Author: Matt

Editor, writer, and photographer at Trekking with Twins. Husband to the lovely and talented Kat. Father to Aurora, Jasper, and Piper - the smartest, cutest, funniest, and most adorable minis on the planet. Traveling the world with all four. Overall a pretty lucky guy.

AI in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry

Matt

While AI development has been going on for decades, it’s burst into the mainstream over the last several months. Between ChatGPT, DALL-E 2, Bing and others, consumer-facing AI tools are becoming increasingly more common—and more powerful.

I’ve been following these developments closely, especially as they relate to the firm’s goals to solve building envelope problems efficiently and effectively for our clients. If you want to read more about AI and technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction—and keep up to date on this fast-changing field—check out my newsletter The AEC Matrix.

CopelandBEC Presents at Capital District Engineer’s Week

CopelandBEC Presents at Capital District Engineer’s Week

Matt

Last week I had the privilege of presenting at the 43rd annual Capital District Engineer’s Week. I talked about building science first principles that anyone can use to help solve their own building envelope problems, and shared a bunch of freely-available resources.

National Engineers Week was created in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers and coincided with President’s Day. This is no coincidence, since George Washington, the 1st President of the United States was a land surveyor and engineer.

Much of what I discussed is shared right here on our site at copelandbec.com/self-help.

Better Buildings Newsletter

Matt

In case you missed it, I’ve started writing a weekly newsletter about how to make buildings work better. This week’s edition shares some of the free resources from our Building Envelope Self-Help page, and I’ve been sharing a lot of original content as well. Recent topics have included:

  • how designers can take more responsibility for communicating design intent
  • the impact that standard of care has on innovation

Check it out over on LinkedIn!

Brookline Condo Masonry Restoration at 15-17 James Street

Brookline Condo Masonry Restoration at 15-17 James Street

Matt

Last year CopelandBEC wrapped up a multi-year masonry facade restoration project at 15-17 James Street in Brookline, MA. Statewide RM, the contractor on the project, recently posted a great write-up on their website and it’s so good we wanted to share it!

It was a challenging project for many reasons. From Statewide’s article:

The portico at 15-17 James Street, Brookline, had become a safety concern. Replacing it with a similar portico would have been expensive and difficult to accomplish, but it was too worn down to be repaired. Work was completed in tight quarters, primarily during the cold winter months.

-Statewide RM

Check out the full Statewide RM feature here.

Hands-On with Roof Coatings

Hands-On with Roof Coatings

Matt

The CopelandBEC team traveled to Chelmsford today for a hands-on roof coating workshop with our friends at Atlantic Restoration and Neogard. Atlantic graciously hosted at their facility and provided some great mock-up boards to try out the Neogard materials on.

Roof coatings are not the answer on every project but do offer some significant benefits where applicable:

Read more →