Get Ready for The Glass Age
Will 2022 be the year of Glass? I have mentioned this a few times, but there is an excellent international move afoot to make 2022 officially the year of glass and would begin the “The Glass Age” in our world. Obviously, I love it. This past week the folks leading this effort had a live debut of their pitch and it is something to see. While it covers every single aspect of glass, our world has a nice little part of it, and I was especially jazzed by a specific mention of bird-friendly glazing along the way. The presentation can be found here and it is very well done and worth the view. I will have more information and updates on this as there will be opportunities for all of us in this industry to get involved and help push this over the finish line!
Elsewhere…
- Good news for an old friend. Jeff Ziesche who I have worked with a few times in my past and have pretty much known all my life has started his own manufacturers rep firm based in Florida. JAZ Sales & Consulting has launched, and I am very pumped for him and also the excellent companies he’s representing. Good times ahead for all!
- I am also honored and excited that I will soon be on the John Wheaton “Creating Structure” podcast. We recorded it this week and it was a blast; I’ll share on my various platforms when it is live. But speaking of that excellent set up that John has, this past week he had the legend Mic Patterson on. Unbelievably good listen. Mic is super. But, but, but, Mic made a comment that got me going. He mentioned the “Battle for the Wall” and said that it was the glass industry’s way of pushing for more of the wall and more business. For me that is not accurate. The battle for the wall is trying to keep what we have since others want to reduce window to wall ratio and really do not like glass products.
However, Mic did bring up serious thought-provoking comments on what we should be doing with regards to educating the design community and getting our true message out there among many other interesting insights. Give it a listen here.
- How about this… a story this week came out that said water-filled insulating glass units could replace regular IG units someday. Read it all here, but I don’t see it. Vacuum insulating, especially things like what Michael Spellman has going on in with tVIG, will disrupt. Will these? Check it out and weigh in.
- The AIA released their Committee on the Environment (COTE) awards, and the use of glass and glazing was pretty significant. We are looking good here folks. If you worked on one of these projects let me know; you deserve props! Here’s the story.
- Last this week, two more on to my “Influential 15.” One I think is a pretty obvious choice, and the other may surprise, but to me, he’s always been extremely influential in the way our industry operates.
First up is the obvious one: Don Friese. What Mr. Friese built at C.R. Laurence was beyond game changing and was, quite frankly, was legendary. CRL did not become this incredible brand by accident. Mr. Friese and his people worked it, they hustled, and they earned their spots. The people that learned under him and in that system make up many of our best leaders in the industry today. Upon selling CRL a few years ago, Mr. Friese was incredible to his employees and truly changed many lives, and now post-CRL he is still changing them with his foundation and specifically his support of the education aspect of the glass industry. I do not know Mr. Friese very well, spoke to him maybe twice, but I see his fingerprints all over from folks that were with him for years to those who only spent a short time, and for all of them and this industry he was incredibly influential.
The second choice this week is Garret Henson of Viracon. Garret has been instrumental in growing high performance glass and getting more and more acceptance of high-performance glass in the market. Both what he does individually and how he’s led his insanely talented staff (superstars like my pal Cameron Scripture) to push architects and designers into better products for our world is huge. Garret also gives back; he’s sat on the BEC planning committee for years and many times had to do serious heavy lifting in trying to line up speakers and subjects. He did all of it without delay or complaint. This checks two big boxes of mine―did the person affect our world, and did the person support our industry? For Garret, it’s been a resounding yes. Garret is also an excellent guy, a classy and sharp representative of our world in front of designers and developers all over the U.S.
By the way, comically, for years people have accused me of being on Viracon’s payroll because I have always been complimentary of them on my blog. I do hold people like Garret, Cameron, Seth Madole, and of course Kelly Schuller (and many others there) in high regard. But for the record, I have never worked for them, and in fact have never even been able to sell them as much as an inexpensive sponsorship for GlassBuild. so believe me, my positive thoughts here are from their performance in our world and nothing more.
Only one more person to go on my influential 15, and that person will be revealed next week in my annual Glass Industry MVP post. Who knows, that individual may even be the 2020 MVP as well as making this list… tune in next week to find out!
