July 9, 2018
Tempotest Visualizer® is time-saving app for smartphones and tablets that allows fabricators to choose the type of awnings and Para Tempotest® fabric suitable through “augmented” or virtual reality. The app allows users to use existing photographs and project various awning styles in 3D with any combination of fabrics available from the Tempotest® collection. The awning, …
July 1, 2018
Stimpson, formerly known as Edwin B. Stimpson Co., a manufacturer of grommets and washers, eyelets and more, has announced the launch of a new brand identity and digital assets to celebrate 165 years in business. The company manufactures products out of a 278,000 square foot facility in Pompano Beach, Fla. Stimpson president Scott Thomas stated, …
July 1, 2018
Award of Excellence This poolside project was created by Rainier Industries Ltd., Tukwila, Wash. The client requested an 18-foot 7-inch wide by 8-foot tall power projection screen system for poolside use to watch movies and sporting events. The challenge was to design a screen that wouldn’t be affected by the weather, wind or reflection from …
July 1, 2018
The power of Facebook® is undeniable—and while its data privacy issues dominate the news at the moment, the algorithm update that launched earlier this year is still a hot topic for social media marketers and page administrators across the globe. How might this update affect our marketing strategies? How much time should we devote to …
July 1, 2018
The Houston Museum of Natural Science’s Wiess Energy Hall recently underwent a renovation that more than tripled the space from 8,500 square feet to 30,000 square feet. The new gallery, dubbed Wiess Energy Hall 3.0, features exciting, interactive exhibits on the science and technology of energy. Conceived and created by Paul Bernhard Exhibit Design & …
July 1, 2018
Who could have predicted, even 10 years ago, that Amazon would have driven shade and awning companies, let alone everyday retail stores, into changing their operations to meet the demand for overnight response rates? Yet today, more than we’d like to believe, sales behemoths like the online portal Amazon and similar services have taught consumers …
July 1, 2018
The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) has announced an agreement with Business Co-ordination House (BCH) to provide representation of IFAI in India. “We believe BCH is uniquely positioned to help IFAI expand the opportunities for our organization with the emerging Indian market for technical textiles,” said Mary Hennessy, past president and CEO of IFAI. “One …
July 1, 2018
Labor shortages are real and troubling, but a variety of organizations and manufactures are working on strategies to attract the next generation of workers–getting actively involved with public education and student training and recruitment. The dearth of skilled labor is an increasingly common lament heard from manufacturers of all stripes. It’s not a sudden or …
June 1, 2018
Madrid’s historic Plaza Mayor, a popular gathering place and tourist destination, celebrated its 400th anniversary in February 2018. In honor of the occasion, the city of Madrid, Spain, commissioned an original sculpture by American artist Janet Echelman. Known for colorful large-scale fiber sculptures, Echelman created an installation—1.78 Madrid—that explored the cycles of time. It was …
June 1, 2018
Craig Briggs, a senior director at Vertilux Ltd., has earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credential from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Vertilux, headquartered in Miami, Fla., seeks to be a trend setter in the solar shade protection industry, creating, educating, developing, and advising professionals and companies on a global scale. …
March 1, 2018
Built more than 20 years ago, the Toronto Centre for the Arts’ underused main theater needed updating. The solution involved reducing the overall size and upgrading the systems to create a more efficient facility. Designers of the retrofit, Diamond Schmitt Architects, brought Eventscape into the project to engineer, fabricate and install over 3,000 sq. ft. …
February 1, 2018
It’s a fairly safe bet that not many business owners started their operations because they wanted to work on spreadsheets. But like it or not, when you hang out a shingle, only part of your work will be designing a custom awning or fabric structure. Figuring out how to charge for those jobs accurately is …
February 1, 2018
For textile manufacturers that operate energy-intensive machinery, solar-generated energy provides a way to save on energy bills and reduce carbon footprint. Glen Raven Custom Fabrics LLC, best known as the makers of Sunbrella® fabrics, recently debuted a 3,076-panel solar array at its flagship manufacturing facility in Anderson, S.C. The one-megawatt project was designed to power …
January 1, 2018
