codes throughout the U.S. require the use of PS 1 structural plywood in construction. "If product standards are not being met, there can be serious implications for all homes constructed using those substandard wood panel products," Tyler Freres, VP of Sales for
Freres Engineered Wood, told CDJ. "Contractors and homeowners should be able to trust that U.S. certification agencies are doing their due diligence to accurately inspect panels, ensuring consumers' health and safety."
The U.S. Structural Plywood Integrity Coalition, including nine family-owned U.S. plywood manufacturers, alleged that PFS-TECO falsely certified that plywood from Brazil met U.S. structural integrity requirements. This substandard plywood has been used throughout the U.S. In particular, it was used during the hurricane reconstruction efforts in Florida and Puerto Rico due to its cheaper price. In 2021, Brazilian plywood made up 11% of the U.S. supply with
nearly 1.2 billion square feet sold.
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ASCE Joins White House Summit on Building Climate-Resilient Communities
October 09, 2023 —
The American Society of Civil EngineersRESTON, Va. – The White House Climate Policy Office hosted the Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities today and unveiled its
National Climate Resilience Framework for communities to build more resiliently as they face increasingly severe weather events. The framework features comprehensive recommendations and opportunities for action, including partnerships between federal agencies and leading standards development organizations such as the
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), to improve the resilience of buildings and other infrastructure. ASCE president Maria Lehman, P.E., was in attendance for the Summit.
ASCE's most widely adopted standard,
ASCE 7-22, is the primary reference of structural design requirements in all U.S. building codes and is updated every six years to reflect the latest data and trends presented by an ever-changing climate. Its most recent update, published in 2022, includes updates to environmental hazards used for building design including new wind speeds along the hurricane coastline, a completely new chapter for tornado loads, and the most substantial update to its chapter on flood loads since the inception of ASCE 7-22 – calling for structures to be built to withstand 500-year floods rather than the previous standard of 100-year flood mitigation.
Although modern codes and standards, such as ASCE 7-22, can mitigate climate hazards, many communities throughout the U.S. have not yet adopted these practices. The new White House framework calls for ensuring federal funding requires climate-resilient infrastructure investments by encouraging government at all levels to adopt consensus-based engineering standards, which would go a long way towards addressing vulnerabilities posed by future climate impacts.
ASCE, in conjunction with industry leaders represented at the Summit, supports federal efforts to improve climate data, enforce the most stringent codes and standards, and provide technical assistance to building and infrastructure stakeholders. To learn more about environmental hazard mitigation resources, follow
ASCE's Pathways to Resilient Communities Toolkit, a plain-language guide for federal, state, and local leaders as they seek out standards, best practices, data, and strategies that can be implemented to safeguard communities across the country from increasingly severe weather events.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on Twitter, @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel.
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Rio Olympic Infrastructure Costs of $2.3 Billion Are Set to Rise
January 31, 2014 —
Tariq Panja and David Biller – BloombergBrazilian authorities announced 5.6 billion reais ($2.3 billion) will be spent on infrastructure directly related to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and those costs will rise as projects are added.
Yesterday’s announcement comes months behind schedule, and after pressure on public bodies to reveal exactly how much it will cost for Rio to be the first South American city to host the quadrennial showpiece. Delays and cost overruns to several projects related to this year’s soccer World Cup have sharpened the focus on the Olympics.
“We are committed to being on schedule,” Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo said at a press conference in Rio to announce the spending plans. “It is the first time we have a consortium of three levels of government. It is in an effort to ensure the success and execution of all the commitments to deliver the Olympics in Rio in 2016.”
Mr. Panja may be contacted at tpanja@bloomberg.net and Mr. Biller may be contacted at dbiller1@bloomberg.net.
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Tariq Panja and David Biller, Bloomberg
South Carolina Supreme Court Finds that Consequential Damage Arise From "Occurrence"
October 10, 2013 —
Tred Eyerly — Insurance Law HawaiiThe South Carolina Supreme Court held that continuing damage that was part of a continuum of property damage constituted an "occurrence." Auto-Owners Ins. Co. v. Rhodes, 2013 S.C. LEXIS 248 (Sept. 25, 2013).
Rhodes hired Eadon to design, fabricate, and erect three outdoor advertising signs on Rhodes' property bordering an interstate highway. After the signs were erected, one fell across the highway, blocking both lanes of southbound traffic. The state Department of Transportation ordered Rhodes to remove the remaining two signs and revoked Rhodes' permit to maintain signs on the property.
Rhodes sued Eaton. Eaton's insurer, Auto-Owners, filed a declaratory judgment action to determine whether there was coverage under the CGL policy. The trial court found the sign falling on the interstate constituted an "occurrence" that resulted in damages beyond the defective work to property other than the defective work itself.
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Tred EyerlyTred Eyerly can be contacted at
te@hawaiilawyer.com
Tallest U.S. Skyscraper Dream Kept Alive by Irish Builder
May 01, 2014 —
Brian Louis – BloombergGarrett Kelleher, the Irish developer trying to restore Chicago’s status as home to the tallest building in the U.S., has one last chance to keep his dream alive.
The planned lakefront skyscraper is nothing more than a hole in the ground six years after the financial crisis derailed Kelleher’s ambitions. To salvage the project, he must line up money to get out of bankruptcy, then obtain financing for the 2,000-foot (610-meter), Santiago Calatrava-designed Chicago Spire condominium tower, which would surpass New York’s 1 World Trade Center by 224 feet.
“I never understood how that project was going to work, frankly,” said Alan Lev, chief executive officer of Belgravia Group Ltd., a Chicago-based housing developer uninvolved in the project. “It’s a real eyesore sitting in the ground, so I hope somebody does something with it.”
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Brian Louis, BloombergMr. Louis may be contacted at
blouis1@bloomberg.net
Not All Design-Build Projects are Created Equal
June 28, 2021 —
Nicole Markowitz & Richard Robinson - Peckar & Abramson, P.C.As the need for faster and more efficient construction increases, design-build agreements are growing in popularity. Design-build projects may account for 44% of nonresidential building in the United States this year. However, contractors who venture into a “design builder” role may unexpectedly become liable for design errors/omissions that are not covered by their insurance policies. In turn, they may expose themselves to liability and insurance risks that are neither insured nor managed.
In this article, we’ll discuss how the contractor who becomes a design-builder, or performs design-related work through subcontractors, faces potentially unmanaged risk. We will also explore indemnity, warranty, and insurance traps by paying attention to contract language in both traditional design-build and design-assist scenarios.
Reprinted courtesy of
Nicole Markowitz, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. and
Richard Robinson, Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
Ms. Markowitz may be contacted at nmarkowitz@pecklaw.com
Mr. Robinson may be contacted at rrobinson@pecklaw.com
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