The Cane & Canoe, an exclusive hotel restaurant known for its unique blend of Hawaiian and Polynesian cuisine, is located in the Montage Hotel at the Kapalua Bay resort, one of Hawaii’s premier oceanfront resorts. Kapalua Bay, a 22,000-acre former pineapple plantation on Maui, has developed into a popular resort that includes two award-winning championship …
December 1, 2017
The Ponce City Market on the eastern edge of Atlanta, Ga., has aggressively aspired to become the fourth nationally recognized food hall in America after Chelsea Market in New York, N.Y., Pike Place in Seattle, Wash., and Ferry Building in San Francisco, Calif. The location for the market is the revitalized historic 1926 Sears, Roebuck …
December 1, 2017
Odds are, most architects have seen the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. Built in 1998, the Petronas towers remain the tallest twin towers in the world at 1,482 feet (452 meters). Architects are less likely to know that Kelana Jaya is a rapidly-urbanizing suburb located on the southwest edge …
November 1, 2017
On Aug. 26, Atlanta, Ga., fans got to try out the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the first time when the Falcons hosted the Arizona Cardinals in a preseason NFL game. The two-million-square-foot facility accommodates 71,000 fans for football games and can expand to 75,000 seats for marquee events. Designed by HOK, a global design, architecture, …
October 1, 2017
What could be more agreeable than a glass of French wine while viewing French art in the landscape of southern France, a landscape made famous by the 19th-century Impressionist/proto-Cubist painter Paul Cézanne? This conflux of ideal conditions melds perfectly in the recently completed Château La Coste Art Gallery, a new venue for viewing artworks while …
August 1, 2017
Mike Peterson restructures an awning company’s culture by asking hard questions, collaborating on the anwers and fearlessly changing the rules. “Our old philosophy was to focus on profitability and the end result—and in order to get there we did our best to take care of our customers, and our employees came last,” says Mike Peterson, …
July 1, 2017
Outdoor entertainment and shopping spaces are popular in temperate climates for good reason. Everyone loves outdoor settings to listen to music, window shop and eat in open-air environments. Under the sometimes-sweltering California sun, however, open-air facilities need shaded areas for UV protection. Former IFAI Award of Excellence winner Jim Miller, of Jim Miller Canvas Inc., …
July 1, 2018
Who could have predicted, even 10 years ago, that Amazon would have driven shade and awning companies, let alone everyday retail stores, into changing their operations to meet the demand for overnight response rates? Yet today, more than we’d like to believe, sales behemoths like the online portal Amazon and similar services have taught consumers …
July 1, 2018
Labor shortages are real and troubling, but a variety of organizations and manufactures are working on strategies to attract the next generation of workers–getting actively involved with public education and student training and recruitment. The dearth of skilled labor is an increasingly common lament heard from manufacturers of all stripes. It’s not a sudden or …
June 1, 2018
If you have ever had to source sustainable materials for a building design, you know about rating systems like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), administered by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, (USGBC). The LEED systems consider the amount of energy used to manufacture the building material and the carbon footprint it leaves …
June 1, 2018
Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Fabric Architecture (FA) magazine. The inaugural issue editor, Gene Rebeck, touched on a number of topics that proved to be insightful, clairvoyant and representative of how FA (originally called Fabrics & Architecture or F&A) has been able to represent trends in thinking and practice …
May 1, 2018
As the demands made on textiles have increased, the nature of what is defined as “textile” has greatly expanded, often including non-textiles or treating them in a textile manner. Hybrids that bring together different materials and processes can offer the benefit of conventional textiles with additional characteristics of materials such as glass, ceramic, wood or …
May 1, 2018
The power of suggestion is one of an architect’s most eloquent tools. With a meaningful combination of shape and material, a design can meet physical expectations as well as create the suggestion of ideas, symbols and traditions. With the strategic use of high-tensile fabric panels, the structure known as the Fachada Foro Chiapas suggests time, …
April 1, 2018
While many manufacturers concentrate on making smart products that give people convenient and luxurious control over functions in their homes and businesses, others are finding ways to make the outdoors equally responsive and comfortable to lifestyles in the Internet of Things age. A robotics company in Pasadena, Calif., is, in fact, throwing all its weight …
April 1, 2018
“I never had an interest in going into business to just duplicate a product that already existed,” says Alan Bair, founder and owner of Pacific Yurts Inc. in Cottage Grove, Ore. “But early on I realized the yurt is a unique warm space that is limited only by the imagination. When you go into that …
March 1, 2018
Fabric and lighting have an ages-old relationship that elicits something visceral, and when done skillfully there’s a quality to backlit fabric that nothing else can provide,” says Eric Bury, director of project development for the Toronto, Canada-based custom architectural fabrication company Eventscape. Bury acknowledges that of all the construction materials his company uses to create …
February 1, 2018
Ever since the 1970s back-to-earth, energy enlightenment era of oil embargoes and the beginning of the environmentalism movement, architects and government officials have acknowledged the importance of making ever more energy-efficient buildings. It has been proven that buildings (the construction of them and the manufacturing of all the materials that go into making and operating …
July 1, 2018
The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) has announced an agreement with Business Co-ordination House (BCH) to provide representation of IFAI in India. “We believe BCH is uniquely positioned to help IFAI expand the opportunities for our organization with the emerging Indian market for technical textiles,” said Mary Hennessy, past president and CEO of IFAI. “One …
May 9, 2018
June 12, 2018 | Noon EST Free to IFAI Members/$79.00 for Nonmembers The presenters will cover four components used in a cutting room: digitizing, cutting, material handling and ROI. Learn what applications are best suited for full automation and how to implement them and increase your product volumes. Presenters Truy Pham Autometrix Inc. Truy “Tree” …
May 9, 2018
June 20, 2018 | Noon EST Free to IFAI Members/$75.00 for Nonmembers Learn about increasing your bottom line and how to encourage your clients to upgrade to better quality materials. Find out how upselling reflects company image, leads to future referrals and produces long-lasting products. Presenter Dave Callahan Granite State Cover & Canvas Inc. …
May 4, 2018
Each year, the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) sponsors a Student Design Competition for students enrolled in a post-secondary college or university program studying textiles, apparel, engineering or design. The annual competition offers students a valuable opportunity to build their portfolios and advance their career opportunities—and first-place winners also receive a $6,000+ Prize Pack with …
April 24, 2018
In August 2017, the President formally instructed the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to determine whether to launch a 301 investigation of “laws, policies, practices, or actions of the Government of China that may be unreasonable or discriminatory and that may be harming American intellectual property rights, innovation, or technology development.” After deciding …
April 20, 2018
The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) has named Steve Schiffman, the association’s vice president of media and sales, the new president and CEO of IFAI. He will replace Mary Hennessy, who is retiring June 1, 2018, after holding the position for the last six years. Schiffman had a long and successful career in publishing before …
April 20, 2018
More than 30,000 skyway pedestrians as well as thousands of street-level commuters and motorists are expected to view St. Paul, Minn., through new Americans’ eyes as they pass an exhibit dedicated to immigrants’ experiences. Photos: Peter Von De Linde. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants. The call to “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” …
March 22, 2018
If you shop on Amazon, be sure to take advantage of the AmazonSmile promotion. From March 12–31, 2018, AmazonSmile will triple the donation amount to 1.5 percent to Industrial Fabrics Foundation. Go to smile.amazon.com/ch/52-2164483. For additional details about the promotion, click here
March 14, 2018
BAT USA’s GIANT is a retractable awning on 2″ square steel bar. The aluminium brackets grant resistance and compactness, while the aluminum covers give it a great elegance, reinforced by style and Italian-made quality. Volume, design and big projections make this awning a perfect cover for public and private spaces and a great upgrade for …
March 14, 2018
Sattler has hired Hans Schwieger as Northeast Sales Manager. Hans’ career in the performance textiles industry spans 20 years, having served as a sales manager in the outdoor market. Hans joined Sattler on February 24, 2018 and will serve in a key role for the Sattler sales organization. “Hans has outstanding knowledge and experience in …
